Making the Most of It

  

 

It seems like every couple months we come across one of those days that you half jokingly say, "that's got to be a top ten windiest day on the river for me," which isn't really possible because it's the 20th time you've said it but yesterday, I really meant it. In fact, I honestly believe those were the absolute worst conditions I've ever guided in as far as wind goes and I'd like to take this time to thank whoever it is that looks at the models in Great Falls and forecasts the weather for being so far off...not even in the fricken ball park again with your prediction of gusts up to 25mph. I bet for the first three or for hours we had sustained winds well into the thirties and even forties. But you do what you can and we did make the most of it. And I wasn't alone. Matt Hargrave braved Mother Nature's wrath to put a solid day together as well and we didn't see another boat out there. I don't really blame them but regardless of what the weather is, the fish got to eat and clients deserve the effort.

 

I had Kyle and his mother, Sheri and they were certainly troupers as they stuck with it to put together a good day of fishing. Thanks for the effort guys and thanks to Wolf Creek Angler for the opportunity for such an monumental day.

 

I go into every day with a goal of walking away with the same number of holes I started with and to not gain any unwanted piercing along the way. Well, today my ear does have another small hole but not quite deep enough to hang anything from it.  It was the first time in nine seasons I actually got hooked by a client but I can't really blame her given the conditions. I'm telling you, it was brutal. At one point we got blown up onto a gravel bar and couldn't get off it. As we sat there resting for a minute, Matt came flying by with his guy hooked up. He tried to drop the hook to land the fish and they never even slowed down. The anchor just dragged along like it wasn't even touching bottom. There were literally times where I thought we could capsize and for those that have fished the Missouri, you know it's not that technical of a river.

 

Sheri did pay up at the end by buying the beers. That's the rule; if you hit me, you owe me a beer. If you draw blood, it's a shot and a beer. We'll have to get the shots next time. 

 

Keep 'em where they live...

 

P.S. I realize we all joke around about how bad the weather forecasters are out here but I have to say, this goes beyond comical and it's frustrating knowing we can't really rely on them. I wonder what would happen if I was wrong on my predictions the majority of the time. I'm sure I'd be pushing a broom somewhere. I was told by a client one day that the problem is that everyone gets the same models that the National Weather Service puts out and then it's the local weather person's job to interpret those models to make local weather predications. In Montana, we unfortunately get the newly graduated meteorologists that don't really have the experience to make accurate forecasts. That's why he said when he comes out to fish in Montana, he gets the models himself and makes his own predictions. Crazy. Maybe it's time to take some classes of my own.