Tuesday, April 15, 2008

The Big Swing!


Tax day had me feeling a bit depressed since I had to send most of my savings to the feds and the state, so after putting in a hour with my buddy spraying doors we decided to get out and enjoy the warm weather. With temps in the mid to high 70's we hitched up the Jet boat and headed for the Missouri in search of carp and a possible pike bite that has been rumored around town. As we pulled into Manhattan for a few road soda's, slice of pizza and a few snacks the wind almost blew us off the highway. The winds were steady at 20 to 25 but we left Manhattan with optimistic thoughts of some shelter in the canyon stretch of the Upper Missouri. The wind continued to pick up as we headed West and when we got to the turn off to head for the Mo the air quality had dropped to a very poor rating from the fallow fields that were being swept to Great Falls by the wind. I was really glad that I didn't live in Townsend because from the turn off it looked like you needed a respirator to be outside from all the dust in the air.

We bumped up the road to the put in and when we got there the canyon was providing a little bit of protection from the horrific wind. We decided that since we bounced the boat down the 6 miles of wash board road that we would go ahead and put the boat in the water. The water was slightly off color but the waves were not bad and we shoved off in search of some fish. We made it up the river about a mile and we decided to take a quick ride up the river to check on a feeder stream that dumps into the river. We went past the creek and pulled to shore to let the dogs take a run and burn off some of their energy.


The wind was still gusting and there were some sheltered bends along the river where we decided to pull in a run some lures. Our real search was for a pike so we pulled out the bait casters and spin rods rigged with # 4 bucktail spinners. We fished for a few minutes but the wind made it tough to keep the boat in position. We decided this was not our day so we fired up the E-Tech and went for another boat ride. We wanted to see how far up the river we could go and after bucking the head wind for a half hour we arrived at a fishing access site midway through this section of river. We were excited to make it all the way to the access and it will definitely come in handy this fall for some duck hunting and a bit of out of the way pheasant hunting as well.

The river was pretty easy to run and we arrived back at the truck in about 20 minutes. We fished near the boat ramp for about 20 minutes and I managed to snag one carp square in the back just above the tail. It was a lot of carp and I really glad when the hook came out and the large lure did not hit me in the head. We called it a day and headed back to town with some good allergy problems and a nice sunburn from taking off my hat all day.


After two days of weather in the 70's we awoke to snow this morning and temps in the low 30's. I just returned home from picking up supplies for my three days of guiding on the Bighorn and the temp on my truck was a balmy 31 degrees. About 5 inches of heavy wet snow have fallen already and they are calling for more of the same this evening and into tomorrow. I hope it quits snowing before I leave for the Bighorn tomorrow morning and that it warms up a bit for the guys I will be guiding from San Diego through the rest of the week. You have to love spring time in the Rockies.

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