Fly casting lessons

I can't really remember how long ago it was...3 years, I think.  It was a day spent searching out new blogs when I came upon one named Knitting Mania.  When I found out that Pat and Chris were building their dream home in Montana, I knew I had to read further.  Yes, it was within miles of where we spent each summer.  Long story short, we have become great friends.  Though we only see each other in the summer, we do correspond during the rest of the year.

So last night we were invited to dinner at their beautiful home.  One small request was that the trout give them some fly fishing lessons.  He was more than happy to teach his beloved sport of fly casting to Chris and Pat.

Chris actually caught on quite quickly.....

As did Pat.

The Trout left the rod behind so that they can practice, and in a couple of weeks, they will come over to our modest travel trailer for dinner and a walk down the stream.

It's a Good Day

Gulf of Mexico

Siesta Key 2012

There has been a lot of concern from my blogging friends about The Trout.  Things are going quite well.  After surgery, the surgeon changed his mind about keeping him in the hospital overnight, so I got to bring him home.  He has been resting and doing quite well pain-wise.  It will be a couple of weeks until the staples are removed and then we can start thinking about heading out of Florida for the summer.

Both of us thank all of you for your good thoughts, prayers.  It certainly looks like the surgery was successful and we are grateful.  

Handling the unexpected

They say it's a place like home.  Well, almost.  I did spend 3 nights here this last week.  Alone.  Sometimes plans are interrupted and you need to adjust quickly and calmly.

The Trout had been having some abdominal discomfort for a couple of weeks and it finally reached a point where it was out of our hands.  Being ill away from home is not a comfortable situation.  But, we handled it.

We are still in Montana and headed to a small town hospital for help.  What comforted us most was the kind, caring attention showed to both of us.  Dale spent the night and the surgeon did all he could to make The Trout comfortable.  X-rays showed a blockage in the small intestine but it could not be determined as to cause or extent.  The next morning, Trout felt better and went home.  That night things went bad so the surgeon suggested we head to Missoula which had a larger hospital, 1 hour and 45 minutes from the cabin.  Amazingly, he gave me his cell phone number and asked me to call with any questions or concerns.

Missoula admitted him to the hospital and took more x-rays.  The surgeon decided to do a watch and wait because the small intestine was a strange place to have diverticulitis, which is what this looked like.  By Friday morning, surgery was definitely needed.  There was inflammation and the start of perforation.

A 10" scar and 3 inches of intestine removed later, the Trout is doing pretty good.  Getting slowly back to allowing food intake has been frustrating since the fly fishing right now is getting quite good.  He will try to recover at the cabin for a couple of weeks and hopefully we will both be in good health to drive the long drive back to Florida.

A wonderful dinner for Trout's birthday

Last evening, we celebrated The Trout's birthday by going with friends to Tampa, to a restaurant we have long been wanting to try.  In fact, we had reservations for New Year's Eve, when I came down with the worst cold, so we had to cancel.  Last night, we made it and enjoyed every moment. 

Bern's Restaurant  in Tampa, is well worth the drive.  From the moment you walk in, you know you are in a special place.  If you care to do so, check the menu at their website.  It is a large book and the waiter explains everything with a great sense of humor. 

Prime steaks are what we wanted last evening.  They are sold by the ounce and by thickness and cut.  You choose. The kitchen guide told us that they trim the steaks and it takes 4 pounds of meat to get to the 1 pound of steak they find acceptable for serving.   Along with this you get French onion soup, two side vegetables, their signature deep fried onion rings, a baked potato with all the toppings you want, and a salad with a wide choice of dressings.
They grow their own vegetables on a 14 acre farm.  It is the job of the newest, young employees, to keep the farm producing.

The wine list is a very heavy book, but a condensed version of the most popular wines is available.  After dinner, we got a tour of the kitchen.  Can you imagine?  What restaurant lets you tour the kitchen and explains each station and what is going on? 

