Friends moved to Montana?

[dryflyguy]

Pretty hard to argue that the fishing isn't better out wet for sure.
However, we certainly do have opportunities here to catch large fish - and do it throughout most of the summer too.

Besides obviously the Delaware, I've caught nice size fish in the Lehigh, Clarion, Kinzua tailrace, and the Yough.
Granted, it's a lot tougher than almost anything out west.
But I've always loved the challenge

 

[CaddisDan]

Yep, Eyler's was in Ardmore right across Lancaster Avenue from the old Ardmore trolley station and Taylor's Restaurant. Cox's was down the hill in Bryn Mawr.

I bought my first fly rod at the Ardmore store, a custom one piece graphite 5' 4wt "Tommy Forward Special" built on a Lamaglass graphite blank and a CFO II reel. I still have the reel but unfortunately, not the rod. In those day Alice's dad, Mr Eyler worked at the store too.

I bough a TON of rods & reels from Eyler's over the years and spend many, many hours hanging in the shop with Tom & Alice even years after I moved away.

They were my go to shop for everything because if they didn't have it, they would order it for me and ship it to my house, something that most shops, even today, won't do.

Here's a picture of Tom & Alice I took just before they sold the Penn Street store and moved to Montana. I was smart enough to take a bunch more and I have a few mementos from the store as well.

I have a ton of memories and miss them and Eyler's a LOT!!

View attachment 1641224230

Wow! I can't thank you enough for posting this picture of Tom and Alice. As a young teen in the early 80's I spent many a Thursday night at the shop learning to tye, and just learning. I still have tying supplies with Eyler's price stickers on them. Tom is is the man that sent me on a lifetime adventure of flyfishing. Fond memories. Thank you again!

 

[Sylvaneous]

Just curious - how many of you have had friends move from PA to MT? Based on how crowded Bozeman, Missoula, etc have gotten, I'm thinking the newcomers can't all have come from just California. Decades back, when Jack Mickievicz had his shop in downtown Phoenixville, long before the place got trendy, there was a regular who was artistic and handy with many things. He moved to MT in the late 70s, even though he was well short of retirement age. A family I knew from the Anglers' Club bought a ranch on the Boulder River - they were old money and this was before parvenu like Ted Turner and the Cox scion nabbed their spreads. Then Tommy Forwood retired from Eyler's and moved to Manhattan MT to join their boys, who had gone to school in MT.

When JayL who used to be a prolific poster here asked me for advice on where to ffish for the first time in MT, I warned him that if he went, he would never come back. And of course, he went for a few days, came back, sold his Jeep and stuff in his apartment and settled happily up the canyon from Bozeman. He was joined by another young fella from Walnutsport.

So as I think about it, the folks I know directly done did their migrations out to MT quite a while ago, as opposed just in the last few years.

I did. My one fly fishing buddie from graduate school at Lehigh got fed up with bouncing around jobs in NJ and bailed back to his summer job at Bob Jacklyns. That was, I don't know, 10 years ago?
Syl

 

[Yoder]

We just went to Bozeman last summer for a vacation. Montana is now basically for the rich. One bedroom condos were selling for $400k. A small single-family house is around $700k. Completely insane. You can thank Kevin Costner.

 

[MBWCC]

We just went to Bozeman last summer for a vacation. Montana is now basically for the rich. One bedroom condos were selling for $400k. A small single-family house is around $700k. Completely insane. You can thank Kevin Costner.

Bozeman, Missoula, and perhaps Billing fit your description. The rest of Montana not so much. Most of Montana has become "normal" relative to what you would find outside some of the more expensive counties in PA. I can also tell you many small towns in Montana on great trout rivers where you can still purchase a house for less than $80/sq. ft. -- just not near MSU, UM, etc. -- in other words, places your average programmer from CA wouldn't go.

 

[Cznymph]

I have a good amount of college friends in the west due to our course of study, lots of fisheries and wildlife jobs out there.

I’ve been out to see some of my friends over the years, and I do enjoy visiting, but I really wish that the Yellowstone Super Volcano would engulf Bozeman and Jackson, I’ve sworn off those towns forever.

 

[Mike]

I have a good amount of college friends in the west due to our course of study, lots of fisheries and wildlife jobs out there.

I’ve been out to see some of my friends over the years, and I do enjoy visiting, but I really wish that the Yellowstone Super Volcano would engulf Bozeman and Jackson, I’ve sworn off those towns forever.

