Evil Snakeheads!

The Washington Post has a video about the Northern Snake head which has become part of the Potomac River ecosystem. The biologist that they interview in the video plays them off as a species that will be able to coexist with the other fish species in the ecosystem. I am not sure that he is exactly being honest with his calculations of what this evil fish species can do. A fellow guide and friend of mine travels to Thailand every year to help his girlfriend purchase silk for their store here in Bozeman and he has spent a lot of time fishing for snake heads, which are native species in Thailand. These creatures are evil and the horror stories from the Thai locals are legendary. Greg has pictures to prove the strength and vigor in which these fish can chase down and eat it's prey. The method to catch these fish on a fly requires the angler to put the rod under your arm and strip extremely fast. The fish hit so hard that Greg had bruises on his arm and side that look like he got run over by a car. Once the fish are brought to the boat the real danger begins. The snake heads will lock down on anything that gets in their mouth and will not let go, even when the fish is dead. Greg's Thai friends have seen anglers that have gotten their hands to close and had to take a trip to the clinic to get the dead fish head surgically removed. These fish are certainly evil and hopefully the illegal bucket biology will end in the Potomac.

Tie Your Own, I$ it le$$ expen$ive ?

The West Virgina Gazette ran an article on tying your own flies. In the article the author is explaining how much cheaper it is to tie your own flies, rather than purchase them from your local fly merchant. The much favored fly to tie for tiers is the beloved woolly bugger. Apparently the author has taken the time to do the math and come up with the cost for tying one bugger. He does later include that the cost of labor and tools could bring the fly up to around 80 cents so he still feels it is a great deal compared to purchasing flies at a store. He is very correct if you are willing just to stick with the basic patterns and tie only flies that you plan on fishing with. Over my 15 years in the fly shop business and a very avid fly tier I can safely estimate that most of my flies probably cost me between 5 to 7 dollars a piece when I factor in all the variables. Most fly tiers get started for the same reason that the article states, to save a bunch of money on their fly bill. However you must be very careful with the power of the art of fly tying! The addiction of tying the perfect fly and crafting a new pattern that works like no other is a dangerous balance. If you stick with the necessity of tying the basics you can keep the P&L of fly buying in balance, but if you go the rout of the serious tyer you will send the budget through the roof, much like our current administration. I spend as much if not more on my passion for tying flies than I do on the equipment that I fish with each and every day. My tackle bag is worth more than my truck and boat combined. Fly tying will eventually haunt you and your passion for fishing will be determined on weather you have a new bug to test out or not. I hope that everyone gives tying a try and I just want to warn those who read this post that be careful what you wish for because you could soon be trying to talk the wife into a an addition on the home to house your tying materials.

Time to hit the ice!

Winter finally arrived in Montana for good and we took the kids out for some Holidy Ice fishing the day after Christmas. The local pond provided and easy outing and we managed to bring a couple of small fish through the holes for the kids to fondle and argue about who got to return them back down the hole. I think Madeline may have been the first person to hit the ice in a pair of silver tipped, red cowgirl boots. She did manage to stay upright all day long in the boots which was an amazing feet. Both kids had a wonderful time and I am sure that we will be on the ice again soon, except now there is 10 inches of snow on top of the ice from the winter storm that hit the other night.

These Guys are Nuts!!

Some whitewater rafting action from Canada. I guess that is why we call them crazy canucks.

Thank You President Ford!

Growing up in the mountains of Colorado had many advantages and one of them was being influenced by one of our greatest presidents to hold the office. Growing up in the ski community of Vail Colorado awarded me the privaledge of meeting the president on several different occassions. Two of my childhood interest were playing Golf and skiing. President Ford owned a home on the Slope of Beaver Creek ski area and as a kid we always got a kick out of scrapping off the snow on our ski's onto the guard shack that housed the seceret serivce agent that watched after his home. The agents always were friendly to us and they knew that we were just being kids. One day while my good friend Ted and I were in the kids ski school room warming up President Ford came into check on his grandkids and he gave us a little grief for the snow that fell from our skis onto his guard shack. At this time Beaver Creek was still a very small resort and Ted and I were the two local brats that tormented the hill. The president also sponsored a celebritity Golf Tournament that brought in many of my childhood idols such as Michael Jordan, Dan Pasatrini, Gary McCord and many others. I still have an autographed Sports Illustrated that Mr. Jordan Sighed for me at the tournament. President Ford is the only president that I have meet and I am proud to say that he influence me in so many great ways. Thank you "Jerry" for all the great things you did for our country and I will always appreciate the things you did for the community in which I grew up.

