Here's Mud In Your H2O

BROWN IS THE COLOR OF MY . . .

They're Going Out

Fish The Edges
wait it for a spell

.. It had to happen. It does so every year. The rivers in Yellowstone National Park are changing color and character. Rain, temperature, and other vagaries bring about the seasonal change. We call it runoff, (although runoff occurs all year long,) and we moan.
.. How long will it last? When will they come back into shape? When can we go fishing? Where should we fish now? Imponderables!
.. Here's the poop: the neighbors fish Between the Lakes, the edges of Hebgen Lake and Quake Lake, and a bit of water above the Taylor Fork between Snowflake Springs and the park line.
.. Below are the discharge charts from the USGS that we watch daily. Click on a chart for current, real-time conditions, (note: the Madison River at Grayling, Mt. is Hebgen Reservoir discharge.)
.. This could last for some time given our long range forecast. A week of moderating temperatures with intermittent snow and rain should only postpone the inevitable.

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FIREHOLE RIVER

GIBBON RIVER

MADISON AT WEST YELLOWSTONE

MADISON AT GRAYLING

MADISON AT KIRBY RANCH

GALLATIN RIVER

.. BABY PLEASE DON'T GO - MUDDY WATERS.

..
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Baby Please Don't Go
Muddy Waters

Baby, please don't go
Baby, please don't go
Baby, please don't go, down to New Orleans
You know I love you so

Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
I get you way'd out here, and let you walk alone

Turn your lamp down low
Turn your lamp down low
Turn your lamp down low
I beg you all night long, baby, please don't go

You brought me way down here
You brought me way down here
You brought me way down here
'bout to Rolling Forks, you treat me like a dog

Baby, please don't go
Baby, please don't go
Baby, please don't go, back the New Orleans
I beg you all night long

Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
Before I be your dog
I get you way'd out here, and let you walk alone

You know your man down gone
You know your man down gone
You know your man down gone
To the country farm, with all the shackles on

by McKinley Morganfield a.k.a. Muddy Waters

As Arnold Said . . .

"I'LL BE BACK" - ohmygawd

SB 425 Alive But Not Well - Yet

Keep Watching This One

.. Just when we thought the Montana State Legislature had settled down to do the people's work along comes our old friend SB 425. It's hard to kill a walleye. The current bill is just a re-write of the construction authorization bill and a hasty effort to generate funds for an ailing facility.

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.. Here's an interesting section for your perusal: (red=stricken, blue=new, black=as written.)

--> (4) Costs for hatchery construction, operation, maintenance, and personnel are to be funded with revenue in the warm water game fish accounts established in 87-3-236, revenue in the general license account, or any federal funding available to the department. It is intended that the hatchery be constructed in stages as revenue becomes available in the warm water game fish accounts established in 87-3-236."

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.. At least the walleye is not going to be "declared" a native species in order to generate the funding.
.. Perhaps there are "WALLEYE BAILOUT FUNDS." Perhaps, as the hasty bill suggests, - we should all bailout the walleye.
.. For some informative reporting about the SB 425 visit GazOutdoors. For some interesting analysis check Will Fish For Work, (#1, #2.)
.. The bill has struggled but looks like it's a done deal.
.. The Bill's History: click HERE
.. The Verbiage: click HERE.
.. Montana FWP page on funding options: click HERE

How'd We Miss This ?

