A Pair Of Sweethearts

NOT FOR HEADHUNTERS

Avoided By Braggarts

browliners don't even pause
your 2-wt. is too heavy !

beautiful rare fish

(click on all images for high resolution views)
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.. It's not that we're secretive. It's not that we're selfish. It's not that we enjoy wildflowers, vast meadows, or wildlife to the exclusion of fishing. It's just that some places are so near and dear that they must be discovered to be appreciated.
.. There are a pair of streams, (trickles really,) about an hour or so from home that we visit a couple of times a year.
.. The are in the high country. They are spring fed. They parallel each other and, at one point, are less than 200 yards apart, and oh so different - one from the other.

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.. One of them is in the open for most of it's length, (not quite 2 miles.) It runs in the sun with only an occasional tree or bush on it's banks.
.. Tall grass is the cover for shade. The banks are hardly undercut at all, and the shade is as important as a bowling ball sized boulder.
.. The other is shrouded in mystery. Thick brush overhangs the banks. Trees and their roots contort the stream into surprising convolutions as it wends it's way through an incised bed.
.. Deep, (up to two feet,) holes are always productive - if you can get to them. Ants and other bugs rain on us as we sneak through the growth. The fish are there, and hungry, and willing.
.. Neither is a fertile stream. Neither is full of bugs. Neither is inviting to the fisher folk of today. They are intimate, quiet, clear, cold, and pristine. The fish are uneducated, diminutive, and spooky as can be.
.. The feather merchants don't know their names. The guides never heard of them. Some neighbors think they are devoid of fish. Fishers drive past them and never even know they are there.
.. There is wildlife everywhere: not the moose or elk or bear, or deer, (though they are here,) but ducklings, meadowlarks, ground squirrels, shrews, voles, flies, moths, ants, beetles, and such.
.. The birds have the usual high altitude habit of fluttering from bush to bush and hide to hide.
.. It's comical and occasionally surprising, (like a covey of huns bursting through your legs as you scan the horizon.)

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.. We stalk the stream banks with a hand line, (5 feet of 5x tied to a golf tee - the fly is a bit of thread wrapped around a size 20 or 22 hook.) On the open creek, we crawl on our belly in the wet ooze of a perched water table. If nothing else it keeps us cool.
.. We turn over the cobbles at the edge of the water. Granite and quartzite, are predominant here; not the volcanic's of Yellowstone.
.. These mountains were here long before Yellowstone. They were here before the enormous eruptions of the super-volcano. The fish have endured glaciation, vulcanism, earthquakes, fire, drought, and other forces of nature: tough little scamps they are.
.. The food is sparse and very small. We recognize some of the fodder; most we don't. The green ones are easy. The stillborn neotenous forms are difficult!
.. We sometimes are so good at this creeping and crawling that we can tickle a fish in the belly. Most of the time a squadron of small fish zings ahead of the small silt plume that we cause. They are fast little devils: dark, glinting shadows in the water so clear it seems to disappear.
.. We fish for them downstream with a calculated drift. Little swirls, eddies, cobble pillows and other currents must be taken into account.
.. We place the fly in the water by hand. It takes some stealth and time. A long drift is three feet. We scare a lot of fish. There are a lot to scare. Monsters run to 6 or 7 inches. They leap and splash and we net them and turn them loose.
.. There have been occasions when we just look & watch. Little fish, with colors and patterns to cause a bit of wonder. They are so bright out of the water. They disappear in the water. It's tough to see these little jewels. It's really a shame to catch them. We limit ourselves to two per creek per visit.
.. These are wild, indigenous trout. Westslope Cutthroat of the purest sort. A handful of biologists know that they exist. Some of the neighbors have visited them. No one goes to these creeks to fish, (save a couple of us crazies.)
.. It's as much about the place as the fish. Untrampled meadows, wildflowers, green's that defy description, and solitude are the attractions. There is a road nearby. It even has a forest service number.