Happy Holidays

T'WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CADDIS
BY
RICHARD FRANK

Twas the night before Christmas when down by the stream
The full moon looked out on a chill winter scene.
A lone trout was sipping a midge in his brook,
Untroubled by worries of fishers with hooks.
Then from above a small sleigh did appear
Pulled by a brace of eight tiny reindeer.
It swerved of a sudden and down it did glide,
Settling its runners along the streamside.
The fat, jolly driver dove into his sled
And emerged with his three weight held high over head.
"Thank you my elves for this wand smooth as silk.
This break will be better than cookies and milk."
So saying, he jumped from his sleigh with a chuckle,
Hiked up his boots and cinched up his belt buckle.
Santa meant business that cold winter's eve.
A fish he would catch - that you'd better believe.
Looking upstream and down, he spotted that trout,
Then he open his flybox and took something out -
"Size 32 midges are only for faddists
I'll go with my favorite tan reindeer caddis."
So he cast out his line with a magical ease
And his fly floated down just as light as you please.
And it drifted drag free down the trout's feeding lane,
But the fish merely wiggled a fin of distain.
"Oh Adams, oh Cahill, oh Sulphur, oh Pupa,
Oh Hopper, oh Coachman, oh Olive Matuka!
I've seen every fly in the book and the box.
I'm old and I'm wary and sly as a fox.
To catch me you'll need an unusual gift,
For a present this common no fin will I lift."
Old Nick scratched his head for his time it grew short
The reindeer behind him did shuffle and snort.
He looked once again in his box for a fly
When a pattern compelling attracted his eye.
"The Rudolph!" he muttered and grinned ear to ear
"Far better to give than receive, so I hear."
So he cast once again and his magic was true,
And the trout it looked up and knew not what to do.
"This fly has a body of bells don't you know,
And if that's not enough there's a shining red nose!
I know it's fraud and I know it's a fake,
But I can't help myself. It's I gift I must take!"
So he rose in swirl and captured that thing,
Flew off down the stream. Santa's reel it did sing.
"Ho!" shouted Santa, "You're making my day.
If the heavens were water, you'd be pulling my sleigh."
So, Santa prevailed and released his great rival
First taking great care to ensure its survival.
He then mounted his sled and he flew out of sight
Shouting, "Merry Caddis to trout and to all a good night!"

Trico's Winter Whitey

Watch out for killer whales on Canyon Ferry!

It has been below zero for a few days and the local ponds have a foot of solid ice so I will have to break out the cold weather fishing gear and hit the ice. Most of my family and friends question my sanity when I mention that I like to ice fish and they probably have every right to do so. I do like ice fishing and it stems from my loving to be outside and enjoying all types of weather, I guess that fishing is just the excuse most of the time.

Brrrrr, it's cold outside.

Ice flow on the East!!

I have had a real itch to get out and fish after last weeks good fortunes with weather and cooperative fish. But as you can see it has been a little cold in Southwestern Montana and most of the rivers have ice flowing in them. Last night the mercury fell to 1 degree and it has so far warmed up to a balmy 23 degrees at 3:00pm. Forecasters are calling for a slight warming trend late in the week which may open up some water and get me back out on the river. If not I will have to fire up the Auger and hit the ice.

What we do in the off season !!!

What do a couple of fishing outfitters do in the off season? That is one of the most popular questions that any of my clients ask in the summer. During the winter months there are plenty of jobs to occupy ones time and this is one of the current activities that has surfaced to keep me busy. A good friend of mine is in the building business and he called us up to help him get out a "piece" of timber to make some counter tops in his house. I was not quite sure what I was in for when I hopped in Paulson's truck, but I was sure that I was off on an adventure. We headed to Virgina City Montana to meet "Bird" who owns a portable saw mill to remove the piece of timber for milling. We left Bird's house and picked up a couple of essential tools for the job at hand and headed to a slash pile that had yielded some other fine pieces of wood which Bird had already turned into a very beautiful coffee table and a center island in his kitchen. We arrived at the slash pile and the log which is referred to as the "Piece" was situated under a good bit of slash that will be burned in the near future. Bird got to work with the chainsaw and began removing the small debris that disguised the piece. We managed to clear away enough debris to expose 12 feet of the behemoth log that was scheduled to be burned by the timber company in the coming months. We cut the piece into two 6 foot chunks and worked diligently to get a choker chain around the log. Once we had the choker in place we hooked up the piece to Birds truck and pulled it free of the slash pile. This was the easy part as the piece weighed well over a ton which made for a very interesting attempt to load it into the back of the truck. We wrestled with the piece for a while until we came up with a plan that was taken from a discovery channel show that I saw on building the pyramids. We rolled the enormous chunk of wood up on to a couple of logs and used a pribar to lever the log forward. After an hour of grunting and pushing we got the piece loaded into the truck and were ready to head for the mill. Once at the mill the rest of the task was fairly easy and we cut the huge piece into 8 separate pieces that were each 4 inches thick. The boards that we milled have some beautiful wood grains and I can't wait to see some of the furniture that Bird will make with the timbers we milled. Paulson and I each recieved one to the boards from the project and I still do not know what I might try and make out it. With some sanding and good finish the wood might make an excellent fly tying desk or perhaps a very nice bench to sit on back porch and watch my son play in the yard. We will have to see what comes of it and I will let you all know what was made out of the wood we harvested from the slash.

