123011

Here we are on the eve of NY eve. Christine is making her way to Antarctica as I write this and I'm settling into another 30 day installment of "Daddy Daycare." So, probably not too much fishing in my immediate future but I'm looking forward to 2012 and the adventures to come.

The first of which is a few weeks travelling and fishing in NZ. When it comes to fishing vacations and wild trout, there's no place I'd rather be! So, I've started tying flies for the trip and plotting the intricacies of the where and when's of the trip. Can't wait!

In the meantime, the back room at the shop is almost finished, should have carpet in by next Wednesday. Will be great to finally be down with that project that will give us a break room, receiving area, office space, and storage! We're going to paint and put new flooring in the shop at some point this winter too. We're also expanding our inventory for 2012, so we have to make room for it by getting some new fixtures and doing some rearrangements. Kind of fun stuff/

Our guide biz has been rocking the last few years and it's already time to get things lined up with reservations and the whole booking process. We're already booked up a couple of week sin July and August and it looks like I'll be back up on the Missouri in May and June. I think I'm getting a new boat in 2012 as well.

So, lots to keep me busy while the wife is away!

Happy New Year!

1228

 

Back from Christmas in Ohio, which was a great family adventure enjoyed by all involved...especially the kids. I typically get away for a day of Steelheading somewhere back there this time of year but this trip was shorter than normal and family was the name of the game. I did, however, get away for a day of trout fishing with some clients that live in the area.

They are members of a trout club called Rockwell Springs near Sandusky, OH. It was a new experience for me to say the least. Any trout fishing is good fishing in my book and every experience has it's own place. This place is best described as "Country Club" trout fishing. Manicured lawns, perfect meanders, gin clear water, proper walking paths and golf cart paths with plenty of walking bridges. Crocs are all the wading gear needed here. The fish are mostly stocked and managed as a put and take fishery although they do have some catch and release sections that had some pretty nice-sized fish. Complete with bar, clubhouse, and cottages, this place is straight out of the old field and stream stories of "proper trout fishing."

That said, the folks were very nice and their isn't an air of pretentiousness to the lot. Just good ol' trout fishing in a private setting that is geared for the family and catching some trout in a an area of the country where that isn't so easy to do.

The fishing was pretty typical in that the creek is loaded with fish that are hard as hell to catch the proper way of matching the hatch. Throw a little bugger on and it becomes a little easier. When you first walk up to the creek though and see 50-100 fish in every pool, the first thing that comes to mind is something along the lines of "they'll never let me back in here after they see what I'm going to do these fish." An hour later I'm tying 6x on to a 12' leader and digging deep for something with a satin black bead on it. Humble Pie gratis some 12" stockers!

Anyway, it ended up being a good day, great to see the folks I was fishing with, and we ended up getting enough trout to feel like we are the superior race. Great to be home!

1221

Ok, the way I figure it...I have about 2.25 minutes until my ambien kicks in...actually I'm on Lunesat now which sells for $100 a month vs $8.00 for generic ambien. Worst $100 I ever spent!

Anyway, off to Ohio tomorrow to spend Christmas with Christine's family. Always hard to be away from my oldest son and parents on Christmas, but it's also hard to be in more than one place at the same time! Merry Christmas to everyone if I don't get online again for a few days!

Now that that's out of the way....had an interetsing chat today with a retired FWP fisheries biologist. Talked about a lot of things and he had some great insight into how the department is managed. One thing that came across was the obvious point that the Madison, as a fishery, has been hurting for several years, especially the Brown Trout populations. The other point that came along with this was the lack of attention that the current biologist is giving to the biological/ecological factors that could be driving the fish popualtion issues.

You know, stuff like how do the flow regimes, spring scouring, fall scouring, water temps and quality actually impact the fishery. Shock, count, analyze data, report up the ladder, summer break, shock, count, analyze date, report up the latter and maybe make a regulation change every other year is about the extent of the current fishery management.

 Kind of scary when you stop and think that we're talking about the river that was "saved" by some very controversial biologists back in the 70's that went against the grain to get hatchery fish out of the system and catch and release instituted. That was crazy talk back then, but they did the research, collected the data, and made changes. Unfortunatley today we're at the state where we have oodles of technology and well over a century of trout management in these fisheries yet it seems like we don't have the folks that can get past the bureaucracy and politics enough to objectively get their feet wet and take a look at the how and why of the problem. Just my opinion here.

