Lacking Data, We Must Assume Success

The image at left is hosted on wikicommons and is used with the very kind permission of D. Sharon Pruitt and Pink Sherbet Photography of Utah. Thanks for the loan of the image!

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It is supposed to be full of measurements and figures and the extrapolation of a population model answering questions of fish-per-mile and the overall success of our Mill Creek restoration program.

First, the water was too high for our fall fish shocking. We've had rain.

Fine.

A couple weeks later the intrepid Mill Creek Investigative Team convenes and are defeated by a recalcitrant generator mounted on the shocking barge. How many engineering degrees were clustered around the generator that would do everything but generate?

You really don't want to know but trust me, NASA was jealous.

So, my fall highlight was to be the survival of fish in Mill Creek and hopefully confirmation of natural reproduction.  No news is hardly good news.

Maybe we'll have news later.

I've got a roomful of gear and am plotting outings for next year. This year, I may still get up north for some post-spawn streamer work on the Au Sable. I don't like to trouble the fish until after the spawn.

My local shop is plotting an outing to the Driftless in Wisconsin for spring. That has merit.

I have a memorial to attend for the wife of a great outdoorsman and friend. She'd had quite a health battle this past year or so. I'd only briefly met her once -- our friendship revolves around trout and didn't involve the more domesticated elements of life.

I'm going to make a real effort at getting my friend in the ink. He's an excellent writer and has had a solid career in non-fiction and technical writing. He has all the hallmarks of fiction but for accomplishment. Might be an outlet.

At least, I'm going to try to get him to a library for a couple evenings and let him think about something other  than those things that trouble us through the windshield as we roar down the road. Being alone with our thoughts can require a little direction towards industry from time to time.

Are you working on your thoughts about trout? 

I am. I'm thinking the water is bloody cold.

The beer is closer to room temperature. (I keep my cave cooler than yours, I'm sure. I'm the most part bear.).

Don't let it build up in the pantry. Have some.

Prost.

The Lamar, The Lamar, The Lamar

At left, fishing a slot channel in the Lamar for spooky cutthroat. Yes, I'm a long way back from the channel and I'm throwing fifteen feet of leader and tippet with a Hardy Zenith in 5 wt.

That's what it took.

I used a Winston BIIIx in 4wt for more moderate casting (though the Winston will throw almost a full fly line if the wind is down). I used a Winston BIIIPlus saltwater edition 6wt for streamers and heavy tandem rigs (and soft hackle tandems down to size 18).

I used a Echo 10'6" glass 3 wt switch rod for swinging flies almost everywhere.

I used a Orvis TroutBum (Superfine, now?) in 3 wt for brookies on the upper Gardner.

We made the excursion to the waters of Yellowstone Park in the third week of September : transition time.

The country was amazing. The waters were everything they should be. The trout were late-season weary of constant pursuit.

The big browns were not yet pushing up in pre-spawn glory. The undercut banks of the Madison were filled with trout. I walked along a five yard stretch kicking fish out of their holes to convince myself the river actually held fish.

The Gibbon was a gem bright and pure in the stretch above Madison Junction. The Yellowstone was well-mannered but giant strong and so prompted bank fishing. The Lamar was low and slow and occupied by fish not enamored with my presentations or my flies.

The Gallatin runs along the valley road of death. We counted 50+ white crosses coming south from Bozeman into the park. 

The brookies had departed the upper Gardner near Sheepeater and we're told they departed for far upstream tributaries.

Fish were caught. Lessons were learned.

I was able to swing for trout in the "channel" between Earthquake Lake and Hebgen Lake.

Overall, I  used more single-handed Spey technique than I would have thought necessary.

We stayed in the Paradise Valley and drove a couple hundred miles a day. Depending on traffic and construction within the park, your too might do as much time in a car.

In a week's fishing, I witnessed one rising trout.

Feel bad about being blanked on Little River near Your House? I was blanked on the Madison. Gonna take a bit to live that one down.

My buddy Mike with his first fish on a fly. He stalked this brown on the Gibbon as it fed intermittently along a grass bank.

Patience, caution, and a restrained desire to cast the piss out of the water resulted in his first brown and first fish on a fly taken on a #16 cinnamon ant (the fourth fly he tied on ...).

Mike's a good fisherman. He's just new to fly fishing.

Not anymore. Look at the grin.



We're looking forward to going back. The Senator said it was his favortie fish camp out of all we've had.

I'm washing my fountain pens now. There is fiction in the wind faint as the first wood smoke of fall.

George - the furled leaders were a huge help to my guys. Thanks again.

Prost.