OLDEST PETRIFIED BRAIN
BELONGS TO A FISH

300 million is a lot of years

check the discussion at scientific american

.. Just what does a 300 million year old fish brain look like? How big is it, ( very small )? And, where can you find the information? And, who does this stuff anyway?
.. From an article at Scientific American we tracked down the original article at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences web site. It's an open source article so you don't have to pay to read it.
.. Specimens and researchers from Kansas and Oklahoma contributed to the landmark research. The fossil was from an iniopterygian, an ancient extinct fish that is a relative of sharks, rays and ratfish.
.. Researchers were surprised that the scan showed a brain. What surprised the researchers even further is that it showed a brain similar to that of a modern-day shark.
.. The image of the fossilized brain was recorded during a routine computed tomography (CT) scan, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
.. Until now, scientists assumed that brains rarely—if ever—turned into fossils. Other soft tissue fossils, such as muscles and kidneys, have been found that date back longer than 350 million years ago, but because the brain is delicate and consists mostly of water, it's much less likely to be preserved in fossil form.
.. Modern technology has revealed a fossil that was unknown before this application.
.. High-powered scans using x-ray synchrotron microtomography (which, like a CT, uses x-rays to image cross-sections of an object) allowed scientists to peer into the rock-solid skull to see the 0.06-by-0.28-inch (1.5 by 7 mm) brain.
.. Other bits of the fossil include braincase, orbits, and jaw fragments. There are also parts of the ear canal and other forward parts of the braincase.
.. Supporting documentation includes two movies, (sadly in a "dot mov" format, or we'd show them to you,) and a 4 page PDF document that details the techniques used and, the generated images.

.. As an aside; a spirited discussion about theology and old fishes is taking place on the Scientific American page. There must be something going on in Kansas.

click for larger image

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.. We can only wonder what kind of fly to use.

A Day In Wonderland

LIVE A LITTLE - LIVE A LOT

Have Fun - Help Out

the chance of a lifetime

.. The blog at 1% For The Planet has announced an auction that should interest most readers. Go fishing with one of our neighbors. Gather yourself together and investigate this opportunity.
.. You'll have the chance to bring a buddy and fish with Craig. Who? Craig Mathews, that's who.
.. This well known fly fishing personality, and co-founder of 1% For The Planet, will give it up for you, should you be the high bidder in the auction.
.. Secrets will be revealed. Techniques will be explored. Scenery will be experienced. Fish will be entertained - so will you.
.. The catching might just be as good as the fishing and the company. Just bring yourself and a bit of enthusiasm.
.. Craig will outfit you with all the right gear, tie a fly one handed, tell stories that only he can tell, and then take you to dinner. What more can a mere mortal ask?
.. What a deal. You get a chance to go fishing - and support a great effort. Perhaps you'll out-fish the master - now that's an opportunity not to be missed.
--> Just 9 days left.
Read about the auction HERE. Enter your bid HERE.

If It's Not One Thing, It's . . .

GRAB YOUR 9 WEIGHT

Pike Roaming The Jeff

use trout imitations for flies

.. A heads up from the TROUT UNDERGROUND pointed us at a Billings Gazette note about the proliferation of pike in the Jefferson River.
.. The official confirmation has been slow in coming despite angler reports for the past couple of years. [ The current flurry of concern has prompted news sources to quickly jump on the information: KPAX.com, KXnet.com, HELENAir.com. By the time you read this Google news will probably have a 1/2 dozen more.]
.. The Flathead River also has a large population of pike that are threatening the native Westslope Cutthroat and Bull Trout populations; read about it HERE.
.. The Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks is watching the situation closely in an effort to fully understand the situation. Stay tuned. In the meantime downsize some marlin flies - change the colors a bit, and head for the JEFF!

A Mixed Bag

MONDAYS ARE JUST THAT WAY

Things Pile Up

this is catch-up

.. It is a constant and ever present surprise to us that things "out there" happen while we're futzing around the local rivers. But, wonder of wonders - they do.
.. The Monday crash of real-world events sneaks into our electric monster and appears before our eyes: uninvited, and blatantly unrepentant. Life goes on.
.. Here's a few things that caught our eye and held it long enough to sink in:

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--> Instant Karma: heads up from Protect Your Waters, courtesy of connect2earth, via 7genblog.

..

.. We can imagine a dozen scenarios applicable to fisher folks.

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--> Photo Workshop for the rest of us: heads up from Yellowstone Park Newspaper, Courtesy of Yellowstone Association, through the Yellowstone Association Institute, via Bozone.com... This would certainly help our images. But, three weekend days without fishing . . .

