E-13 Update

Greetings Fellow Extravaganzers!!

 

As time slowly marches on towards the advent of Extravaganza 2013, I thought it timely to reach out to update you on a number of items regarding our quickly upcoming fishing adventure(s):

 

1.       Signups  Groups One and Two are fully subscribed now with twenty fisherfolk each and the typically laggard Group Three is filling up more and more each week with 16 fisherfolk currently on board and ten more circling the boats.  That is great news for all concerned and brings with it good tidings of a(nother) wonderful year together on the water—our eleventh!

2.       Snowpack   This year's snowpack in all three of our mountain ranges (the Big ["A River Runs Through It"] Blackfoot, the Bitterroot and the Clark Fork River drainage) are still nicely tracking at 85% of twenty year average—a number that continues to assure us that the water flows for each of our three E-13 groups should be "just fine, thank you very much!"

3.       Travel   United Air Lines continues to be elusive as to the availability of their SFO-MSO-SFO daily non-stop.  In talking with them both in Missoula and on their main telephone line today, get this:  They have posted their second half of this year's flight information (which includes this non-stop flight) but have yet to post or even have any knowledge of their schedule for the first half of this year, suggesting that we check back in with them in that regard in two weeks.  How helpful.  With the simple beauty of that flight, I am going to hold off in providing you with flight alternatives into and out of Missoula, MT.  For those of you that want to go ahead and book your flights now, please go to the Delta Air Lines website and book flights that get you into Missoula as close to noon as you can on your arrival date (see attached calendar for reference) and as close to noon as you can on your departure date.  As you veterans out there know, we will pick you up and deliver you back to the airport and make the 45 minute (one way) airport run just once.

4.       Camp List   As in the past, we will provide you with a Camp List of what to bring and to leave behind.  For the moment, suffice it to say, as with all things with us, "less is more" and extensive advance retail therapy is an option, not a requirement.  For those in the Bay Area, the annual fly fishing show and exposition is happening this weekend in Pleasanton at the Alameda County Fair Grounds—if you are inclined to go to see what is new and exciting, look for your Hostess With the Mostess and me who will be wandering around there tomorrow, Saturday, looking for new ideas and products.

5.       Blogsite   Yes, (y)our 2013 blogsite is now up and running.  Log this blogspot into your favorites and, as time to fish looms nearer, this will be your primary E-13 information source and diary.  Links to prior years' Extravaganzas can be found here as well as MT current weather conditions.  Note that, as we have done year after year, at the bottom right of the links column is a counter of the number of site visitors that we have had.  Yes, there will be several contests for "hitting the visitor number on the head" with wine and other appropriately extravagant items as prizes.  Never a dull moment in Extravaganzaland!

6.       Further Updates   As the timing of your arrival(s) into Montana nears, look for a gaggle of updates from me providing you rookies out there with background information on the treat that you are in for and reminding veterans, new and old, that, indeed, Extravaganza 2013 is soon to be a sight to behold!

7.       Prognosis   By all accounts, E-13 is shaping up to be one whale of a great event; as time passes, all eyes will continue to be on our snowpack and weather conditions, variables that will truly set the stage for our tale(s).  Bueno, bueno, bueno!!

 

Best to all in preparation for it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

   ---<'///><

 

Greetings from E-13's Headquarters, Extravaganzers!!

Fellow E-13ers:
 
Greetings from the scene of it all where, as you can see from the attached photos, that things are, indeed, white…giving good reason why we fish from mid-June through pre the Fourth of July, when all of the white has nicely blended into additions to our fishable waters!!
 
This is the time of the year when we begin tracking the snow pack accumulations in the upper mountain reaches of the Bitterroot and Blackfoot mountain ranges; it is the melting of this upper clime mass that provides the basis for our May and early June runoffs (and the resultant cleansing of the rivers) and gives birth to the multiple hatches that provide the feeding base of our Extravaganza fishing experience.   And the early, advanced news this year is a good one, to wit:  this year's to-date upper snow mass accumulations is 82% of its twenty year rolling average (and 80% of last years numbers as of this date—last year's E-12 seeing a perfect "average" snowfall number and resultant bang-up fishing experience.  The other variable is the "snow water equivalent" (i.e., water density) of the snow and that number is just a tad below average…again, boding good things for our upcoming season.  
 
Wow, have we seen the vagaries of these snowpack numbers over the now ten years of Extravaganzas!  Remember veterans the low snow pack and low snow densities in 2007 when we had the arise before sunrise to get on the fishing waters and, due to low water and high water temperatures, be off the water shortly after noon, E-0ers??  And who can forget the opposite extremes in 2008 and, two years ago, in 2011 when both snow pack levels were high (200% of norm in 2011) and snow water equivalents were high (again, 200% of norm in '11, combining into a 400% of norm lethal combination), right E-11ers??  In E-11, while most were cancelling their fishing trips to Montana, our Double Up Outfitter John "The Great But Propaneless" Gould said, "let's over the Continental Divide to the Missouri River" so, gang, that's just what we did—I chartered a bus for us to make that trek "to/fro Da Mo" for all nine of our fishing days and, wow, did we light up our Twenty Inch Club board with over 115 twenty inchers accounted for in that special year.
 
So, rookies, fear not what the final outcome is with the water flow…we WILL fish every single one of our E-13 fishing days (just as we have in each of our prior ten Extravaganzas); all we are doing now is getting a first glimpse as to what are water flows might then be and, again, we are right in the groove for a(nother) banner year!!
 
Soon I will be sending out to you recommended travel itineraries for your travels into Missoula—as of yesterday, however, UAL has not announced if it will be reinstituting its (wonderful) seasonal daily SFO-MSO non-stop flights; in fact, as your Hostess With The Mostess and I fly homeward bound tomorrow, Super Bowl Sunday, I plan to swing by the MSO UAL counter to enquire what is on their itinerary for June and July and, as soon as I know, so will you!!
 
And, speaking of Super Bowl Sunday, howbout'dem Niners, gang?!?
 
GO NINERS!!!
 
Best to all from the scene of it all,
 
Rock Creek Ron
     ---<'///><