While campaigning in Montana last year, Obama told the crowd at one of his rallies that he wanted to return and try fly fishing. Last weekend was his chance near Bozeman, even though the weather was rainy.

"Dan Vermillion, owner of the Sweetwater Fly Shop in Livingston, said, "When he showed up in his Suburban, he got out of the Suburban...your immediate reaction is 'I can't believe this is happening'. And then he came up and he shook my hand and he said 'My name's Barack Obama and I understand you're going to be my guide today'."

Looking up at rainy weather and thunderclouds, Vermillion was worried his three weeks of silent planning might not pay off. But he says the Commander in Chief was committed to getting on the water: "He pushed through some really tough weather that would have sent most of us back to the hotel or the bar instead of staying on the river."

Vermillion says security reasons prevented him from taking the President out on a drift boat, but he says he prefers it that way, since wading the East Gallatin river with Mr. Obama gave them more of a chance to talk."

"We talked about a lot of personal stuff, a lot of family stuff, and then fishing," said Vermillion.

And Vermillion says the President was quite focused on the task at hand.

"He was really good at stepping out of his life as the President and all the complications that entails and becoming very focused on fishing, and with that focus he ended up picking it up very, very quickly."

After two and a half hours and half a dozen bites, Mr. Obama had to move on empty-handed. And while no fish were caught, Vermillion says it was as much fun as he had ever had fly fishing."