Wet and rainy, yes it was, but Jeff and Jack still wanted to fish. They had a great day and here are some of the fish Jeff caught.
I will upload one and do a slideshow of a few more photos. Enjoy!
The weather is getting wetter and warmer and the river is on the rise.
Best laid plans: On May 1, Jack had a great day of fishing with John Hickman and Terry Nobles.
Yesterday, May 2, he and I were going to fish – acually scout, but if I get to go along, I get to fish! We pulled into the access and I (and a few other cars) hear Jack yell, “What the heck happened!” As, I look at the river, I see what he means. Water that was gin clear the day before is chocolate brown, muddy as heck. We had looked at the hydrographs and there was no surge in run-off. This meant that a “ditch” up-river had blown and deposited sediment, a lot of sediment, into the river. Jack has a client day today and tomorrow. He was visibly concerned. All we could hope was that somehow, it would clear. It did and Jack is fishing his clients.
In the photo below, taken at the same access early this morning, the water is clear. Maybe it isn’t gin clear, but it is very clear and fishable. We are happy campers even though I didn’t get my boat fishing in. So that is the 3 day “In, then OUT, then In” story.
It is a tough business. According to some shuttle drivers, there was a flurry of shuffling guide boats and rigs up, and up, and up river to try to find fishable water on May 2. I hope they found some.
Jack owed Casey Hackathorn on a bet – something about the Pittsburgh Steelers… The payoff was to row Casey on a stretch of his choice for a day, so he did on April 20.
I just found this photo of Casey on Jack’s boat camera. Casey is holding a northern pike. Ugly, huh? That must have been fun to reel in.
John caught fish, but the photos are all about Terry and his fish. John is in love with our Chesapeake puppy, Freda, so Jack had to take her along. She is a bit of a handful and won’t be a fixture in the boat on guide days, only as a special request.
Terry insists on sitting in the rear seat, but with Jack rowing and Terry’s skills, he doesn’t get the short end of the rod, he catches trout, always.
Right click the photo and choose “view link in new window,” it is worth the view of the elk in the trees!
Billy’s message:
Attached are photos of a recent catch, close to home, on the Arkansas River, and Walter the Wapiti; finally mounted on the wall in our living room. He was harvested from Jeff’s Dad’s ranch in western Colorado last October. Take care and God Bless…………..Billy Burk
I am experimenting with a new photo site and wanted to embed a slideshow from SmugMug. I haven’t figured it out yet so I will post a photo of the Osprey that caught the fish (I am not sure if it was a trout or whitefish or what) and give you a link to the slideshows. I hope you like them!
One caught fish, the other did not even after a few tries.
The fish in my earlier blog DID NOT catch the fish. This photo is of a different Osprey we saw about 15 minutes later and down river. It was a really fun bird sighting day not to mention great fishing.
I forgot to mention in the earlier blog that we were 
fishing with Jack’s dry imitations of skwala and mayflies. These photos show why. We saw them on the water. The first is a photo of an Ameletus mayfly dun. It is beautiful in it’s grey color and upright profile.
The second photo is, of course, a female skwala on my wader pant leg. She stayed with us in the boat for most of the trip.
Below is a fish Jack caught while wade fishing during a mayfly hatch. I can’t tell you what fly he was using, it is too obvious.
When you fish the hatch, you will have to match the size.
Jack also caught the brown trout in an earlier post during this hatch. AND with my camera around my neck, I caught one of the biggest fish, another brown trout, right at the end of the hatch. Now that I am learning to set my hook better, it is getting a lot more fun!
Merle and Jack,
Martha and I back from BA and trying to catch up after two weeks away. Our hunt for red stag in the Pampas was very interesting. Very different ground to Patagonia. The country is open savannah with gentle rolling wooded hills mixed in. About 400 miles SW of BA. Very like southern Africa or northern Australia savannah country, quite dry, good cattle country.
All hunting was for free ranging animals, no fences. Stags were in full ‘roar’ which is always a remarkable natural event, just like the experience of witnessing our elk bugling. Shot a nice stag as well as a cull and a small (young) wild boar, all with the little 6.5mm, Jack, which did the job in each case with one shot and with as much aplomb as any .300 magnum. The 6.5mm is a fine hunting rifle, my favorite caliber for deer sized stuff at present.
The estancia barbecued the little boar in a typical Argentinian asada, it was amazing, the best meal of the whole trip, with natural vegetables from the estancia’s garden. Homestead was an old Spanish style from the late 19thc, early 20thc, very authentic feeling.
Then BA for a few days including a night at a traditional (versus a Las Vegas type) tango, and another at a wonderful Flamenco theatre with a Flamenco guitarist you would have loved, Jack. Martha finished her wedding shopping (shoes and a shawl to match her wedding dress). You have to love the Argentinians and their priorities: barbecued red meat, red wine from Mendoza and dulce de leche (on everything) and chocolates (after everything)!
Couple of pics from the estancia are attached. I couldn’t post this on your blog, you are welcome to use any or all of it if you wish.
All the best to you both,
Alan Pilkington
Alan Pilkington is a wonderful writer. See his website at www.alanpilkington.com to check out his books and learn more about him. To see all the posts we have done about Alan, click here: Alan Pilkington posts by Wapiti Waters.
Jack and I float fished the Bitterroot a few days ago. We caught fish, but it was a bit “off.” The water was slightly turbid and it seemed to be rising. Well, it was! It went up nearly 300 cubic feet per second (CFS) that day to become 2000 CFS in the middle-river. Today it looks like it will reach 4000 CFS. It is warm and they are expecting rain.
We caught fish, mostly in the afternoon during a mayfly hatch and the birds were extremely active. I ended up taking about 500 photos of fish we caught, scenery of course, our puppy, flowers, Hooded Mergansers, Osprey, geese, mayfies and more. Consequently, I am really busy editing them and haven’t done a post recently. Today I will post a few teaser photos. I will do more and a slideshow as soon as I can.
Check back soon to see if this osprey comes up with a fish!
