Polar Bear Plunge

The President's Day holiday brings out the fools once a year to raise money for our local charity Reach Inc and the Montana Special Olympics. Reach Inc. is a wonderful program in Bozeman that helps people with disabilities get through life a little easier. They have great programs such as equine therapy, swimming and adult education programs. Groups throughout town such as the Bozeman Ice Dogs Hockey Team, MSU Athletics, Bozeman Police department and many others raise pledges from locals in return for their stupidity and jumping into a frozen pond.

This year there were probably over a 100 participants who took the plunge into the 30 degree water. Fortunately for the swimmers there is a hot tub located about 50 yards from the hole that is cut in the pond. The highlights of this year were characters such as Wayne and Garth look-a-likes, Sea Shell clad bikini's, Bill and Hillary Clinton costumes and plenty of capes and bikini's. The team that raised the most money for the event was the Bozeman Ice Dog hockey team which raised over a thousand smackers for the organization. All of the teams combined raised over twenty thousand dollars for the Special Olympics and Reach. Congratulations to all the participants and thanks for taking the plunge for a worthy cause.

The weather cooperated very nicely with air temps around 35 degrees and the sun shinning down bright and warm. I should have gone fishing today but commercial fly orders were calling and I probably would have just taken a nap on the bank anyways. Tomorrow they are calling for some cloud cover to move in, which will increase the chances of my getting my obsession of the first fish of the year on a dry fly over and done with.

Dupped again by the wind and sun!

The wind reports this morning showed dead calm flags flying over the weather stations that are near the Lower Madison so my father wanted to head out for some fishing. We met up with Sean and headed out to give it a try. When we arrived at the river the bushes and willows were not moving much and the sun was shining bright. With air temps in the low 40's there was plenty of traffic on the river, a few boat trailers were even parked in the Black's Ford lot. We headed downstream to the Highbank boat launch and there were two cars parked their. We were fortunate that they were only shuttle vehicles so we got geared up and headed down to the deep hole to give it a try.

Sean and I had our rods rigged first and Sean headed to the middle of the rock pile to ply it from the East side of the river. I waded to the West shoreline and moved out to fish the rock pile from the opposite bank. Sean was into a couple of rainbows before I was able to get my weight put on the leader. Both fish gave up a good fight and gave us some confindence in the spot we had choosen. I finally got my weight put on the leader and I sent my new bug, the rubberleg crayfish that came from the bench a few hours earlier, trailed with a red beaded San Juan Worm. After a couple of drifts my indicator dove to the bottom and I set the hook on something that came straight at me. I was only hooked up for a brief second and I brought the flies in to make sure my knots had held. Both flies were in tack and I sent them back out to the middle of the rocks. The flies drifted half way down the drift and the indicator jumped under the surface again. I set the hook and I was hooked up with the first fish of the day. The fish fought hard and deep and I was able to get him in a short time later. It was a nice healthy brown trout that hit the tape around 14 inches.

By this time my father came wading across and he was fishing the shallow tailout just below the two of us. I called him up to the hole and gave him my spot so that he could get off the snide as well. As I waded for the shore I spotted several fish rising in the eddie towards the top of the run. The excitement of seeing rising fish gave me a rush of energy and I promptly headed for a nice seat on the bank to rid the rod of indicators and split shot. The sun was behind a cloud and the wind was calm as I quickly tied on a cripple Thor and fumbled for my floatant. As I rigged the rod with dries Sean hooked into a very nice rainbow which required some assistance to land. I waded down and scouped up a nice fat 17 inch rainbow. After a couple of quick snapshots with Sean's camera I headed back up to give the rising fish a try. My dad hooked up with a nice rainbow just as I got back to my rod and told him to land his own fish, I had risers to cast at.

I finally got my rod and unhooked the fly from the guides. Just as I had the fly in my hand the sun came out from the clouds and the wind instantly picked up. I sat back down on the bank and waited for the sun to hide behind the clouds and the wind to lay down. Looking up towards the sky had promise of a nice cloud bank moving in so I decided to wait and watch.


Trico and I patiently waited for the conditions to become ideal and the fish to rise again. We sat and watched for about and hour but neither the sun or the wind was willing to cooperate. Sean and my dad were consitently hooking into fish but I had it set in my mind that I was going to get my first fish of the year on the surface. The fishing started to slow down for Sean and my father so we decided to head downstream and try another hole. We headed downstream and I took off in search of some more rising fish. As Sean and dad fished the bottom of the island I walked down to a foam eddie for my last good hope of finding a surface feeder. When I arrived there was nothing happening and I decided that my quest would once again go unfinished. I walked back upstream and met up with the other two. We decided it was time to head back to the truck and call it a day.

