As I do each year, once the momentousness of the Extravaganza has begun to subside (either your Hostess With The Mostess—pictured above fishing last Friday on the Big “A River Runs Through It” Blackfoot River with our famed Double Up Outfitter John “The Great But Propaneless” Gould—are getting older or the Extravaganza is becoming more energy consuming [or both!]), I like to take a quiet moment here at Extravaganza Headquarters to reflect on the magnitude of it all and to reach out to each of you who spent time with us this extravagant summer to thank you for being with us and for making such a lasting impression on not only us but all that you encountered.
During E-13, we safely put over 95 boats on the water, covered over 1,000 river miles and tickled the fancy of more than 1,500 native Montana trout. Our wine larder was ably dented, our coolers never ran dry of available beverages and our wonderful supporting crew of Kathy, Julie, Barbie Susanne (for Group Three) and Cowboy Jeff were always there to meet our every whim, to put meal after sumptuous meal in before us and to put up with our continuous shenanigans. Now, who would have dreamed up the Group One scenario of Eddie “Two License” Downer’s gag gift “What The Fuck” button taking over the entire show—guide Jeff Lucas will never be the same—and who could have dreamed up the wonderfully continuing craziness of the Tattoos (“Shanna Banana”—only just today I took the “Silly Boys” decal off my rear windshield…too many truck drivers were looking at me with passing leering askance!) and, as for Dem Threes, who would have thought that we would end up day one with four missing participants only to gain one back each of the next three passing days (Scott “Anti-Flash” Gordon: you set an all-Extravaganza record with your dancing antics with UAL, but you finally made it, Nemo and all!)
The awe-struck gleam of the departing eyes of Group One’s young Liam “Son of Blackfoot” Handron still lingers with me; the quiet dry humor of Group Two’s Gary “Big Cheese” Edwards likewise indelibly remains along with the duet bull trout stories of Tattoers “Wee Brandon” Sweeney and Al “Good Earth” Baylacq and, as for Dem Threes, well never was there at time when all four of the sailing buddies (to wit: brother Kers “Dead Drift” Clausen [so named by the guides for his uncanny ability to fall asleep anywhere, any time for absolutely no reason whatsoever], Kjeld “Bamboo Cal” Hestehave, “Sponge Bobber” Branstad, and Scott “Anti-Flash Gordon”) were in the same spot doing the same thing at the same time, leaving ample space for Houston veteran Martin “Madman” O’Malley to earn his first Yellow Hat in the searing Three heat of it all.
Yes, gang, E-13 was one for the books and we did it all in the most adverse of low water conditions. In fact, water levels here are now so low and water temperatures now so high (measuring 69 degrees on the Blackfoot the other day) that for the first time since 2007 Fish Wildlife & Parks earlier this week imposed “Hoot Owl” restrictions for both the Bitterroot and Clark Fork Rivers whereunder fishing of any kind is now prohibited from 2:00 p.m. until midnight. Our own Rock Creek (which I fished with your Mascot Ma’am [shown above nuzzling a Blackfoot cutthroat] ) is now flowing, get this, just 263 cubic feet per second (a mere fraction of its flow during E-13) and the resulting fishing is sketchy at best.
Timing is everything and the Extravaganza has that!
As we do each year, we fish Montana’s best waters and their prime condition with the best guides that this wonderful state has to offer. And we do so with élan, witness three of our guides passing your Hostess and I while Blackfooting the other day, each of whom in his own special way waived to us, as I do to each of you now, his special thanks for making this year’s event a truly memorable one. And, yes, gang we are going to do it again next year and, in keeping with Extravaganza tradition, each of you will have until Sept 15th to re-secure your Extravaganza slot(s) with us and join in the fray with us again, and again, and again! Keep your eye out for your soon-to-come individual E-14 invitation.
So it is with mistful eyes that I type these last notes of E-13 thanks to you; we were blessed by the present of your presence this year and, as with years past, the peals of your laughter yet ring in and among our surrounding Ponderosa pines along with the spiking of horseshoes in the adjoining sand pits; your Hostess With The Mostess bids you a warm towel-waving farewell from the back porch outside her magnificent kitchen and this gracefully aging fisherman extends to you each his heartfelt thanks for being such an important part of our extravagant life. Play often the Sounds of Rock Creek that we sent you home with you and come back soon to share with us the hallowed beauty of Western Montana: God’s own backyard.
Best to all from the now-concluding scene of it all,
Rock Creek Ron
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