Winter Day on the Gallatin

The weather was far to warm, 41 degrees, not to get out and enjoy a fine day of winter fishing on the Gallatin River. My good friend Eric and I headed out around noon and we were a little concerned as the wind was blowing fairly steady out of the Southwest. We decided to go ahead and check out the river bottom to see if the stands of leafless cottonwood trees would give us any shelter from the wind. Eric lives close enough to the river that we were able to get suited up in the Garage and make a 2 minute drive to the river. Surprising as it was the cottonwoods were sheltering us from the breeze at the Bridge and we invited Trico the fish pointer to leap out of the back of the pickup and join us at the river. We headed downstream and the wind completely quite blowing at all for the rest of the day. Eric was the big winner at the first hole and caught a half dozen brown trout to my single fish. We headed to the next hole where Eric gave my the choice of the run since he had the better side of the Diversion Hole. I choose to hit the tail out of the run and it was a good choice as I landed one 12 inch whitefish, hooked a nice brown and lost him and then landed the fish you see here shortly after. At that point Eric had moved downstream and fished the lower hole with no success. We had been out for a few hours and decided that heading in for a cocktail at Stacey's was well past due. We headed upstream past a couple of holes that we had left alone on the way downstream and we both discussed the fact we had yet to see a rainbow trout, which is usually the more prevalent species in this stretch. I had to throw my fly through one more run and miraculously there was a nice 12 inch rainbow that came to hand. Murphy has a strange way of showing his head and this was no exception. We hit the bridge and had a short walk to the bar to get a stiff cocktail and put the finishing touch on a perfect winter fishing trip!

Windy point

Wind can be a factor throughtout Southwestern Montana, but on this day it was far more than just a factor, it was mind blowing.

Depuy's Spring Creek Lower Warming Hut

Not many anglers are willing to venture out for a guided trip on the 1st of December but I found a couple of guys who were up to the task. It actually was a perfect day for fishing with air temps in the low 40's and not a breath of wind in the Paradise Valley. We arrived at the creek around 10 am and the first order of business was to get a fire going inside the warming hut. I had two anglers from Atlanta Georgia with me for the day and they were certainly going to get cold. We proceeded to get into our gear and headed out to the creek where there were still three brown trout chasing each other around in the shallow spawning gravel at the lower hut. Neither of my clients had ever witnessed anything like it before so it made for a great start to the trip. I explained to them what was going on and we proceeded to the deeper run below the spawning areas to try and catch a few fish that were not in the throws of love making. Neither of the two had done any fly fishing so getting them to cast far enough to get a good drift was the first challenge of the day. Both of them picked it up fairly well and we managed to get Scott hooked up with three fish, of which he lost all of them. Sidney was the second angler and he did not receive as much of my attention because he had tried fly fishing once before and he had a few more skills than his buddy Scott. Sidney did manage to hook and land one whitefish all on his own which was a good accomplishment for him. Both anglers were ready for a break by this time and they both looked a little cold so we headed into the hut where I feed them what they referred to as " The Best" Grilled Cheese sandwich they had ever eaten. The key to a great grilled cheese sandwich is some good bread and real butter. I have found over the years that many of my clients really appreciate real mayo and real butter, because their wives don't feed it to them with all the no cal, low fat garbage that is out there today. After lunch we ventured up to other portions of the creek because they wanted to see some of the sites on the ranch. We fished for a bit at the Upper Hut and Sidney hooked three more fish and landed one while Scott managed one more hook up, but had no luck in landing the fish. All in all we had a wonderful day and they both really enjoyed the experience that you can have at Depuy's Spring Creek in the winter. It is hard to beat having your own huts that you can come inside and warm up in between cast.

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This is my dog Trico, she is a springer spaniel and she is much better at pointing fish than she is at flushing pheasants or sharp tails. She loves to fish more than anyone or any other animal that I know.

My son Reece, on the right with the green googles and his good friend and crazy man Mason.

Here is my son Reece late last winter on the Lower Madison River in Southwestern Montana.