Blanked

Tough week I tell ya. The temps got up to almost 100 degrees on Thursday and instead of going out golfing and contributing to the steady fall of my game and increase of my handicap, (I still can't putt,) I decided to take the bass player of our band, Parachute Adam, out for a fun float. I had been taking folks down low on the Missouri for the past month, having some decent days on hoppers catching a number of really big browns, so I thought I'd get in on some of the action for myself...we got blanked--put up the big goose egg, bagel, shit bucket, turd or whatever you want to call it. It was the first time I've been skunked in my four seasons of guiding. We had a bunch of fish come up to the hopper but they never really ate it. Crazy! It has to be the temps, which have fortunately done a 180.

So today the high was only about 57 degrees. It also rained for a good part of it so my folks decided not to show up or even call to cancel. Nice. But there was a deposit collected so I will get paid thanks to Tim and MRO. So essentially I took the day off with pay. Feels almost like the State job I had...

August is almost done, which means the final push is nearing. I'm traditionally busiest in September and the first part of October. Pre-bookings have been down this year but I've managed to stay busy thanks to a lot of friends throwing me bones at Headhunters and CrossCurrents. MRO is starting to come through late and Joe Bloomquist has always treated me well. I hope the fall follows suit as my summer definitely turned out better than I thought. I'm up about 20% from last year, which I'm very grateful and still feel incredibly fortunate that I get to do this for a living.

For folks interested, the unusually wet summer and cool temps should mean the fishing will only keep getting better. For now, the browns are still in the system and will eat big hoppers when the conditions are right. There is nothing like seeing a 20+ brown eating a hopper. And soon the October caddis will be hatching. Once they get on them, it's like crack...or salmon flies if you will. The browns will leave for a while to do their business but they will be back and the rainbows will be bulking up for the winter as well. This is my favorite time of year when fish are happy and looking for protein. And, the weeds never really got that bad this year...Fun, fun, fun.

Keep 'em where they live y'all.