Da Ones found Da Wind again on their Day Two E-12 fishing adventure, but in the process of doing so put more Group One boats on the Blackfoot River in a single day than all prior nine year’s of Group Ones combined!
The Big “A River Runs Through It” Blackfoot is like that limerick: “when he is good, she is very, very good but when he is bad, she is very, very bad” and, with its north-south orientation when the weather-generated winds come out of the south (as they have been for the past several days here) lord help the poor soul on the bow of a downstream headed boat trying to cast into a 30 mph wind force…and, in a nutshell, with almost all of Da Ones on Da Blackfoot on Day Two they each got a face full of a bitingly cold wind that was relentless.
As you can then imagine, the evening’s boat reports were replete with lunch reports (with several boats with a sparcity of trout, but with the exceptions being good ones, to wit: Jimmy Hagle and Douglas Pacatte landed 17 fish (but who’s counting?!?); our dinner speaker Five Valleys Land Trust ED Grant Kier (shown above watching Josef sign in on the Twenty Inch Club board) landed 16” and 17” bull trout, with Eliza Shepard in the same mix with her own 16” bull trout (in addition to the 24”+ one that just eluded her guide’s outstretched net!), and Josef Shepard spanking all Extravaganzas with his record-setting 26” beauty of a bull trout (see Der Blog for Group One’s in progress fish photos, gang!).
And, yes, there were more than a few who saw more than they caught, witness above Eddie “Two License” Downer who woefully reported to the assembled Ones that for the first time in his (long!) life he was shut out “zero, zilch, nada” and so pitiful and bemoaning was his protestations that yours truly was forded to reach into his emergency supply kit and award Two License Group One’s very first “Cry Die” Award—a bandana prepared by Group Two’s wonderful Lori “The Fawn” Ware for the Tattoo who moans the most during each Tattoo evening’s boat report. What was doubly outstanding was the fact that Two License was still wearing the bandana when I brought tea to his room at 6:30 a.m. this morn---THEN I wished that I had my camera in hand!!
Nicholas “The Tsar” summed up the day pretty well when he reported “well, we sure had a good lunch!!”
A(nother) wonderful repast was followed by a brilliant Grant Kier presentation in the course of which (at my request) he retold to us the story of how the much maligned whitefish has migrated west from Hudson Bay over the last 20 centuries, thus becoming one of the most migratory fish ever on the planet. He also updated Da Ones on the recent purchase by Five Valleys Land Trust (a non-profit Missoula-based conservation land trust) of the Sousa Ranch land at the foot of Rock Creek—a wonderful result and conclusion to the development project so many of us have been fighting for the past eight (count ‘em!) years.
Day Three of Da Ones finds their boats evenly split among the Bitterroot and The Blackfoot—it will be interesting to hear the tale of the tails this evening.
Meanwhile, (finally) the cold weather here is supposed to take a turn for the warmer concurrent with the arrival of the Tattoos this coming Saturday.
Congrats again, Josef, on your wonderful catch—a catch worthy of all three photos above!!!
Best to all from the reality of it all,
Rock Creek Ron
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p.s. A big Happy Birthday to Michael “Big Fish” Downer who turned 48 today!!
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