Cutts Back In News

KILL SOME
SAVE SOME OTHERS

Public Involved In Preserving 'Westies'
image courtesy jasonjdominiac.com

.. A Year ago, and again last Fall, (September, 15,) we noted the New West article about the project to replace one natural fishery with another.
.. Now the Missoulian reports that the project will be on public display at a public informational meeting in Kalispell tomorrow. The meeting is to be held at the Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks agency office between 5 and 9 PM.
.. Biologists and fisheries staff will be on hand to explain and discuss the rotenone poisoning in the Jewell Basin.
This ten-year project has attracted conservationists and fishers of all stripes and is not without controversy. The treatment of the back country lakes and rivers is detailed at the FWP site.

More Snow Behavior

CHAINS OR SNOW TIRES REQUIRED

Try This For Awhile

.. Via Horse's Mouth, bless their hearts !

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And via Moldy Chum.

.. Bless their hearts too !

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.. visit Baitchucker for the best in "NEW RELEASES."

It's Just A Couple Weeks Away

SNOW AGAIN LAST NIGHT

Bring Insulated Waders

to joust or to dance ?

.. On May 24, 2008 a Yellowstone ritual begins. Opening day for fishing in the park promises to bring a bit of weather for Memorial Day. For those with any time on their legs this brings back memories of days gone bye. Days when the decision to "fish the park" was a problematic one.
.. The long range forecast suggests a bit of unsettled weather and highs only in the 40' and 50's. We'll keep you posted. One thing is certain: fishing will take place. And just what is this wondrous thing called fishing?
.. The vocabulary of this fishing thing gives us insight. It is colorful, interesting and revealing. You hear it in the pubs. You hear it in the fly shops. You hear it at the outfitters. It is colorfully embellished and expanded by the guides in conversation with their sports.
.. The terms are dear to us and we use them unthinkingly: "tough fish," "honker," "killer fish," "toad," "brute," "fight," "battle," "submarine," "struggle," "rod bender," and on it goes. The clear and unveiled under layer of this vocabulary speaks of confrontation, aggression, war, and mortality.
.. The insidious import of our vocabulary gives insight into the attitude of the fishing encounter. Competition, superiority, defeat, mastery, and submission are carried with the fishing vocabulary.
.. There is no denying the brutality within the history of fishing, (know what a 'priest' is?) There is no denying the origins of fishing as a "blood sport." What is interesting, in this age of catch and release, is the persistence of the vocabulary of battle, domination, and death.
.. For ourselves, we've long since reduced our fishing vocabulary to the words of dance. Our encounters with our finned partners are waltzes, foxtrots, sambas, and jitterbugs. On rare occasion we engage in ballet, or even bop.
.. Our partners have proven their initial willingness to dance by accepting our tokens of invitation. They behave boisterously, or condescendingly. They accept our offer with a shrug, or a swirl, or a tail slap. Would that the girls at the senior prom were as polite and honest as the fish we've met.
.. Still, the dance is not always a love fest. Sometimes a bit of flamenco creeps in. We've been tossed to and fro in a wild tango. And years ago there was a giant steelhead on the Gualala that was a marvelous square dancer; 'swing your partner.'
.. Come the 24th there will be hoards of well armed warriors descending on Yellowstone National Park. They will disembark from their panting steel steeds with pikes, lances, shields, swords and spears at the ready. They will charge through the wet grass and brush to their chosen arena.
.. The lists will be well defined by the combatants; tread not or face their wrath. They will flail the water to a froth. They will do battle with a creature whose brain is the size of a split-pea and whose heart is as mighty as a dragon's.
.. The scene is positively and persistently Medieval. The uniforms and armor will be gilded, and the knights-of-the-fly will joust with the denizens of the deep.
.. Tales of valor and defeat will emerge. The battles-royal will be retold in the common room at the pub . . . over a pint of grog. Ladies in waiting will swoon at the brave tales that are told in the courts of feather merchants. Arms will flail in describing the wars and cheers will ring out at the mastery over the slimy opponents. The jousting will have begun.
.. And jousting it surely is. This is not chivalric combat; the losers don't usually die, they are guilty of nothing. Jousting indeed, they are just providing entertainment for the wealthy. The tilting at piscaformes is a spring ritual that offers diversion for the noble, (mobile,) class. It is not indulged in by the common people or serfs. They have to work on Memorial Day, and Labor Day too.
.. This hastilude is ritualized to the point of rote. The time, place, costume, manner, weapons, and demeanor are all codified by the culture of the fly. Woe be to he who violates the conventions. This is the modern equivalent of tilting at windmills.
.. It is a serious and delusional sport. It is as cerebral as it is physical - more so. It is reality and fantasy pulled together in a charade that is at once profound and trivial.
.. It takes place in legendary, nay, heraldic surroundings, and on sacred ground. It is played upon a backdrop where gods have tread. The paths and rivers drip with tradition and pageantry. Their names are legend and immortal. This is jousting in it's finest sense. and the money quote from Cervantes says it all.

Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all,
to see life as it is and not as it should be.

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.. We're too old for jousting and tourney's. Our lists are poorly defined and rather small. On the 24th of May we're going dancing. Hopefully we'll find a willing partner. Perhaps some waltzes and if we're lucky some western swing. The younger neighbors are looking for a lap dance or two.

Say It Again George

THAT WARM FUZZY FEELING

We Pay More -- You Pay Less

be green ?
It snowed last night and this morning
opening day prognostication - tomorrow

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.. George Wurethner in NEW WEST points us to the need for careful scrutiny in the expenditure of public funds for conservation easements.
.. He argues for more transparency in the process and an explication of the "good" being done in both ecological and fiscal terms. It's well worth a read if you care about the increasing trend of land trusts subsidizing grazing on public lands. If you don't care about that, how about the price for 100 bison to graze outside Yellowstone National Park -- $1,500,000. Yes that's one point five million dollars, (this time.)
.. This comes close on the heels of our post about the Nature Conservancy adding a 4,682 acre easement to a growing easement around the Blackfoot River. It gives one pause.

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Background:

-- Ascended Masters are persons who once lived on earth. By the experience of Reincarnation, they have, through trial and testing, rid themselves of negative Karma, have become perfected, and have ascended back to their divine source or “God.” The Ascended Masters belong to a larger order consisting of Eastern Masters and Western Saints known as the White Brotherhood. White refers to the aura of white light that surrounds these ethereal beings.

When Ascended Masters find sensitive persons like Mark and Elizabeth, they use these individuals to convey their messages to others. The hearers are thus transformed and placed on the road to ascension.

When Mark Prophet was “called” to be a messenger, he distributed the Masters’ teachings in letters known as Pearls of Wisdom. When he died in 1973, Elizabeth Prophet carried on his works. She renamed the organization from Summit Lighthouse to Church Universal and Triumphant. Elizabeth now receives messages or “dictations” from the Masters and through classes, sessions, and writings, she transfers the “truths” to her hearers.

-- The Royal Teton Ranch, owned by a religious cult the Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT), is located within North America's largest wildlife migration corridor directly adjacent to Yellowstone's northern boundary.

In 1998 U.S. taxpayers spent $13 million on conservation easements to allow wildlife, including wild bison, to access these lands. The government never finalized the deal.

"Hundreds of bison are being captured and slaughtered at Yellowstone's northern boundary exclusively because of the CUT's refusal to honor the intention of the land exchange to provide needed winter range habitat for migrating bison," stated BFC's Josh Osher.

-- The violet flame works a little like soap. Soap gets dirt out of your clothes by using the positive and negative charges of atoms. It works because each of its molecules has two sides-a side that is attracted to dirt and a side that is attracted to water. The dirt-loving side attracts the dirt, like a magnet attracts paper clips when it is dragged through a box of them. The water-loving side sticks to the water, carrying the dirt with it.

When we invoke the violet flame, it sets up a polarity between the nucleus of the atom and the white-fire core of the flame. The nucleus, being matter, assumes the negative pole; the white-fire core of the violet flame, being Spirit, assumes the positive pole.

