GENTILITY WANING
Catching Picking Up
elbows arrive en masse
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| WALLPAPER: MODERN MUDDLER |
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| WALLPAPER: ORIGINAL MUDDLER by Don Gapen |
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| AS NOAA SEES IT |
.. The big low off the coast is spinning off pulses that are suggesting that the snows in the forecast may be for real.
.. The destination for most of the recent visitors is the Madison River. Runner fever is rampant in town and on the river. Rightly so!
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.. As he fished the Madison River he was taking a few good sized runners with regularity. We waited for him to take a break.
.. Eventually, (not to be pushy or pry too much,) we asked about the strange bit of fluff wrapped on the hook that he was using.
.. He chuckled and reminded us that we knew the name but not the fly. Of course it was a "Muddler" tied in the fashion of Don Gapen's original fly. The one that has transformed itself into the modern Muddler Minnow.
.. The pertinence of this is a rather simple lesson about the variation of stylistic impositions of ego maniacal fly tiers. The flies in fly shops look little like the original. Even the one sold by Don's family is a later variation of the original.
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| FROM THE GAPEN FAMILY |
.. Most interesting of all is that the one being used by the fellow from Chicago was catching fish at a rate far above that of the other three fishers, (crowded into the same run,) - two of whom were using Muddler Minnows dispensed by local counter help. My, my.
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| OH SO PRETTY |
.. Had the gentleman told the others what fly he was using?
.. But of course he had! He just hadn't shown them the one that he was using. They didn't even ask.
.. We've mentioned this before and do so again in the hope that this grand old fly will return to it's "buggy" roots and gather up fish the way it was intended to.
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.. Deeper into the wilds of Yellowstone National Park, all the pull-outs and paved parking lots are full of invasive license plates. |
| A LOCAL FLUFFY ONE |
.. Were it not for the dogged insistence of the floating fly fraternity this could be termed "beginner water."
.. Soft hackles and little nymphs, appropriately presented, are damn near guaranteed to weaken your wrist from cranking the reel to subdue the 10" monsters of the Fall Firehole River.
.. For the persistent surface slingers there seems to be a trend toward flies a bit larger that resemble the small patterns made so popular by the guide books.
.. Way up the road the Gallatin River is still delighting a few of the neighbors. Some have even ventured out of the park and traveled as far as Big Sky, Montana.
.. With a whisper we gently report that, in the biggest of meanders, streamer stripping is taking it's toll on the sullen fish of the darkest waters of the Gallatin River. For some folks it's worth the drive to avoid the elbow hatch around here.
.. Other whispers, (that we will be soundly chastised for,) include: Bacon Rind Creek, Gibbon River - by the campground, West Fork Gallatin River, South Fork Madison River, and of course the Upper Firehole River, (not to mention Iron Spring Creek.)
.. With all that whispering going on it must be Autumn in the neighborhood. The moon has become black and the evening turns to night way too early.
.. Time for a breakfast cookie and some milk.
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| WALLPAPER: BUTTERSCOTCH COOKIES |
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