30 Days And Counting!!

Fellow Extravaganzers:

 

Just thirty (count 'em) days from today, the illustrious warriors of the incomparable band of Group One will alight from their Delta aircraft with (last year's) rod in hand to test the now feisty waters of the rivers surrounding the sleepy town of Missoula.  With college now out for the summer and the runoff well underway, emotionally anyway, this small city is currently in its fishing and activity doldrums, and what a wake up call that will be for it one score and ten days from now when our Group One hits town!!

 

And, as a preview of what we are in for (namely, a legendary year), check out the flow of water now scouring and rejuvenating the rivers that we will be fishing:   Updating our flow chart, now on an almost daily basis (and permanently located just below the weather button on Der Blog), our base Rock Creek flowage is now up to the highest that it has ever been since we purchased our Rock Creek home now six years ago, currently flowing (sprinting?!?) at a rampant 4,180 cubic feet per second.  Lower sections of the Bitterroot River (in the portions closest to its confluence with the Clark Fork) are now closed, as access parking lots are now lakes, and flood warnings are now more common than drought was just a year ago.  And, to add further interest and character to the confusion, additional snow flurries are predicted for this evening, assuring that "more liquid is further on the way".

 

"How does this all compare to last year?" many of you have asked.  Well, take a gander at the attached 2007 Rock Creek flow chart that shows that, exactly one year ago, water on Rock Creek was flowing at the rate of 1800 cfs (less than half of today's rate) and where the highest flowage of the season was 2310 cfs and that was at one week ago--and the fishing last year was one of our best year's ever. 

 

As we approach tee off time for Group One, what we now anxiously look for is the drop in Rock Creek flowage down to right around 1,850 cfs, at which time our rivers become our friends and our fish find our nets.  As things now become more relevant, upcoming emails to you will be of more relevance as well, as they will include not just the hyperbole of all that we might be doing but, also, (a) your camp list items of things to begin packing, (b) information on what you will be doing upon your arrival in Montana (you veterans already know!), and (c) notification that, being sensitive to increased out of pocket costs to our best fishing friends, our guides, we are going to increase our recommended guide tip to $40/day/person (our first increase in five years and up from $25/day/person).

 

Hang on gang, as we are soon to be in the midst of something very, very special, namely Extravaganza 2008!!

 

Best to all,

 

Rock Creek Ron