The day started with coffee and friends in Tom and Lynn’s Vagabond Ranch in Ennis, OR. Our day was to be taking the Pinzgauer that I got to enjoy earlier at the Idaho tenkara camp out and fishing a river a few hours away from Ennis. The day had other plans, but there was still several fish to be had!
Josh and Stephanie were staying in their van outside the main house with Luong in the cabin and me in the RV. Josh and Stephanie joined us inside for a little coffee and tea before parting ways and they started in their van towards the river. We took a slight detour and headed South from Ennis to Beartooth Fly Fishing along the Madison River.
The owners, Allie and her father, camp out to meet us and after finally meeting Allie in person, who has recently picked up tenkara thanks to Tom, I got sucked into the most packed with gear and fly tying material fly shop I have ever been inside. If you have not been, and are anywhere near Ennis, then you need to stop in at this fly shop. It is family owned and operated and with Allie being a lady angler, I cannot say enough about their ideals and fishing! What a crew they have there. Even I had no idea what was in store for the next day, but that is for another day!
We kept on with the Pinz as I sat in the back with Luong in the passenger seat. I believe I posted on IG live and someone thought I had been picked up by the police! hah. Anyway, we ended up getting to the top os some mountain and the Austrian military vehicle slowly gave up as we descended a hill. Although being broken down, I used my cell phone satellite service to contact Josh and Stephanie who were not too terribly far away and they made it up to us without too much difficulty in their van.
In the meantime, while Tom looked under the hood…or, rather the middle console where all the nuts n bolts are to the Pinz are, Luong was having a blast playing with his drone. The sights were fun and although we were pretty secluded on this mountain, we saw hunters and a ranch hand out and about. They were nice and stopped to chat, but we already had help coming in Josh and Stephanie!
As they made their way over the horizon and we piled into their home-on-wheels for the past couple of months, we left the Pinz and dropped Tom off at his ranch. From there, we carried on in my rental truck to the Ennis dam and fished below until sunset. There, I ventured towards the dam and Luong and Josh fished South of me. I caught several steel-y looking rainbow and some browns. The water was low and there were several run and boulders to hop and fish around. It was a great evening fishing session!!!
We made our way back and had a nice pasta dinner prepared by Tom. Lynn was there to join us as she spent the day with Stephanie and were fast friends. I am so lucky to be surrounded by such kind and loving individuals. Wine was served and we went to bed with full stomachs and more fish on the brain as tomorrow was my first float trip! And it will be DOWN THE ICONIC MADISON of all places.
My Tenkara Journey 