Well I canceled a couple of fishing trips here on the Root for mid March of 2019. We have lots of snow and I am tired of hearing the coined term “Polar Vortex”. After reviewing my previous years log books, I noticed that we usually start guiding in early March. The last couple of days the weather has warmed and I think we will be fishing here in a couple of weeks. With high mountain snowpack being over 100% in our local drainages Spring runoff will likely position us for healthier rivers, fat trout, and hope fully no mid season drought, closures, and forest fires.
https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/snowup-graph.pl?state=MT
I’ll probably be headed to the Missouri to fish when the weather breaks but I will try to write at least once a week and relate pertinent fishing information and hopefully end our streak of cabin fever!
I thought I’d revisit an older blog that might be a bit amusing. It’s from this time of year and hopefully you will get a laugh.
Thanks for reading,
TroutZoola Montana
March 2015 (is this right?)
About a week ago the weather was real pleasant 52 degrees and no wind. I called everyone and no one wanted to fish. Patch “I’m tired”, Joe ” I gotta work”, Richie “I have to rearrange my closet”, and so on and so on, so I stayed home. Two nights ago Joe calls me, “Brooks, do you want to fish?” I look at the forecast and the high is going to be 37 degrees. I tell Joe, “dude it’s going to be cold”.
Joe insists that if we get going early and row from Bell to Stevi by the time we get to Mitchell slough the snow should be falling perfect for the snow shot according to the weather forecast anyway. I’m like “what the fuck is a snow shot”. Joe has become an excellent photographer but I’ll be damned if I want to freeze my ass off and wait for the perfect light from in incoming blizzard! Apparently there is something to this photo game that I don’t understand, I feel like my $200.00 Kodak does the job.
So Joe says “if we can get one more guy then that will work for the ice out photo shoot”. I asked a few of my buddies to go, but I felt like I was Charles Manson asking a father if I can take his daughter to the prom. Most of my answers were “are you effing crazy, you’ll freeze your’ balls off!” Any way luckily nobody else wanted to go so it looked as if we’d be staying home, so I thought.
The next morning I slept in a little bit and I noticed I missed a phone call from Joe. I called him back and he’s like “lets go, Caleb and I have the boat ready.” I asked my wife real nice if she’d drive our shuttle and she’s awesome and said she would so we went fishing after all.
Joe didn’t get the perfect snow shot, the elusive snow pictorial didn’t poke it’s head out of the clouds to get whacked. I did get yelled at once because I didn’t hold the fish properly as I released it for the perfect eye, ear, nose, throat, and ice shot, which seems to be almost as hard to capture as the snow shot!
I was bundled up like the kid from ‘A Christmas Story’ when his mom put so many clothes on him that he couldn’t move his arms. Well I was extremely un-agile and I fell out of the boat and almost got soaked in ice water but thanks to Caleb I stayed dry. Joe and Caleb, mostly Joe teased me saying that I’m old, awkward, and slow. Yes I am old, awkward, and slow especially when it’s 36 degrees, the wind’s blowing, and there’s no damn SNOW! I think I’ll start doing some yoga to loosen up!