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Like I say after swinging flies for 3 or 4 hours and finally hooking up with a fish “It’s about damn time!”. It has been a while since I wrote in this blog and I don’t have any good excuse except I just didn’t feel like it. Since I last wrote (or posted if you want to be more in tune with modern terminology which I don’t) a lot has gone on around here. I have been at my new job since August of 2011, our rental property was jacked off the foundation and a new basement put under it, my daughter and two grandson’s lived with us from January through August since they are our tenants and needed a place to live while the new foundation was being put in place, I spent a lot of time on the MO fishing of course, numerous boxes of cigars have been consumed along with numerous bottles of bourbon, my wife and I celebrated our 20^th wedding anniversary by fishing the Yellowstone river and playing golf in Livingston, MT. which was incredible since we managed to be present for the first stone fly hatch on that river in seven years, and I went on my fourth steelhead fishing trip after not being able to go the last 3 seasons which resulted in catching my second steelhead (a thirty one inch fish).

Fishing on the MO this year was incredible since we finally had a normal water year after four high water years. It was a stellar dry fly year. The drift boat is still going strong, and I haven’t used my Watermaster kick boat since I bought the drift boat. The fish in the MO have regained their moxy with their return to making long powerful runs when hooked as evident by two fish taking me into my backing and several others taking me to my backing. We’ll see what next year brings. I didn’t spend as much time as I was planning fishing the river below Craig but did make several floats below Craig. I met a new fishing partner and we have fished together twice.

This weekend we are going elk hunting together. We’ll see how that goes. He has proven an excellent fishing partner (which means he rows at least half the time and does a good job of it). However I am suspicious of his willingness to share his elk hunting honey hole with me. I think he may just want someone to help get his elk out. That’s a small price to pay though if I also get an elk. At the least maybe he will share some of the meat. I consider hunting season a pain in the ass since it starts in October and occurs during some of the best time to fish the MO.

I am contemplating another steelhead trip maybe in February or March. I ventured to a new river for steelhead this year. Instead of fishing the Clearwater River I drove another eighty miles to the Grande Rhone River in Washington. A couple of guides I talked to at Headhunters fly shop recommended it saying that the catch rate would be better. I only caught the one fish, but it took me three years to catch my first fish on the Clearwater so I can’t complain too much. I met some great guys there and saw a lot of new country.

My cigar is almost done and the coffee (no not bourbon it is morning and I have to go to work soon) is getting cold so I will call this good for my first post in a while. I do plan to start posting again on a regular basis but no guarantees. Here’s to hunting season ending and a return to winter fishing.

First Float of 2012

I’ve been fishing off and on all winter, but last Sunday was my first outing with the drift boat since probably late November or early December. It was a windy day on the MO which is usually the case in March but it was good to get the boat out again. I diverted from my norm and floated from Craig down stream to Stickney Creek. For many years I have fished from Holter dam to Craig with the occasional float below Craig. This year I am planning to get to know the water below Craig better. Things started out a little slow which isn’t surprising this time of year with water temps at 36 degrees, but I was hoping for more of what I experienced the previous weekend which was incredible. Once I got on the right fly (an olive wooly bugger with black hackle and tail) I killed them. Well not really I did release them. The thing that pissed me off was there was a guy 100 yards down stream form me that had a fish on every time I looked up. I changed flies a couple of times trying to get it right but hadn’t found the right one yet. Then he finally got tired of hauling in fish and started walking back toward me along the bank. I had waded in to the bank and was again changing flies and trying to get some feeling in my feet. He stopped and showed the fly he’d been using which was a black bugger. He gave me one and wished me luck. I tied his fly on and picked up a couple of fish but still didn’t do as well as he did. This was probably because I was following him in the run and was fishing the water he had just fished 15 or 20 minutes before. I decided to break for lunch and a cigar then went to a different spot I had wanted to try. I tied on the olive and black bugger and after a few casts was in the game with a fish on every 3 to 5 casts. This last Sunday however it was not quit as good. There was still plenty of action as I was getting lots of strikes but for some reason wasn’t hooking up very often. The wind got worse and the day wore on and I was just about ready to bag it and head for the take out when the wind died down to almost dead calm and I started fishing a run I never tried before and  had several tugs and managed to hook up with a few of them. Finally the sun was getting low and some storm clouds were getting close so I called it a day. It was still calm and quiet. I opened a bottle of Fat Tire and lit a cigar then headed to the take out. It was a perfect ending to a challenging day of being battered by constant wind. After loading the boat I drove to Head Hunters to pay my shuttle bill. When I got there they were just closing up so I said I would catch them next time I came through. They know I can’t stay away long. Then the young daughter of one of the owners (about 8yrs old) looked up at me with eyes the size of silver dollars and excitedly informed me in no uncertain terms that she caught 15 fish that day which her mother quickly confirmed. I told here she would have to teach me how to catch fish some time. It was great to see someone so young get so excited about fishing instead of video games. It did an old fisherman’s heart good and gave me a little hope that maybe in 20 or 30 years there will still be some body around to give a shit about our rivers and the fish in them. If the wind isn’t to bad maybe I will get out and chase some leprechauns on the river then at Joe’s in Craig.

