FW: Lions, Bears and now Elk, oh my!!

So speaks Group One veteran Chris “Catch & Release” Barger:

I want his job shooting elk from a helicopter and then releasing them without trying to  haul him out!

 

Chris Barger
Estimating / Design Build
Allied Heating & Air Conditioning Co., Inc.

 

 

Lions, Bears and now Elk, oh my!!

More pics from Curious George Bettas:

Ron:  Here are two shots from the North Sapphire Elk Research Project which we are also helping fund…just over the hill from your place….

Photo 1:  Darting bull elk so it can be collared with a GPS tracking collar.

Photo 2:  Bull elk which has been immobilized and being prepared for a GPS Collar….right behind my house!

Indeed, gang, Montana Matters!!

RCR

 

Mountain Lion(s) on Rock Creek

E-14 will again feature Group Three participant “Curious George” Bettas, Executive Director of the non-profit Montana Outdoor Legacy organization (formerly Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Foundation—you E-13ers will recall his stunning first night presentation of their Grizzly Bear Relocation Program…an ongoing program that we will formally support this year during E-14).  George has been kind enough to share with us the attached photos recently taken on Rock Creek as part of Legacy’s parallel big cat monitoring program.  This beautatious female mountain lion was first treed, then darted, biopsied and safely released not too far from Headquarters…one reason we keep our doors closed at night!!

 

Thanks Curious George for the images, and thanks as well for the now-accepted invitation you extended to me last year to serve with you and Jack Hannah on your august board, where Montana now resides and Matters!

 

RCR---<’///><

 

 

 

E-14 Snowpack Update

 

 

Fellow E-14ers:

 

The water content of the snowpack is so important to our fishing fortunes this summer that I will continue to keep you updated on any major changes--and changes there have been since I last reported on the snow water equivalent (“SWE”) of this year’s accumulation.  Earlier this month, when I last reported to you, the SWE was tracking at 130% of 20 year median in the Bitterroot River Basin (at which time it was 116% of median average in the Upper Clark Fork River Basin). 

 

Well, as your Hostess With the Mostess and I witnessed first-hand last week, Western Montana has had a legendary amount of snowfall of recent such that, get this, the current SWE readings, in just two weeks, have increased by 15%, such that the Bitterroot Basin SWE is currently 144% of 20 year median and the Upper Clark Fork Basis is currently 136% of that median.

 

Like with everything else, too much of a good thing is just that, too much.  We will now be closely monitoring this accumulation to assure that we do not have a(nother) “high water year” (as we did in 2008 and in 2011, which, for safety reasons, sent us scurrying over the Continental Divide to [very, very successfully] fish the Missouri River and its dam-regulated water flow).

 

We shall see what we shall see, but no drought there be in and around our MT home fishing waters!!

 

Best to all awaiting it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

    ---<’///><

 

 

 

 

 

FW: E-14: Some Hints About Why We Fish

A nice note from Helen MD Jeff "The Guide" Georgia (yes, in addition to his medical work and being a veteran Extravaganzer, he is also a MT licensed fishing guide in his own right!):

 

Thanks for these, Ron. You've given me a nice respite from reading thousands of images.

In all of literature, I think the line that gets to me the most is the last line of "the book."   Five of the simplest, truest, most powerful words ever written.
Looking forward to fishing with you.
Jeff

FW: Some Hints About Why We Fish

Group Two’s Lori “Fawn Lady” Ware ably adds:

thank you Montana Man....

Time's Fun When You're Having Flies!   as stated by the 62" Rainbow Trout   J

Some Hints About Why We Fish

Fellow Extravaganzers:

My good friend, client and sailor (not fisherman, perhaps to his credit!) Greg Von Gehr gave me a holiday gift of Nick Lyons’ collection of quotations 1,001 Pearls of Fishing Wisdom (Skyhorse Publishing), one section of which is entitled “Some Hints About Why We Fish”, cited excerpts of which include the following observations:

 

“There are some things, of course, that have always defied all forms of rationalization, and probably always will.  Love, for instance.  And faith, maybe….Perhaps it’s as futile and as foolish to ask ‘Why fly fishing?’ as it is to ask ‘Why Jazz?’  As Fats Waller said:  ‘Lady, if you’ve got to ask, you’ll never know.”  Arnold Gingrich

 

“Here I’ll make a confession, or rather two…nothing has given me quite such a kick as fishing.  Everything else has been a bit of a flop in comparison, even women.”  George Orwell

 

“Freud is famous for wondering, ‘What do women want?’  He might have asked a much tougher question:  ‘Why do men fish?’”  James Gorman

 

“No fisherman ever fishes as much as he wants…this is the first great rule of fishing, and it explains a world of otherwise inexplicable behavior.”  Geoffrey Norman

 

“Early on I decided that fishing would be my way of looking at the world.  First it taught me to look at rivers.  Lately it has been teaching me how to look at people, myself included.”  Thomas McGuane

 

“The great charm of fly-fishing is that we are always learning, no matter how long we have been at it, we are constantly making some fresh discovery, picking up some new wrinkle.  If we become conceited through great success, some day the trout will take us down a peg.”  Theodore Gordon

 

“I fish because I love to; because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful…and, finally not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally important—and not nearly so much fun.”  Robert Traver

 

“Ours is the grandest sport.  It is an intriguing battle of wits between an angler and a trout; and in addition to appreciating the tradition and grace of the game, we play it in the magnificent out-of-doors.”  Ernest G. Schwiebert, Jr.

