FW: E-13's Log O Meter

A check-in from veteran Group Threer Tyler “Lefty” Clausen—and, believe you me, he knows what he’s a-talkin’ about!

 

 

 Lookin’ good.

Tyler

 

The Flow Begins!

Greetings, all, from E-13's intergalactic headquarters where I can assure
you first hand that 2013's runoff has officially begun!!

We begin this year's runoff with the current flowage at 556 cubic feet per
second ("cfs". For a visual of the flow now twice what it was a month ago,
see the Log O Meter in my next missive to you.

Just overnight, with weather yesterday in the high 60's (today, by contrast
it is in the low 40's), our barometer Rock Creek's river level has
noticeably risen and its color deteriorated from an opalescent green to a
quickly developing cocoa color, marking the advent of this year's rite of
passage.

And with that passage now arrives our annual and attached Flow Chart that,
tri-weekly, will follow the path of this year's runoff. As in the past, the
current year's runoff will be posted in red so you can instantly see the
comparison to the bell weather high runoff in 2011 and the lowest of lows
during 2007.

What we are looking for ideally, gang, is a bell chart that tracks our
black-lined 2009 runoff. We are starting as we did that special year with
snow pack in the high eighty percentiles...what we now wait to see is just
what the temperatures will be during this May, as that is the driver of just
how fast and how soon all of that upper altitude snow mass will find its way
downhill and downstream.

Again, our goal is to have the flow between 1500 and 1800 cfs come June
15th...hmm, I wonder what Mother Nature has in store for Mother Montana this
year!

Best to all from the scene of it all,

Rock Creek Ron
---<'///><

Der Log O Meter

 @ 556 cubic feet per second

 

 RCR

 

FW: E-13: Revving Up The Engines (Literally!)

A nice note from Houston-based Group Three veteran Martin “Madman” O’Malley and his wonderful bride Cynthia.  

 

Martin:  It will be great to have you both back again!!

 

RCR

 

 

 

Ron,

 

Cynthia and I are eagerly anticipating Extravaganza 13. These outings are such great fun!

 

We are looking forward to seeing all of you again.

 

Martin O'Malley
Principal | Director
Colliers Investment Services Group
 

 

Revving Up The Engines (Literally!)

Well, gang, you know that it is getting closer to Extravaganza-time when (a) I begin spending a substantial portion of my weekends tying flies and (b) your Hostess With The Mostess begins packing her car for the annual drive from San Rafael to Extravaganza Headquarters…and that is just what is going-on on this end.

 

Early this Friday will find your Hostess and yours truly (along with E-13 co-mascots Sir the Cocker Spaniel and Ma’am the Black Lab) in the car journeying the 1100 miles to our second home in Clinton, Montana (located just 25 miles east of Missoula).  This is the twelfth such annual journey/rite of passage for us, and one that is surrounded with Christmasesque excitement…the anticipation of all to shortly befall upon us is ever so near as is the thought (soon to become reality) of being able to spend so much quality time in God’s own backyard…ours and soon to be yours!  As for your Hostess, well she will be resident in Montana until Labor Day and, as for me, well I remain a monthly commuter with a constant smile on my face!

 

And smile we all should for, as we soon begin our annual runoff watch, conditions continue to improve for E-13.  With the recent late season snows, the snow pack continues to creep towards the 100% of 20 year seasonal average mark, witnesses:  the Blackfoot River drainage is now at 102% with its equally important snow water equivalent (SWE) at exactly 100%; the Bitterroot Basis is now at 88% of normal with its SWE at 81%; and the Clark Fork watershed is currently tracking at 88% of normal with a SWE of 81%.  Ironically, the lowest of the count is our home river of Rock Creek whose drainage is chirping along at 78% of normal with an equal 78% SWE—it is this later drainage that we will be tracking three times a week on our Flow Chart beginning on April 29^th.

 

So things are creeping closer and closer, gang…as in just two months from today the Wonderful Ones will then be back home and Dem Tattoos will have just completed their second day of fishing, with the Marvelous Threes as the fisherfolk on deck!!

 

Now, THAT is what I am talkin’ about, all—and who said that Christmas comes only once a year!?!

 

Best to all in the eager anticipation of it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

   ---<’///><

 

 

 

 

 

E-13 Weather Update: Christmas in April

...as photographed by Group Three's Trina "Boots" Clausen entering our
Blackfoot house's driveway last evening.

Never a dull moment in Extravaganzaland!

RCR

Boston Patriots!

Our E-13ful prayers and best wishes to all who were adversely affected by the difficult-to-understand third party acts during yesterday’s Boston Marathon.

RCR

FW: E-13: Ready, Set, Flow!!

A nice and much appreciated note for Group Three rookie Scott "Gotta
Read'em" Gordon!