Best wishes & good fishing

A return from a two year hiatus and the birth of a new fly

Yep! You read right. I have returned to fly tying after a two year dry spell the result of a remodeling project several years in the making which has resulted in the invention of a new fly. You may have heard of the streamer called the Butt Monkey and the streamer called Krafty’s Kreelex, well this new fly derives its name from a combination of the names of these two flies and me trying to tie a fly I have never tied using material I have never used after two years of not tying a single fly. I have dubbed it the “Butt Ugly Kreelex”. The recipe for this fly is identical to that of Krafty’s Kreelex added is the feeble effort of a so so so fly tier. I have progressed with remodeling my den far enough to again be able to get to my fly tying bench and was looking forward to spending some quality time at the vise. Last year I had ridiculous success fishing the Krafty’s Kreelex on the MO until my favorite fly shop (Headhunters) sold me the last of their supply of said fly. None of the other fly shops in the immediate vicinity carried said fly so I have had to make due with other less ridiculously effective flies. After finding the recipe for Krafty’s Kreelex on the web and seeing a video demonstrating how simple this pattern is to tie I figured it would be no problem to whip out a dozen or two, the result being three “Butt Ugly Kreelexs”. Another result being the discovery that instructional videos while instructional are deceiving with regards to level of difficulty. My first attempt with to light a thread resulted in breaking the thread several times, cutting all material away with an exacto knife, and driving across town to acquire thread a bit to thick. The second attempt resulted in a really butt ugly kreelex. The third and fourth attempt, with the aid of bourbon and a cigar showed moderate improvement with some concern for the combination of a lit cigar and copious amounts of head cement. Not to mention the intoxicating effect of inhaling head cement and drinking copious amounts of bourbon. I’m am still unsure if the slightly noted improvements in the fly where a result of gaining experience or the use of good bourbon and tobacco. The flies would never catch a fly fisher looking to buy some flies but I suspect they will catch trout. As is the case with most, if not all, of my fly tying efforts these flies will never be the subject of macro photography or other forms of public display but will under go extensive field testing. Final judgment is in the mouths of the fish.

Merry Christmas

It’s 0500 on Christmas morning and all is quiet, but I am about 80% deaf so that helps. I do love my silent world. No longer do I have the little ones at home to wake me every hour after the stroke of midnight on Christmas morn. Instead it is the ghosts of Christmas past that have dragged me from my slumber and kept me from sleep. Okay so my bladder had something to do with it to. I got up to take a leak and lay awake remembering when my children were children. Finally I succumbed to the restlessness and quietly as possible made my way past the guest room were, you guessed it, one of the guests is sleeping. Then past the other guest who is sleeping on the couch. I made coffee as quietly as one can with an electric coffee grinder and no ground coffee in the house. Bagel and lox will provide my sustenance this morn on which the Christ child was born. It’s to early for bourbon even for me but the coffee is quite good. I will soon be getting into the humidor to smoke my Christmas cigar which was a gift on my birthday a week ago today. First I will start with my pipe though. It seems that early mornings lend themselves more to the pipe than the stogie. Oh how I do miss the early morning ritual on the river. The pipe is my companion on the drive to the river but not until I have finished fueling the truck. Then once at the river I always begin with the lighting of the stogie. I then move on to rigging rod and line, and finish with prepping the drift boat. Several anglers arrive and launch in the time I spend getting everything ready. To me this is a time of transition that should be savored. Enjoy the cigar, relish memories of past trips, an occasional swallow of now lukewarm coffee, the sounds of nature until the next angler pulls up with boat in tow, and then a brief social moment until the other angler becomes absorbed in his own morning ritual. Some will show good manners and proper upbringing by asking my permission to put in before me since I was there first Others like some of the guides will show good manners in spite of not so good an upbringing ( at no fault of their parents who tried to get them to get real jobs). I recently read an interview done with Gary Lafontaine when he was near the end of his life, and he referred to memories of perfect moments. I guess that is what it is all about for me these days. It isn’t just the catching of fish but creating an opus of perfect moments to sustain me after I have made the last “last cast”. My wish for you my reader is that you will have a truly Merry Christmas and if you are not Christian then please do not be offended that I am, as I am not offended that you are not, and therefore are not bound by the social and spiritual obligations and can go fishing this morning. It pleases me to think that one of the great things about belonging to the fraternity of anglers is that it encompasses us all, and provides a common place for us to share thoughts, ideals, theology, beer, whiskey, lies, and etc.