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--> Cheap, (sort'a,) Lodging: by Marilyn Crain, National Parks Travel Examener. The lodges in Yellowstone National Park offer a great value compared to the inns and other lodging. Read about how to stay at Lake Lodge as your central fishing location for this year's road construction travel interruption. Use the cabins for an "ol'-timey feel."-------

.. Time for grease and gutbombs. Bisquits & gravy, flapjacks, toast & real butter, half-pound of bacon, two eggs, (over medium,) hash browns and buttermilk: washed down with a quart or so of yesterday's coffee, (waste not - want not,) -- YUM!

Mostly Gentle

TOO MUCH TRAFFIC ALREADY ?

"U" Turn At Apollinaris Spring

the dodo's are lose

.. It would seem that on the second day of Yellowstone's Summer Season that visitors savvy enough to arrive early would also be smart enough to have a bit of consideration and suavity - not so for a few of the visitors that we saw yesterday.
.. Briefly: a madhouse of dogs running lose on the lawn at the Albright Visitor Center, "U" turns in several unlikely and unsafe places, parking in the road, toddlers running in the road, toddlers between elk & bison & sink holes, cars sideways in the road with no driver, cars buried in the untracked snow of side roads and pull-outs, bicyclists three abreast going up the hill from Mammoth, bicyclists and their water stations taking up full pullouts, mobile condominiums pulling Hummer's parked in the middle of the road at Gibbon Falls, etc.
.. It's no wonder we did not see any law enforcement all day - they're probably hiding from the chaos.
.. But, we digress. The Gibbon river drainage is only slightly ahead of the Madison River drainage in it's runoff, (yes there's more pictures of culverts in the slide show.)
.. There is very little color in the water and it's bank-full. We took a few of the obligatory pictures to prove that we actually got off of our duff and made the trip. Flood stage can only be a week or so away for the Gibbon River - talk about color, we'll let you know.
.. There was a mayfly of some sort spotted in the "Tunnel" just upriver from Tuff Cliff. Not far away was a dead ground squirrel. We speculate that the two are not related - but . . .
.. Gibbon Falls is still running clear. We would have taken a picture but an obstruction in the form of a land yacht was jackknifed and parked on the double yellow line - check his pictures; his wife was yelling instructions from the open side door. She ignored many unfriendly finger-salutes from a long line of irritated visitors weaving their way past the bright orange monster.
.. The Gibbon River Canyon is particularly beautiful this time of the year. We're going to miss the fishing during the road construction. The route of the new road will make access to about 3 miles of the canyon a genuine backcountry adventure. Reclamation for the old roadbed will guarantee that the down and up of it will reduce fishing pressure.
.. A graben has opened up in the middle of the soon-to-be-abandoned road section. It looks like the road is about to slide into the river. Repairs and abandonment are probably right on time.
.. The big meadows, (Elk Meadows and Gibbon Meadows,) are still covered with a foot or more of snow. No elk were present but coyotes and bison were under the cloud of spume from Monument, (bison in the trees is like trout in the grass- rare but not unusual.)
.. The little meadows at Norris are nearly snow-free and thoroughly saturated with ponded water and geese. The grayling meadows above the cascades are pure white and driven.
.. With the opening just 4 weeks away, (May 22, 2009,) and the long range forecast in our favor there might be a chance to fish these areas early. On the other hand given the caprice of mom, there could be mud in the water through the second week in June, (oe even later,) - we'll have to wait and see.
.. Elroy joined us for coffee and a cigar as we watched the geese near the confluence of Solfaterra Creek and the Gibbon River. He was alone and persistent; seemed more vocal than the other day too.
.. Mammoth in the early season is just a mini-chaos compared to July and August. We decided to brave it and check out the discharges from Obsidian Creek and Indian Creek. Both are crystal clear and slow.
.. The springs at Mammoth are dry and chalky and the runoff is very low to non existent. The construction project at the restrooms may have hit a glitch and could keep 1/2 of the facility closed until the very late season.
.. Now is the time for architectural photography in Mammoth. It's possible to gain some unobstructed views and perspectives - if you are patient. The historic buildings are, (for the most part,) not obscured by the vegetation of invasive landscaping. Pick your spot and lighting conditions. We took a few and a wallpaper edition will be forthcoming.

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