Even though I didn't conquer a few rising fish I had a great time relaxing on the bank and enjoying the warmer weather. Maybe later this week I will finally fill my itch to get on the board with a fish on top.

Dries on the Horizon!

The phone rang and it was Jason who needed some help taking a load of trash to the dump before 30 members of his family embark on the lodge for the annual family reunion. He also wanted to go check out the Whispering Winds shooting preserve for possible cast and blast opportunities for the clients this coming fall. Since the preserve is located along the Lower Madison I also suggested we bring along a rod and check out the river to see if the midges are getting strong enough to bring some fish up to the surface.

After dropping Benedickt off at the airport for his flight to Denver I met Jason at Fins and Feathers so that I could drop of my fly invoice and pick up a few spools of thread to finish up the order later this week. I loaded Trico up into the back of the truck and off we set for the trip to the Logan Landfill. After dropping off the pallets in the wood pile and the house hold trash in the main dump area we headed for the Lower. When we got to the Buffalo Jump the wind was calm and I started to get a little excited about the prospects of catching a few fish on a dry. I showed him where the Bird Preserve is and off we set for the river.

There was not much going on at the High Bank headgate so I mentioned driving upstream to check out the one spot that they would be rising in if they were rising at all. We turned off the highway and headed up the dirt road that leads to the trailhead for hiking into the Bear Trap Canyon Wilderness area. We rounded the corner below the old bridge pilon and I spot a fish rise right next to the bank. This really got the juices flowing and as we passed through the rock slide the wind started to gust a bit. We pulled into the "Ice Shelf" hole and before we came to a stop I saw a half dozen noses poking up to sip a midge cluster off the surface.

I am not sure if I was more excited or if Trico was because she knew that she got to get out and run around while we fished. The wind was still gusting a bit but it was only occassionally and I fiqured I could get away with pulling out the 4 wt instead of the 6 wt. We did not need to put on our waders because the fish were close enough to the shore and there is enough casting room behind you to stay on the bank. I rigged the rod with a Griffith's Gnat trailed with a Big Ugly in hopes of catching a few of the fish that were rising in front of us. The rig was set and I turned from the truck and headed down the bank to the ice shelf. Like clock work "old Murphy" showed up and the wind went from gusty to a consistent steady breeze. I made my first few cast without any mishaps and then one huge gust put the flies in the weeds behind me and I broke off the two fly setup. The fish were rising only on occassion now but I was determined to try and get at least one to eat. I tied on another gnat and set my sights on the fish. I watched for about 2 or 3 minutes and there was not a head to be seen. The wind steadily increased and the cold air started to make the prospect of fishing a lot less appetizing. The guides were iced up and my hands were getting cold so we decided to call it quits for the day.

The good news was the midges are starting to hatch strong enough that they are clustering and the dry fly season will be upon us very soon. The bug to go fishing was definetly aroused with seeing a few fish on the surface. I can't wait to get lucky and have a day with no wind, some clouds and rising fish on the lower.

Thursday Outdoor Roundup

Bozeman Daily Chronicle:

Dave Mckee has another humerous article about the joys of owning dogs. Unfortunately there is no public link to the chronicle but I pulled a short piece from the article that will give you all an idea of how great of a writer Dave is.

"The pointer, a neurotic German shorthair, is a slightly different story. Though she’ll sit, stay, hold a good point and walk on a leash, she also takes food from the counter, kills cats and runs away with regularity. Several months ago, she ate a tub of zinc-oxide baby bottom relief cream followed by an enormous Costco frozen pizza. She too is our pride and joy. "

Billings Gazette: Experts offer tips to endure cold-weather emergencies

http://billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/02/14/features/outdoors/20-outdoorsquiz_z.txt

Stories about winter emergencies and how people have been able to survive some extreme circumstances.

Ravali Republic: Cats and dogs - Mountain lions in the Bitterroot

http://www.ravallirepublic.com/articles/2008/02/14/outdoors/0094outdoors.txt

The Missoulian didn't have any articles except for one about a proposal for a new lift at the ski area. So I headed to the Ravali Republic site to see what they had to offer for your reading enjoyment. The article highlights the activity surrounding cat hunting in Montana. No they are not chasing after some old lady's tabby, they are hunting mountain lions. I have been offered the chance to partake in this activity a couple of different times but busting through deep snow for hours to see a cat in a tree have not been of much interest to me. I guess you can call me lazy but I can find plenty of other activities to keep me occupied.