RCR---<-///><


Ron,

These are absolutely awesome. I read every message thoroughly and try to
imagine the work that goes into them.

Thank you very much!!!

See you in 60, 59, 58...

scott

E-13: Ready, Set, Flow!!

Fellow E-13ers:

Well, as we quickly approach 60 days to the arrival of the Wonderful Ones, I
want to give you an advance copy of the Flow Chart that will be mapping out
this year's snow melt and runoff.

Remember, it is this healthy event that cleans out our rivers and resets the
stage for ensuing bug hatches and resulting fish frenzy--the two key
elements of which are (a) the bugs await the post-cold water snow melt to
hatch and (b) the fish await post-runoff increased water clarity to readily
imbibe.

What is attached is the flow chart that we have been mapping for the past
six years. Using our home Rock Creek waters as a baseline, you can visually
see just how radically the runoff and its flow vary from year to year.
Witness the mega-high water years of 2008 (the yellow line) and
record-setting 2011 (the amber line) in contrast to paltry snowpack and
runoff of 2007 (the pale blue line) that saw mega-forest fires invade our
Creek's drainage due to that acutely low-water year.

Yes, gang, Flow Matters and, beginning on April 29th, we will begin dropping
in the actual flow rates from this year's runoff. Our goal is for a perfect
bell curve a-la-2009 (the black line) where the runoff begins slow, ramps up
quickly fueled by May's increased temperatures, and then subsides just as
the Ones arrive. Using this Rock Creek baseline, come E-13, we want the
Rock Creek flow to be is between 1,500 and 1,800 cubic feet per second on
June 15th, just as it was for E-12 last year and just as it was in 2009.
that is our target/desire.

This year's beginning water levels, snow pack and snow water content are
still tracking in the 80 percentile range, suggesting to us (a) that we will
NOT have high runoffs and (b) that all of our three targeted rivers should
be fully fishable for each of our three groups.

Mother Nature holds the cards, however, and Missoula's May weather and
temperatures will tell this year's tale. May is typically the wettest month
of the year for Western Montana; daytime temperatures (which drive the
runoff and its flows), however, will vary from freezing (i.e., slow flow and
paced runoff) to the mid seventies (i.e., high flow and accelerated runoff).

What will the story be this year, you ask??

Well, we will chart it out as it happens, call the pitches as they are spun
our way and, at the end of the nine innings, see just what the scorecard has
in store for us. In any (and every) event, I guarantee you that, as we have
done during each and every of the prior ten years' Extravaganzas, we WILL
fish each of our scheduled E-13 fishing days!!

Much more to flow...er, follow!

Rock Creek Ron
--<'///><

Nice trout!

Sent from my iPadFrom Group Two veteran and Parducci Winery owner Tom "Sockeye" Thornhill.

Osprey with trout at Parducci...
Tom

FW: E-13: The Rivers We Will Fish

A nice note from veteran Group Twoer Ralph “Red Baron” McLeran:

 

 Thanks, very informative.  Will there be a test later? Just kidding. See you soon. R

 

RCR---<’///><

 

 

E-13: The Rivers We Will Fish

Greetings Fellow Extravaganzers!

 

With the quickly upcoming events of E-13 (as in the Wonderful Ones will arrive on the scene exactly 60 days from next Monday, Tax Day!), I thought I would reach out to you and provide an overview of the rivers on which we will be during Extravaganza 2013, which are threefold:  The Clark Fork of the Columbia River, the Bitterroot River, and the Big (“A River Runs Through It”) Blackfoot River, the proximate of each which gives rises to the situs of Missoula, Montana.

 

The Clark Fork of the Columbia River is the “freeway river” into which all others in the Missoula area flow.  It is the major artery and collector of runoff waters with its headwaters over 60 miles east of Missoula, flowing from east to west as it winds its way up into Canada and then down the Columbia Gorge out and through its gaping and dangerous at Portland’s Fort Disappointment, so named by Lewis & Clark at the westward end of their journey when it failed to discover a true Northwest Passage. 

 

For the past six years, the Clark Fork has been a barren fishing ground for us due to the rerouting of that river to remove the Milltown Dam at the mouth of the Big Blackfoot River—the largest environmental clean up site in the United States.  Prior to its removal, for over a century the Milltown Dam provided a catch basin for the toxic runoff of arsenic and other poisonous chemicals that were used in the Anaconda leaching, smelting and processing of gold and silver.  So bad were the cumulative spoils, that the water able around Bonner, MT at the mouth of the Big Blackfoot became contaminated and, after a half decade of study, wrangling and political squabbling, the decision was made to reroute the Clark Fork into a temporary channel, remove the Milltown Dam in its entirety and to re-mine the accumulated spoils and, appropriately, transport those toxic additions back to a sequester site near Anaconda.

