Well, Gang, on the heels of five prior fishing days by father/son combo Group Oners Brian “Moraine” & Nicholas “The Czar” Shepard, I spent this past Saturday with our Double Up Outfitter on the chilly waters of our main-targeted river for Extravaganza 2014, the majestic Bitterroot River…and what a day it was!
Single-handedly, I caught (and released!) upwards of 30 glorious trout—rainbows, cutthroat and browns—on a combination of nymph rigged San Juan worms and dry fly skwalas, with the highlight of the day being landing our first E-14 twenty incher, a gorgeous side-channel 20” brown that ingested a dry fly presentation and bent my 5 wt BIIx Winston rod fully over (it literally looked like a paper clip for a good portion of the fifteen minute battle) such that even Propaneless John said he wished he had a picture of the doubled-over rod (so many and feisty were Saturday’s fish that my right wrist literally ached at the end of the day…I know ,all together, “aww, poor guy!”)
And, speaking of pictures, I had with me one of our formerly trusty Extravaganza cameras and took close up shots of over 20 fish which I was going to regale you with, only to discover back at the house that the camera had given up the ghost and only had recorded bands of purplesque colors. Well, I am glad, if something like this first-of-a-kind debacle had to happen, that it happened to me and not to any of you…and I can assure you that you will not suffer the ignominy of it all as right now, after over five hours of internet research yesterday morning, I have headed this way sixteen (count ‘em) new Canon PhotoShot A1400 cameras which I have selected to be our replacement Extravaganza boat cameras. These new beauties feature 16 megapixels, a (rare to find) viewfinder plus display screen for taking shots, burst shooting ability, and, like our now former PhotoShot cameras, are powered by easy to replace AA batteries, making swap out and changing on the river both possible and simple. An 8GB chip that we will put in each camera will provide capacity for literally hundreds of high quality photos which, as in the past, post Extravaganza, we will upload for you on our E-14 photo gallery for your permanent post-E14 usage and downloading. THAT was the big catch of this Saturday, all—a(nother) Extravagant upgrade!!
Strap it on, gang, based on what Der Shepards and I witnessed first-hand this past week, we are in for a(nother) heck of a great Montana fishing year!!
Best to all,
Rock Creek Ron
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