...And Now a Word from our Outfitter...

Hey Ron, Here's the update...

Greetings from "soggy" Montana, and the Bitterroot Valley! June is here, and the tide of E10 will soon wash back into the rivers of western Montana, with all of us on board! Hoist the flag and "tally-ho", the shear number of boats on the water from E10 this year may be enough to raise water levels a bit! All kidding aside, we are much lower on snow pack than we were the past two years of Extravaganzas, but not to worry. The coolest spring we've had in quite a few years continues here, and the amount of rain we've been getting is amazing. Painted Rocks Reservoir is full, and overflowing. This is the reservoir that generates a good percentage of the Bitterroot rivers flow. Experts agree that we still have enough snow, and rain in the forecast, to fill Painted Rocks at least three more times this season!!! All in all, we will be just fine for E10 this month and next. The funny part is, that we as guides, love fishing our rivers at any level. I especially like lower than average water conditions, as our quarry has far fewer places to hide from us! Add in the fact that we have had excellent flows for the past few years, and our trout here in western Montana are healthier and as strong as they can be, and you have a combination for success! No  one worry, we always get you into fish, AND we are going to be fly fishing in Montana, and I know that's all I could ever ask for...

    Don't forget to dig deep in the closet, or visit your local surf shop for the 2nd annual Hawaiian Shirt Day, for the first day of each group! Confusing to trout, and strenuous on the guides vision, Hawaiian shirt day will once again grace our boats, and later our camera chips, adding a few extra giggles to some of Ron's Blog postings!

    All of us here at Double Up are looking forward to another amazing time on the waters of western Montana with you all here very, very soon! Pack your bags, forget the rest of the world, and welcome back to Montana, Extravaganza style!!! See you all in a couple weeks and...

    Fish ON,

 

John Gould
Double Up Outfitters LLC
4209 Edgewater way
Stevensville, MT
59870

Phone:406.240.9498

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Group Two Men In The News: California State Varsity Lacrosse Champions!

E-10ers:

 

Shout out an Extravagant "CONGRATS" to Group Two's Doug "Popeye" Hamilton shown above with his two boys (Josh on his right and Ryan on the other right) after their weekend procurement of the California High School Varsity Club Lacrosse Championship---congrats Casa Grande guys!! 

 

"Popeye" returns this year for his seventh [count 'em] Extravaganza with son Ryan--unless, that is, sonny boy has a(nother) dance that he needs to attend--and reports:

So very proud of all our boys!   18 games of undefeated Lacrosse in California this year!

 

J. Douglas Hamilton

President

 

 

   

JUNE

 A nice note and pleasant reminder from Group Two's inimical Fawnlady, Lori Ware!

It's JUNE!

Fawn Lori VERY excited!

Thanks for the countdowns Montana Man!

"The Rookie": A True Fish Story (Really!!)

It is not every day that a permanent "rookie" is born--a rookie being defined as someone who is engaging in an activity (in this case fishing in Alaska) for the very first time and commits such an egregious rookie error (as in this case) that, forever, that person is to be known as "The Rookie".  Enter E-10 Group Three veteran Bruce "The Rookie" Mowat.

 

The scene was our frequent sequel to our annual Extravaganza--the "Alaskaganza" when, during the first week of September, 12 of us take over the entire Rainbow River Lodge [a five star float plane fly-in resort just outside Lake Iliamna, Alaska, a 1 1/2 hour charter flight due west of Anchorage] for some of the most satisfying and outrageously successful rainbow trout fishing in the world.  Such was the case this past September when several of our Extravaganzers, including Group One's Brian "Moraine Shepard, Group Two's Fred "The Guitar" Johnson and Tom "Sockeye" Thornhill joined up with Group Threers Grady "The Stick" Garrett, Bruce "The Rookie Mowat" and E-10 rookie Steve "Colorado" Herron.

 

As we had in the past, we flew into Rainbow River Lodge on a Saturday and then fished the next successive six (count 'em!) days, each day flying out early in the morn via float plane in groups of four to one of many available fishing sites.  As a prequel to what ensued that week, (no joke folks), knowing how revered our Twenty Inch Club is in Montana (where every twenty inch trout caught is registered on a specially anointable board), during these six days of Alaksaganza fishing this past September, the twelve of us, using seven weight 9' Winston BIIX fly rods, caught (and released) over two thousand (yes, 2,000) rainbow trout averaging over twenty four (yes, 24) inches in length.  To say the trip was a successful one, is the understatement of this yet early decade.

