Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Time for a reel job!



After several months of commercial fly tying and being a stay at home father, it is finally time to find a job that will bring a paycheck into the household. Bozeman is full of construction jobs that pay well but require a death ride up Hwy 191 to Big Sky every morning. There are also lots of service jobs that pay a few bucks for mearly showing up and putting a smile on your face for the public. The big deli ma arises in only needing a job for a couple of months before the guiding season gets hot and heavy again. I guess that I may have to put back on the painting outfit and head back into the shop to work as a painter for a little while. Soon the midges will be buzzing and the baetis will hit the water for the great anglers who visit each year to fish the rivers of Southwestern Montana.

Friday, January 26, 2007

First Fish of 2007!


January has been cold in Montana and we finally have had a few days of warm weather. The warmer weather cleared some of the pack and slush ice from the Gallatin and the Lower Madison. I got a chance to get out for a few hours on Thursday and managed to dredge up a few rainbows on a Natural Zonker trailed with a pink soft hackle sow bug. The photo above is the first fish of the year. I was thankful that it was a rainbow and not a whitefish, which is a common fish on a soft hackle in the winter months.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Anglers spend over $422 million per year in Montana!


A great article in the Great Falls Tribune - www.greatfallstribune.com - Great Falls, MT lays out the economics behind Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife activities in the state of Montana. There are some staggering statistics in the article such as anglers spending 1.6 million dollars on ice and over 2.6 million dollars on bait.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Mount Everest of Inebriation!

As a young kid I grew up watching "Andre the Giant" tangle with Hulk Hogan for the WWF championship of the world. As I watched the matches I never had any idea that the Massive beast of a man on the TV had consumed a case of plum wine prior to entering the ring. Modern Drunkard Magazine ran an article on their website about "The Giants" insatiable appetite for all forms of alcohol is something to behold and I was amazed while reading the article. In the article the author speaks of Andre drinking 119 beers in the span of 6 hours. That works out to one beer every three minutes. I personally like drinking a few beers of having a few Pendelton's on the rocks but this article is simply unbelievable.

Friday, January 19, 2007

January in Montana!

Public Spring Creek in the Gallatin Valley!



Lower Madison River, BRRRRRRRRR!

People always want to know how cold it is in Montana in the middle of the winter and I always tell them about the rivers filling with slush ice and people staying indoors for days if not weeks on end. Last week we saw one of the artic cold snaps that visit the area a few times each year. Our high temps last week were well below zero most days and at night we saw temperatures that ranged from -47 below zero in West Yellowstone to -26 here in Bozeman. After a week of this cold weather there is little in the way of fishable water right now but we are fortunate to have a couple of psuedo tailwaters in the area and numerous spring creeks that keep open water no matter how cold it gets. Yesterday a couple of my good friends headed out with the dogs to check out the ice flows and maybe wet a line in one of the spring creeks that has public access. The wind was blowing a bit and none of us could muster up the motivation to dawn our waders and rig a rod to fish the creek. We finally jumped back in the truck and spent the afternoon galavanting around the Valley with a twelve pack of beer looking for elk and deer on some of the backroads around the valley.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Think before you build!



Thursday morning update: Flood warnings for a stretch of the Yellowstone south of Livingston remain in effect until 10 this morning, but there are signs the ice jam responsible for backing up the river is starting to break.

Park County officials had not reported changes in conditions early Thursday morning, but the river gauge at Livingston showed a “sharp increase” in flows overnight, a NWS statement said.

More free-flowing water could mean that the ice jam is clearing, but there has been no visual confirmation yet.

The banks of the Yellowstone River in the Paradise Valley have changed drastically in the past ten years. Trophy homes off all different styles have been thrown up along the banks of one of the more popular sections of the river without any forethought or respect for what Mother Nature can unleash when she is angry. In 1996 and again in 1997 the Yellowstone River saw concurrent 100 year flood events which gave us a glimpse of the power of water and what it can do to property that is adjacent to it's fearsome flows. We as humans are not very good at learning from our mistakes and in the years since well over 20 homes have built near the Yellowstones banks with no recollection of what had taken place only a short time ago. People have the right to use their property as they see fit, however I also do not sympathize or agonize when they use poor judgement just to hear the water rushing by or because they want a particular view of our natural enviornment. I hope that the couple whose home is being threatened by the icy flows of the river can make it through without losing everything but maybe they will think twice about where they built and understand that they could see their dreams disappear at the hands of the river they wanted to live so near.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Winter Time Fishing



Winter time is one of my favorite seasons to fish for many different reasons. The first and foremost is that it is the best way to get a river all to yourself and not have competition from other anglers. Second you can run into the unexpected and see some amazing sites and sounds. There is a good article in the Denver Post which relates some of the reasons why serious anglers get out and enjoy the rivers during times of the year that others think are too cold and snowy for fishing. The brown trout in the photo above was caught in the Bear Trap Canyon in celebration of the New Year, by my good friend and fellow guide Eric Reithmiller.

