Busy, busy, busy !

FULL MOON

Halloween

fun with the clock

AND 

ELECTION DAY

 ..

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WALLPAPER: BLACK TEA IS BROWN

Preview

THE COMING SUPER MOON

Where Will You Be ??

where will the fish be ??

Near Full: August 9, 2014 - 21:08:19 - West Yellowstone

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.. Depending upon where you are tomorrow night and the way that you set your clock, and depending on the cloud cover and local horizon, the moon should rise around seven or eight of the clock.
.. Here in West Yellowstone it's liable to be cloudy at the time of moon rise which is 8:23 PM, (7:23 PM for Luddites.) so we grabbed a quick snap of tonight's view.
.. Of all the super moons this year the one tomorrow night is rare in that it will be overhead coincident with it's absolute perigee.

TROUT MUNCHIES

.. It will look biggest when near the horizon and probably should best be photographed with a few trees or a building or two for accent. The twilight of dusk should provide some exceptional views for those shutter bugs who occasionally fly fish and take hero shots.
.. Native Americans of the upper Midwest and Northeast called this moon the "Sturgeon Moon." A good sign for catching that great fish. Closer to home the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota named this the "Moon When All Things Ripen."
.. The neighbors that fish at night call it all manner of names depending on whether it helps or hurts the catching. Right now it is the blessed hopper moon or the great big beetle moon or the 'gonna' get 'em with a mouse moon.
.. Fishing in Yellowstone National Park is forbidden after sundown, (we certainly do miss the 10:00 PM closure.) There are nearby, happily, bits and pieces of good water that are in the State of Montana - with no closures for light or dark.
-- That's where we'll be tomorrow night.

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WALLPAPER: MOUSE FLY WITH RUSTY HOOK (OOPS)

Looking Ahead

FIVE DAYS TO GO

Pick Your Moon Name

fish where catching works

THE GALLEON GALLATIN MOON

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.. Yes the catching on the Firehole River is getting harder and, yet, the stabbing of lethargic heat-doped fish continues.
.. Yes the caddis are prolific on the Madison River and the migration of flailing elbows toward that river has begun in earnest.
.. Sure the Gibbon River is yielding scrappy fish in the canyons and even some brutes in the meadows when the drakes appear, (the clouds have helped.)
.. On Saturday we visited Nez Perce Creek and tickled a fish or three.We stayed later than normal and enjoyed a late refreshing breeze and a moon-lit stroll down the trail to the bridge.
.. The moon called forth the thought that it's time to fish late and fish mice. The full moon in July has been given different names by tribes, cultures, fishers, and neighbors alike. We're looking forward to the July full moon. It happens on July 12, this year.
.. The full moon in July has been called: the Summer Moon for the heat of the season, the Buck Moon for the time that deer show their rapidly growing antlers in velvet, the Thunder Moon for the storms that brew, the Ripe Corn Moon for the maturing ears, the Claiming Moon by the Celts, and the Gallatin Moon by some of the neighbors for the time the Gallatin River is best fished late in the day.
.. Some of our more poetically inclined neighbors call it the Galleon Moon because it often is shrouded in thin wisps of clouds left over from the passing evening thunder storms, (additional fishing, catching, and moon information HERE.)
.. The caddis are making their late afternoon presence known on the river. The mice have had a litter or two. The shoreline grasses are tall and thick. The trout are fully awake and eagerly feeding.

.. By the time the mice have had their second or third litter they become fair game for trout. Mouse breeding continues all year, (depending on age and season,) and populations peak between July and September.
.. Of course the mice scurry about in search of food, shelter, other mice, and sexual encounters. Sometimes they encounter the river's waters by accident - especially in the late afternoon frenzy of activity.
.. This is also the time that other terrestrial beasties and critters experience a population explosion. Grasshoppers are finishing their final molt. Ants are hiving and swarming. Black and green beetles are roaming. Shrews are eating beetles and ants. Ground squirrels are being squirrely and so it goes!

