BOZEMAN PRIVATE RANCH

        I had the opportunity to spend 21-24 May with former NFL wide receiver & ranch owner Mark Pattison and his former University of Washington teammate & NFL coach Jim Mora on Mark’s 1,900 acre private ranch located 28 miles northwest of Bozeman, Montana. This beautiful ranch has over 5 miles of 16 Mile Creek running through it and offers some of the best private land fishing in Montana. The south end of the ranch backs up to one of Ted Turner’s 20,000 acre private ranches and is only 15 miles from the Missouri River. The north end of Mark’s Ranch is bordered by the 78,000 acre CA Ranch & thus public river access to 16 Mile Creek is extremely limited. There are two modern rustic log cabins just off the river in the valley floor at 4,500 feet which are surrounded by high meadows jutting up 1,500 feet. There are several miles of hiking trails and roads into the high country. We saw Whitetail and Mule Deer as well as Elk during our 4 day stay at the ranch and the scenery is to die for! And to top all this off, approx 6 miles of the old Milwaukee Railway bed runs thru the ranch along 16 Mile Creek and features two old railway tunnels that were blasted thru the mountain around 1930.

        While we were there, 16 Mile Creek was high, fast & dirty due to the abnormal snow pack in the mountains this past winter and the fact that it had rained for the previous 3 days prior to our arrival and thus was not fishable. This tributary is known for its big browns and rainbows, especially in September and October when the Brown Trout move out of the Missouri to spawn. I spent the weekend with Mark, Jim and good friend Kenny Baldwin, one of my guides when I managed Rainbow Bay Resort in southwest Alaska for the last 4 years. Kenny was a Husky teammate of Mark & Jim in the early 80’s at the University of Washington and invited me up to look into helping Mark market trips to this awesome ranch. With the water levels too high to fish we spent our days surveying the ranch, eating like kings, pitching horseshoes (by the way, Kenny & I kicked the NFL’s ass!), talking smack as you can tell and hiking each morning.

        As a has been professional baseball player I am not used to lagging behind the crowd during the hikes. But I learned that when you’re 62 and go hiking 1,500 ft up & down the mountains for 3 or 4 miles with ex pro athletes in their late 40’s like Mark & Jim who have also climbed Mt. Rainier and Denali, you get a great view of their backside as they pull away from you! What really showed me my age & hurt my feelings was that NFL coach & Fox Sports analyst Jim Mora was only 5 weeks out from having major surgery to reconstruct an ACL in his knee he had destroyed while skiing.

        Emu Outfitting will be offering 3 – 7 day trips for private groups or family groups at this fantastic ranch mid July thru late October of 2011 which will include fishing on over 5 miles of private land bordering 16 Mile Creek, hiking (has been NFL players & coaches not included), big game viewing, relaxing and enjoying the solitude. The cost for all this is $300.00 - $500.00/day per person, depending on whether meals and guides are desired, with a 3 day & 4 person minimum. This includes use of the cabins, all utilities, linens and satellite internet service. We will soon have a web page with complete info on the ranch on our website at www.emuoutfitting.com under “Fishing.” This is my idea of the ideal private land fishing adventure and/or family vacation in Montana’s famous Big Sky country.