Get The Lead Out

NPS CLARIFIES LEAD POLICY

Well - Sort Of !

now what ?

.. A National Park Service News Release on March 10, 2009 stated it's position on lead shot for fishing, and bullets for it's officers. On March 18, it issued a clarification statement. Of course, this clarifies nothing. It's time for the NPS to be crystal clear about what it means.
.. The NRA has an article about the confusion and the need for a clear statement. There are 61 properties managed by the NPS that allow hunting. There are many more that allow fishing.
.. Yellowstone National Park has a 'no lead' policy in place for it's fishing tackle. It's unclear if the new clarification will rescind this ban.
.. The National Park Service has stated that the initial press release was intended to let the public know that the NPS was becoming 'lead-free,' and that the ban applied only to NPS personnel and operations, according to an article in The Outdoor Press Room.
.. The Washing Times has a note about how the American Sportfishing Association is just plain riled about the implied ban. It seems that they feel that the ban was made without the transparency promised by the new administration. . . . . . . Oh, get over it.
.. Let us be perfectly clear about our position. No lead of any kind for fishing of any kind. There, that's done. Now lets let the NPS be as clear.
.. As to the other concerns, 1] lead wheel weights will be hard to replace, some are coated - though, 2] solder is going to be a real problem, especially in roof preservation and restoration, 3] dispatching of sick or wounded animals should be expeditious and humane, lead or no lead, and so it goes.

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Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!
Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17. Scottish author & novelist (1771 - 1832)
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.. Come on NPS, be clear and precise. Thank you.

Time Capsule

OUT OF THE PAST

"Bear With Me"

.. Via National Parks Traveler, comes this YouTube gem. 'Them Were the days.'

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Small Monsters

THEN AND NOW

Denizens Of The Deep

and, a montana record too

.. From the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia comes news of a predator that lived 505 million years ago.
.. The fossil was first described about 100 years ago. It's fragmentary nature left it to rest in the 'unremarkable' category for nearly a century. It was misidentified as everything from a jelly fish to a sea cucumber.
.. Recent re visitations of the fossil, in the dusty drawers of the Smithsonian Institution, and a new specimen, have revealed it to be a monster predator from the Cambrian.
.. This thing was a giant among the life of the time and is, in fact, a member of the largest living group of animals the arthropods.
.. The Hurdia, (sp), probably fed on other, smaller predators and marine worms. Details of this monster were published in yesterday's issue of Science; a synopsis is available HERE. Although size doesn't matter, this thing may have reached a whopping 16 - 18 inches.
.. A similar predator was recently caught by a Montana fisherman. The Pygmy Whitefish, Prosopium coulteri, (Salmonidae), tied a state record and weighed in at 3.7 ounces.
.. These predators usually grow to sizes in the 6 - 8 inch range and are preyed upon by other fish.
.. The Pygmy Whitefish usually preys mainly on zooplankton. A July-Dec. Flathead Lake study showed these foods to be important; Daphnia Thorata-70%, Epischura-13%, Organic debris-10%, and chironomid larvae-6%.
.. The invasive shrimp found in many of Montana's cold lakes are now a new food source for the Pygmy. They are growing larger because of the change in diet and we can look for the state record to be broken again in the near future.
.. The current record has stood the test of time, as the previous record was set in 2005. You can read the whole thrilling story of the battle with the fish in the Montana Standard.
.. The fisher that caught the monster has revealed the technique for taking the trophy: a glow hook and maggot. Eric Tullett, of Kallispell, Montana is justly proud of the catch.

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.. Pygmy Whitefish images courtesy of Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks.

You Won't Believe It

WE'RE SPEECHLESS
..

OH NO, Mr. Bill

SCUTTLED AT THE END

HB-455 Probably Dead

Big Sky Rivers Act Flushed

.. As we promised, we've monitored this bill. Sadly, for Montana's streams, the big money and thoughtless greed of real estate interests have dumped it in the toilet.
.. Votes in the House Local Government Committee and executive actions seem to have doomed the bill.
.. Thank your local real estate developer the next time you see them. Now rivers such as the Yellowstone, Gallatin, Madison, Jefferson, Smith, Missouri, Clark Fork, Blackfoot, Bitterroot and Flathead will soon have their banks covered with palaces of the rich and invasive.
.. Major development of condominiums and luxury retreats will sprout like the riparian vegetation that is there now. Stream access will fall to "property rights" defenders, and soon Bozeman will look and smell like Central Los Angeles, or Downtown Milwaukee. The invaders should feel right at home.
.. No 250 foot setbacks will be enacted. "Local Control" added to the bill did not satisfy the plutocrat's of development. Their watch words seem to be: "IF IT'S THERE - BUILD ON IT!"

READ THE UGLY DETAILS HERE.

.. Best get to the Gallatin River before you can't see it!

Visitors Ahoy

WELCOME TO WEST YELLOWSTONE

Prince Kills Fish

LEOPOLD OF SWEDEN
TAKES ELEVEN

The Way It Was

MSU helps us remember

.. With his rubber boots, an Hardy "CORKER" rod, an Allcock bait reel, and a wild flower in his tweedy lapel the Crown Prince managed to gather up 11 lovely trout near the present day Fishing Bridge in 1926.
.. A tip from the Yellowstone Park News, points us toward access to an historic collection of photographs.
.. The family and professional photos from Frank Jay Haynes, (official photographer of the Northern Pacific Railroad AND Yellowstone National Park,) are available online -- in two places, no less: FLICKR (just posted,) and Montana State University Library. The latter is complete, the former has 60 creative commons images.
.. For those of you from Alpha Centauri, Haynes was the photographer that defined and initially captured all the classic Yellowstone photos.
.. He turned many into hand-colored postcards, and later printed color-tinted B&W postcards.
.. Jack Haynes continued the tradition and the postcards have become genuine collectors items - both here and abroad.

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.. The Haynes Family Collection contains images of presidents, tourists, bears, superintendents, rangers, old buildings, features long gone, fish, fishing, and other western Americana found in very few other places.
.. Among the treasure trove of images, (we've not scanned all 5,000 - yet,) are some that are particularly pertinent to the interested fly fisher.

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.. Just as a 'for instance,' the common misconception about "The Barns Holes" on the Madison River, is that they were named after a famous fly fisher named Barnes, (yes that one.) [We've even heard them referred to as Barnes' Holes.]
.. Au Contraire, Mon Ami, They were named long before he arrived on the scene and the reference is to the horse barns at the encampment called 'Riverside,' (later 'Yellowstone,' - later yet 'West Yellowstone.)
.. The barns in question served both the military, and the Monida to Yellowstone Stage Line, (at both different and the same time.)
.. Should you bother to venture away from the crowd - either upstream or downstream - at the Barns Holes you can still see the old stage road's ruts. A bit farther afield you can even find some foundation remnants.
.. The Haynes Family Collection includes a wonderful image of the "Barns at Riverside" and a map of the Monida to Yellowstone stage depot.
.. If you've fished away from the crowd, (you've probably caught fish in the lessor known 'local hole') and you have walked across the lobby of the stage depot.
.. There is an even more secret hole in the river bottom where fall-run fish park right under the bank.
.. This depression is the remnant of a 'stream well' for the hydraulic rams that brought water to the stage line compound. History is useful for the fly fisher, - (the neighbors are going to castrate me for this.)
.. For your edification, we've posted these images here. If you click on the images you can see other surprisingly telling clues about where to fish - this is certain death.
.. Just wait until the Gardiner Gateway hints are revealed, (that's right Gardiner Gateway - not Gallatin Gateway - oops!)

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