 

“My favorite thing about fishing is being able to just be.  Being able to get myself as quiet inside as it is outside.”  Sabrina Sojourner

 

“The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.”  John Buchan

 

“The wildness and adventure that are in fishing still recommend it to me.”  Henry David Thoreau

 

“Yes, this sport fits me—physically, mentally, psychologically.  Why do I love trout?  For the same reasons men do.”  Joan Wulff

 

“We who go a-fishing are a peculiar people.  Like other men and women in many respects, we are like one another, and like no others, in other respects.  We understand each other’s thoughts by an intuition of which we know nothing.  We cast our flies on many waters, where memories and fancies and facts rise, and we take them and show them to each other, and small or large, we are content with our catch.”  W.C. Prime

 

“Nothing is more trying to the patience of fishermen than the remark so often made to them by the profane:  ‘I had not patience enough for fishing’”  Arthur Ransome

 

“There is nothing like the thrill of expectation over the first cast in unfamiliar waters.  Fishing is like gambling, in that failure only excites hope of a fortunate throw next time.”  Charles Dudley Warner

 

“I don’t fish in order to sit atop some predatory or evolutionary hierarchy.  I fish to hook into an entirety.  I fish to trade self-consciousness for creek-consciousness and self-awareness.”  David James Duncan

 

…all of the above confirming that, as ably summed up by Corey Ford and Alastair MacBain, “…a trout fisherman is something that defieth understanding.”

 

Best to all from the scene of it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

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Mo Sno Fo E-14!!

Gang: 

 

As you can see from above, we had so much new snowfall last night that I literally had to shovel my way over to my MT office…and it’s still a-snowin’!!

 

RCR---<’///><

 

 

E-14: Lolo Pass 12-Year Average Snow Depth (Missoulian)

Fellow E-14ers:

 

Lolo Pass rises above the Bitterroot River on the Montana-Idaho boarder; two centuries ago, Lewis & Clark spent their second winter at Traveler’s Rest near today’s town of Lolo, right where Hwy 93 merges with Hwy 12.  It was their misfortune, however, to leave their encampment too early to traverse Lolo Pass on their spring continued path westward (a decision that was almost fatal to them, and one that required them to retreat back to their winter encampment due to the heavy Pass snowpack).

 

Following up on my earlier snowpack reports to you, and consistent with the adage that a picture is worth a gaggle of words, attached is a graph that appeared in today’s Missoulian (our local newspaper) which shows that, indeed, this year’s snowpack at Lolo Pass overlooking our Bitterroot River fishing grounds is one of abundance, with over 72” currently amassed, making that a now-near record high savings account level at vaunted Lolo Pass.

 

This is GREAT news for us as we hit mid-winter stride here in Western Montana….let Rested Travelers beware, though!!

 

RCR---<’///><

 

 

 

Greetings from Extravaganza Headquarters!!

Greetings, all, from E-14’s Intergalactic Headquarters:

 

What a beautiful winter sight it is here, gang, as just last evening, after a most enjoyable dinner with my new law clerk, daughter “Boots” Trina [she is now in her second semester at U. of Montana’s School of Law], I was driving back up a snow-laden Rock Creek Road under a star-filled full moon sky only to be amidst a light snowfall…yes, as you can see from the attached pictures, the Montana winter is just as breathtaking as our shared summer months! 

 

And what a small world it indeed is, for, as you Hostess With The Mostess and I were boarding our connecting SLC-MSO flight on Valentine’s Day, who should appear and sit two rows in front of us but no one else but our good friend and now Montana’s senior US Senator, Jon Tester…yep, life is good in these here parts and we can’t wait for all of this white stuff around us to dissipate so we can welcome you here in now just four (count ‘em!) short months.

 

How is the snowpack, you properly ask (as that is the savings account for E-14’s fishing waters)??  Well, I am pleased to report that, NOW MID-February, California drought conditions notwithstanding, the Bitterroot Valley’s (our targeted E-14 fishing grounds) snow water equivalent (“SWE”) is  tracking right at 98% of 20 year averages with snow levels up 30% over last year’s lower content levels; so, things are shaping up very nicely for Extravaganza 2014, thank you very much.

