E-18: Water, Water Everywhere!!

Greetings, gang, as I just have unpacked my hand-carried bags from my return trip from Montana and want to give you an E-18 update on what I both observed and learned from my fishing friends during my week-long stay there in God’s own backyard, to wit:  By all indications, 2018 is going to be a “high water year” when it comes to this year’s runoff (if and when that runoff ever gets underway)!

 

During each of the three years ending in 2016, Montana witnessed average precipitation levels with the “snow water equivalent” of the amassed snow being spot on twenty year averages.  Each of those three years, however, experienced “early runoffs” where, during either the month April or May, higher than average temperatures visited western Montana such that the otherwise “average” snowpack was melted off earlier than normal, leaving us in each of those years with below average but very fishable water conditions when it came time for our Extravaganzas. 

 

Last year, western Montana had an above average snowpack but cool temperatures preserved that amassed snow in the upper climes until our Group One arrived on the scene and we then saw warmer temperatures and too much snow runoff/water flowage for us to safely fish our normal haunts, the three rivers confluencing in and around Missoula, namely the Clark Fork of the Columbia River, the Bitterroot River and the Big Blackfoot “A River Runs Through It” River.  As we have done several times over the 15 year history of the Extravaganza, we redirected and bussed our efforts to fish the Missouri River, at Craig, Montana—a 125 mile jaunt each way over the Continental Divide to fish below the regulated, safe tailwaters below the Missouri’s Holter Dam.

 

Regardless of the water flow over each of the past 15 years (see the attached chart that of the flowage that we have done over the past eleven years using the water flow of our own Rock Creek as a baseline), we have and will fish every single day of every Extravaganza, the only question being will we be fishing (a) Missoula’s local rivers or (b) the Mighty Mo (where the fish count is 5,000 fish per mile [that is one fish per every foot, gang!] and the average trout is 18+ inches in length)?

 

As to this year, our answer to this question is now very much in doubt…right now, the ambient temperatures in western Montana have been running about 5 degrees below historical norms (witness my pics from last Thursday when we got 6” of fresh snow at Headquarters!) and the regional forecast temperatures for the next several weeks are to be relatively low, in the high 50’s to low 60’s.  Compounding these relatively milder temperatures, right now (as in today) the snow water equivalent of the snow amassed in the Upper Clark Fork drainage (which will eventually flow right through Missoula) is, get this, 173% of twenty year averages none of which has begun to make its way down the mountains.  To the contrary, with continuing snow that number may well increase this number in the weeks ahead if we have a delayed runoff, which it now looks like 2018 will bring.  Here are some specific numbers:  at Warm Springs (about 100 miles upstream of Missoula) the current snow water equivalent (SWE) is 38.8 inches (compared to a twenty year norm of 21.2”) and at the upstream Skalkaho Summit the current SWE is 33.7 inches as compared to the twenty year norm of 21.7 “, 183% and 155% above twenty year norms comparatively.

 

Check out our historical flow chart attached, gang.  Other high water years of 2008 and 2011 saw us trekking over the Divide to fish the Missouri and, starting in two weeks when we begin logging in this year’s actual Rock Creek flow you will see, by way of comparison, what 2018’s runoff has to offer as it unfolds.  What we would ideally like to see in a runoff is a redux of 2009’s perfect bell curve (the black line on our chart) but we shall now see what we shall see is ahead of us.

 

What does all of this mean for us, you ask?? 

 

Well, our Double Up Outfitter John “The Great But Propaneless” [and, as Group One rookie Shane “Griz” MacIntyre would argue based on his fishing experience with me last Wednesday, now “Grilless” as well!] Gould has put me on notice to think about reserving “bus transportation to the Mo” for at least Group One, and perhaps Group Two as well (something that we procured on a standby basis just today with our good friends at Tucker Transportation, btw) as we now need to carefully monitor just what runoff Mother Nature has in store for us this year (and you can see her wide, wide year to variances in our charting of Rock Creek over the past decade), so, at this point in time, the ending chapters of our runoff book have yet to be written—kinda exciting, isn’t it?!?.  Looking to that end, I will begin giving you trice-weekly charted flow reports of this year’s runoff commencing in two weeks on April 29^th.

 

Can you hear the rumbling of all of that downhill runoff in the distance??

 

Best to all in the pre-runoff stages of it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

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E-18 Springtime in the Rockies!!

RCR----<’///:><

 

 

E-18: First Fish Pics of the Year!!

Well, fellow Extravaganzers, take a gander at the attached photos which depict part of the bounty that your Double Up Outfitter John “The Great but Propaneless” Gould delivered yesterday on the Bitterroot River, shown above in all of its early Spring bleakness.  Not only did we encounter a moose on the water at the end of our eight hour chilly foray on the waters but my fishing partner, our Montana Matters Troubadour Shane “Mr. Crisco” Clouse, and I landed 25+ spirited trout in between rain and sun showers.

What is a “double up”, you rookies ask?  Well, that is a somewhat rare occurrence when both fisherfolk on the same boat hook into fish at the same time, as two of the above shots reflect—the fist with an 16” rainbow and a 19” brown trout and the second with a pair of 18”bows.  The cool water brings out the brightness of colors in our pectoral friends—see the dramatic colors in the cutthroat shown above, so named for the red band below its lower gills…is that a beauty of a fish, or what?!?

 

The fishing this time of the year is sparked by a stonefly known as a “skwalla”—the first bug of the calendar year of any size…it is about an inch and a half in length and, wow, when the skwallas are on the water like they were yesterday the large fish, as shown above, really make a splashy show of soaring to the surface breaking water as they crash down on their prey.  For those of you into omens, our first day on the E-18 water yesterday was a great one, so much that I am going out solo with Propaneless again this Wednesday to see what other photos I can beam your way.

