Fellow Extravaganzers:
It is hard to believe but, sixty days from today, Group A will have come, fished and conquered and, right about now, the venerable twos of Group B will be arriving on the scene to see just what Extravaganza 2009 has in store for them! On my end, I have (finally!) put a spat of traveling behind me that found me this past week in Helena (for the marvelous roll out of our Montana Matters campaign with the MT governor), Missoula and environs, Salt Lake City, the Bay Area and then the next day off to Denver (twice), Kansas City (both Missouri and Kansas) and then back to the (windy) Bay Area via San Diego.
Needless to say, there was little time for fishing on that serial trip but there was sufficient time to check in with our wonderful outfitter, John "The Great" Gould to get a firsthand report that the Bitterroot Basin precipitation and high elevation snowfall is "in excellent shape" and right at 100% of its 30 year rolling average, portending only good to great things fishing-wise for Extravaganza 2009.
The runoff now becomes an item of major interest to each of us. For you rookies out there who have short Blogesque recall, when the snows in the upper mountain reaches begin to melt the water mixes with resident silt and finds itself into the literally thousands of streamlets and water flows the eventually wind their way downhill into one of our three targeted Extravaganza rivers: The Bitterroot River, The Clark Fork of the Columbia River, and The Big ("A River Runs Through It") Blackfoot River. The result is that the otherwise relatively clear rivers take on a mocha-like appearance and texture such that river bug life go dormant as do the fish, the latter just trying to prevent themselves from being washed downstream and unable to see clearly enough to actively feed.
Water flows during the runoff become torrential: Attached is the graph that we have used during the past two Extravaganzas which, starting Monday, we will post on Der Blog for 2009 comparison purposes. Using our own Rock Creek as a baseline river, you can see how in 2007 (the blue line on the chart) the runoff started at the same 550 cubic foot per second ("cfs") level as in 2008 (the red line), but, wow, what a difference the ensuing weeks showed: in 2007 we had near record LOW water levels (resulting in the July and August fires that almost wiped all of us out along Rock Creek [see www.montana2007.blogspot.com for a chronicle and photos of those fires] while last year water flows were at century-high marks, forcing both of our first two groups to abandon local waters and trek over the Continental Divide to fish the headwaters of the Missouri River (with excellent results, btw!).
Tomorrow's headlines today reveal that, this year, on our April 29 chart's beginning date, Rock Creek is already flowing in excess of 1500 cfs (three times of it flow during each of the last two years), which is promising, as it shows that there is, indeed, plenty of water in the upper mountain watersheds where we now want that runoff to proceed and then recede (returning down to about 1800 cfs on Rock Creek) for fishing conditions to become "prime time" come Opening Day of Extravaganza 2009. It is then, at that reduced yet higher-than-normal water flow, that the rivers are each flowing at a healthy rate, their water's turbidly having cleared up, with bug life actively resuming (see the next ensuing Extravaganza email for your [annual] entomology lesson!), and the fish awakening to "Joe's Free Eats" and making up for the nourishment that they have lost during the punishing runoff with your rods and offerings at their beck and call.
How punishing is the runoff for the fish and aquatic life, you ask?? Well, imagine our placid Rock Creek flowing behind Extravaganza Headquarters at the rate of a garden hose and then accelerate that flow to that of a fire hose and you have a pretty good visual image of the intensity of the annual runoff. During last year's hundred year high water flow, the Creek's banks were eroded, hundreds of trees uprooted and sent shooting down stream, and it took until post-Extravaganza for water conditions to return to a safe, fishable state. Fortunately, we can now wait another hundred years for that event to happen again!
So, gang, begin thinking ahead to the days we will share together in Montana; start looking for all of that gear that you veterans have received in prior years and putting it aside for a quick air flight to Missoula and, for your rookies out there, hang onto your fishing lines as upcoming, right after the annual entomology report, will be forthcoming you annual Camp List, detailing just what you should consider packing and taking with you as you prepare for your first adventure into wonderful Extravaganzaland!!
Best to all in eager anticipation of it all!
Rock Creek Ron
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