Denver Post: Zelinsky proves critics wrong

http://www.denverpost.com/huntfish/ci_8243955

Local ice fishing expert gets fired up about online chat stating that you can't catch small mouth through the ice. He sets out to prove them all wrong. Zelinsky is an ice fishing guide on Chatfield reservoir in Denver and he takes the reporter out to prove the myth wrong, maybe he could join the mythbusters team on the Discovery channel.

Breaking news on the Pebble Mine: Jewelers shun gold from Alaska mine

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8UP4SN00.htm

Several national jewlers have come out in opposition to the proposed gold mine in the heart of Bristol Bay in Alaska. They are against the mine proposal and say that they will not use gold that comes from the mine if the company gets approval to go ahead with operations. This is big news on the controversial issue and hopefully when the company fiqures out that their customers are not going to support the mine they will leave the area alone and find a better place to extract the gold from.

Drunken Fly Fishing Master

After yesterdays fishing experience I began thinking about why the fish were eating big stonefly nymphs instead of the smaller more available midges. I jumped into several different philosophical questions that led me off on other tangents that had nothing to do with the day of fishing. I concluded that maybe the fish were tired of eating small bugs and when the opportunity to have a large meal presented itself they took advantage of it. Then I sat down and found this video and decided to quite thinking about why and just understand that it happened. This guy needs to lay off the drugs a bit if I do say so myself. God bless his enthusiasm however.

I can't take it anymore!

After spending the last two days whipping out the last 16 dozen Soft Hackle Copper John's for my commercial orders this spring I had a itch to get outsite and enjoy myself a bit. I jumped on the computer and pulled up the Weather Undergound to check out the wind conditions in the area. It was a bit breezy at the Table Mountain site along the Lower Madison river so I checked out the Karst site in the Gallatin Canyon. The wind gauge was sending back a calm reading so I called up my good friend Chris to see if he was interested in looking for a "Fish Ball" in the canyon. He was just getting his day started when I called but said that he would like to join me in a hour or so. I told him I had a list of chores to complete, which included the unenviable task of cleaning our bathrooms so I would not be heading out for a while anyway.

I arrived at his house around 12:30 and we put on our waders and jumped in the truck. One of our favorite haunts in the winter is the "River Runs Through It Rock" which is where they actually shot the photo for the film poster. The fish stack into the hole throughout the winter and it gets you away from the roar of the traffic on Hwy. 191. We pulled off the highway and made the short drive up the snow covered dirt road to the parking area near the rock. Trico was eager to get out of the truck and head to the river to feed her obsession with all the rocks in the river. Chris and I strung up the rods and slid down the bank and into the river.

Chris was the first to come tight to a fish and he landed a pretty little Gallatin River Rainbow on a small red brassie. I headed up above him and the rock and started my Apricot Egg and Big Ugly on it's desent into the depths. It took me about ten minutes to come tight to a fish and I was starting to wonder if a fly change needed to be made. The fiesty little rainbow faught hard and I was glad to finally get on the board. I caught two more fiesty bows and took a break on the bank so that I could just relax and change up the fly setup to something that might entice a quicker response from the fish. I changed up to a yellow egg trailed with a soft hackle baetis nymph and then headed back into the run. The new flies did not make much of a difference and I managed to bring in another small bow after making 30 to 40 drifts through the deep hole. Chris was catching fish on occassion with his King Prince and Red Brassie setup but both of us were starting to wonder if the "Fish Ball" was sitting in another hole.

I headed back to the bank for one more fly change and after fumbling through my boxes I made a rash decision to put on a # 8 Pat's Rubberleg trailed with a smaller yellow egg. After adjusting the weight and resetting the indicator a bit deeper I stumbled along the rock bottom and got my feet set in a good comfortable position. I sent my first cast into the deep pocket and relized my coat was unzipped with my lanyard hanging out so that if could catch all my excess fly line as I made my next cast. I tucked the lanyard back inside my coat and zipped up the jacket to keep all line catchers at bay. As I was fumbling with my zipper the indicator dove to the bottom and I was onto a nice healthy rainbow that measured between 12 and 14 iches. My next 4 cast produced a rainbow on each cast and both Chris and I were now sure that the "Fish Ball" was fully intact and sitting in the hole. Chris made a quick change to a rubberleg and we spent the next 15 mintues catching and landing various sized rainbows and one record setting whitefish. After we both had caught a couple dozen fish we decided to leave them alone and call it a day. We waded back across the river and scrambled back up the bank to the truck. We only spent about two hours on the river but it sure was a great time, and it definetly beats the monotony of sitting at the fly tying bench whipping out the same fly time and time again.