 

These photos should get you excited for what is ahead for us all in the not two distant future as the Magnificent Ones arrive here on the scene of it all exactly two month from today!

 

Best to all from the evolving scene of it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

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Greetings, all, from chilly Montana where, as the above photos depict, it is indeed “Tween Time”—neither winter, spring or summer, but, rather, a blustery mix of it all anywhere from freezing temperatures, falling snow, sleeting rain and intermittent abundant sunshine.  This, indeed, is my favorite time of the year for, with the above-shown early budding out of winter-dormant trees and bushes, the renewal of life begins all over again and, each year, it provides a wonderfully clean palate from which to design and then implement a course of conduct for the ensuing months.  It is a time for reflection, a time for re-evaluation, a time to take inventory on what is right and needs correction in each of our worlds and, as I will later today report in further detail in my first fishing report of the year, also a time to get a first glance at the fishing prospects for the coming year…all, for sure, an opportunity for renewed reflection on all that we do and why as well as how we do it.

 

Ah, the Montana of it all!!

 

Best to all from the early scene of it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

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Spring for E-18 Has Yet to Spring!

 

Greetings, fellow Extravaganzers, on the eve of my first fishing foray into the wilds of Western Montana—I leave early this Friday morning for my annual “Montana Sprint Swaree” and am scheduled to fish this coming Sunday with our Double Up Outfitter John “The Great But Propaneless” Gould and our Montana Matters Troubadour Shane “Crisco” Clouse.  This annual and cherished trip is planned well in advance, well before the reality of what the year’s “Spring” really means. 

 

Well, this year, as suggested above, the blessed warming event that all Montanans desperately look forward to (Montana has been appropriately referred to as “nine months of winter and three months of guests”) has yet to make its appearance, although a look at the calendar would dictate otherwise.  What is in the forecast for our Sunday venture?, you ask…well the most current “guesstimate” is for Sunday to boast snow mixed with rain with a blistering high of as much as 47 degrees before factoring in the chill effect of predicted 15 mph windage!  When asked by me earlier this week, the ever optimistic (and perhaps sorely housebound) Propaneless replied, “don’t worry they are really hitting dry flies…trout love 45 degree temps, you know!” To which I responded with a burry “riiiight” but nonetheless confirmed the day on the water with him.  Not only is John the best guide I have ever fished with but he is one heck of a salesman!  Picture to follow the blessed event; “don’t worry!”

 

Winter is still in full force and effect in Montana, with the most recent SNOTEL readings continuing to track both year to date precipitation and snow water equivalents at 125% of twenty year norms, boding well for our quickly approaching June fishing prospects.  In taking a look at long term forecasts (a fool’s errand by anyone’s Montana barometer, btw), high temperatures in the low to mid 50’s are the prediction for the balance of April, meaning that, come May (traditionally the wettest month of the Montana year) we can expect temps to sneak up into the 60’s and then 70’s and begin to trigger this year’s runoff/melt of the snow accumulated in upper climes.  This is an important event that we track on an almost daily basis come May 1^st, and, as we have done for each of the prior eleven (count ‘em!) years, will begin preparation and distribution of the flowage of this year’s runoff, using our Headquarters’ home base Rock Creek as the baseline for prior year comparisons. 

 

So far, unlike the past three years, it looks like we have avoided an early season runoff, which is great news, as we want our fishing waters to be abundant in volume and mild in temperature to assure the best possible Extravaganza fishing conditions.  So far, so good!!

 

I will next report to you from the soon-to-be scene of it all complete with current pictures and, according to Propaneless, perhaps even a pic or two of some pectoral friends that we are to dance with come Sunday.

 

Best to all in the cozy indoor warmth of it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

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Your Very Own E-18 Camp List!

As we rapidly now approach the two month mark of the June 9^th arrival of Dem Ones, the timing is now right for me to attach for your review and attention our Extravaganza Camp List that we developed years ago at the request of one of our then rookie guests.  As is the case with everything that we do in Montana, “less is more” in our book and, as you seasoned veterans know, not only is “casual” the word of the day for us in Extravaganzaland but “layered clothing” is its matching counterpart. 

 

Think going to a baseball game here by the Bay on a foggy day where, mid-day, the mist dissolves into bright sunshine only followed a couple of hours later by the return of that fog—cold, warm, warmer, colder, cold all accompanied in Montana by the almost guarantee of an afternoon thunder shower where, suddenly as a cell appears on the horizon, the temperature drops 30 degrees, rain and/or hail erupts from the incoming clouds only to be followed after the passing of the cell by the return of sunshine, often accompanied by Montana’s famous wind.  And if you think that “it can’t happen to me”, just reach out to veteran Group Two couple Kevin “CPA” Sweeney and his beautiful bride Christine “Double Rainbow” and ask them about their day on the water four years ago when just what I described happened to them and, out of the blue, hail pelted them for the better part of half an hour!  Thanks to their heeding this warning, their experience was an exciting but warm one, with the alternative being hypothermia and, no folks, that is not a Greek City-State!!

 

So take a careful gander at the attached Camp List and, consistent with our mantra above, begin setting aside those items that you might want to/don’t need to bring with you come Extravaganza Day.  As you do so, know with certainty that, as with each of the preceding fifteen Extravaganzas, I fully reserve the right to treat you extravagantly and, with certainty, you will be taking home with you far more fishing-related gear and E-18 monogramed items than you even knew to exist!!

 

Best to all on the cusp of it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

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Springtime in Montana!!

RCR---<'///:><