Why would a visitor go to Montana to spend time in the towns anyway? For a visitor they’re re-supply stations and perhaps lodging locations for the days of landing and departure if traveling by air…or they should be imv. Too much to do in Montana to blow time in towns.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Agreed Mike, on my road trip through montana last summer the only town we spent any time in was Missoula to get groceries and buy fishing licenses. We pretended to be tourists for about 30 min in West Yellowstone. We didnt eat out at all and thoroughly enjoyed jumping river to river camping along the way.

We also saw lots of new cabins/ homesteads popping up throughout the State. The amount of housing development happening outside of Ennis was shocking. The urban sprawl is definitely real. We looked up real estate listings as we were driving and found some really attractive options for ~2000-3000sq ft cabins and acreage if you were more than an hour from town however.

 

[Cznymph]

Why would a visitor go to Montana to spend time in the towns anyway? For a visitor they’re re-supply stations and perhaps lodging locations for the days of landing and departure if traveling by air…or they should be imv. Too much to do in Montana to blow time in towns.

Kind of hard to visit a friends house, if you don’t go to where that friend lives, right?

 

[Mike]

Agreed Mike, on my road trip through montana last summer the only town we spent any time in was Missoula to get groceries and buy fishing licenses. We pretended to be tourists for about 30 min in West Yellowstone. We didnt eat out at all and thoroughly enjoyed jumping river to river camping along the way.

We also saw lots of new cabins/ homesteads popping up throughout the State. The amount of housing development happening outside of Ennis was shocking. The urban sprawl is definitely real. We looked up real estate listings as we were driving and found some really attractive options for ~2000-3000sq ft cabins and acreage if you were more than an hour from town however.

And it's pretty common in Montana for residents to drive an hour to get to a grocery store, or at least it was common.

 

[Cznymph]

Montana is the new Cali. I know quite a few people who have moved out there. I stayed with a buddy in Missoula for a couple nights when I was out there this summer... great town (way better than Bozeman), but holy moly housing prices are insane. There seems to be a lot of animosity from the locals aimed at the recent move-ins...

But hey, pretty great fishing! Rock Creek is awesome. Ran into a fella there this summer who said to me "the best anglers I know are from PA." That was nice to hear.

I can really sympathize with folks who are living there and are experience this. We’re seeing a similar trend in my area of PA. Lots of out of town money, buying up property for seasonal homes and getaways. Retirees moving from places like Reading, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Allentown, trying to change the way people lives their lives here. It’s frustrating for sure, and quite sad to see families no longer able to afford homes and land because of the short term rental and seasonal home market.

 

[Troutmeister]

"I can really sympathize with folks who are living there and are experience this. We’re seeing a similar trend in my area of PA. Lots of out of town money, buying up property for seasonal homes and getaways. Retirees moving from places like Reading, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Allentown, trying to change the way people lives their lives here. It’s frustrating for sure, and quite sad to see families no longer able to afford homes and land because of the short term rental and seasonal home market."

Just curious CZnymph, what part of Pa. do you live in? I'm just W. of Allentown and this place is being built up like crazy. Can't imagine many people moving from this area, I think everybody and his brother are moving here from N.Y , N.J. and Phil. area.

 

[Cznymph]

"I can really sympathize with folks who are living there and are experience this. We’re seeing a similar trend in my area of PA. Lots of out of town money, buying up property for seasonal homes and getaways. Retirees moving from places like Reading, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Allentown, trying to change the way people lives their lives here. It’s frustrating for sure, and quite sad to see families no longer able to afford homes and land because of the short term rental and seasonal home market."

Just curious CZnymph, what part of Pa. do you live in? I'm just W. of Allentown and this place is being built up like crazy. Can't imagine many people moving from this area, I think everybody and his brother are moving here from N.Y , N.J. and Phil. area.

North Central region

 

[jifigz]

"I can really sympathize with folks who are living there and are experience this. We’re seeing a similar trend in my area of PA. Lots of out of town money, buying up property for seasonal homes and getaways. Retirees moving from places like Reading, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Allentown, trying to change the way people lives their lives here. It’s frustrating for sure, and quite sad to see families no longer able to afford homes and land because of the short term rental and seasonal home market."

Just curious CZnymph, what part of Pa. do you live in? I'm just W. of Allentown and this place is being built up like crazy. Can't imagine many people moving from this area, I think everybody and his brother are moving here from N.Y , N.J. and Phil. area.

