Three weeks from this memorial weekend day the wonderful Ones arrive on the scene to kick off Extravaganza 2011 and, boy, are we ready and rearin’ for that to happen!!
Your Hostess With The Mostess assures me from her Montana E-11 Headquarters vantage point this morning that “all is in the ready position” to kick off E-11 and even the wild and wooly rivers’ runoff is starting to shape up for this quickly upcoming opening call. Today, the runoff has “declined” go a yet-raging 4,000 cfs with this year’s runoff performance starting to take the bell curve overview for which I had originally hoped.
Can you believe the all-time record high runoff peak that we saw this past week?!? As the rivers’ flow abates a bit (subject to re-accelerating with higher temperatures predicted for next week and, get this, five straight days of predicted rains [yet consistent with this time of year’s wettest Montana months]), we can begin to see safely fishable waters ahead for each of our Groups.
Moreover, along with flow and height (Rock Creek is currently 7.5’ in height, now one half foot below NWS flood stage) we begin to focus on the ambient temperature of the water—the third variable in the runoff’s trifect. As the height and flow ebb, watch for the temperature of the water to slowly rise. Right now, with all of the yet-flowing snow melt, Rock Creek’s water temperature is 7.5 degrees Celsius (46 degrees F); as the snow (finally!!) dissipates, the lowering flow and river water heights will slowly see a corresponding rise in the temperature of the water. When we get temperature into the 50 degrees F range and as the turbidity of the rivers reduces (with increased clarity for all concerned), there will be a nature-driven triggering of the bug “hatching” (see earlier email on Entomology, as posted to Der Blog) that, in turn, will spark a feeding frenzy among the now fully current challenged, nearly blinded fish population of the rivers that we will fish.
Our goal is to arrive right after the waters subside, their temperature increases, their bug activity implodes and, thereby, prime-time trout fly fishing ensues on Western Montana’s most famous of famous rivers, the rivers that we will fish: The Clark Fork of the Columbia River, the Bitterroot River and the Big (“A River Runs Through It”) Blackfoot River. Our arrival dates (as is the intended schedule of each year’s Extravaganza) are timed to meet with this post-runoff glorious bounty and, by all (nonetheless record) accounts, we are “lookin’ damn good” for E-11, gang!!
Enjoy this Memorial Day weekend both packing and remembering what MD is all about---but for those who went before us and currently yet “put it all on the line” to protect the freedoms that we enjoy, our lines would not be gracing Montana’s blue ribbon streams as they soon will be, now in just three short weeks.
Best to all in eager anticipation of it all,
Rock Creek Ron
----<’///><
Click on the play button above to hear the new song written about the Montana Extravaganza and Rock Creek Ron.
No comments:
Post a Comment