090113

I am just going to quit blogging on the weekends for all you Googans out there! My blog traffic drops by 75% on the weekends as you all get out there an "live the dream," checking in during the week while  your faces are buried in a cubicle somewhere or waiting to get on a plane from one meeting to the other. Me? I'm just sitting in a chair on the water, thinking about this and that but mostly nothing.
Lower again today, slower start but rocked it on out after an hour or so with just a few tugs. Sculpins and worms, lots of numbers and 3 18-19" ers. Solid outing. Although I am of the mind that nothing good happens at 5:30 in the morning, there is something to be said for being off the water by 2:00pm...just time to take a nap back home.
Had some thoughts today about the hoot owl thing, but my mind rallied away from it as the water is hot and I like being done at 2:00pm. I'm all about the Hoot Owl. However, F&G still uses this silly gauging station where they measure temps on the one spot in the river that faces west and gets no shade until late in the evening. However, the water is hot and decent fish need to be landed quickly and completely revived before release. I typically get out of the boat and let them hang out in the wash below me until they swim away on their own. It is not the weather in which a belly upper is likely to ever come back around.
So, stick with the Hoot Owl for now...but remember that Charles Darwin may have been onto something with that whole evolution thing and that fish don't eat when they are so stressed that they are about to die. MSU should have me come in and do a talk for them about all these issues. Cutthroats? Dying species on their way out...invest in Triploids. Whitefish? Good for target practice and potato guns. Warm water? Good selector for stronger individuals. Dams? Make more of them. Carp? Glorified   Goldfish. Catch and Release? Ok I like that one.