And then a tour of the wine cellar.  They have the largest wine cellar in the WORLD.  Attached to the restaurant is a cellar kept at 50 degrees F holding 100,000 bottles of wine.  Across the street in a separate building, 900,000 bottles are kept at ideal temperature.  Some of the wines are old and well-aged, including a Madeira from 1907.  Bottles from the 1950's.  Our guide said that even wine connoisseurs from France come to their restaurant for wine that is no longer available in Europe.  I should add, the wines are very fairly priced.  The price at time of purchase holds and no mark up after that. 

Do you think this is the end?  Far from it.  Now we are escorted upstairs in the restaurant, to the dessert room.  Rounded half barrels with a table and chairs and a lot of privacy invited us to rest.  On the wall was a music selection where we could push a button and listen to classical music, jazz, you name it. 

Then came the dessert menu.  We decided to share a Framboise Macadamia Decadence.  Chocolate cake, raspberries, macadamia nut sorbet, raspberry sorbet.  Well, you get the picture.  Coffee and the birthday boy had an Armagnac. 

A lovely evening and a birthday to remember.  As usual, I get too involved in taking everything in, so the only picture I remembered to take was the French onion soup.  Not a large bowl, but just the right size.  No bread except for thin spelt cracker bread and Parmesan toasts.  I liked this idea, because it is so easy to fill up on good, warm, bread and not be able to enjoy the rest of the meal. 

I hope if you are near Tampa one day and feel the urge for something out of the ordinary, you will remember Bern's Restaurant.

Big River, Big Trout on small flies!!

Schnitzel did a lovely job describing our date on the Big Hole River.  I'll try to elaborate a bit on where I fish, how and for what.  Good neighbor Louie, our 88 year old fly fishing expert, showed me a few spots he liked.  This spot is the middle hole of 3 starting with the Grayling Hole.  Grayling were once very plentiful in this country but were pretty well fished out by the early 1900's except for Alaska.  Montana is trying to reintroduce this species in some rivers and they have taken on pretty well in the Big Hole.

This is a pretty nice Grayling although I did not get the miniature dorsal fin that sets these fish apart.  They are pretty easy to catch and taste pretty good with a hint of thyme when we kept some in Alaska.  Its all "catch and release" in the lower 48.

What's happening these days to get the fish feeding is the "TRICO"  hatch.  The tiny "duns" like the bottom fly (a size 22!) hatch mid-morning and then the next day, they cluster together in clouds of 1000's to mate, fall to the water as "spinners" to lay their eggs and die to provide plenty of feed for the slurping trout and whitefish.  I don't have to go that small to imitate the natural as an "Adams" or a "Purple Haze" in a size 18 does the trick with a good drag free cast in front of the gulpers.  I have never seen a purpled bodied mayfly but somehow it works just fine on this river!!

This is a dandy 18" fat rainbow that took my offering.  It ran around like crazy for 5 minutes before I landed it.  Somehow the other rainbows seem to know when one of their mates have been caught as they stop feeding for sometime.  Maddening!!  They should know I release all of these beauties to fight again!!

This is a very nice 14" Brook trout that are in the river in good numbers as well.  They are very colorful this time of year.  This fish is really a Char as witnessed by the white tipped fins.

All in all, one does not catch big numbers of trout in an outing on the Big Hole.  But with careful presentation, a few of these dandies can be caught to make a good outing in a very beautiful spot in Montana. 

On the road to Wisdom

Sunday was a beautiful day, so I was invited to coming along with The Trout as he went flyfishing.  We headed east and then south, toward Wisdom, Montana, and the famous Big Hole River.  It is quite a drive from the cabin, but The Trout has been making it often this summer. 

Just in the last couple of days, the aspen have started turning gold.  It was beautiful to see against the blue sky.

