Extravagant Ones:
Well, it seem like it has taken forever but, finally, all reservations are in for Extravaganza 2009 are in and, as Spring greets us (more or less), I thought I would take a moment to describe the rivers that we will be fishing during Extravaganza 2009 and give you an update on current Montana precipitation and snow pack levels.
As to the latter first, the snow pack (which is the source of our fishing water during Montana's summer months) is, blessedly, right at "normal" (if there is such a thing nowadays), with precipitation levels in our barometer Bitterroot Mountain range posting at 98% of that norm (with snow pack levels at 94%) and with the adjacent Upper Clark Fork basin bragging 103% precipitation levels with 96% snow pack readings. That is extraordinarily great news, as it portends excellent fishing for us during our prime time June and July Extravaganza dates, where, over the course of three weeks, we will put over 80 boats on the water and cover over 750 fishing miles (that's just about the distance between San Francisco and San Diego, gang!). [By contrast, you Extravaganza 2007 veterans will recall the heat and low water during the low runoff of that year and you last year veterans will recall epically high waters that forced our first two groups to abandon our local rivers and trek over the Continental Divide to fish the majestic Missouri River {with astounding fishing results, I might add!} (see the blogsites for those years, rookies, which are linked back on this year's blogsite ("Der Blog") @ www.montanaextravaganza2009.blogspot.com ).]
During Extraganza 2009, as we have in the past, we will be targeting three primary rivers: (a) The Clark Fork of the Columbia River; (b) the Bitterroot River; and (c) the Big "A River Runs Through It" Blackfoot River. Each is carries a storied history of its own and, with each group fishing three days, depending on fishing conditions and the disposition of your guide, you each might have the chance to fish one day on each.
The Clark Fork of the Columbia River is what I refer to as "the freeway river"--it is the river into which all others flow. It is the river that Lewis & Clark traversed 200 years ago as they made their way westward (and eastward, btw), spending their second winter at Traveler's Rest in the current town of Lolo, just a short stroke from he confluence of the Clark Fork and the Bitterroot Rivers. The Clark Fork flows right through Missoula in a westerly direction up into Canada, from where it winds its way to the Columbia's Cape Disappointment {named by Lewis & Clark} mouth; it is a huge-volume river with high banks, a meandering route and the home of legendary rainbow trout. Just this past year the Milltown Dam at the confluence of the upstream Blackfoot River was removed as part of the largest Superfund cleanup site in the country and, last year, due to the huge and high runoff and excess turbidity due to the dam's removal, it was a river that we could not and did not fish. But, gang, I am pleased to report that "The Clark Fork is back!" and huge rainbow trout are again the order of the day as this river settles back into a new, regular pattern of activity. [Last year, the runoff and turbidity disturbed (read "eradicated") the bug life in the river, upon which the fish rely; and that disturbance is now, blessedly, a temporary event of the past!]
The second of our river trio, the 52 mile long Bitterroot River (by far the favorite river of most Montana guides due to its beauty and high fish production), will be our primary, targeted river for Extravaganza 2009. Our outfitter, "John The Great" Gould, not only lives on this river but also he and his crew have solved the river's mysteries and have made fishing its bounty their primary bread and butter. Flowing in an unusual northerly direction, as you fly into Missoula on Delta Air Lines from SLC it is the majestic Bitterroot Valley that will welcome each of you to its fishing haven. "The Root" is still a very active river where, unlike the Clark Fork, each runoff season dramatically alters its course and contours, such that post-runoff (right when we are there) the fish and bug life in the water has been altered to unfamiliar settings, making our offering of dry flies and nymphs (more on that in a later update) more receptive to fish in new and unsettled waters. Day after day, year after year, our nightly "Report From The Boats" (when each pair of fisherfolk betell the others of their day's adventures) features stories of twenty inch plus (i.e., Twenty Inch Club winners) fish and of dancing osprey, eagles, beaver and otters that filled the chapters of the day's book. [Rookies: We have a special Twenty Inch Club perpetual signup board registered into which is each 20"+ fish caught [and released, as all of our fish are] and the largest fish caught each day earns the proud angler our Yellow Hat award of the day--a monogrammed baseball cap trophy that you take home with you for all to see and envy!]
The third river of our trilogy is the legendary Big Blackfoot River. This is the most active and aggressively turbulent of the three rivers that we fish, and hardly nary a day is fished on it without a story of a huge cutthroat, brown trout or (rare and protected) bull trout being either seen, caught or missed. For those that have seen our now award-nominated "Journey To The Soul" (posted on Der Blog, btw), it was on this river that Group C's Yellow Hat and Yellow Shirt (awarded for the biggest fish caught in each group) Jami Grassi hooked, lined and netted a 31" bull trout on her first-ever day of fly fishing. Also, it is about this river that Norman Maclean wrote his prized novel A River Runs Through It (based on which the award-winning Robert Redford directed, Brad Pitt starring movie was made)--an epic that really sparked the fly fishing craze in the Western portion of the United States. Both the book and the movie are worthy of your time, as you will be sharing with yourself the joys and journeys that they each depict. This river flows in a northerly direction and joins the Clark Fork River at the town of Bonner, about five miles eastward of downtown Missoula, where the Bitterroot then joins.
No matter which of our three targeted rivers that you fish, each of your Extravaganza fishing days will be enjoyable ones, and from each you will bring home with you, forever, stories of sights and scenes that you simply haven't seen before. As many times as I have fished these rivers over the last decade, no two days have ever been the same; each has been uniquely rewarding in its own right...and that's why (a) we fish them and (b) do so over and over again, only to do so even more!
Best to all in anticipation of it all,
Rock Creek Ron
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