Another crazy bit of trivia I picked up was from a study they did some time ago - I'm guessing 20-30 yrs ago - on a mark/recapture study. They had two brown trout that were tagged on the Ruby, just below the reservoir, and recaptured the following fall in the Beartrap on the Madison! These 2 fish were anomalies, but it happened! Got me wondering what effect the water we've had the last 2 years could have on population dispersal within that system! Interesting stuff that we should know more about.

Last little factoid is the Pike situation on the lower Gallatin and Missouri. We've known about them for 10yrs now and there have been no efforts by FWP to go out and get them out of these systems which are very important trout habitats. We've all known they are there and that their effects could be devastating on the trout in these fisheries. Other than a few signs at some put, ins there has been very little done here as well.

Things to mull over and hopefully get a few folks to be more proactive with some of this stuff. Everyone is aways quick to give FWP praise as they are a good agency with the public interest at heart. The fact is that they aren't getting it done when it comes to resource management of out wild trout rivers. Why I don't know!

121911

 Finished my outfitter logs today and sent the packet in to the MBO. Did the Madison stuff last week, so most of my year's end minutia is officially over, just in time for the Holidays! The V-Room should be finished by the first of Jan, the rest of the shop by late Jan. It's good to be done with most of these projects that always seem to take up way more time and space than I think they do when I tell people what I do in the off-season.

2011 was a great year for us, despite the crazy water conditions. Our retail sales hung in there with very modest growth and our guide business was up by double digit percentage. Needless to say, I felt like I was just going on automatic for most of the season, as did everyone else that works with me. We just kept rolling with the water and our clients rolled along with us until thing settled down in August.

We did more trips on the Missouri and Madison than most years and less on the Yellowstone. We ended up booking some trips on new water too, mostly around Missoula. I had a very thick stack of client logs to sift through, decipher, and organize this year. Took me about a few hours a day for a week to get it all lined up. I hope somebody does something useful with all that information, otherwise I would rate it is another colossal waste of time that we can chalk up to govt. regulation!

Anyway, I have a lot of great memories from this past year. The biggest highlight for me was finding a couple of new spots that had both water and fish with a lack of other folks. I was talking to someone the other day about guiding and explaining the way we feel after 10-12 days in a row. Goes something like wake up too early...feel like crap and hate the fact that the sun comes up 3 hours after it sets...chug coffee and wish you had a cigarette but you know that is wrong so you just grit your teeth and inhale the coffee fumes...hitch up the boat...go get gas...go get lunches....get to the shop only to remember that you forgot to get ice...go get ice and realize that the trailer lights are out...work on the trailer lights with duct tap because the electrical tape is wet and in the bottom of the boat...back to the shop to grab some bugs, pick up clients and out...realize the wind is worse than you thought but better over there than here so you go anyway...call the shuttle in, talk football, politics, and maybe even some religion on the drive over just to set the tone for the trip....as you get closer to the put-in you realize that everyone else has the same idea so you change the shuttle and go to plan b...do the drill of boat, rig, and client rigging...back boat up hating life...do the walk from rig to boat...sit down in the rower seat, pull up the anchor rope, crack a joke, pull on the oars and suddenly it all feels like it is supposed to once again and life is good. It's amazing how good that water makes you feel, almost seems like everything in between is just filler.

1218

Finally got out on the water for a few hours today. Ended up on some private ground along the EG as every bridge had a few rigs as there were lots of folks out enjoying the day. Found some fish eating nymphs in the deeper, slow water...right where they should be this time of year. Nice, relaxing day on the stream.

12/15

The lightness of the blog has to do with absence of piscatorial imagery in my life as of late. The weather has finally broke a little and it looks like the rivers have less floating ice and the anchor ice is gone for the most part. The lower looked really good yesterday but I had no time to stop and fish.

I've been living the fly shop dream though. Getting some new fly tying stuff in and wrappin' up the print marketing stuff for next year. The beloved V Room is finally getting it's face lift including paint and some flooring by year's end. Tinkering with the shop layout, ordering some new fixtures, and getting ready for the spring already.

I don't know if I'll ever get to fish again at this stage!

1208

Made the trek to missoula this evening as my wife has a speech to give. Matty and I are going to find somewhere to get steaks and eggs for breakie.

Just around here tomorrow, should get back to bozo land by late afternoon.

Rivers look equally cold and slushy around here.

Coldness

Cold day today, good for doing some shop work. The rivers are full of slush and anchor ice right now. I was surprised at how bad it looked on the lower yesterday and even more surprised when folks come in the hope to say they're going to go fish for a few hours on the Gallatin or Madison. I wonder what they think to themselves once they get rigged up, make it down to the water and start to cast only to realize that they're so much floating ice that there is no way to even get the flies wet. I've spent plenty of days on the water when the weather is well below freezing, maybe I'm just smarter than that now?