The mountains were majestic as usual. You can definitely tell that fall is in the air.  What might look to you like dark leaved trees in the above photo, is unfortunately not so.  These as lodge pole pines that have been killed by the pine beetle, a black beetle the size of a grain of rice.  It has wrecked havoc on so many trees in Montana and Colorado. 

We came across a large herd of antelope.  The Trout does not recall seeing so many in this area in the past.  But, why do they do that?  You know, turn the other cheek?  They do look cute though.

The Trout was having a good time.  In this particular hole, he caught some smaller sized trout, but there were more to be had later on in the morning.

And a rest in the stream on an aptly placed rock.  Just can't get over how beautiful the weather was.

This view was fantastic.  The quiet sounds of this area were deafening.  It was a very good day.

A favorite creek and friends

While our friends were traveling out West, they made a turn and decided to spend a couple of days with us. This thrilled us as we have been friends for almost 30 years. The Trout took Jim to his favorite creek while Laurie and I went shopping. Sounds like a fair deal, right?

Jim was very happy with his catch of the day. Though the weather provided showers off and on, the fish were still biting.

The beauty of this stream, with only the sound of the babbling water flowing over the rocks, makes this a very favorite of the Trout.

Here he is showing off one of the beautiful trout that was quickly released back into the waters. This is a "catch and release" stream only. It is a beautiful way to save the fish for future generations.

But, while the Trout was lake fishing the other day, he did catch a good sized Rainbow which he smoked with good results. Years ago, we had a terrific recipe for a marinade, but through our moves, it was lost. It is now put together with memory and turns out pretty good. Perhaps a little more brown sugar or maple syrup next time will perfect it.

Montana, we are coming back!!

These are views of one of our favorite places, Montana. Only 3000 miles from home, but somehow, every year, we manage to drive it again and spend the summer in this indescribable wilderness.

Yes, he was just beside our car and we were interrupting him. Actually, this is a cub. I suppose he is much larger this year.

And here is my Trout. He has loved Montana since his first visit almost 30 years. When he is here, he is relaxed, happy, and fishing all the time. He catches the trout, kisses them (well, some of them) and releases them back into the wild to catch again next year.

I will be interrupting my blogging until we arrive at our destination at the end of the month. We will be in Montana until mid October, so I know there will be lots of new things to let you know about while out there.

Happy Birthday, Trout!

Happy Birthday today to my Trout! He is spending the day golfing at Disney with some of his good friends and then tonight out to dinner with friends. It is a good day!

In 1992, I gave The Trout a most fitting birthday present. I contacted my old college friend, Judy Johannesen, who had and still has a tremendous gift of producing beautiful calligraphy. I gave her one of the Trout's favorite poems by Robert Traver, and she produced a most beautiful keepsake. We then asked an artist friend of ours, Dave Constantine, to pen and ink a trout on the bottom of the calligraphy. This is the result and it has hung proudly for all these years.

I hope you will click on the picture to enlarge and read this poem. It really explains my husband a lot.

After posting this, I decided to add another paragraph. The poem states that the fisherman is thankful that there are no telephones on trout streams. And so it always was until...in 1999, The Trout slipped on mossy rocks and had to walk one mile back to the car on a broken ankle that later needed surgery. He takes a cell phone now, only if he will be far away from the car.

A Special Stream

I usually don't go with The Trout on his fishing days. I learned long ago that this is something he likes to do by himself. He loves the solitude, the beautiful environs where trout live, and likes to think of nothing else but the moment.

I have no problem with that. I do things where I need alone time also. But, sometimes his favorite fishing streams are quite a distance away, so the Bichon and I go along. We sit and knit or read by the car while he fishes for several hours.

These pictures are of one of his favorite streams. Part of the stream is public and the other part is private, by invitation. He has a friendship with the caretakers of the property and always calls before he wants to fish.
Rarely does he get his picture taken while fishing, but this day was perfect and I wanted to catch him in action.
He is happy. He threw the line and immediately a fish grabbed it.
A beautiful rainbow trout! He holds it long enough for a picture and then this beautiful fish is released back into the cold stream to swim some more.