Sounds like HELL!

 

[TimMurphy]

Sounds like HELL!

Dear jifigz,

It was Hell in 1993 and why I moved to upstate NY. I was born in Schuylkill County but my parents packed me and my brother up in 1965, as Coal was dying and so was the area, and moved to the Philly suburbs. It was a great place to grow up, not rural, but not overly congested either. A new brother came around in 1967 and I watched as the 2 lane road out front became a 4 lane with a turning lane.

In the late 1980's when I got out of the USAF and moved back home for a spell it was still easy to get around. I could go fish the Lehigh Valley streams in an hour, and be in Harrisburg in two, anywhere in the Poconos in two, and State College in around 3 hours if I drove it like I stole it.

In 2004 my parents bailed from Lower Bucks County and moved to the pastoral greenery of West Hanover Township zip code 17112. Twenty years later they don't regret their move, but miss the old West Hanover Township. As the one who talked them into moving West, I feel their pain.

They are in their 80's and may not be around much longer. I'm in my 60's and in the same boat timeline wise.

I'm a kid who spent his first 5 years in Saint Clair PA, a shell of the town it was was when my parents were younger. It was reduced to a festering scab on on the landscape when we moved. I had hoped, that in my lifetime the process of building up and moving would wane. Clearly, I was wishing in one hand and sh**ing in the other, wondering which hand would fill up first?

Sorry to be such a downer dude. Cherish Miffco and hope and pray that it stays relatively unscathed.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[lycoflyfisher]

I wouldn't say development is hurting ncpa, but the influx of urban money for 2nd homes and the short term rental market is elevating the real estate market and making home /property ownership out of reach for many middle class locals.

 

[Cznymph]

I wouldn't say development is hurting ncpa, but the influx of urban money for 2nd homes and the short term rental market is elevating the real estate market and making home /property ownership out of reach for many middle class locals.

I would agree the development isn’t hurting the NC region. It seems any time we try to build something, the sue happy down state residents get in a tizzy. (I.E. Renovo natural gas power plant)

I don’t see any improvement on the housing market any time soon. Especially while groups like The PA Wilds is actively promoting and paying for (this is funded by your tax dollars) people from urban areas around the nation to work remotely from the PA wilds for several weeks. We finally get decent internet in my area, and the group that is supposed to be promoting local residents and creators, uses that internet to invite people with high, out of area salaries to see what’s it’s like working remotely. Then say, why not by a second home while you’re at it.

 

[Bonzoso]

Funny theme going on here. Those who got there when real estate was cheap forget they were an outsider once too. Now that they are established, they can commiserate with one another about the influx of folks who want what they wanted at one time. These newer folks are perceived as shifty riff raff from the cities. Bottom line is things change. It's not a conspiracy to make people's lives miserable. Go with the flow and try to be happy and enjoy what you got when you have it.

 

[wildtrout2]

Funny theme going on here. Those who got there when real estate was cheap forget they were an outsider once too. Now that they are established, they can commiserate with one another about the influx of folks who want what they wanted at one time. These newer folks are perceived as shifty riff raff from the cities. Bottom line is things change. It's not a conspiracy to make people's lives miserable. Go with the flow and try to be happy and enjoy what you got when you have it.

Very well stated. Words to live by.

 

[Cznymph]

Funny theme going on here. Those who got there when real estate was cheap forget they were an outsider once too. Now that they are established, they can commiserate with one another about the influx of folks who want what they wanted at one time. These newer folks are perceived as shifty riff raff from the cities. Bottom line is things change. It's not a conspiracy to make people's lives miserable. Go with the flow and try to be happy and enjoy what you got when you have it.

Born and raised here, same with my parents and their parents.

All I want is my children to be able to afford the life that have. I’ll leave them what I have, but will they be able to afford to keep it? I’m afraid that before long, local wages won’t be able to keep up with the cost of living, and before you know it, you’ve got a Lake Placid or Vail on your hands.

Your tune might change if an organization that was jammed down your throat, that got a free seat at the table, and uses tax payer dollars to effectively increase housing cost and demand.


Edited to add: I don’t recall referring to this people as “riff raff” and they are far from it. These are people with disposable income, buying second homes, or properties for short term rentals.

I’ve got no issue with folks wanting to move here and become a part of the community. Live and work here in the area, not telework from your Potter County cabin every so often.