-- Although too small in landmass to provide the title “Free-ranging Yellowstone bison,” the range is released through a pact agreement and collaboration between three federal agencies, two Montana agencies, one private landowner and a coalition of four non-profit organizations. Officials announced the agreement Thursday.

-- “If everything goes right over the years and all the bison ‘behave,’ the best-case scenario will take us to Step 3 of the existing IBMP where only 100 untested bison will be allowed to use the corridor and the small acreage of public land in Zone 2 west of the river and south of Yankee Jim Canyon,” Hockett says. “Thus in a year like this one, instead of 1,300 bison being captured by the government and sent to slaughter, the government would capture 1,200 bison and dispose of them accordingly.”

-- The 2000 Interagency Bison Management Plan provided $2.8 million for the 30-year grazing lease on the Church Universal and Triumphant’s (CUT) Royal Teton Ranch, but APHIS Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Bruce Knight says his agency will not be able to provide the $1.5 million needed to meet state and private funds. APHIS currently has a $9 million budget to manage the disease brucellosis. The lease was intended to allow increased bison tolerance by allowing animals exiting the park to access winter forage on the CUT’s property.

-- The combination of continued population growth in Montana’s valleys and insufficient legal regulations for rivers has county governments across western and southwestern Montana, including Missoula, wrestling with potential streamside setback regulations. Last year the state legislature briefly considered a state-wide setbacks bill before deciding the issue should be handled at the county level.

-- The grazing association has leased the Plum Creek land for grazing for 45 years. “That ground was an important part of our operation,” according to Stew Schwartz of the grazing association. “If the Plum Creek land was subdivided, it would have put a lot more people and houses in the middle of our cows and that doesn’t make running cows any easier. We’ve all had to give a little to make it work, but I think it’s going to be great,” added Schwartz.

.. Say it again George. There seem to be concerns here that have very little to do with bison or trout. It's America; its $$$$$.

Some News Briefs

BLACKFOOT GETS SOME RELIEF

Rock Snot At It Again
vigilance quashes quaggas

NPS Partners To Fight Invasive Species
whirling away in colorado

.. This week the Nature Conservancy added 4,682 acres to an easement adjacent to a 2,888 acre easement already protected in the Blackfoot River Drainage. The nearly 7,000 acre chunk of land is prime trout and wildlife habitat.
.. According to Matthew Frank in the recent
New West Article:

"The land is in the foothills southwest of Lincoln abutting the Helena National Forest, and the easement, held by Missoula-based Five Valleys Land Trust, will limit development on three and a half miles of Blackfoot River frontage and more than fourteen miles of its tributaries. It's Five Valleys Land Trust's largest easement to date."

.. This is a welcome bit of relief for one of the fastest growing areas in Montana. The effort to protect the resource is a combination of personal, private, organizational, and charitable concerns. This acquisition is part of an ongoing 89,000 acre effort in the area.

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.. Protect Your Waters notes that Rock Snot is becoming an ever-present concern for fishers, boaters, and the general public. They cite several news articles that have called attention to the problems created by this slimy organism.
.. We've posted several blurbs about about the diatom Didymosphenia geminata -DIDYMO, for short, (Rock Snot, for the rest of us.)
.. The Star Ledger, a New Jersey newspaper, has taken up the cry to inform anglers of the threat and the ways to combat Didymo.
.. Branded a "stream killer," the diatom covers river and stream bottoms with its oozing mass and deprives plants and animals of the surfaces that they need to live.

.. The Express Times, another New Jersey newspaper, has an interesting, (and somewhat gloomy,) article about the life cycle of Rock Snot. The rapid spread of the organism from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere, and its adaptation to a wide range of water conditions and temperatures suggest that its natural history may be changing. Check it out HERE.
.. In the Baltimore Sun is another note about Rock Snot threatening the Gunpowder River. Just last December we noted that the river was under assault by a local canoe club. Now the killer snot is a clear and present danger.
.. The algae bloom was noted by concerned anglers and reported to the state DNR last week. The Baltimore Sun article carries a note about the DNR providing washing stations and posting the river.
.. A second news brief by the CBS affiliate WJZ in Baltimore notes that the DNR is asking boaters to was their boats in a saline solution. Didymo can survive on a damp surface for two or more days.

