A trout I caught. Jack is holding the fish and I am, of course,
taking the photo. Freda, our Chessie, is looking on.
After fishing clients all week, Jack was excited enough to take me fishing on Sunday. It was REALLY cold in the morning when we launched. Then it drizzled. I rowed for Jack for awhile while we hunted for pike, but the day picked up about 1:00 pm when it cleared intermittently and warmed up. Then it happened; a beautiful mayfly hatch broke loose and so did the feeding trout (and whitefish!). I had one of my best “catching” days ever, even with my very rusty casting skills.
Here are some photos from that day. There are also eagles, geese, Belted Kingfishers, and of course lots of ducks on the river now, too. The first slideshow is from Jack’s camera and is uploaded to our Picasa site. The second is from my camera and is uploaded to my SmugMug site – more photos of the river and birds.
Dusty and crew came again this spring. They always hit really cool weather. At least it didn’t rain.
This year the crew was Dusty, Don, Gary, Jim and Peter.
I have a few photos from Jack’s camera, a few photos of the river that I took and when I get some others emailed to me, I will include them in the Picasa slideshow.
The group stayed at the Bitterroot River Lodge south of Hamilton, Montana.
Here is the slideshow from our Picasa album on Google.
The spring has been cool, very cool. That is keeping our ample snow-pack in the mountains and the Bitterroot River is not bumping up in cubic feet per second (CFS) very much. But, there are fish to be caught. Here are some photos of John and Jim who fished March 21 and 22. Below their fish are photos of the Bitterroot at Bell Crossing and then at Stevensville Fishing Access Site (FAS). If you dress right, you will have fun and catch some trout.
Join Missoula and the author for a reading and signing of Anders Halverson’s An Entirely Synthetic Fish. The event will be at Fact & Fiction, 220 N. Higgins Ave, Missoula, Montana on February 10th from 7 pm to 8:20 pm. For more information call the book store at (406) 721-2881. Click here for directions to Fact and Fiction downtown. About the Book
By Anders Halverson
$26.00 – ISBN-13: 9780300140873 Availability: Special Order – Subject to Availability Published: Yale University Press, 3/2010
Anders Halverson provides an in-depth account of the rainbow trout and why it has become the most commonly stocked and controversial freshwater fish in the United States. Rainbow trout have been proudly dubbed “an entirely synthetic fish” by fisheries managers. According to Halverson, his book examines the paradoxes and reveals a range of characters, from nineteenth-century boosters who believed rainbows could be the saviors of democracy to twenty-first-century biologists who now seek to eradicate them from waters around the globe. He discusses how the story of the rainbow trout is the story of our relationship with the natural world—how it has changed and how it startlingly has not.
Anders Halverson is an award winning journalist with a Ph.D. in aquatic ecology from Yale University. With support from the National Science Foundation, he wrote this book as a research associate at the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West.
A lifelong fisherman, he currently lives in Boulder, CO.
For fun, he posted this quiz on GoFishn.com. The winner received his book. The Rainbow Trout Quiz: Question #1 – GoFISHn on GoFISHn In 1996, IdahoDepartment of Fish and Game hatchery managers routinely taught their fish one thing before releasing them into the wild. What was it?
The answer: worms. Candy Craig got it right, and she’s the winner of a copy of the book. The reason the fisheries officials put the fish on a worm diet was to prepare them for the wild. They feared the fish would swim around looking for pellets when they were released, which is their normal fare in the hatchery.
Jack, Scott and Dennis got an early start, drove about an hour and half and fished the Salmon River in Idaho for steelhead. See photos from their trip below.
You can bet they will be doing more steelhead fishing soon.
Doc and his wife, Liz, were up again. They have a sweet little place on the middle river and come as often as they can. John fishes by his house or wade fishes his other favorite spots.
Liz enjoys the quiet time and catches up on her reading.
On this day, he is fishing with Jack. What a beautiful day.