 

The rerouting, removal and reinstatement process, while to-be-great in the long term, for the past five plus years has created environmental havoc to and with the river’s fish and bug life…simply stated, the fines that were generated from the relocation process smothered the plant life of the Clark Fork, which destroyed its plant life, which, in turn, eradicated its bug life and which, as you can imagine, migratorally relocated its fish life…the river became unfishable because the fish simply had left.

 

Speed forward (slowly) five years and, just this past year, the Clark Fork has begun to recover such that the handful of boats that we launched onto it during E-12 found wonderful pockets of now-returned mega rainbow trout which have begun to repopulate this wonderful fishery.  Years ago, year after year, we would launch an average of 25% of our Extravaganza boats on the Clark Fork and, come E-13, I am pleased to announce that this wonderful high-bank major fishery is now back in our midst.

 

The Bitterroot River is the favorite fishing river of most of our guides (and the river where we have launched fully 85% of our E-boats over the last half of our Extravaganzas.  Its 52 mile length extends from Missoula southward into the high reaches of the mountains that form the border between Idaho and Montana and, from its dammed Westfork headwaters, it flows steadily and surely northward (an unusual direction for such a major river) and provides the fish that you saw in the recent postings of early-season fishing by the Group One Brian “Moraine” and Josef “Fear The Beard” Shepard—a healthy population of rainbow trout, browns, cutthroats and cuttbows (a cross between the rainbows and the cutts).

 

Unlike the Clark Fork with its pre-cut route, the Bitterroot is a younger river that meanders with each year’s runoff.  In fact, the current main channel of most of this low bank, graveled river charts itself where, several years ago, mere side channels existed.  As such, buying property along this river is a real gamble, as you simply don’t know where Mother Nature is going to re-chart its future path.  With over 1,500 native trout per mile, an average day’s float will place you over 12,000 trout (many, many in the 20”+ category), such that our nightly boat reports (conducted at cocktail hour each night when we all gather on our Rock Creek back porch, drinks in hand, to report the seen and experienced events of the day--my favorite part of each year’s Extravaganza, btw) oft tell of not only masterful fish specimens caught and released but also of eagle, osprey, peregrine hawk, beaver, otter and moose sightings comprising a true Montana bouillabaisse of spectacular outdoor experiences that, year after year, bring folks back to our doors and extravagant carryings-on!!

 

The final of our trilogy of to-be-fished rivers is The Big (“A River Runs Through It”) Blackfoot River, by far my favorite river of all that I have ever fished.  The situs of Norman McLean’s now twenty year old classic book (made two decades ago into a Robert Redford directed Brad Pitt movie of the same parenthetical name), a day’s float on this majestic river, whether an hour’s drive upstream though its mini-grand canyon or lower along its many access points, is breathtaking. The Blackfoot is a truly a storied river where, year after year, the biggest Extravaganza fish are caught and released—witness Napa Supervisor Bill Dodd’s boat last year when, on the last day of E-12’s fishing, as later touted in the Napa Register, Bill landed a 31” bull trout; wife Mary landed a 23” and a 18” bull trout; and together they boated another dozen magnificent rainbows and browns.

 

The Blackfoot is a low-banked dirt shorn river such that, come the runoff, it is the last of the three rivers to “open up”—to wit:  obtain the clarity needed for fish to see and receive our offerings.  In 2008, we filmed the Extravaganza and, if you want to see what the Blackfoot looks like just as it is gaining its clarity and what landing a 31” fish is really like, toggle over to last year’s Blogsite www.montanaextravaganza2012.blogspot.com and look at our award-winning, YouTube-posted film and see then-rookie Jami Grassi land just such a fish when, by good fortune, we had, on hand, two boat-based film crew, two land-based film crews (including yours truly) along with an underwater camera that caught the release of this wonderful pectoral-blessed specimen.

 

Geographically, the Clark Fork flows from east to west; the Bitterroot flows from south to north; and the Blackfoot flows from north to south, all converging on Missoula, Montana, the proud fishing base for Extravaganza 2013 for which each of these magnificent rivers will flow.

 

Bueno, bueno, bueno!!

 

Best to all sensing the nearness of it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

   ---<’///><

 

 

 

FW: Initial Fish Pics

From Group Two veteran Lori “Fawn Lady” Ware (who should and does know!):

 

 Oh, I think the browns are my favorites!

Fawn Lori

  

Fish Porn!

 

Fellow E-13ers:

 

Check these beauties out, gang, freshly caught (and released) from the Bitterroot courtesy of primo Group One fishermen Brian “Moraine” Shepard and son Josef “Fear The Beard” Shepard, each fish being in the high teens and low twenty inch range in length.

 

What a beautiful bevy of beasts!!

 

THIS is what we are talkin’ about/after, all!!

 

Great job Shepards both!!

 

RCR---<’///>ß-<’///ß<’///><