Norhwest Montana...

...features one eye-popping scenic after another...Here are a few we captured on the aborted ruffed grouse hunt I posted previously...Not so hot eatin' wise but a for sure eye feast....

Swan Lake Fishing Access Site

Mission Mountain Wilderness

Placid Lake State Park

And before you sharp-eyed viewers scream foul...I must confess to fiddling with these a bit in Lightroom 3.5 which I am at the moment trying my damnedest to master...These were tweaked using the presets in the Develop Module...Not much to master there since all that is necessary is a mouse click and deciding whether or not you like what you see or...next preset...Oh well, to my eye these turned out pretty damn nifty...Right? Right...

Spring Cleaning

Each fall I rent a space for the boat in a large empty building south of town. Sometime in March I retrieve the boat for a bit of spring cleaning and minor maintenance...usually nothing more than a coat of varnish on the bright work and a trip through the car wash to clean up the outside, call her good to go and head to the river.

Last year I thought the inside bottom was looking a little worse for wear, ordered a quart of Tuff Coat from Cabela's and spread it around...A quart really isn't enough to do the job but would have worked better if I'd followed directions did the proper prep work...Alas by mid season the new coat flaking off and well, actually looked worse for wear than before I started...Yes I do know better but somehow need to re-tool the ol' noggin' afore it sinks in...

I did however think to flip the boat and recoat the bottom with a mix of epoxy/graphite...After several seasons it was as you might expect plenty scuffed but actually not all that bad...the new coat made it look like new.

No doubt because of skipping steps in the past this time around is a different story. The inside bottom really needs help. Where I smacked a rock late in the season two years ago I thought merely gouged the outside. Since I had off the next few days I filled the gouge with epoxy, repainted the scarred area and...Yesterday I discovered the plywood itself had been shattered in the collision. Then I discovered more damage to the seat pedestals...

Bottom line: It'll take more than a little hard work to get Ol' Greenie in river shape this time around than I ever imagined...shoulda bought a Clack a...Nah, who wants to make life that simple...

On a different track, Tuesday afternoon the temperature pegged at a balmy 65. Naturally I headed for the river, the Big Hole even though I knew better. Since I had the dogs and this was their first time I decided to not get too creative and ended up at Browne's Bridge. Floating ice left no illusions this was gonna be easy and as turned out wasn't. In two hours I had four half-hearted tugs and no hook ups. Oh well it did give me a chance to field test a couple new patterns see how they looked wet...they looked good to me obviously not so hot to the trout...

The highlight if there is such a thing while tasting skunk? A sparse caddis hatch! Yes it's true a thin hatch of caddis, cinnamon colored wing and body about a size 18 what brand is more than I know. Anyway I've been chucking flies more or less seriously for over 50 years and as far as I know have never seen a mid-March caddis hatch...If anyone out there knows I'd be forever beholdin'...Earlier I did see two splashy swirls which didn't look like midge takes so I assumed skwala even though I didn't see any...then I spied the caddis and mystery solved. Of course I tied one on, right size wrong color and the response was what I expected, nada, but as the man says you never know...Anyway it was indeed a nice day and a sure fire prelude what to expect in the coming weeks...