Group Two, Day Two

Four of our fleet of eleven (count em!) Tattoo boats returned on Day Two of their extravagant time here in western Montana only to learn that what is good for the Ones is not necessarily so for the Twos. The four boats housing Al “Good Earth” Baylacq and boat mate John “Little Enchilada” Reynolds; Tom “Sockeye” Thornhill and Chris “No Name” Holland; Greg “Good Living” Livengood and Adam “Iron Man” Eichorn; and Zane “Coyote” Wiley with John “Big Enchilada” McGhee all found the Clark Fork’s pickings to be minimal, what with rising temperatures and lowering water levels. The big boat of the foursome was the SS Thornhill/Holland which boasted 30 fish mostly in the 13” category, with the largest being Sockeye’s 18” rainbow.

With good cloud cover, the Bitterroot was by far the better and most prolific choice of the day, with six of the Tattoo boats on that wonderful river, with the Root showing how fickle things can be, witness father-son duo Brad “Maven” Miller and young Jack “Crushed Him” Miller on the same stretch with RCR and fishing pal Joe “Compari” Ciatti, the former boating only a handful of fish while the more experienced latter landing over 25, including an 18” double rainbow and brown combo along with Compari’s very first Extravaganza twenty incher—yielding him, as shown above, a Yellow Hat for his bounty. The father-son combo of Jerry “The Juice” Pantaleo and Tony “No Neck” Pantaleo fared at the Miller level on the Root but the combo of Gisella “Doc” Carapia and Mardi “CT” Shepard doing much better (at least CT, that is!) as well as the father-son duo of papa “Cpa Kevin” and son “Wee Brandon Sweeny landing 25 fish, including a 22” sucker fish that papa was wise not to push for entry in the Twenty Inch Club! The last of the Rooters was solo Matt Brown who covered 11 miles of river to net 10 fish, with the largest being precisely 17 7/8ths inches.

And then there was one last boat who chose to drive all the way up the Blackfoot River to float the majestic canyon of that river (my #1 favorite float, btw!) only to reap a 20 ½” brown for Shanna “Banana” Rodgers and the biggest fish of the day, a 23” bull trout for veteran Lori “Fawn Lady” Ware—both shown above boasting yellow, with Fawn Lady now in the lead for Yellow Shirt privileges with only one more day of Group Two fishing.

Things are literally heating up around here in Extravaganzaland and it will be interesting to hear this evening’s Day Three boat reports as the Tattoos wind up their Extravaganza 2015 experience(s)!!

Oh, I almost forgot, Fawn Lady awarded her daily Cry Die kerchief to Brad “Maven” Miller for his non-stop complaining about poor fishing while others rocked and of having to pick up the guides’ tab at Hooters for being the last boat in…tsk, tsk, tsk Maven!!

Rock Creek Ron---<’///:><