.. Big Bear Lake in California came within inches of having a Quagga Mussel invasion. Via Protect You Waters, comes news that the Quagga Mussel is on the move. Quick action and insight save a near infestation at the boat ramp according to an article on the Big Bear Grizzly.com web site. The Metropolitan Water District is launching an all out public information campaign and has attendants at the boat launch facilities on the lake.

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.. In Nevada, National Park Service officials have been given the go ahead to join with local organizations to do battle with the Quagga Mussel and other invasive species according to an article in the Las Vegas ReviewJournal.com.
.. A bill passed by congress removes a legal obstacle that had prevented the federal agency from entering cooperative agreements with states, local governments, landowners and American Indian tribes to battle invaders that steal water and crowd native vegetation.
.. This could open the way for additional resources in the fight against invasive species.

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.. The Parvin Lake Research Station in Colorado, (home of the Hofer strain of Rainbow Trout, brought back to the USA from Germany a few years ago,) is inviting anglers to become research assistants in their efforts to develop trout hybrids that are resistant to Whirling Disease.
.. Many of the hybrids are larger than the native trout and can rapidly reach five pounds, (this includes the HO-HA hybrid being tested in Utah.)
.. Various hybrid strains have been tagged with small coded wires placed in the fishes' noses. Anglers are asked to visit the research station, report their experience, and if they keep fish -- have them scanned for identification. You can read more about the project in the North Forty News & Fossil Creek Current.

.. This research is is detailed in a pair of notes on the Whirling Disease Foundation web site ( #1 #2 .) The cooperation between Colorado, Montana, California, and Germany has produced some success by using fish that were originally exported from the Gunnison River to Germany in the 1800's.
.. The best news is that there may be an immune, (not just resistant strain,) present in the current research populations. Via Protect Your Waters, we've just read a note in FlyFishingDish that suggest -- nay -- says so. The sad news is that many native trout species and subspecies will be lost in the rush to sprinkle these hybrids around for the joys of angling.
.. The disappearance of any species is a blow to the ecosystem. The solution to the problem of whirling disease has the seeds of another problem that is just in its infancy.
.. We don't know how to do it, but it's time we considered a legacy fish bank. Be it sperm, or eggs, both or neither we should be thinking about it. Tissue samples, live fish repositories, and other solutions to the infant problem have been proposed.
.. Just as the Gunnison River trout went to Germany and came back with a resistance to whirling disease, so too to many of our native species may have hidden genetic talents and predispositions that are yet to be discovered. We need to think about preserving them for the next plague. What ever it may be.

photo courtesy Whirling Disease Foundation

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Mapping Underway

JUST A FEW MORE FISHING LOCATIONS

SHORT BUT SWEET

.. We've added some places on the Gallatin River - (Grayling Creek,) Gibbon River, and the Madison River outside of Yellowstone National Park.
.. The Grayling Creek locations are on the Gallatin River map because of their proximity and access points. They will also be included on the Madison River map.
.. The general map has been skewed by a visitor who place a location somewhere between Shafer and Hannahsville in West Virginia. It looks rugged and "Trouty" but it's not Yellowstone. As soon as we figure out how to remove it the base map will be back to an easily navigable size.
.. So far there have been over 1,000,000 visits to the maps. This is growing by somewhere between 200 and 500 per day at the present time.
.. For access to all maps individually go to "YELLOWSTONER'S MAPS."
.. For access to the suite of maps click the map page link in this page's header.

Are You Mature Enough ?

GOT NOSTALGIA ?

get it !

GO WITH IT !

.. Do you remember Killroy? Were you there? Have you ever seen a Jeep pulling a plow? Just what is the Hiller-Haller-hallelujah twist?

.. Ever listen to Spike Jones? Just how big was that trout you landed before they dammed the Truckee River? -- OH, you ran down from the bleachers and caught its flopping and dying body from the empty river!