Yes I'm still here and still fishing just not posting as often as I should

When I started this blog I told myself I would post every week, but it has been just over a month since my last post. I will blame it on starting a new job since that is the best excuse I can come up with at the moment. Since my last post I took my wife Gigi to Belt Creek for some small stream fishing. That was a good move as we caught several fish surprisingly large for the water we were fishing. I think my wife has become a nymph junky as a result though. We started early in the morning using dry flies since the spruce moths were out and we caught some nice fish on an Elk Hair Caddis pattern. Then as the sun got higher and the dry fly action petered out I tied a smallish stone fly nymph on Gigi’s tippet. She started catching fish in every spot she I told her to fish. She also began asking why we didn’t use the nymph sooner. It reminded my of something I read about how to drive your fishing guide nuts. One of the ways was to ask the guide what his favorite fly was and then ask why we weren’t using it. The highlight of the trip was watching Gigi catch her first fish without any assistance from me or anyone else. I even got it on video. When we finally decided to stop fishing and hike back to the truck we found that the parking lot which was empty when we left was packed with vehicles and there was a splash and giggle crowed that bordered on frightening. Rods were broken down and gear stowed asap. Then we got out of there. My experience with crowd like that has been that alcohol and young boys and girls make for trouble. I wanted to get away before any trouble started. Besides this trip to Belt Creek I have made several of the usual trips to the MO with the usual great results. Last weekend was really special because my dad came with me. It was the first time he had ever been in a drift boat. It was great spending a day introducing my dad to something that is such a big part of my life. Hopefully I will be posting more often. Maybe even add more photos over the winter when I will have more time to learn some new geek stuff from my wife. This is a picture of Gigi with one of the nice brown’s we caught.