.. All these critters utilize the interface between the water and the land. There is food and shelter in abundance.
.. The edges of biomes are always wonderfully diverse and full of many species, (plants and animals.) These ecotones are magnificently convergent in the Upper Gallatin River Valley.
.. Forest, meadow, steppe, marsh, and stream biomes can converge in small areas. Both the land dwelling critters and the aquatic dwelling species love the diversity.
.. Add the diversity of the river: rapids, riffles, holes, micro beaches, boulders, cobbles, sand, etc. and the possibilities are extensive. The other river valley's of the West side of Yellowstone National Park offer some of these convergences - but none so nicely arrayed as in the upper Gallatin River.
.. Most fly fishers fish the hatch. Most of the the neighbors fish the landscape. It's worth a thought. Bring your mouse.

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WALLPAPER (Loaf 17): RUSTIC ITALIAN LOAF (CALABRESE)

From Another Place

Lurker Lunker Landed
CRITICS SILENCED

feed big fish mice

The neighbors have chastised us soundly for our night time fishing posts. The critics and unbelievers have called #@$%!^%&* and accused us of senility. We have broad shoulders and accept it all. However an email from a not too distant quarter sent by a recent visitor to Yellowstone helps us endure.
.. For, in fact, in a life long-past we fished the area a bit west of here. The memories have softened into the glow of slurred synapses and were awakened by a recent communication from [name redacted] as he reports about a late night journey to 'Hidden Hole' on a river that we'd nearly forgotten about. The tale is worth a read:

It started during the fall caddis hatch last year. Harlan looked down into a pool bordered by vertical cliffs and impenetrable brush and trees to see the biggest fish of his life, three trout the size of salmon or large steelhead.

How to reach them, how to lure them? The banks are inaccessible and the casts from above and below far beyond our abilities. One fish clears the water like a Polaris missile leaving us stunned. These trout are enormous, the stream too small, they live in a fortress.

The season ended and winter was the time to plan. Deer hair mice were bought with the idea of full moon night stalks. With the second most snowfall on record, the cool spring runoff was high and long. A soccer season leading to a bid for the state championship (one team finishes better and 48 worse) sidetracked one or two monthly opportunities. The first attempt came in July and a day or two after your Galleon Moon posting, which wasn't seen until two large fish struck hard and instantly went their ways (weak leadership).

There were a number of lessons learned that long night. A careful reading of the Galleon Moon would have greatly improved the chances of successful landings. Between first hand experience and a little Internet book learning we are ready to try again.

The next opportunity came last Saturday with an 8:00 pm moon rise. Pulling waders on at 10:00 pm we set out for the fortress about a mile and half upstream. The first stop was at a big hole where two large fish have shown themselves and have been lost. No takers tonight. The second stop another big familiar hole, fast water entering the deep, thick foam in the big eddy. A stealthy stalk to the edge of the high cut bank edge and concerns about moonlight shadows cast upon the water lead to casting a mouse on a very short and obscenely stout leader. The drift is short before the fish is on with a line stripping run, leaps that clear the water, and a weight indicating that this is not the usual 'Hidden Hole' rainbow. A few minutes later and with Harlan's help the big brown is documented. It worked!

On to the fortress where all efforts are futile. The biggest ones are not seen or landed, but water clearing rises that sound like cobbles thrown into the steam confirm that they are still there. Sunrise, after landing a 23 inch brown in a sagebrush steppe stream, looked great.

Good fun, hope that all is well.
[name redacted]

.. In the interests of full disclosure, and for the few night owls in the crowd a picture of the stream and its hidden hole is posted below. There's still a couple of nights left with a BIG moon. Don't catch 'em all.