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.. We don't know if what we do is fly fishing. There's no vest, no fly rod, no fly reel, no waders, no fly boxes, no forceps, no accouterments from major catalog companies, and certainly no question of keeping the fish.
.. There is no false casting. Neither is there a chance to mend the fly line. Hell, there is no fly line. We use a large net designed for home aquariums - does this qualify?
.. What ever it is we are doing it gets us out of a crowded tourist town. It lets us breath air thin, cold, and pure. It gives us the opportunity to visit with descendants of ten thousand or more generations of successful adaptation to a very harsh, pristine and beautiful part of the world. That's plenty good enough.

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A New Bandwagon

QUICK: BEFORE YOU MISS IT

One More Lovely Diversion
It'll Turn Around The Economy!

or . . . just talk the talk

.. Time was that a brown line had something to do with underwear. No longer is that the only case. When the Wall Street Journal writes about it you know it's part of mainstream America. And, Martha, when it only takes two days for the Evil Conservative Radio to pick it up from the WSJ you know that permeation into the society at large has been completed.
.. Unbeknown to the staff of the WSJ an economic revolution is upon us. It's here and now and, growing like tadpoles in a sewer.
.. Fly fishers for trout are a cliquish bunch. Occasionally, they trend toward imperiousness and snottiness: yet they are easily led to joining "the right" organizations, trends, and movements. Most of them never drowned a worm and never met a bandwagon that they didn't like. Sign 'em up; there's enough spare change to go around.
.. "Catch & Release?" woot! woot! - the salvation of the fly fishing experience. Sign us up, make it our religion, practice it without thinking; everywhere, all the time. Any trout is too noble to be tortured only once.
.. "Barbless Hooks?" RIGHT ON! Damn the stiletto effect, forget the deep, infected wounds and marble-sized cysts, trout look tough with infected scars on their chin.
.. "Deep Wading?" YOU got it! To hell with the redds and the next generation of fish. To hell with the trout that just vacated the hole our boots filled with silt. Trout don't care where they park.
.. Not only do we join quickly enough to transform trends into movements. We staunchly defend the movement as God's own truth against the scoffers and critics.
.. Vile terms spew from the lips of gentle sportsmen like the vitriol of an impassioned preacher. We damn the unrepentant. We damn the heretics and unbelievers. "Send them to hell." "May they rot in a worm-ridden & lead lined purgatory."
.. Now, [fanfare,] it's the "Brown Line," (or, Brownlining, or Brownliners or Brownliner's, - if you choose.) It's a bandwagon that has run afoul of the "Name-It-And-Nail-It" syndrome. Got a handle for it now? Good; it's a trend!
.. Of course any fly fisher worth their felt soled waders has been doing it for decades. Just ask them. And, of course, Mildred, they just never talked about it before it became popular.
.. They probably, in fact, spent most of their fishing time with their buddies on the glory waters a bit farther from home than the nearest culvert or storm drain. They most assuredly never fished too far from the last place on the rutted road that their shiny sedan could crawl to.
.. Back in those days there was a piscatorial rule:

"The quality of fishing is directly proportional to the distance traveled from home."

