As we march our way stealthfully through the first quarter of this year, with now less than four (count 'em!) months laying between now and your visits to the wonders and wilds of western Montana Ritz-Carlton style, I want to give you a mid-winter update on how things are shaping up for this year's Extravaganza, our sixteenth such foray into the flora and fauna of one of our country's most majestic states, and what an excellent report it is!
While the geographical extremes of the country are experiencing erratic weather (what with the current arid and chilly conditions here on the Left Coast and with unseasonably warm conditions on the Other Coast), Montana is styling "right down the middle of the plate" with a more-typical-than-not winter, which is fantastic news for us come June, as it is the accumulation of snow in Montana's upper climes that melt come May and provide us with our E-18 fishing waters. For the past two months, the conditions in the greater Missoula area have been frigid and, unlike here in California where we are currently tracking around 20% of 20 year annual average precipitation, Missoula is boasting a blended average of 125% of both precipitation averages and, equally important, the density of water in the accumulated snowpack, or its "snow water equivalent".
And each of these barometer readings is impactively important to our fishing fortunes come June, for (a) if the snow pack and its water content levels are too high we end up with too much water flow, with cooler than desired water temperatures (which delay the annual hatches on which the trout feed) and, on the other hand, (c) if the pack and content levels are too low we end up with lower water flow during the Extravaganza with higher water temperatures (which adversely affect the health of the trout population).
As you returning grizzled and season Extravaganza veterans well know, although conditions may (and will) vary greatly from year to year, we fish the Extravaganza each June because, no matter what the water conditions that Mother Nature may deal to us, year after year, without exception, we have (and will) fish every single schedule Extravaganza day with great élan and success...year after year, after year, after year. By way of example, take a gander of the picture above of me with our Double Up Outfitter John "The Great But Propaneless" [so named for his propensity to leave in his truck the propane tanks necessary to cook his shore-side lunches!] Gould and a twenty inch beauty of a brown trout with the then yet-snowcapped Bitterroot Mountains in the background...this is what we are after, gang, this is what it is all about: travelling to the unblemished beauty of God's own backyard, reaping its visual and pectoral bounty and then releasing the latter to further enjoy and repeat the experience over and over again.
As the blessed days of your imminent arrivals nears, look for more frequent (some might suggest "meddlesome"!) updates on what is coming down and, in the interim, put into your favorites this blogsite where this message as well as links to current weather and past Extravaganzas can be found.
Bueno, bueno, bueno in the early stages of it all!
Rock Creek Ron
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