.. Are your memories trapped in a dusty corner of the garage? The basement? The attic? Worse, a storage facility? Get them out and enjoy them.

.. With the need to remember comes a glorious joy in being alive. Fly fishing, indeed, all fishing helps us remember. It provides a respite from the grind of day to day living. Fishing gathers together a bit of the past every time it is indulged -- enjoy it. Do you know what a 'hand line' is? Ever use one? On a big fish?

.. Have you ever fished the 'hot corner' during a big bite between Catalina and Pier Point Landing? With an un-split-cane-pole? Yes, pole!

.. Do your remember the stir that the Feralite Ferrule caused? Do you still have a square x-section Ames steel fly rod? Why did you ever give up on bamboo for that new fangled glass stuff?

.. Where were you when Mad Man Muntz said:

"I'd give 'em away - but my wife won't let me
. . . she's crazy"?

.. Have you kept dozens of flies that time and abuse have reduced to nearly bare hooks? Good for you!

.. Just where is that old B&W of you and dad and your first fish? Or the second fish? Or the first bait bucket, or that card of flies; the scarlet ibis rules!

.. Did you ever have a 'fish car' or 'fish truck?' Was it a corn binder, Volkswagen, Studebaker, Diamond Reo?

..Did you let your girlfriend in it or did you subscribe to the "true-fact" that wimmen spoil fishin'?

.. Well, 'Bunky,' there are some interesting places on the web for feeding your nostalgia. Besides our own individual memories there are a raft of cultural memories to be had, and they're just a click or two away.
.. Although the Rams and Packers and Saints are fun today, what about "Tank Younger," "Bart Starr," "Deacon Dan" Towler, and the other old or dead farts of the past? What about Wulff, or Kelson? Who was Corey Ford?
.. Many of our cultural memories trigger personal reminiscences and they can be found on the web. Try a few of the links below for your own personal, (public and private,) journey into memory lane.

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.. The Saturday Evening Post (nearly 2,000,000 images in a Google search; including covers,) is an obvious place to start: but, have you tried the Curtis Publishing web site? It's fully indexed and has the post covers, some Country Gentleman images, and even has some fine nostalgic videos. If you aren't fishing get off the couch and click a few (HERE.)

.. Should you have a hankering for the deep blue, there's a couple of places to grab your attention. Try the "old photos page" at Antique & Classic Fishing Reels. Of for you left coast fans travel, (by click,) to the photos on the Balboa Pavilion web site.

.. For the curious and exploratory there's Bibi's box. This is a blog from 'a curious girl blogging to share and enjoy.' Everything from "HOT PANTS HOMO," through Garbo, to fishing art is displayed and indexed. The posts ended in January, (a video blog and carnival is the excuse,) we hope that they resume soon. Bibi's vintage category is HERE.

.. Should you feel the need to be trapped by strictly fishing nostalgia, try Google for about 150,000 images or nearly 300,000 entries of various kinds of prose.

.. There's even nouveau nostalgia by Alan Metz if you want to encapsulate some contemporary memories.

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.. Want some Andrew Sisters? CLICK HERE. Want some more? Click HERE, & HERE.

.. Maybe some Annette Henshaw?

	Annette Hanshaw - Happy Days Are Here Again 11-2-1930
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

.. Straight from BeeMP3
.. How about some 1940's music? Click HERE.
.. Too old for you? How about some 50's gems? Click HERE.
.. The Time Machine will provide you with custom recording restoration and compilation. They will convert your old movies and restore your old wax cylinders, (they came just before wire recorders, flat platter records, 78's, 45's, 33 1/3 LP's, and tape recorders: not to mention 8-track, beta, cassettes, Cd's, DVD's, and the stick!) They do this by precobobulating the turbulators. Visit the site for some free MP3's -- whatever that is.

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.. Well, it's about to cloud up after a fairly bright day. We can hear the fish crunching crustaceans from our couch. Sound like scuds or sow bugs, (oops -- shouldn't have said that,) and we know that there will be a few caddis fluttering about the slow spots down-canyon just a bit.
.. Our chair is too hard and the sun just got warm behind the clouds. Reminds us of . . .