Check off one more from the bucket list

One of the items on my bucket list has been to fish the Madison River. I have lived in Montana all my life and although I have fished the Madison before I hadn’t really fished it. My dad said I caught my first fish on the Madison, but I don’t have any memory of the event. I was probably about 5 years old and I wasn’t using a fly rod. In fact according to my dad I didn’t even reel the fish in. I just ran up the bank with the pole in hand until the fish was dragged ashore. The only other time I had fished the Madison was when I took a short excursion out of Bozeman after purchasing a new pair of waders from a fly shop there. I fished along the bank for a couple of hours. I caught several fish in the 6 inch range and did get one brown that was probably 10 or 12 inches. Oh yea I just remembered another time I fished the Madison in the park during a rain that had been going on non-stop for a few days. The river was muddy and pretty much no visibility. Zip caught that day! So now I had just quit my job and didn’t have to start my new job for 10 days. I figured this would be a great opportunity to spend some serious fishing time on the Madison. Then I was informed that because I had filled out a health questionnaire for my soon to be employer and mentioned having gone to a doctor a couple of years ago which resulted in a diagnosis of gout I was required to be checked out by an occupational therapist to make sure I was physically able to perform the functions of my new job. My original plan was to leave Friday after my last day at the old job and head for Ennis MT. Now I would have to be home Monday to show up for the earliest possible appointment with the OT. I reverted to plan B. I went fishing for the weekend on the MO and had a good time then returned home Sunday night. The next morning I left for the appointment and passed the physical requirements to continue as a gainfully employed wanabe trout bum. The trip was still a success as far as getting to do some serious fishing on the Madison. However catching fish was another thing. All my fishing guide books tout the Madison as a great river for beginners because it is fast riffles and the fish don’t have a lot of time to scrutinize your fly. The fish take the fly and a bad cast doesn’t necessarily bother them. Someone forgot to tell the fish and apparently fish can’t read. No one was catching any fish to amount to much including me. I did some reconnaissance at the fly shops in Ennis and at the local drinking holes. Yep it was confirmed that no one else was catching much either. In fact it was rumored that a lot of guides were having clients cancel after a trip or two down the river. The most common theory was that since the salmon fly hatch had just recently passed through the fish were to full to eat any more. I had trouble buying into this because I have often caught fish that took my fly even though they were so full of hoppers they still had one in their mouth because they were to full to get it down their throat. As one guy at a fly shop said even after pigging out on thanksgiving you still eat the next day. Another guy in a fly shop said the fishing was good early in the morning before the water temperature rose. It’s just that the tourists didn’t want to get up early enough to fish and wanted to be off the water in time for the cocktail hour. This made more sense to me so I decided to check his theory out by hitting the water as early as possible. As early as possible was a little later than planned since I over slept a bit. I woke up an hour later than intended and was afraid the shuttle I had arranged would get to the put-in before I did. I was amazed how fast I could break camp when motivated. I got the boat in the water before the shuttle driver showed up to pick up my vehicle and plenty early to fish before the sun was up enough to put the fish down. Another theory shot to hell. I did manage to catch the one fish of the whole trip worth mentioning though. It was a nice 18 inch brown that took my nymph on the second cast. Other than this one fish I did catch a smattering of other fish ranging from 2 to 6 inches. No kidding I think I did catch the smallest fish I ever caught. It was 2 or maybe if I really stretch it 3 inches. I couldn’t figure out how it got the hook in its mouth. As for why the fish weren’t biting that is another of those mysteries that only explain why I always bring a few good cigars and a flask of bourbon with me when I go fishing. The trip was a huge success in spite of the lack of catching. What really made the trip a great adventure was the people I met. One night a Mustang convertible pulled into the camp site next to me and a couple got out and started setting up a tent. The tent was big enough for four people and maybe a couple of dogs, but there was only the two of them. The next morning I had made a full pot of coffee and was doing the breakfast dishes when I noticed the guy wondering around aimlessly outside the tent as us guys do when we’re waiting for our dream girl to finish what ever it is they do that makes them our dream girl. (My wife reads this ya know)  So anyway I grabbed a couple of extra cups and went next door to offer the coffee I wasn’t going to drink myself anyway. A tactic I usually use on other fishing persons to ply them for Intel. Obviously these were not fishing persons but I wasn’t going to drink all that coffee myself anyway. As it turned out he was from Quebec Canada and she was a French lady who currently lived in Italy. We had a very interesting conversation and enjoyed each other’s company for just the appropriate amount of time to not keep them from there adventures or me from my fishing. Another interesting incident occurred on the river as I was fishing the inside of a big bend in the river. I noticed a real cowboy trying to move some cattle across the river. I know he was a real cowboy because he was trying to move cattle using a horse. The horse was a pretty good cutting horse to. Also I could tell he was a real cowboy for two other reasons. One his cowboy’s hat had that worn and sweat stained look that only a serious working  man gets, and two because after he finally got the cattle to cross the river he rode up to me and asked if I had a beer in my cooler he could buy from me. I told him that not only did I have a beer in the cooler but that I would give it to him. In fact I had one my self, imagine that. I didn’t mention that I also had cigars and bourbon though. After all he was on the job. I really enjoyed visiting with him and it was nice to see a real cowboy and a real cattle ranch still existed in this part of Montana that has been pretty much invaded by the rich and famous. Then there was the two couples that invited me to share their campfire my last night on the river. In the end the trip was a smashing success because of the great people I met and the knowledge of the Madison I gained. I can’t wait to take Gigi there. Speaking of Gigi what a great time we had last Sunday on Belt Creek. Well I’ll save that story to next time. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it. I did.

How to almost flip your boat

The MO continues to drop and the dry fly fishing continues in get better. As I write this the MO is in the 6000 cfs range. Last weekend was good and I caught several fish and had several tugs that I didn’t hook up with. The majority of the fish were 20+ inch bows. I big event was me learning how to flip a drift boat on a flat river. No I didn’t actually flip the boat but it was close. I left the oars dangling while putting some gear away and the down stream oar hit bottom and wedged itself in the oar lock. It then lifted the boat up and almost over. I had to use my spare oar to pry the oar out of the oar lock and all was good after that. No more letting the oars dangle on their own.

Tomorrow is my last day at my current job and I will start a new job on August 9^th. This gives me a little more than a week off. I am taking a Montana fishing road trip. I plan to fish the MO, Madison, and Yellowstone rivers. I may fish a few small streams or other rivers if I get the whim to do. No set schedule or destinations just stress free and enjoying Montana. The only definite is that cigars, bourbon, and fly fishing will be involved.

I have been researching different options for my road trip and have come to realize I could spend a lifetime in Montana and never see all it has to offer. The more I read other fishing blogs the more I appreciate how fortunate I am to live where I do. Montana is a great place to live. I enjoy meeting others who appreciate this great place and am always glad to help others enjoy the great opportunities Montana offers. If you ever find yourself in the Helena/Great Falls area or thinking of coming this way let me know and I would gladly share a boat with you on the MO. I will post a report on how the road trip went when I get back.