MONTANA PEOPLE AND PLACES - BIG WATERS

I've had the pleasure of fishing big streams and small streams - the latter are my favorites as they are easier to get around and safer to wade. But big streams offer a greater diversity of bug hatches and bigger trout. Way back in the early 80's, I had a chance to try the Beaverhead River by Dillon. This stream is best fished from a boat with a knowledgeable guide like I had!
Tim Mosolf out of Frontier Anglers looked the same back some 25 years ago and he was a great guide. He's still at it today and I caught up with him one day this August while wading!
The Big Hole south of us is a real dry fly treat at times with excellent pods of browns, bows and brookies. One must "match the hatch" pretty closely and deliver accurate cast to these wily fellows. The results can bring a wild ride from a nice bow especially like the big boy below.

I've been exploring the upper section of the Clark Fork since last year. It is a big river down by Missoula but a nice braided stream where I go. It flows through pastures mainly which means grasshoppers as a steady diet. This section of the Clark Fork is due an over $400 million restoration effort from the Super Fund to try to get rid of old toxic "slickens" left over from the copper smelting days in Butte and Anaconda. The ground is completely bare from the metals and the water quality is poor as well so lets hope this helps. It can produce some very nice browns who bust the water after my hopper imitation like this 18"er below.
A fly box loaded with standard dry flies will usually "match the hatch" when mayflies and caddis are hatching. From left to right is the Light Cahill, an Adams, PMD, Caddis and a BWO on the dime which shows how small we have to go at times to match the hatch. That's when the prescription glasses come on to try to follow the drift of these tiny fellas.
The Light Cahill was the fly that caught my 1st trout on a fly. One day way around 1981, a friend called me to tell me his son killed em on Elk Creek by Eau Claire, WI. I asked him what he used and he said, "I don't know, some yellow bug!" So I ran home, rifled my old box of flies and found some "Yellow Bugs" and my fly rod and off I went to the stream. Sure enough, the bugs were floating down the stream and a trout nose would rise up for a meal. I managed to get a good drift and caught 5 pretty nice browns. Sure glad I did as it has been a fun run ever since!!...TROUT

MONTANA PLACES AND PEOPLE - SERIES 3 - FISHING

Obviously, for me, the closest place to search for trout is Georgetown Lake where we rent! Montana stocks the lake heavily, like 250,000 rainbows to satisfy the anglers. Most are taken during ice fishing I am told. These 10-12"er's grow to 16" average pretty quickly on shrimp and plentiful bugs. You can fish the lake by regular boat, float tube or just walk the shore line like I like to do to cast to a cruising "pig"!
This a decent "Bow" who took a damsel fly!! The trout go nuts when the damsels are doing their mating dance on the water. Fish fly out of the water trying to inhale one!! This when Louie calls them the "Goofy Bastards" since we haven't come up with dancing dry fly yet! Can be maddening!!
The other fly that comes after the damsels is the "Callebaetis" - a pretty 1/2" mayfly that hatches from the weeds and comes to the surface to dry its wings before flying off. They are most vulnerable during this time as cruising trout sip them in before they can escape! After mating, they flop to the lake surface to lay their eggs and die and become "spinners"! Again, an easy meal for cruising trout!
These are 2 of my hand tied patterns to imitate the 2 hatches!! Ant patterns and the old "Humpy" are good too!!

Lake fishing is my least favorite as you just kind of hang around and hope a cruising trout finds and likes your bug!! Kind of like watching paint dry a lot of days but when the trout are on, it can be a lot of fun!!

Next, large and small stream fishing!! I had a good day today on the Clark Fork hopper fishing!

