What A Whacked Out World....

...ours has become. No news there but here's one WILL make your skin crawl...least it did mine. It seems a friend of Al's was fishing up in the canyon when a big rock fell and pretty much destroyed his ankle and much of its hide. In intense pain and unable to walk he crawled to a vantage point whereupon he spied two anglers. Waving frantically and calling for help...you won't believe this...the two...feel free to fill in your worst profane descriptive...jerks waved back, turned their backs and continued fishing. Pathetic as hell I know but true. The guy's son later went back looking and found the jerks still fishing...When asked why...more likely what the f...? They merely shrugged said just didn't want to get involved!!!!

As Al so succintly put it..."What planet the two yahoos are from who knows? But I sure pitty their neighbors and friends...To which I would say "ditto" except for the "friends" part...Like ain't none...

Unbelievable, eh?

The big rain of last week raised the Big Hole from about 400 to almost 1000 cfs overnight...much needed water it put the fishing off big time the next couple days but Al reports yesterday afternoon the top water stuff was once again working great...Here's hoping it stablilizes a bit above 400 cfs this time around...less rock-hopping you know...Anyway fishing should be good this week as afternoon highs are supposed to be in the 60s with morning lows in the 40s and only a slight chance for a stray thunder-boomer or two.

Guide Wars Over At Last...

...hopefully that is. At least it is my plan to not do anymore trips this season. Enough is enough...right?

Anyway, when I started this blog I really didn't think I'd be able, willing, whatever to post every day but did think no more than a couple days between was more than doable but...What I didn't consider was after guiding, especially during multi-day runs, how downright worn out (brain-dead?) some leave me...like no way. So this summer there have been lots of holes. Well, summer is now all but officially dead, my trip book is blank thus my plan for the immediate future is to post on a daily basis excepting those days when we are on the road and have no internet connection.

Since my last post we have been trying to get out bird hunting every chance. Most days we have but the hunting so far has not been up to par. This morning we decided since it was going to get into the 70s this afternoon for the sisters' sake we'd best get out early, make a short hunt for sage hens and, regardless, call 'er good. While it wasn't quite crack of dawn we did get out early enough the temperature was still in low 40s although the sun was well up and the Big Sky cloudless...Not at all hot but for our dark heavy-coated girls way too sunny.

No surprise but after just an hour or so both were fagged. Kate seemed especially hot, so we called it good even though nary a sage hen had been sighted. Oh well, said Gale, look on the bright side, no birds to clean either. 

Hard to argue, eh?

On the way out of town we saw several buck antelope herding harems. While not much has come off on schedule this year obviously the antelope rut is right on...

Hunting: Sage Hens and Blue Grouse

Bird season opened September 1. Sticking to our Montana opening day tradition we headed to the hills in search of blue grouse. Since our best spot has been overrun with cows of late we decided to hunt a different spot. With the forecast for highs in the upper 60s we knew the hunt would be a short one even though the spot we picked was heavily timbered and would offer somewhat cooler temps at least until around noon when the sun topped the surrounding ridges.

In all our travels around Montana I don't think we've ever hunted a place so loaded with grouse groceries...wild strawberry, red raspberries (for us a first in Montana), several red berries and lots of forbs, clover and other lush greeneries seemed to scream grouse but...The dogs found just one, a lone spruce (Franklin's) grouse to boot.

Getting spruce grouse to flush is usually the hardest part but this time around the shooting proved even more difficult...laughable actually if it weren't so damn pathetic. Anyway after Annie pointed it twice and I missed it three times finally connected on numero 4 and, well, what can I say. Sort of deja vue all over again. After the way I ended last season perhaps a few practice sessions, eh?

But then we've found ziltch since--no blues, no more spruce, no sage hens--so, hell, why bother...