A Different Sort Of Trout

JUST CRUZING

Loosely Schooled

an apex predator

WALLPAPER:  BETTER WET THAN DRY

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.. There is a place about 13 hours by road from West Yellowstone. It's a place where there are cobbled beaches. It's a place where there are sandy beaches. It's a place where rivers meet the ocean. It's a place where tidal flats and muddy estuaries blend together.

FEISTY LITTLE FISH

.. There are canals, boat ramps, docks, breakwaters, sea walls, and storms. It's a place where a trout can make a sumptuous living. It's is, of course, the Pacific coast of northwest North America.
.. The trout is, of course, the sea run Cutthroat Trout. Sometimes called the 'coastal trout,' 'estuary trout,' 'salty trout,' 'rain forest trout,'and other local monikers.

THE FUZZY WORM

.. These fish are driven by the availability of food. Food that is responsive to tides, sun, clouds, substrate, salinity, etc. Their behavior is complex and generally predictable while specifically  seemingly capricious.
.. There is even evidence to suggest that within a single population there is a variability of behavior that suggest diverse movement behaviors are a normal pattern.

THE STEAM FLY

.. Although not as social as trout in lakes or steelhead in the ocean, these fish can congregate in good numbers wherever food is availble.
.. There have been research results that suggest that by the age of two any individual fish has probably, established a 'home' territory. These territories overlap and can lead to the appearance, (during feeding,) of loose schools.

THE FIRE_N_SMOKE FLY

.. There are very few absolutes when fishing for these fish. Flies are variable. Water depth is variable. Food sources are highly variable, takes can occur from top to bottom at any time.
.. There are a couple of near absolutes: not a shallow sandy bottom, not too often in the brightest light, spawning occurs in fresh water streams.

THE FIRESTORM FLY

.. Typical river and stream trout gear is just fine for most situations. Care must be taken to rinse your equipment. Take a shower with it and run all your line and backing through your fingers. Corrosion happens quickly and irreversibly.
.. Smolts can migrate to the sea at any age or first year to sixth year. Some migrate upstream to spawn others  move in and out of streams for their entire life, (up to eight years.) Adult fish can eat insects, crustaceans, fish, annelids, etc.
.. There are many traditional, (gaudy,) flies for the sea run Cutthroat Trout. These frequently mimic Steelhead and Salmon flies in any given locality and region.

THE HAYSTACK FLY

.. There is currently emerging a class of flies that resemble typical stream and river flies. Given the feeding habits of these fish it does not seem to matter which class of fly is used.
.. Of course presentation is often the key to catching, (beside finding the fish.) One of the general rules is "the deeper the wigglier."
.. The ocean beckons. Listen to the clarion call.

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.. Just a day or so left to gall a trout in Yellowstone National Park. The snow has thinned the herd and there are places to park and, water to fish.

THE BEAD HEAD SOFT HACKLE

.. Your favorite rod and a few soft hackles will drum up all the dance partners that you can handle, (keep 'em wet.) No need to even get in the water. There are many eager and anxious fish just waiting for you.

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WALLPAPER:   3 RODS, FOUR TO NINE WEIGHT

Fright Night

TRANSFORMATION

Cultural Drift

a new world view

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THE HALLOWEEN LEECH

..It hasn't taken such a very long time to move from a religious observation to the capitalistic candy mongering of today.
.. Yes Zelda, the times they are a changing.

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WALLPAPER:   PHYLLO PUMPKIN CUPS

For Old Time's Sake

WALK TOO SLOW

Talk Too Much

fish just a bit

WALLPAPER:  AUTUMN IDYLL

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NECESSARY GEAR

.. The flasks are loaded, the thermos is hot and black, the hard salami, cheese and stale bread are mashed together in plastic bags and, the old gear is ready for work.
.. Each year about this time a few of us get together for a saunter in Yellowstone National Park. We're mostly older than our ancient gear but we use it on purpose.

FIREHOLE FALL

.. We arise early. We gather at the chow house for coffee. We look strange. But the stories start up before the mugs arrive.
.. This is our little celebration of surviving another year on this side of the grass.  We've done this on an informal basis for the last decade or so.
.. The last few years it has been a firm and ritualized gathering. We've lost a few story tellers. We miss them.

