Well, the boats are now in and the tallies tallied and, despite unusually high waters for this low of a water year, fishing Day One for Group One, as reported in the nightly boat reports, was declared "a success"!!
We award one yellow hat for the largest fish of the day and, as shown above, that honor, together with the distinction of being our first Twenty Inch Club Member, went to Frank "The Rat" Ratto in honor of his 21 1/4 inch (notice how precise the on boat, guide supervised measurement was, gang!) "German Brown" caught on the Bitterroot River, where, without exception all of our boats fished yesterday. Fishing with boatmate John "Half -Centurion" Kruger, who ambly reported "he had a very good streamside lunch" provided by his "awesome guide" Scott Belz (who showed up for our Hawaiian Day festivities bear-chested in a grass skirt and delicately appointed coconut breast cups [sans implants, I might add], Frank beamed at his adoring crowd of reprobates and announced, "I am wearing this hat tomorrow" [which he, in fact, did!]--the rat!!
Next to report about was the "flat tire" mishaps of Jim "Chaos" Hendrickson and his bro-in-law "Co-Chaos" Davis Walker. Arriving a full 45 minutes late to our après fishing rendezvous, Hooters, Chaos A and Chaos B reported on a dozen landed fish, with the largest "more or less 16" in length"--note the contrast from the report above...indeed, chaos abounded/abounds! Brian "Morraine" Shepard then reported that his two boats (he fishing with daughter "Beautiful Eliza Jane", and two Father Day fishing sons "Chief" Josef and "Tsar" Nicolas landed more than a dozen fish, many on the first dry fly action of the year--the just hatching green drakes, with the largest of the bunch being an 18" brown in the boy's "royalty boat".
Returning veteran John "Snag Em" Rosenbaum reported that he, link "Half-Centurion Kruger", had "a beautiful lunch"--he being more of a Day One observer as both sons-"Amiable Adam" and "Big Ben"--landed 18" Bitterroot fish--Adam a "rainbow fish" and Ben a Brown...John concluding his report with the restated quality of the day's luncheon repast. And then came the father-son Downer combo--with "Big Fish Michael" talking of the two eighteen inchers that graced their boat and leaving father Eddie (forever now known in Extravaganzaland as "Two License Eddie"--it seems that he forgot to bring his just hours-earlier hard fought-for/purchased fishing license with him that day and, hence, had to by a second, hence further his new permanent branding)--talking about the two (how appropriate!) bald eagles that they saw in a tree together while they miraculously at the same time were watching their fishing indicators. Yes, it truly takes special qualities to become a member of any Extravaganza Group One!!
Reporting down the line, (a) the dynamic duo of John "SOS" Reimann and Demetry "The Ghost" Kondratieff told of their dozen fish day highlighted by The Ghost's 18 1/2 inch beauty and bragging, proudly, that they were the first boat in and, hence, "opened the Hooter's tab", while the underwhelming fishing duo of Brad "Pinko" Colton and "Minnow Mel McCormack" talked of the former's coffee making ability at the Bunk House and the latter of his largest minnow--a 14" rainbow; (b) Dan "The Kilt" Rogers told of his 16" largest take; (c) father/son combo Cal-Cal and Jack-Jack Walters talked of son Jack's first day fly fishing ever, brauts and beer for lunch and of "landing a marmot"; (d) and Mike "Oh So" Wise and Larry "Go Cats" Gondola spoke of "losing a lot of flies today" and backcasting into a 19" Coached Brown.
Rock Creek Ron concluded the ribaldry with his (truthful) report of a 35+ fish Bitterroot day with daughter Trina, which included three 19 inchers--a brown, a rainbow, and a cuttbow--and a story of "the 20 incher that got away"--it seems that RCR brought a 20 inch brown to the side of the boat only to have guide "John The Great But Propaneless" wanting to get the fish on video--something that was accomplished after a short "just hold 'em RCR" break, only to have the video now to reveal just how the beauty-in-holding swam away with a Santa Clausesque-like head twitch, leaving the fish netless, and, hence, a non-qualifying Twenty Inch Club member!
Smiles, sun tan lines and sated fishing desires summarized the day's end state of the assembled multitude of the Ignoble Ones, with visions of green drakes bidding all a good evening and well-served day.
Best to all from the Day One scene of it all,
Rock Creek Ron
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