E-15 Update

Greetings Fellow Extravaganzers!

Spring is now just around the corner and, in two weeks, the first of our Extravaganzers will be on the water of the Bitterroot River fishing for the first hatch of the year, the skwala stonefly that shows up around mid-March and tickles the fancy of otherwise semi-dormant winter fish with the first decent-sized hatch of the year. Veteran Extravaganzer Brian “Moraine” Shepard books a week this time of the year and, while resident in our jointly-owned Blackfoot house, will also revisit the scene of the annual snow geese migration at (appropriately named) Freeze Out Lake just northwest of Great Falls, MT.

While California still suffers from one of the worst droughts on record, that is not the case for the climes of Western Montana where, in the Bitterroot River Basin, the current precipitation logs in at 105% of 20 year averages and, most importantly, the snow water equivalent of the snow in the upper climes is 96% of median averages. This is very good news, indeed, for unlike prior years (read 2011 and 2014) when high snow pack and excessive precipitation found us bussing over the Continental Divide to fish the prime waters of the Missouri River just outside of Craig, MT, these levels of now mid-winter calculations should find us in great stead to fish our home waters of the Bitterroot River, the Big (“A River Runs Through It”) Blackfoot River and the Clark Fork of the Columbia River.

We are in the “tween time” right now—between the wonderful late fall fishing and the soon-emerging skwala hatch, which, come May, will find us into the “runoff season” where that upper snow mass melts and flows downstream(s) creating unfishable conditions due to high water levels and resultant turbidity (the waters during the runoff have the color of mocha coffee creating zero visibility for feeding fish). It is this runoff that cleanses our Montana rivers and provides for the pristine fishing conditions that we now most assuredly see post-runoff when E-15 begins come mid-June.

E-15 is now fully booked, gang; I welcome that fact and will be going to Headquarters on April 15th to not only fish two days of the then-waning skwala hatch but also make final preparations for you soon-following arrivals. Our line-up is almost complete with wonderful speakers, entrainment from our Montana Matters performers, Troubadour Shane Clouse and Honky-Tonker Bob Wire. Staffing-wise, we are blessed this year to have Maria Freeman (who manages Eckstrom’s Stage Coach restaurant at the foot of our Rock Creek) aboard to take over our Extravaganza kitchen (she has been doing desserts for us for the past several years and is well-tuned to our extravagant needs); her now ex, Cowboy Jeff Freeman, will be doing the bbqing as he has done for each of our now thirteen (count ‘em!) Extravaganzas and my now second year law school daughter Trina “Boots” Clausen will be serving the role as our official E-15 hostess—a task that she will fill with trained élan!!

So dust off those fly rods, go find a pond or park to practice your casting and know that exactly three months from today the rowdy scoundrels of Group One will bless us with their presence and set the pace and tempo for Extravaganza 2015.

Viva la Extravaganza!!

Best to all in the preparation stages of it all,

Rock Creek Ron

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