ONE FROM PAYNE

.. We will take a couple of old trucks and switch riders along the way. We will stop often and wet a line. We may even catch a fish or two. We know where the benches are. We will tell old truths and a few lies. We will reminisce and enjoy the day. It will be all too short.
.. We trade rods and share flies. The muscle memory of bamboo comes back quickly - maybe never left. We speculate on the future of our pastime.

ONE FROM GRANGER

.. We revel in the past and bemoan it's passing. It's not the maudlin kind of discussion: rather an immersion in the good times remembered.
.. There are very few folks left that have fiddled around in the park since before the middle of the last century.

ONE FROM LEONARD

.. We wonder if we have discovered anything previously unknown. We remember the famous folk that have passed this way. Some stayed or passed through and some moved on. They stamped the place with legend and lies. So be it.
.. We stop to puff a bit of Cuba. We sip some old stuff and pretend that we are warmed by it. Bitter is as bitter does. Fire of a different kind in our belly.

BYGONE GEAR

.. We observe the small changes and large. Trees blown down or burned up. Good holes filled in by sand and silt. New holes opened up by heavy runoff - not yet immortalized by recent sages of the local rivers.
.. We catch a fish and wonder if the tales of ours and others are the truth. Were those fish really bigger before the warming of the Firehole River? Were there more of them?

YES,  IT IS A FLY

.. We relive the battles over the Brown Trout in the North Fork Of The Snake that made headlines in the 50's and 60's. Back before it became fashionable to call that bit of water the Henry's Fork.
.. We observe certain rituals that have long since disappeared. They disappeared with the gear that made them necessary. We take turns stretching each other's lacquered lines.

RIVERSIDE SUSTENANCE

.. We dry and change the silk one. What nuisances we put up with. We thought it was the best of all possible ways to do things.
.. We will pretend that we can build a sandwich from the mashed fixin's in the plastic bags.

ONE FROM F.E. THOMAS

-- It is a brutal bit of nourishment and we pretend to enjoy it. So dry it is that it requires a slosh of something - bitter - burning - or black. Such simple rituals.
.. We, and so many others, create them and extol their value as necessary adjuncts to our pastime. After all fishing is just fishing otherwise.
.. It's getting late early and we need to buzz along. Time's a wastin'.

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WALLPAPER:  ORVIS 99

Get Lost

PERFECT IMMERSION

A Mind Meld ?

is it zen ?

WALLPAPER:  GOOD TOOLS

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.. Fall brings competition for outdoor activities: Fishing, Hunting, Hiking, Biking, etc. Some folks even combine activities: biking/hunting, fishing/hunting, biking/fishing, etc.
.. Of late we seldom hunt. We do fish and shoot competitively. The still cool air is conducive to both.
.. There are moments, sometimes hours or days, when we get lost in our chosen pastime. The targets seem larger, the fish seem more willing, our selected tools get absorbed into our very being and, all is right with the world.
.. We've been told it is a zen moment. If so, so be it. What we do know is that it is a condition where anticipation and anxiety disappear. We don't anticipate the strike of the fish or the strike of the bullet. There is no need for anticipation because the occurrence is a foregone conclusion. There is no anxiety about the outcome .
. . sigh!

PERFECT FORM

.. Anticipation is a powerful condition: both physically and mentally. Tense and anxious we lose sight and focus on just what it is we are doing.
.. We somehow feel that trigger pull is most important.
.. We somehow feel that the back cast is most important.
.. Then we feel that breathing is most important.
.. Or we feel that line speed is most important.
.. Then again we might reconsider the ammunition or the fly selection. These factors are really secondary to doing what we are doing.
.. In 1988 Dan Wieden coined the phrase, "JUST DO IT," for a Nike advertising campaign. Aside from the push as a fashion statement there is a greater truth in the phrase.
.. Immersion in the moment is a wonderful bit of existence. Right now, around  our village,  we see so many folks anticipating rather than doing. When the various bits of impedimenta fall away from the activity - the activity will swallow us up.
.. For some reason the Autumn brings about this relaxed participation in our own outdoor activity. We seem to catch more fish, (and it matters not.) We hit the bull more consistently, (and it matters not.)

