Fellow E-14ers:
As we arrive on the cusp of Extravaganza 2014, and now having had boots on the ground here for three days now, I want to give you this up-to-the-moment update and my eve-of-it-all prognostication on where things are at, both from a fishing and water safety point of view. For ease of reference, I have broken things down into categories so you can easily look for what is most important and relevant to you and pass, if you wish on the rest:
1. Overall Scheme of Things: As you can tell from the attached photos, your Hostess With The Mostess and I are ready for your arrival(s) and very much look forward to that. Headquarters is shining right now, as is the sun (intermittently, at least!). We are honored that each pf the 70+ of you has set aside important time in your life to be with us and, once you hit the ground here in Missoula, I can assure you that you be treated extravagantly and see sights and scenes simply not found in your day-to-day vision, the best example of which is the 600 lb. female moose that just gandered through our yard two hours ago…hmm, could this be the Year of the Moose for us?!?
2. “Going To The Missouri River” Prospects: Mother Nature has been dinking with this year’s runoff and, having just traversed the Continental Divide with our Outfitter yesterday to (successfully!) fish that majestic fishery, here are the current Vegas odds as to whether or not your group will be Going To The Mo: Group One 100%; Group Two 50% (down from 80% just a week ago, folks!); and Group Three 20% (down from 50%). We are fully prepared on this end either way and I will let you Tattoos and Threes know our Outfitter’s “go or no go” decision either way. It is interesting to observe the email traffic on this subject, the report on which is that the preponderance of first time rookies are underwhelmed by the prospects of motor coaching while the preponderance of veterans who fished with us on the Mo during E-08 and E-11 are relishing the fact of going back---yes, gang, the fishing there is THAT good!
3. The Flow on The Mo: Quoting our Double Up Outfitter John “The Great But Propaneless” Gould yesterday, “I can’t remember when the fishing conditions on The Mo have been so good this time of year!” When the Ones fished The Mo in the last high water year of 2011, the river was a-racing at 10,000 cubic feet per second, which was nothing compare to the Tattoos a week later when the river was raging at 22,000 cfs—the powers that be simply had not properly planned in advance for a high runoff year and the upriver dams from Craig, MT (our base) were filled to capacity pre-runoff. Well, lesson learned as that is not the case this year…quite the opposite, in fact. In preparation for this high water year, both the upstream Canyon Ferry and Holter Dams were drained early such that with the delayed flow this year (see more on that below) the Mo at Craig is now flowing right at 4,800 cfs (a small fraction of what we saw in 2011) and the discussion is rampant that, as a result, 2013 may be one of the best dry fly fishing (in addition to nymph and streamer fishing) ever! Hence the yin of the variable runoff flows and the yang of the water conditions…ah, the constantly variable wonders of fly fishing!
4. Local Waters Flow Conditions: Currently, the local waters around Missoula are NOT in fishable condition, with the exception of our home water Rock Creek where the flow is at near-ideal 1790 cfs conditions. And when I was flying into Missoula on Saturday, on the approach I looked about the mountains and, in true Group One form, said “WTF” to myself, as the southern and eastern slopes of the nearby mountains were near barren of snow. Asking around, as I have since arriving here, I have found out and seen the following: (a) The Clark Fork and the Blackfoot Rivers are completely blown out; The Bitterroot is fishable is spots only, but when Senor Gould did so a few days ago he covered 11 miles of the river in record time and landed few fish—the water is just too cold for the bugs to hatch and too murky and fast for the fish to see your flies; (b) The snowpack on the northern slopes of the surrounding mountains is in epic proportions—one horseback outfitter tried to get into his camp and had to turn around, stating that he wouldn’t be surprised if there was excess snow even at the end of July; and (c) everything (including fishing Rock Creek—the first of our rivers to open up) has been Mother Nature delayed by at least three weeks—weather in the evenings is still in the low 40’s and daytime highs are in the pleasant 70’s but not enough to tackle/melt the snow still mountain-ridden. That being said, things ARE headed in the right direction, and hence the prediction that come ten days from now there is a 50-50 chance that the Tattoos will be fishing our local waters—and I, indeed, hope that to be the case!
5. Summary: On the eve of it all, we know that the Ones will “Go To The Mo”; my bet is that things should shape up well enough that our Twos and our Threes will be fishing our local waters. In the big scheme of things, regardless of the situs, we WILL be fishing our normal daily hours and my bet is that by the time things are all tallied up that you E-14ers (i) will have caught and released upwards of 2,000 native Montanan trout and (ii) will return home sated and satisfied that having E-14 on your 2014 calendar was, indeed, a grand thing!
Best to all from the scene of it all,
Rock Creek Ron
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