Day Two for Group Two (and the half way point of Extravaganza 2013) saw partially cloudy skies with certain of our boats having the opportunity to try out their rain gear as intermittent thunderstorms rolled though the greater Missoula valleys. The big fish of the day shown above, a 21” beautifully buff Blackfoot brown, was landed by one of our longest ladies in waiting of yellow, “Shanna Banana” Rodgers, who waits no more, now doffed in her spiffy new Yellow Hat (and yellow shirt won by one of her many fishing mates some years ago)! In fact, as the Twos are on the water right now fishing for their third and final day, SB is the leader of the pack for the Yellow Shirt award so by today’s end she might have one of those prizes in her own right…hmm, Girl Power, indeed [see separate posting]!!
Long in the throat boat reporter Brian “Deerfish” McLeran led off the official reporting of the Tattoos Day Two telling of 24 fish Clark Fork tails between he and partner Jeff “Helena MD” Georgia, the largest being the humungous rainbow that MD had on his line of all of three seconds (“one of the largest bows I have seen in years”, per outfitter-guide John “The Great But Propaneless” Gould) with the largest fishing landed being a 19 ½” outstanding bow—landed by Doc that is, as Brian mewed “I didn’t want to hurt the fish, you know”—yes we know what care Deerfish takes in the smacking of the hull with trout from Day One…the trees still peal of his incessant such reporting! Brother Ralph “Red Baron” McLeran partnered again with Day One Yellow Hat winner, the former accurately reporting on their landing of a whopping two fish (the largest being a 15” cutthroat [at least winning them a cutt tattoo] and former errantly whining [see separate posting to that end] of traversing a Grade 3 rapids on the Bitterroot and losing his newly earned treasure in a gust of wind…that too was a tale!
And then continued a series of topographical firsts for the Extravaganza…it seems that, for the prior ten (count ‘em!) years, we have been reading our maps correctly but misnaming our rivers. For example, Adam “Iron Man” Eichorn told of fishing with Joe “Compari” Ciatti on the Southfork River where they landed 17 fish including Adam’s 18 ½” bow matched in naming regimen the previous day by fellow Tattooer Brad “Blackfork” Miller having fished the Blackfork River (from which he begat his new MT name). Adding to this confusion was the youngest of our Twos, Alia “Snowflake” Rodgers who, following the searing Two’s Second Day report (in the rain) suggesting that the true names of the rivers we fish should be (a) the Blackfork, (b) the Clarkfoot, (c) the Buttermilk and (d) the Morezouri with our home waters to be known as Ron Creek. Egad, the confusion of it all—and this from a truly and finely honed veteran group, but I digress!
Back to the subject at hand, the SS Tom “Sockeye” Thornhill and Greg “Living Good” Livengood spoke of their day on the Bitterroot, er Buttermilk, where 20 fish tickled their flies, the largest being a 118 ½” Sockeye cutthroat (no, we were not renaming specimens, that’s just the way the report is!), earning him a cutt tattoo to go with his “good day and lunch.” Also Rooting on Day Two were Gary “Big Cheese” Edwards and his co-Napa sidekick Tim “Squawfish’ Rodgers who boated 25+ fish of “cutts, bows and whites”, the largest being 17 ½” in length. Now, at this point in time, the whole boat report process was proceeding with dispatch and relative orderliness (for the Tattoos, that is) until the Baylacq father son duo of Al “Good Earth” and son Dakota (whose own name is so good that it doubles for his MT name!) told of a whole day fishing on the Bitterroot only to land five (count ‘em) fish the largest being of 12” in lateral measuring--literally. Boasting of a “great lunch” and of seeing a bald eagle, the two were followed by the foursome of “Shanna Banana” Rodgers, Lori “Fawnlady” Ware, Mardi “CT”, and “Snowflake” Alia who, get this, between the four of them landed a grand total of 73 (count ‘em!) Clark Fork fish, the largest being 18”. Well, the gals rubbed it in by saying “attitude is everything” and serial boat reporter “Deerfish” McLeran was heard to say, “Wow, we could hear that boat a mile a way—I wondered what all of that hooting and hollering was…let me tell you about my day..!” The assembled multitudes went on to bring out their abacuses to calculate that the listing SS Baylacq had (a) floated over 15,000 fish during their day’s adventure, (b) caught such a small fraction of that number that not event a super abacus could calculate the miniscuality of it all, and (c) that the Girl Powered boats with “Da Tude” had caught exactly 14.6 times the fish as had the boys.
Now THAT, “Blackfork”, is the “cusp of greatness!”
Speaking of whom, Brad “Blackfork” Miller then regaled the then-dozing Tattoos of again fishing with his business partner Jerry “The Juice” Pantaleo and landing 30+ fish on the same Clarkfoot (yikes, I had better call the atlas companies pronto!) with the largest being an 18 incher. Blackfork was then heard to murmur in his wine that he was “still on the cusp of greatness”, puzzling over just how wide and long a “cusp” was and, in the extended process, bestowing upon himself one of the two-awarded daily Cry Die Awards by Fawnlady Lori…to which Deerfish said “Let me tell you all about my day on the water!”
Wrapping up the chaos was the sanity of the father/son SS Sweeny with “Father of the Bride” Kevin telling of his day with son “Wee Brandon” and “losing count of their fish after 5” (they actually landed 10 on the Clarkfoot it turns out—having a classing chance of going ashore with guide Trevor Anderson and “headhunting” fish from a bluff, landing two (which the abacus determined was exactly 20% of their daily haul) in the process, whereupon Fawnlady bestowed two coveted Tie Die awards: one to Dr. Dave for his faux reporting of the erstwhile loss of his newly earned Yellow Hat and the other to Blackfork for his dancing with the devil by whining on the cusp of greatness.
And that’s the way it was on the Tattoo’s Day Tw0—too much!!
Best to all from the scene of it all,
Rock Creek Ron
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