CASUAL TOOLS

.. For some folks catching the fish is the most important part of fishing. For some folks hitting the bull is the most important part of target shooting.
.. For us, just shooting or fishing is the most important part.  AND, WE DO CATCH FISH AND HIT THE BULL - so?
.. Getting lost has nothing to do with being lost. It has to do with immersion in the moment, in the activity, in the experience. We can get lost while tying a gross of flies. We can get lost while loading our 22 PPC cartridges. We can get lost in our living room - it's so rewarding.
.. For whatever reason we seem to get lost most often in the Autumn. We like it that way.

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WET OR DRY

.. Right now there are white miller caddis, baetids of a couple sorts, small fry, other fry, and nymphs galore on the west side rivers in Yellowstone National Park.
.. The expert counter help is warning folks off of the Gallatin River as "TOO COLD."
.. Avoid this river if you choose. There are many active fish taking small streamers that imitate fry. Some patterns of the caddis sort may be fished above and in the film as well as below and soaked to the bone.

DRY OR WET

.. Catching is on the mind of so many of the pro fishers that they seldom enjoy fishing.
.. Right now the fishing is excellent in these pleasant Fall days.
.. We're in the 60's and the sun is playing with the wispy clouds. There are scattered flurries of mixed precipitation and the wind is just a gentle breeze.
.. Catching is pretty good too!

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WALLPAPER:  BREAKFAST EXTRAVAGANCE

Preview Of Coming Attraction

UKES IN WEST

January Cometh

improv for the ages

..

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.. Just to let you know it's on for year two. Two masters and a classic we all know.
.. Especially for  Nate Schweber !!

Sunny Bugs

VERY BIG ONES

Very Sunny Bugs ?

who knew ?

WALLPAPER:  MONSTERS ATTACKING

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.. We've been taught by the local experts that the little mayflies get smaller as the seasons move toward Winter.
.. We've also been taught that all the mayflies like the weather sort of dreary and overcast.
.. We've have been taught so many things that we believe what is repeated by "those that know."

COULD BE BIG GREEN DRAKES ?

.. Seldom have we been  taught about these big bugs that appeared on the Madison River yesterday about noon in the bright mid day sun - in late October.
.. The days have been bright and too warm. It should be 60°F today and may reach 65°F tomorrow. We'll take it.
.. Somewhere in a box we even have some big flies for the occasion. We certainly hope that they come to visit again. The fish liked them so, we will too. Some of the neighbors think that these are late blooming Ephemerella  grandis - some say  Drunella grandis - we certainly don't know the difference - if any.

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WALLPAPER:  A BIT OF GARLIC BREAD

Curiouser and Curiouser

WHAT'S UP ?

H.U.D. vs. Interior

misdirection

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.. The fake news and misdirection tango is alive and well at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's also thriving at the Interior Department.
.. Yesterday we followed the bouncing ball and noted the cagey play being employed by "Binky Zinke."

BEN CARSON

..On October 16, 2018 HUD Secretary Ben Carson bid assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Suzanne Israel Tufts ". . . a fond farewell" in an email to department employees.
.. Tufts " . . . has decided to leave HUD to become the Acting Inspector General at the Department of Interior."[LINK-1]

HEATHER SWIFT

.. On October 18, 2018  Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said ". . . the announcement less than a week ago by HUD Secretary Ben Carson, in which he said that HUD Assistant Secretary Suzanne Israel Tufts was going to become the new acting IG at Interior had false information in it."[LINK-2]
.. We truly enjoy the wonderful transparency of the departments in the current administration. Their internal coordination and communication sets new standards.
.. This post should be taken in conjunction with the preceding one. Enjoy the roller coaster !!

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LITTLE CARROT

.. The sun has been too bright and the weather too nice for fall fishing. Happily the catching belies the weather and warm days are grand for stabbing dozens of trout in the nose.
.. Today was exhausting: tomorrow should be even nicer.

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WALLPAPER:  FLAUTAS