I am a diehard Southern Miss fan. I grew up 20 minutes from our beautiful campus in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. My mom was the first graduate in our family, and as a matter of fact, was the first college graduate in her family. My dad followed, receiving his B.S. and M.S. after a stint in the Air Force. My sister followed, and then my brother-in-law. I followed later on (class of 1988), and then my niece came along and finished her undergrad in Nursing and is currently completing her Masters in Nursing as we speak. Do you see a pattern developing? With such a rich family tradition based in Golden Eagle Country, I decided to branch out and pursue a Masters degree in trout country. The thing that swayed my decision--an article in Fly Rod and Reel Magazine placing Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana at the top of the list in their "Top Ten Trout Universities." Upon further research, I found out that the legendary Bud Lilly, founder of Bud Lilly's Trout Shop with two locations in Livingston, MT (The original) and West Yellowstone, MT, had christened his beloved alma mater Montana State University, "Trout U." In addition to the obvious appeal that Montana trout waters have to me, an obsession that I've been living since high school, Montana State offered the only Masters of Science in Science Education program (MSSE) in the country. This program allows science teachers from all over the world to remain gainfully employed and pursue the lion's share of their masters coursework online, with the requirement of at least one term of on-campus courses. The culmination of the program is called a "Capstone," which is a glorified name for a thesis. This must be presented on-campus in front of a group of your peers. In addition you must defend your capstone in the presence of your graduate committee. This is a very challenging accomplishment and it took many long hours in the course of a two year period to finally arrive in Bozeman. My emphasis was water and trout management and education, which is foreign to Mississippi, where there are no cold water fisheries and of course, no trout.
After fishing the Henry's Fork on Friday, I traveled back to the Westwood Motel in West Yellowstone, Montana for the night. The next morning, I knew that it was time to stop playing for a while and get to Bozeman.
I stayed two nights in the Bozeman Inn, and on Monday, made my way to Montana State University to start classes. I checked in at Hannon Hall, got a parking permit and moved the TTFFT to MSU!!!
During that first week, I presented my capstone project and passed with flying colors and attended another class as well. I met many interesting people that first week, including three avid troutfishermen that I will mention and talk about in later posts I also visited a local fly shop, Troutfitters and those guys really helped me out. But more on that later. I'll leave you with a pic of the MSU campus. To say that it is beautiful is an understatement. There are three mountain ranges within sight of the campus, the Bridgers, the Hyalites, and the Spanish Peaks. No humidity, all the trout rivers you could ask for, and an unparalleled Masters program? You do the math....
Time for school. A week without trout fishing. I'll make it somehow. But the following week, I don't have class and there are so many Montana Rivers, so little time.
Having grown up (20s onward to 40) in Jackson Hole, I thought that provided good fishing opportunities. I traveled through Bozeman on occasion to other Montana waters, so when we had our daughter in 2001, we decided to move to Bozeman, partly the lower cost, partly the new rivers, partly the better shopping (for the wife) and partly for MSU.
ReplyDeleteTrout U is an understatement. I am a past president of Bozeman Sunrise Rotary Club, and 1/2 of our members (50+ people) are avid fly fishermen including the brand manager for SIMMS fly fishing.
To say that trout fishing dominates our culture is an understatement.