The Tattoos came, fished and conquered on Day One of their E-13 fishing Extravaganza!
Shown above are the prizes of the day: “Dr. Dave” Minor’s 20 1/4” beauty of a rainbow caught on the famed “A River Runs Through It” Blackfoot River and Montana Matter’s Troubadour’s 20 1/2” gorgeous Bitterroot Bow (the latter caught as part of a double up with my companion 19” bow, both simultaneously landed on E-12 Sweetgrass Rods under the watchful eyes and careful guidance of our shown Double Up Outfitter John “The Great But Propaneless” Gould—how sweet it, indeed, is!) “Dr. Dave” was awarded the Yellow Hat for the day, inasmuch as Shane was fishing on an “exempt RCR boat” (but, unbeknownst to Der Troubadour, one such hat has been set aside for him when he provides a private concert to the Tattoos on their last night in Extravaganzaland to be companion to the one he earned two years ago and is wearing above…my, how yellow tends to run in streaks!).
And here is the wacky tale of the Two’s Day One tails:
Joe “Compari” Ciatti fished the Bitterroot with Tom “Sockeye” Thornhill and, just to show you how wonderful Western Montana fishing can be, this duo was on the stretch of the river right behind that portion that Shane and I fished and, in wonderful companionship to our 80+ fish rising to our bamboo-driven dry flies (half of which saw the feared Gould net) this boat saw 20 landed fish with the daily prize being a 17 inch brown who was among the bamboozled and “took” the proffered dry fly, along with a gaggle of cutthroat which earned Compari a Cutthroat tattoo courtesy of Montana’s Fish Wildlife & Parks department and administered by the Tattoos own resident Tattooer, Mz. Lori.
Next up was the SS Livengood/Eichorn who tackled the lower Clark Fork river with great élan, boating 14+ fish but losing count of the number of critters in their boat (reporting that there were “5”—to the shrill of the BS Bell—when, in fact, their were four when counting guide Patch Godown’s mascot Loomis [as in the rod maker, Group Three rookies-to-come!]) and also losing their side bets to Mssrs. Miller and Pantaleo, thereby becoming their (very busy!) bar servants for the evening, speaking of whom (and further demonstrating the total confusion of the Tattoos) floated “the Blackfork” (nee “Blackfoot”) to amass an amazingly 33 number of pectoral specimens on the water but, on land, were successful in imposing themselves on the wonderful Alaskan halibut lunch being served by one of the 2 1/2 Rodgers boats, this one with “Shanna Banana”. Imagine by stunned expression this morning when Brad “Maven” Miller came got into my car this morning, the day after the fishing day before, to begin the fishing of his Day Two by announcing “I am on the cusp of greatness today.” Well, fishing partner Jerry “The Juice” Pantaleo was then seen headed back into the kitchen to amass all available bananas to bring on his boat, remarking, “Boy, we are already screwed so we might as go all the way!”—bananas not being a preferred commodity on any fishing boat, rookie Threes! Come to think of it, “Maven’s” MT moniker is hereby changed to “Blackfork” and, depending on his prowess today, it will be either “Sir Blackfork” or “Shit Blackfork”, and my money is on the latter…news at 11.
And then there was the report from the vessel occupied by roofer Brian “Deerfish” McLeran and his boat mate Jeff “Helena MD” Georgia—the report that, literally, wound never end…it went on, and on, and on…and even post midnight Deerfish could be heard saying, “Let me tell you about the fish that I set so hard that it hit the side of the boat that it then flew upwards and into the boat” (along with so many fish on the Clark Fork that they were, according to MD they were, in medical terms, “TNTC”—i.e., “too numerous to count”). Exuberance was excelled by this fishing duo as, literally throughout the rest of the boat reports and evening, Deerfish would be heard to say, “Let me tell you about the five doubles that we had, our truck not being at the pullout (so that they came as close as a One boat to pick up the Hooters tab), and we had an absolutely great day.” Over and over it was heard to the point of even emphasizing over and over Jeff’s landing of a 19” beauty on his Sweetgrass bamboo rod---since E-12, MT fishing guide in his own right Jeff fishes with “nothing but bamboo”.
Napa’s Tim “Squawfish” Rodgers and Gary “Big Cheese” Edwards went on to report over the continued Deerfish blathering of their ill-chosen day on the Upper Clark Fork River (I told you so last week, gang) where nary a fish was to be seen on the first half of the float until crossing the confluence of our own Rock Creek and then yielding a handful of smaller fish—nothing to the point of the yet interjecting Deerfish bounty.
Cutthroat stickers were awarded to and plastered onto (a) the SS Baylacq where son Dakota reported on his first ever MT fly fishing day, of he and his dad landing a total of 18 fish (the largest being 17”) and of seeing a baby black bear along the Blackfoot River (my all time favorite river where nary a day goes by without a wonderful sighting); (b) the Rodgers boat of “Snowflake” and “Fawnlady Lori” where the latter landed an 18” rainbow and where the mantra was to sing a song to any word that a boat mate, including forever ruined guide Chris Stoup, might mention, and where the former landed a 17” pectoral specimen “20 feet from the takeout”; (c) the remaining Rodgers boat of “Shanna Banana” and “CT”, the latter standing for her MT nickname “Cutthroat” and the emblazoned tattoo on her memorializing that CT, indeed, caught one!; and (d) to the SS Blackfork where tales were told of one eyed fish and throats a-cutt.
The final report came in from the big fish of the day (amazing how that always happen, isn’t it?!?) where Ralph “Red Baron” McLeran told of his partner Dr. Dave’s twenty inch Blackfoo bounty resulting in his signing onto the Twenty Inch Bard, as shown above, and doffing the first, er second, Group Two Yellow Hat, in response to which his brother Deerfish’s retort was “Let me tell you about…”!
Wrapping up the festivities was Fawnlady handing out here traditional Tattoo Cry Die Award for the whiner(s) of the day who, as likewise shown above, turned out to be unfairly yours truly but truly fairly Jeff “Cry Die” Georgia---welcome to that new name MD Helena!
Best to all from the wacky scene of it all,
Rock Creek Ron
No comments:
Post a Comment