To say that fishing has changed over the decades in the Bitterroot and everywhere else in Montana is an understatement of outrageous proportions.

One way to get a feel for the changes is to read books and articles from by-gone years. Recently a friend gave me a window into the "old days." It was a copy of the first edition of Dick Konizeski's "The Original and Only Montanan's Fishing Guide," which "tells where to go and where to get em." It sold for $1.95. Konizeski updated this several times and the compendium got bigger and bigger. In this first edition, the only river described that is east of the Continental Divide is the Big Hole.

Each drainage had an introductory overview, and then briefer descriptions of the various reaches, tributaries and lakes in each watershed.

The section on the Bitterroot was written by someone named Lyle Johnson from Missoula, who was clearly a hardware and bait angler. Here is Mr. Johnson's overview of the Bitterroot which barely sounds like the river with which we are familiar. I am not including the blubs of the tributaries and lakes, but, based on the descriptions, it seems clear to me that the writer did not visit all the places he wrote about. If anyone knows anything about Lyle Johnson, please let me know.

My plan is to present photos and descriptions from this first edition in future newsletters.