One Night Left

THE GALLEON MOON

Noyes Is Rolling In His Grave

the perfect excuse

The Galleon Moon

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.. We've been mostly silent about late evening and night time fishing. The neighbors have demanded it. "too much local love:" they say. Yet, we must tell you that this evening is the last evening of the 'galleon moon."
.. It was just O.K. last year. It was raining on a few previous occasions. We were engaged and tired on others. This year it's perfect. Cool, partly cloudy, buggy, still, and inviting. This is the time to fish your deer hair mouse. This is the time to creep along the bank in search of those toads that bring tears to the eyes of grown men.
.. The moon, this evening, will rise low and at the peak of the caddis hatch. The neighbors will be ready. The guides will be in bed, or well lubricated. The visitors will be lounging in the pub telling stories of the 'day's fishing.' The inn keepers will be counting their money.
.. This evening between 8:30 and 10:00 the cars will be streaming out of Yellowstone National Park. The rivers and streams will be nearly deserted. There will be space aplenty for parking, and the moon will be low in the southeastern sky.
.. The neighbors, however, will have abandoned the streams by 5:00 PM. They will have fortified their weary bodies with sustenance and they, like salmon, will return to the park against the flood of traffic going the other way.
.. To the long quiet stretches of places poorly known and seldom fished, they will creep. Darkness brings hazards: roots, fallen branches, rodent holes, hidden clumps of grass. They will not use the footpaths or stream side trail. These conveniences are too close to the water - lateral lines and vibrations - dont'cha know! They will creep to the place that they have been watching all week. They are already well armed and rigged for battle. A deer hair mouse, an elk hair mouse, a great big gross caddis, an enormous black woolly bugger.
.. The leader has no tippet. It's only four feet long. It's a piece of green monofiliment. It's diameter and strength are obscene to the delicate mind and sensibilities of those who pound the water during daylight. This is a rig for real fish. This is a rig for fish to dream of. This is a rig for fish that only a few have seen, though many dream about.
.. The neighbors know! They discuss it amongst themselves. They don't hang out in the fly shops. They don't cavort in the pubs. They fish. They know that the "Galleon Moon" only comes but once a year.
.. Some of them joke about the 'Gallatin Moon' but deep inside, next to the mysterious organ known as their epitome, they are already creeping to that place where a back cast is only 10 feet, and the fore cast stops dead in the air just an inch above the still water. They have waited a year for this moment. They are certainly not going to screw it up with careless casting.
.. Last winter a local poet, (the term is used with the greatest of license,) made some light of the poem. "Ahhhh, The Fisherman, came casting, casting, Casting, the fisherman came casting up to the big slicks moor." Poor Alfred, he's been usurped by the plebeian mind of the obsessive 'local.' "One take my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonight." "Look for me by moonlight; Watch for me by moonlight; I'll fish to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!"
.. The corruption is poor, the offense is great; The thought and behavior, however are real. There are about 10 or 12 neighbors that know how and where to do this. The guides never heard of it. The feather merchants have no interest. The worm-dunkers ignore it. But there are a few who catch enormous, nocturnal trout on the Madison River, the Firehole River, Nez Perce Creek, Grayling Creek estuary, and "THE CULVERT."
.. We mention this only to let you know that it's happening now. Two giant fish were taken last night. Their sizes are related in pounds - not inches. Yellowstone Park biologists have seen fish this big, (but only on rare occasion.) The size is not the point. These are fish that have not been caught since they were just small fry, (16" or 18".) They are now wily, strong, treacherous, wild, and brutal.
.. We'd like to tell you where to fish. We won't. If you would like to try this, just cruise the roads along the Firehole River and the Madison River. Start about 8:00 tonight. Look for local license plates. Don't bother with the fancy SUV's. Ignore those cars and trucks with a waxy shine. Pause and scrutinize those folks with fishing gear. If you see a person sitting and smoking a pipe or cigar. You may be warm. If the glow of the moon is just visible in the eastern sky and there is crouched figure near an unlikely run, you may have something.
.. We'll suffer for this. But we thought you should know. With all due respect to LORD NOYES; below is the poem and you can insert such words as 'fisherman,' 'casting,' 'Firehole,' 'Madison,' 'rod,' 'reel,' etc. It happens just once a year, and now is the time.

And the fisherman came a trodding, a trodding . . .

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Alfred Noyes (1880-1958)

The Highwayman

PART ONE

I

THE wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

II

He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

III

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

IV

And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—

V

"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."

VI

He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the West.