 

Well, picture yourselves out on the very last day of fishing with the four of us, Sockeye, Colorado, The Rookie and yours truly, Sourdough Ron, at the mouth of Battle Creek--one of the many feeding streams cascading downward from glaciers into Lake Iliamna.  The fishing that day was unusually (even for that area) hot--we were hooking up large rainbows after larger rainbows all day long, nymph fishing under an indicator with a salmon egg pattern (the rainbows were into Battle Creek following the then spawning Sockeye salmon--yes, the source of "Sockeye" name a year ago).  Our Great Falls, Montana guide, Jerry (who accompanied us along with Kathy's favorite guide Dorian), was sentimental that day, for, after decades of guiding in Alaksa with and among grizzly bears [yes, we had those next to us all that day long], this was his very last day of guiding in Alaska--the next day he was flying out with us back to Montana, leaving, forever, Alaksa in his rear view mirror.

 

Near the end of that day, the fishing "switched on"...first Colorado hooked into a 24" rainbow beauty, then Sockeye was greeted by a 26" bow, and then yours truly hooked into the rainbow of his life, a thirty (yes, 30) inch rainbow only to be followed by The Rookie, on his own (because our two guides already had their hands/nets full of eighty inches of rainbow), hooked into a 24" fish of his own which then joined the other three beauties in the net, now making 104" of rainbow in a single net--a record for soon to be retired Jerry.

 

The pictures above show part of this scene:  The first shows RCR's and Colorado's two fish in a single net; the second displays a thirty inch rainbow trophy (with The Rookie "hooked up" in the background")...and now comes the time for a legendary rookie error.  At Jerry's request, he asks that we each hold our fish up for a photo op that will "bedeck his wall for ever" reminding him of "his greatest guiding day ever"; but, lo, The Rookie first asks that he get a single shot of just him and his fish (while the rest of us bide or time nursing our squirming fish).  And, folks, you can now see what happened in the remaining two photos above:  "The Rookie", while posing for his cameo shot, drops his fish into the water and, splash, it is off to the races and gone...leaving the rest of us to pose with just our three, 80 inches of rainbow, leaving guide Jerry with only a memory of the photo that might have been.

 

Being in true "rookie" form, however, The Rookie asked us to pose in the last of the shots above (the very last photo taken during Alaskaganza 2009) with his arms out, as "I will just PhotoShop in a fish for Jerry"--an event that has yet to happen, and one that never should.

 

Soooo, when you hear of or, if you are in Group Three, you run into The Rookie, tell him that one really has to go out of his way to earn the dubious title of The Rookie, as such being very much the deserved case above....ah, the indignity of it all!! ...and, for those of you who might be interested, we will next return to Rainbow River Lodge during the first week of September, 2011--reservations are currently being taken with yours truly for Alaskaganza 2011.

 

I hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and accurate story of "The Rookie", as witnessed by your affiant during Alaskaganza 2009.

 

Rock Creek Ron (aka "Sourdough Ron")

---<'///><------<'///><-------<'///><.................<'-------/

 

Annual Pre-Extravaganza Tune-Up

Extravagant Ones:

 

Well, here it is:  The very last day in May--a Memorial one, this year the very Day when we give thanks to all of those who in the past "gave it all" so that we might have the privilege to be who we are, where we are, doing what we do in an unfetteredly free manner.  A true, hearty, and heartfelt toast to them all!

 

And, as tradition requires, for the fourth year in a row, the annual Pre-Extravaganza Exploratory Tune-Up Trip took place this past Friday, where a daring few veteran Extravaganzers take a day to arise early, drive 4+ hours north to Redding, CA to fish the Lower Sacramento River and then, sated, return home later that same day--making the driving and fishing time just about on a one-to-one ratio.  For many, this trip has been seen as the metaphysical omen-maker for the forthcoming Extravaganza--a look ahead, if you will, as to just what the (fishing) fortunes of E-10 just might be. 