.. Aah, Matilda, the times - they are a changing. Gainful employment will have to be found in other quarters.
.. The dusty and cluttered aisles of feather merchants are now filled with whispers of favorite ditches. This sells maps.
.. Small tributaries are hot topics of conversation. Itty bitty bits of water loom large in the psyche of fishers. Hidden culverts become destinations of choice. The movement is here now, and thriving. It is generating an unstoppable economic pressure.
.. Soon the movement will be adopted by the huddled masses in their search for meaning. Popular culture will adopt the movement and it will become the fishing discipline of choice.
.. Hoards of unwashed picadors will extol the virtues of "little water." They will create the buzz that drives a consumer economy.
.. Wall Mart and Shakespeare will team up to provide "The Brownline Fishing Kit." This will sell in the millions and create demand for additional products.
.. The expansion of the movement into the realms of religion should not be far behind. And, Mareah dear, the joiners will be legion. Worship will be held in temples of masonry and concrete. Of necessity, remodeling for the new sanctuaries will provide many more jobs.
.. Saturdays and Fridays and Sundays will be spent worshiping at the alter of sludge and tiny trickles. Trek to your temple and sing hosanna. Burn some gas and stimulate spending.
.. As the movement gathers steam the fishing community will have to expand it's profile. It will claim new and innovative methods and techniques.
.. The return of novelties such as the one-weight will thoroughly astound rod manufacturers. Production of the "Browners" will be accelerated and jobs, along with wealth, will be created.
.. Demand for information and entertainment will explode at such a rapid pace that the "Economic Downturn" will be slowed. The lips of grocery clerks and taxi drivers will will be filled with the praises of the "Brownline Revolution."
.. First, Magdalena, there will be YouTube videos. Then there will be touring feature length films. The bandwagon will roll through your neighborhood and gather up your shekels for a few moments of vicarious pleasure, (you will attend - everyone else does.) And, Martinella, joss will flow and coin will be rattled. The boom will be on.
.. Certainly, Myrna, there will be new attractions in Florida, California, and Texas. It won"t take long before "The Mouse" finds a way to capitalize on the movement. Discretionary funds will begin to reappear in the lint filled pockets of hard working Americans.
.. Gear manufacturers will produce entire new lines of trendy clothing and accouterments for you to purchase. You can don the uniform and stroll through the mall -- the neighbors will be green. They will then spend their green to keep up with you.
.. There will be a lag in literature. There always is. The literati will survey the situation and ponder the meaning of the frenzy and it's implications.
.. Bloggers will be the first to publish. Each will claim that they were "Browning before Browning was cool." They will feast in the new and unexploited pasture of opportunity. Posts will proliferate like pollen in the spring.
.. Inevitably, however, Maxine, there will be a legitimate published prose. It will flow like brown lines into the obscure landscape of the revitalized economy.
.. There is no way a person can be a 'true' fly fisher, (let alone a Brownliner,) without an enormous body of literature to fawn over and criticize. Of course the development of this literature will take time and provide many jobs.
.. The first of the works will be simple knockoffs for profit. You can easily imagine the titles and content of the first dozen or so works:

• "A Sewer Runs Through It,"
  
• "The Brownliner's Guide To The Upper Sac,"
• "My Life As A Brownliner,"
• "The Old Man And His Brownline"
• "Brownliner's Paradise"
• "Fly Fishing The Brownline" . . . etc.

.. Soon after the exploitation movement in literature will come the "studied prose period." These works will include titles like: "A Thinking Man's Guide To Brownlining," & "The Brownliner's Handbook." Others will probably sound like: "My Salvation is the Brownline," & "Reveries Upon A Secluded Brownline."
.. As the intelligentsia catches up with popular culture a mature literature in the field will develop. Courses in elementary schools and colleges will proliferate. Children will want to "Grow-Up to be Brownliners." New curriculum specialists will be needed to integrate the movement into the existing course of study.
.. Montana State University will initiate courses in: "The Economics Of Brownling," "Social Implications of the Brownline Movement," (again, nothing to do with underwear,) The Meaning Of Brownlines," "Applied Brownlining," and the highly predictable course - "Brownlining 101."
.. Debates, discussions, arguments, and wars, (all economic stimulants,) will be spawned by the Brownline Movement.
.. Where was it born? What is "TRUE" Brownlining. Where's the best Brownlining? Who's the best Brownliner? And since opinions are like brown lines, (everyone has one,) there will be much time and effort and money spent defending the "correct" position, (more economic stimulus.)
.. Graduate Brownliners will be in demand as guides and speakers. Feather fluffer's and importers will develop new fly patterns and export the manufacture of them to Indonesia and Africa.
.. Economic growth will surround the world as the American innovations are adopted by the rest of mankind. Joy will return to the fisher's epitome and all will be good again. The economic recovery will be a wonder for all to behold.

And more elbow room on the Firehole River.