Winter in Colorado – Billy is still fishing

Winter in Colorado – Billy is still fishing

Billy Burk, our good friend in Colorado sent us these great photos recently. He said I could share them on the blog. All the photos are by Billy. Thanks Billy!

From Billy Burk 2011 Super Bowl

Here is a photo of two Superbowl fish. My neighbor Cody and I went to the river Sun. morning and Had the whole river to ourselves; (it’s been a while, due to increased exposure in the media). After landing a double, he donated his (smaller) fish for a photo op. One monster took me out to the deep, faster current and came unbuttoned, Grrrrrr! There was a good Midge hatch coming off though, and we landed a bunch of stocker’s on size 22-26 Miracle Midge pattern. My Bride and I went to some friends’ for their “Bowl” party in the afternoon had a blast there too! What a great day!

From Billy Burk 2011 winter

I took a photo of my buddy and neighbor Cody on our trip to the Taylor River Tailwater ( the Hog Trough) catch and release area. Big fish are always possible. Unfortunately they are very well educated and tight-lipped for the most part! We got snowed on most of the day but during a calm moment I saw this photo-op.

The last photo is a sunset.

From Billy Burk 2011 winter
Rainbow trout – an entirely synthetic fish. Learn more Feb 7 in Missoula, MT

Rainbow trout – an entirely synthetic fish. Learn more Feb 7 in Missoula, MT

Written by Merle Loman for Bitterroot Trout Unlimited.

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

An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World (Hardcover)

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.

Other Montana events for this book are:
Book Signing at Country Bookshelf Bookstore
, Bozeman, MT on Monday, February 7, 2011 at 4:00pm. Click here for more information about the Country Bookshelf Bookstore.
Book Discussion at Montana State Univ., Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, MT Monday, February 7, 2011 at 6:00pm. Click here for the website for Museum of the Rockies
Plenary Address at the Montana Chapter of the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting, Great Falls, MT, Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 9:00am. Click here for AFS information http://www.fisheries.org/units/AFSmontana/

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.

Happy new year to all our friends, old, new and not yet met

Happy new year to all our friends, old, new and not yet met

Pinegrass played new years eve for First Night Missoula at Break Espresso from 5 pm to 6 pm. The turn out was fantastic. Lots of people pulled chairs towards the band, stood along the walls and in the aisles and enjoyed coffees, teas, and pastries. Pinegrass has never sounded better. Happy new year everyone.

Pinegrass has been playing weekly since 1988. The over-all sound of the band is a result of the individual influences and passions of each player. The common denominator for all Pinegrass members is to play each number with feeling – they strive to play good tunes, the way they’re “supposed” to be played. You will hear traditional Bluegrass played “true” to the original (mostly), and a bit of Swing, Dylan and whatever else strikes the fancy of the band-mates at the moment. Members are John Joyner, fiddle and vocals; Bill Neaves, guitar and vocals, Chad Fadely Mandolin; Jack Mauer, banjo, dobro and vocals; and Ted Lowe, bass and vocals. Tidbit: “Pinegrass” (scientific name: Calamagrostis Rubescens) is a native grass.

Fly fishing for steelhead less than two hours from the Bitterroot

Fly fishing for steelhead less than two hours from the Bitterroot

Dennis with his steelhead on the Salmon River

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.

To read more about steelhead fishing on the Salmon River (license information included) see Fly fishing for steelhead on the Salmon River in Idaho by Merle Ann Loman.

Follow-up note: I just found out you can buy your license at Bob Wards in Hamilton. Nice!

Betty’s Montana pronghorn hunting success

Betty’s Montana pronghorn hunting success

Betty and the pronghorn doe shot this year on opening day

Our friends, Joe and Betty, love to fish and hunt. Betty is very successful. She shared a photo of her pronghorn (antelope) doe she shot on opening day this year. I found a photo of a buck she shot a few years ago. They are great photos and she said I could blog them. Here they are.

Betty is like me, she does it all. She doesn’t stop after shooting, she retrieves her game and takes care of the meat. 

Betty and the buck she shot a few years ago

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