 

As we spend our monthly 10 days in these wonderful climes, I want you to know and  to be assured that plans for your E-14 arrival(s) are already in their advanced stages, as we pave the way for yet a(nother) special venture into the wonders and wilds of Western Montana.  As you winterize, I am currently reading an interesting book that may well tickle your fancy, as it has mine:  veteran fishing magazine editor Geoff Mueller has written a very readable and wonderfully photographed book entitled What A Trout Sees; it is readily available on Amazon, snippets of which read:  “Trout see tippet, strike indicators, and split-shot far differently than we see them.  For us they are extensions of our line, our last connection to the fly and fish….The key to understanding tackle selection from a trout’s perspective resolves around presentation:  a focus on better deliveries and fishing our bugs as close to a naturally behaving fly as possible.” [i.e., don’t be so taken with the size of tippet as with the fact that, at any size, the trout will see it…it is how a trout sees it that matters more than a tippet’s size.] “Although trout are not high on the evolutionary tree of fishes, with very new season they prove they are smart enough to outwit us.  Understanding how and what trout see helps our cause.”  Amen!!

 

Best to all in the early preparatory stages of it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

   ----<’///><

 

 

 

  

Extravaganza 2014 Has Arrived!!

Greetings, fellow E-14 Extravaganzers; it is hard to believe that January has already come and gone but this somewhat belated note of Extravaganza tidings finally winds its way your way! 

 

Here’s your up to the minute update:

 

1.        Montana Snowpack

 

The drought notwithstanding here in California, I am pleased to initially report that our snowpack in Montana is in excellent shape.  Indeed, right now Missoula temperatures hover near zero with white-out conditions and the lack of precipitation in these here climes has not impaired what is shaping up to be, snow content wise, a respectable “normal” Montana report card.  For you rookies out there, we measure snow content in Montana by its “snow water equivalent” (“SWE” defined as “the depth of water in the snowpack, if the snowpack were melted, expressed in inches”); and, as of today, the year to date SWE in the greater Bitterroot Valley (our Extravaganza target river, year after year) is 108% of its 20 year median—and that is SUPER news for us, as this snow pack is the storage bin for the waters that we will be fishing come June and July—yes, just 5 short months from now—and a far cry from current California drought conditions!

 

2.        Extravaganza 2014 Roster and Month at a Glance

 

As you can see from the attached Participant List, E-14 is already well-spoken for with fully deposited participants:  Group One is completely full with twenty participants and there are but three slots left in each of Group Two and Group Three…bueno, bueno, bueno!!  Be sure to pair up your Group’s travel dates with the attached  Month at a Glance and double check that you have these dates embedded in ink in your personal planner.  Also, for those of you in Groups Two and Three, if you know any candidates to fill those few remaining slots, let me know, as, before it is all said and done, we will be putting a minimum of ten (count ‘em) boats on the water for each of our nine E-14 fishing days—boats that will cover nearly 1,000 miles of prime Montana fishing waters looking to yield the caught and released E-13 fishing numbers of over 1800 natural Montana trout…browns, cutthroats, rainbows and cuttbows averaging 16+” in length and over 4” in girth.

 

3.        Travel information

 

Shortly, be on the lookout for recommended E-14 air travel schedules.  We have learned, from now over 12 years of experience, that (a) our preferred carrier Delta Air Lines tinkers with its Missoula travel information right about this time of the year and (b) likewise, right about now United Air Lines makes a decision as to whether to continue its daily summer SFO-MSO service.  Hold off making any reservations for the moment until that dust settles and, when you do proceed, please use our recommended travel schedule for, as you veterans know, we meet you at the airport upon your arrival(s) as well as take you back on departure day and doing so in a well-coordinated time-consistent manner sure makes those travel days a lot easier on all concerned.

 

4.        Der Blog

 

As we have for the past half dozen years, E-14 will boast and host its own blogsite (currently under construction).  You can go ahead and mark your favorites with its url, however for the site is reserved and all major communications (together with photos and a travel log of your E-14 (ad)ventures) will be posted there.

 

So, there you go…your very first of innumerable forthcoming email updates on the highlight of your 2014 year---joining your Hostess With the Mostess and yours truly for a(nother) extravagant venture into the wilds of Montana, Ritz Carlton style!!!  Stay tuned to this station for future updates and, in the interim, should you have any questions be sure to reach out to either me directly or to our Extravaganza Coordinator Extraordinaire Christian Heath at cheath@clausenlawgroup.com.

 

Let it now begin!!!

 

Best to all in the early stages of it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

    ---<’///><

 

 

 

Merry Christmas from E-14 Headquarters!

Fellow E-14ers:

 

As we approach the final lap of 2013, both Kathy and I reach out to you from Extravaganza Headquarters with pictorial greetings and best holiday wishes for you, yours and all Montana fish!  As you can see from the attached photos, winter, indeed, has set in here and we are blessed to be living inside a snow globe today, as more and more snow falls to laden our surrounding trees and to lay the upper clime foundation for our Extravaganza 2014 fishing fortunes.

 

May you each have a blessed holiday season and a robust 2014—glad you will be with us here in God’s backyard in just six (count ‘em!) short months!!

 

Best to all from the scene of it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron and Kookin’ Kathy

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