I fished for Lake Erie steelhead around Christmas one year on a day when the temps hovered around 20. I'd fished in much colder weather out west but never in that type of humidity and cold! The river was full of anchor ice and we'd have to break the ice not only off the guides, but off the leader and flies as well. I remember actually having a solid chunk of ice between the two flies several times and thinking that my chances were going to be limited that day as the flies were even frozen underwater to the point that I was drifting little ice-balls instead of bugs. We did catch 3 fish that day though. We're heading back that way for Christmas and I might go back to that little river for a day just so long as it's over 30 out.

Some things never change...

Was down in Ennis today at a FOAM meeting to discuss the impending beginning of a proposed River Recreation Management Plan. Overall a good meeting to get everyone kind of headed in the same direction. I had a lot of thoughts along the way, but one thing that I really liked to hear was that apparently there are a lot of other folks that have similar sentiments regarding Region 3 FWP. I always thought I was the only one that didn't think they were very good at their job...ahh the joys of feeling a part of something!

SO, that got me thinking about some things I may or may not have thought or said about them over the years. Well, if you search FWP on my blog, there is plenty to keep you bus for a night or two. Anyway, there will be more from me on this...but here's a little rant that I went on in 2008 about our state's beloved F&G agency. I think I'd be through the alphabet and on to Roman Numerals if I started adding where I left off.

Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks is still on my not favorite list. If you don't know, here's a quick rundown of my bad experiences over the years. You can get details by asking me if you want more. A) 2000 - I had to pay in excess of $5000 to sell fishing licenses. B) FWP Employee told one of competitors about some company secrets, thus ruining any competitive advantage and my relationship with that competitor. C) Established a ludicrous use management protocal on the Beaverhead in Big Hole that seems to have derived from a Butte 3rd grade class getting wild with a pin the tail on the donkey game. D) Decided non-resident can't fish from a boat on certain days on the previous rivers, even though they pay more for a license to fish than residents. E) If they do patrol for fishing violations I don't see them (out of 300 + days on the water the last 2 years I have not seen a warden check an angler) (AMMENDED 12/07/11 to say that I have seen folks get checked a few times a year in '09 and '10, once in '11). F) Management of rivers is largley based on perception and not facts. G) There seems to be an overall misunderstanding of trout biology and evolution...I think that they use a resource guide from Alabama's trout management guide. H)The whole shooting incident with my employees and outfitters form Ennis - apparently if you poach, shoot at deer withbirdshot in the middle of the river, don't wear orange, and get caught...you only get a $50 fine I) They take water temperatures in the hottest part of the streambed...the part where fish don't live...3 inch puddles with no current or shade J) Apparenlty the lower Madison is too far a drive for an easy bust of violators K) $100 access fees imposed in 2007 have yielded absolutley nothing...we pay more (which we should) but get nothing out of it L)New for 2008 is senior citizens get free licenses, they've always been glad to pay the $8 before and contribute to the "management" of the resource( repealed and the folks are back to being happy to pay their minimal fee) K) New for 2008 is theMadison River Use Fee...apparently BLM has jurisdiction over our use on rivers which is supposedly public domain ) once below the high-water mark...so much for that whole stream access law, plus the revenue generated (70-90 grand) is going to be used to fund 2 new positions to administer the program (what great minds we have in charge of this process!) Anyway, I'm sure there's more to come aboutFWP. My negative experiences aside, the employees of the agency are good, hard-working people. The policies and rules that come out just baffle me sometimes because I know these folks have better ideas than what we see.

1205

Frosty morning today here in the ol' Gallatin Valley. Spent the weekend doing family stuff like going to the Christmas Stroll, buying a Christmas tree, and hanging some lights outside. Also squeezed in a few hours of  football.

Need to go fishing! Things have been busy around the shop with the minutia like closing out years' end outfitting paperwork, wrapping up orders, and working on marketing materials. I haven't trout fished in MT since late October and it's killin' me! Might just have to call in sick one day soon if it ever warms back up on a day that I can get away.

I'm attending a meeting in Ennis tomorrow to get educated on the impending changes to how the Madison is regulated. It's being hosted by FOAM, so if you are a guide or outfitter that works on the Madison...please show up too...it's important!

Off to Missoula later in the week for a day of chasing hippies around with my 4 year old. My wife is giving a lecture about something microbial at UM, so Matty and I decided to tag along for the day.