On the way home, I stopped at "Uncle Bucks Bar" to wet the whistle! A grasshopper somehow followed me in and hopped up on the bar! The Bar Tender finally noticed the bug sitting there and said, "You know we have a drink named after you!" "You have a drink named BOB" said the hopper!!! OH!!! TROUT

THE TROUT AGAIN

We heard about a possible rental on the way to Rock Creek that intrigued me so I went to check it out yesterday. Lovely setting and near the creek but a bit small and no cable TV so I guess we will pass on it. Montanans do have a sense of humor!!


Being close to the famous Rock Creek, I decided to have a look and maybe waggle the fly rod for an hour or two if conditions were right i.e. no other strokes hogging the stream!! This river is known for its big Stonefly hatch in June. These bugs climb out of the water on to rocks, etc and split out of their shells and fly off to dry and to get ready to make love and lay some eggs back into the stream for later hatches. Kind of cool!
Years ago my fishing buddy, B. "the fish hog" Cyr and I started up from a bridge to do some fishing. The river split and I decided to take the little left channel and leave the big water to B. To my delight, I found a few pot holes that held some dandy trout like the one below. This year there was less holding water as I think Mr. Beaver had gone upstream and done some of his handy work to divert some water for his use.
I was asleep at the switch on 2-3 dandy browns before to hook up with them but awake long to enough to see Mr. Big 18" Brown come out of the darker green water under the branches to suck up my enticing "Humpy" fly that resembles a grasshopper I guess. We had a lovely tussle for a few minutes before landing him, retrieving the fly and resuscitating him for the release back to his lair to strike again someday.
So ends another great day stalking the wily trout and enjoying beautiful Montana!!

Back in the waders again!

Schnitzel is letting The Trout blog today! Enjoy!

A rare, quiet run on the roaring Gallatin River.

After 9 months of dry waders, I donned the fly fishing gear and searched out a quiet section of the Gallatin River for some dry fly action. Luckily, there was a very good hatch going on of mayflies and other bugs to get the trout looking up for dry flies. In about 2 hours of fishing (enough for breaking in this old body), I had around 24 hits with 12 or so landed - all rainbows and a couple were decent sized. I hope this is the start of another good year of stalking the wily trout.

This is a decent Rainbow trout a bit bigger than The Milk Man's Wife's Big Son's Brook trout that he proudly showed me during our delightful visit. There is nothing prettier than a brook trout in my opinion although they don't get as big as other trout species. Tight lines Big Son!! The Trout signing off!!!

Water, glass and the flour mill

I dropped the Trout off early so that he could meet up with his guide for a day on the White River. This is a picture of the raft they are using today. The sun was shining beautifully and it looked like a favorable day for fishing, but I know enough not to say that too loudly. Let's hope for a good remembrance of fishing in Vermont!

My first stop was in the town of Quechee (kwee chee). Now isn't that the cutest name for a small town? The Simon Pearce glass blowing factory was at the top of the list. The glass blower was moving quickly but I was able to snap a picture of him. This stuff was beautiful. The glass was crystal clear, without bubbles and I was very impressed in more ways than one. This glass was so beautiful, it was very expensive. Did find a little something for a remembrance.

Then off to Norwich, to the King Arthur Flour Mills. There were several ovens going at once and hot scones and poppy seed bread was making an appearance for a sampling. I knew what I bought would need to fit into a suitcase, so I was careful but I did find a few wonderful gadgets I have been thinking about. I got some very small pinch bowls of silicone that I can also poach eggs in. That sounds like fun. I also got some Saf yeast which I cannot find in Florida. A couple of nice scrapers and a perfect 2 1/4 yeast teaspoon.

The classrooms were not operating until much later today and I felt that paying $50 for a class on how to make pizza was a little ridiculous, so I spent all my time browsing and figuring out what I can get into a suitcase.

I had a small lunch alone today. I have never been good at going in restaurants alone, but I found a saying on a wooden napkin holder that made the lunch time worthwhile. It was "The cure for anything is salt water--sweat, tears or the sea." Isak Dinesan