Sunday, March 26, 2006

The Wind is Your Friend

Sw Montana is a beautiful place characterized by wide-open valleys surrounded by towering maountain peaks. Unlike other parts of the Rockies, the mountains in this region are considered island chains, so they have sidtinct starting and end points to the ranges. In betwee these ranges are valley floors typically lined with streams and spring creeks that all flow into a larger river somewhere near the center of the valley floor. This is why we have so many miles of great rivers. The downside to these valleys and island mountains is that they can and often are the equivalent to wind-tunnel...and that can really suck if you are a fly-fisher.

I fished the Gallatin yesterday with a friend as the wind on the Madison was in excess of 30 MPH with gusts over 50. It was windy on the Galltin too, but the temps were in the 60's. Needless to say, the catching sucked but fishing was great. Saw several eagles, a muskrat, a couple of trains, it was all good. Noticed that several of my favorite holes were gone and new ones were formed but these will likley change again during the high-water of runoff. These changes are the result of massive ice jamsscouring along the banks as they receeded.

Anyway, it was a nice day, but the fish seemed to be off the bite for the most part. It snowed last night, so my guess would be the impending weather change was probably most responsible for the suckiness of the catching.

1 comment:

Gemini said...
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