 

If forecasting the trip be, as shown above, E-10 will be blessed with wonderful fisherfolk enjoying not only the fruits of the Napa Valley but also a bevy of 20" fish!  Note above the exploratory crew of E-veterans Bruce "The Rookie" [yes, there is a story there} Mowat, shouldered on his left successively by Scott "The Crack" McAdams [ibid}, RCR and Cam "Mend" Carlson (who, among them, have accumulated dozens of Extravaganzas) who then launched their unusually well fortified (with bottles of Elizabeth Spencer wines--this is the only sanctioned E-trip where booze is authorized/encouraged to be on board, btw!), to drift/wobble downstream into fishing heaven that yielded not only a beautiful fishing day but also one twenty inch trophy, as shown with "The Rookie"---congrats Bruce!!

 

As the result this (not really) daring pre-Extravaganza prelude, the formal Delphian metaphysical forecast for E-10 is "fish...a lot of fish (because we didn't catch many--you see--this is really Lower Sac trip is really a "reverse oracle" prognostication trip, all!)...many, many of which will be in the twenty inch category"...a good foreboding for our Twenty Inch Club. E-10ers!!

 

Best to all after the mysticism of it all,

 

R <'/C//>< R

 

Water Flow Update Report: No Reason For Panic!

 

 

Fellow E-10ers:

 

What a great group of water flow students/followers we have out there this (most unusual) of water flow years, who are following the slow flow with as much care as I am!!

 

Gang:  Here's the reason not to panic with this year's low and slow runoff, however:

 

    1.  This year we have exactly one half (1/2) of the snow pack of last year (the black line on chart).

 

    2.  Because of the cold May weather this year, the runoff has been delayed/non-existent, leaving much of the snow pack still resident on in the upper elevations.

 

    3.  If we had "normal May weather" this year (May temperatures have been an average of 20 degrees below normal in 2010 [global warming?!?]), all of the snow in the upper climes would have been fully melted off by now, leaving us with unusually low waters come E-10....that is not the case, however.

 

    4.  The low, delayed flow (the red line on our graph) shows that there is still plenty of moisture in the upper elevations (Kathy said it snowed again on the upper elevations of Rock Creek just the other night), meaning that we will have plenty of water for our fishing in just a few weeks.

 

Ergo, panic not, but, rather, be thankful for the bounty that Mother Nature is carefully and slowly laying down for all E-10ers!!

 

RCR----<'///><

 

Extravagant allergies!

Okay, E-10 wiseacres, Patty has protected the identity of each of you who have so liberally responded to our request for allergies, other than to tell me that

 

    (a) someone in Group One is apparently allergic to "poodles"--safe on that account with us;

 

    (b) there are those in Group Tattoo who, either individually or collectively, [i] are allergic to codeine and hope that we will not be using that product in our extravagant cooking [safe, again, folks!], [ii] while not allergic, "hate carrots" [you will see well, my fellow Tattooers!], [iii] "are seriously allergic to the lack of Irish whisky [safe, again---phew!], and [iv] "allergic to the wrath of Ron--been there once and don't want to go back there again!"; and

 

    (c) there are those in Da Threes who profess to be allergic to [i] trout {nice try for a fishing excuse, huh?!?}, [ii] "Ron" {is that you, Kocktail Kathy?!?} and [iii] "work" {there won't be much of that done during E-10!!}.

 

As the days quickly progress, my short list for each of you allergic/non-allergic Ones alike is:

 

    1.  Watch, with me, the wild non-water flow--this is our best friend with ytd precipitation in our benchmark Bitterroot Mountains now posting at 67% [exactly one half of last year]...the later/lower the flow, the more water that we will have to fish and, at this point in time, that is a good thing!

 

    2.  Grab your Camp List and fill in the packing blanks, with special emphasis on polarized sun glasses and a true rain jacket.

 

    3.  Locate/purchase that Hawaiian Shirt for Day One fishing.

 

    4.  Keep checking Der Blog for weather and flow updates, as that will soon be your primary source of incoming information. 

 

    5.  Don't forget your Guide Gag Gift, remembering that decency and/or civility are not required components.

 

Best to all in short-time preparation for it all,

 

Rock Creek Ron

   ---<'///><