Thursday Outdoor Roundup

Bozeman Daily Chronicle:

Unfortunately I can't post a link to any of the Bozeman Comical's outdoor post because they only offer it to subscribers but I have to mention the article that was the lead story in the outdoor section today. Two men were cross country skiing above Hyalite Reservoir last week with their labrador retriever when one of the men triggered an avalanch. Both men were able to hold on to trees as the slide went screaming down the mountain side. Unfortunately the lab was swept away by the slide and they were unable to locate the dog after several hours of digging for him. They returned to the area the next day and were still unable to locate the dogs body in the slide and they assumed the dog was deceased. A few days later the owner of the dog and his wife were getting ready to head over to a friends home for dinner and they recieved a phone call from a number they did not recognize. The gentleman on the other end of the line said that he had found their dog and that it was scarred and ready to return home. The dog miraculously survived and it turned out to be another amazing story of a pets survival after some amazing circumstances. What a great story!

Billings Gazette: What would be your one fly of choice!

http://billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/02/07/features/outdoors/30-krumm.txt

Bob Krumm writes about having just one fly and which would it be. This is an old debate that all fly anglers have ask themselves and their friends many times before. Not much of interest in the gazette this week.

Missoulian: Great Falls in the heart of outdoors fun in Montana!

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/02/07/outdoors/out26.txt

Highlights from the Great Rockies Sport show in Great Falls where the author hosted his radio show and spotlights the abundance of outdoor activities surrounding Great Falls. From a hunting standpoint I agree with him but the limits for the fly angler are a bit far fetched for me. The Mo is a great river but other than that you have to travel a ways to find much else.

Denver Post: Maverick idea spawns success!

http://www.denverpost.com/huntfish/ci_8151501

Charlie Meyers reports on findings at the annual Whirling Disease symposium of succesful work on cross breeding a strain of rainbow that is apparently resiliant to the Whirling Disease outbreak that has disrupted rainbow trout populations throughout the west. The news is good with fish that have successfully spawned in the Gunnison river and there may be a bright future for the fish. However there is still a very long road to hall on the issue as Cutthroat trout populations continued to decline because of the disease and there is no bright future for the cross breading of the cutthroats to help them get through this tough disease.

And last but not least the Great Rockies Sport Show hits the Gallatin County fairgrounds this weekend here in Bozeman. The show has been moved this year due to a conflict with the MSU field house where the show has called home since it's inagural year. We will have to see what kind of attendance there will be at the fair grounds but I would expect to see attendance way down for the show due to the lack of the big show feel. Yours truely will be tying bugs on Sunday afternoon so if any of you want to head on down to get some hints and ideas of great tailwater bugs for the Mo or Bighorn stop by the tying theater on Sunday Afternoon.

Lego My Fly

No Child Left Inside Tax!

In New Mexico there are several groups lobbying their state lawmakers to propose a tax on Video Games and Televisions to fund programs that encourage outdoor education for kids. They are proposing a 1% tax for all Televisions, Video Games and Video Game accessories that are purchased throughout the state. I personally think this is a wonderful idea and I would like to see the program insituted in New Mexico and other states. Hopefully the idea will move ahead full steam and the powers that be will do something to get kids out of the house and outside running around and staying healthy.

http://www.startribune.com/nation/15101721.html

Thursday Outdoor Roundup!

Billings Gazette: Billings Cabelas retail outlet put on hold!!

It appears that the unstable retail market and fading economy are keeping Cabela's from opening 5 of their planned retail outlets this year. The Billings store was planed to open this spring but now it has been put on hold. The local flyshops are probably breathing a sigh of relief for the time being.

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2008/01/31/news/local/17-nocabelas.txt

Missoulian: January is History month for Ice Fishing

Ice fishing is well underway throughout the state and fishing derby's are taking place all around the state. The article wraps up ice fishing derby's and some other ice fishing factoids.

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/01/31/outdoors/out32.txt

Denver Post: Aurora gives up big fish!

More ice fishing news from Colorado. Aurora reservoir is home to some whopper perch and the article highlights the reservoir along with other prime ice fishing locations throughout the front range.

http://www.denverpost.com/huntfish/ci_8112991

Rocky Mountain News: Gentry: More bang for the buck for Lopez!

An amazing mule deer buck was shot by 15 year old Kyle Lopez. The buck was scored at 303 5/8 when it was shot and after the required 60 day drying time that Boone and Crocket requires the offical score grew to 306 3/8. Typically horns shrink after the animal has been killed but the original scorer made some errors and the offical score was actually larger than originally thought. What a great deer either way!

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jan/30/dentry-more-bang-for-the-buck-for-lopez/