God Bless Golf !

"I am not against golf, since I cannot but suspect it keeps armies of the unworthy from discovering trout." -Paul O'Neil-

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle Police Reports!!!

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle is a decent paper with plenty of bad editing and some great wording in the police reports. A couple of weeks ago this ran in the police reports section. A deputy spoke to two ice fisherman at Hyalite reservoir, the fisherman told the officer that there were a couple of cutthroats with some sore lips! Only the comical would run something like this in the paper.

Fly-Fishing for Taimen in Mongolia

The worlds largest salmonoid. It needs no further introduction. This video slideshow is from our local Taimen experts who are some of the american pioneers in Mongolia. The trip looks like it would be spectacular and maybe someday I can save up $7500 to get myself over to Mongolia.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

12 Below Zero and Getting Colder!

Bozeman, Montana (59718) Conditions & Forecast : Weather Underground As of this writting the mercury is falling and it is already well below Zero. An artic cold front has moved into the area and left many around Bozeman wishing they lived in Miami right about now. Personally I say bring it on, Cold weather is great, it sure beats the heat in the summer.

Woman Finally Goes Postal over Walleye!


Kate Bahr was tied to her job at the United States Post Office and was not able to make the annual ice fishing trips each year with her husband and son. But 2007 was the year that she had enough senority to take the dates off and join the Boys on Fort Peck reservoir. It turned out to be a great trip and she pulled this 16.2 pound monster through the hole in the middle of the trip. The story has been in several of the Montana newspapers and the story is very good. Congratulations Kate and way to bring one through the ice that we can all admire and hope to see on the end of our own line one day.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Screwed by Bush

What a Shot!



A conservation officer from Des Moines Iowa used his markmanship skills to free an Eagle from a tree branch high up on a cliff. The article tells an amazing tale of how the officer made the shot into a tree limb to attempt to free the Eagle which became stuck in a knot hole in the tree branch and the bird was hanging upside down from the branch high on a cliff, which left all other options of rescue impossible. The best quote came from one of the officers co workers who state "i expected to see a poof of feathers". Rather than the poof of feathers the officer made a miraculous shot and freed the bird from it's trap and it flew away into the sunset no worse for the wear.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

WTF!! Women arrested for mailing herself Pot.

A recent article from El Paso Texas in which a women was arrested for sending herself 78 pounds of pot from El Paso to Amarillo. She was charged with illegal use of a communications facility for sending the pot via mail. This would certainly qualify her for the Darwin Arwards that are given out to people of uncommon stupidity. Natural selection let one slip through the cracks once again.

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Drug Related Spiders

Good news for Missouri River Rainbows!


Fisheries biologist have compiled fish study numbers for the Missouri River this past summer and the news was much better than expected. After discovering Whirling Disease in the Dearborne River, the largest spawning tributary of the Missouri, fisheries experts expected to see a dramatic decrease in first year age class rainbows. There data did show a slight decrease in rainbows but populations were still about 80 percent of the average. This slight drop in numbers could also be attributed to the drought conditions we have had in Montana as well as the factors of Whirling Disease. This is much better than expected news for the river and I feel that it shows how "wild fish" can make adaptations to ensure survival of their species. Montana is a gleaming example of how wild fishery management is a much better system than put and take fisheries of the past and present.

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Three Months of holding our breath


Every two years our elected officials meet in Helena while the whole state sits on the edge of their seats to see how and when special interest will affect and influence the way we do business, use our recreation facilities and how we live in general. Concerned citizens need to keep abreast of the issues at hand and use their voice to make sure that your representatives hear your message, because god knows they are listening to others who choose to limit your freedoms and ability to make a living. It is basically three months of hell that hopefully will see most of the special interest bills tabled and removed from further discussion. Unfortunately our elected representatives don't tackle the serious issues such as health care, public education funding and social programs for the poor. Elected officials from both parties typically listen to the money instead of the interest of the public. The Billings Gazette has a list of a few of the first bills written by legislatures that will hit the floor this coming week. There will be plenty more to come and all concerned citizens should take the time to check out and keep tabs on the many different bills that will come before the legislature this session. Lets pray that more good is done than bad, but experience tells me that a select few will get bills passed that will influence the rest of us in a negative way.

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Congatulations Boise State !!


Former Big Sky Conference foe Boise State pulled off one of the greatest games in football history. I sat in awe as the final quarter and the overtime period unfolded in front of me. This is a game that will go down in the history books as one of the best ever. Congratulations Boise State!!!! You won one for all the little guys.