As we have evolved from year to year since the first Extravaganza in 2003, as you can imagine, with all of the craziness that surrounds each year’s event, over time certain traditions have evolved and, for you rookies out there who I do not want to be taken unawares, the following rank high among those now cherished rituals:
1. Boat Reports and The Yellow Hat. Each fishing day we return to Headquarters to compare notes, have a few (or in the case of Dem Ones, multiple) libations and then gather on the outside deck for my favorite part of each Extravaganza, the boat reports. During the boat reports, each team of two has the opportunity to bespell their assembled group with the beauties of their day and tell of strange events that may have occurred—and, believe you me, we have had some strange stories over the years all the way from setting hooks so hard that the setter became a swimmer (as in “man overboard”) to stories of blue marlins caught on Montana’s waters (with camera proof of bbqing the caught [inflatable] bounty) to [actually true] stories of bull trout ingesting sizeable rainbows and cutthroats while being retrieved. Beginning in 2003, I had monogrammed yellow fishing hats created which are awarded nightly to the fisherperson who caught (and released!) the longest trout species of the day. Over the years, miscreants (as in Tattoer Tim “Squawfish” Rodgers trying to submit a humongous squawfish towards a Yellow Hat award [from which he, hence, got his Montana moniker) have tried to sneak in other species, such as huge pike, sucker fish and white fish to claim this award but, no, those proud folks who have Yellow Hats monogrammed with prior years’ dates—and who bring them back year after year to taunt the others—indeed, caught and released the longest trout on a given day of fishing.
2. The Twenty Inch Club. Starting about ten years ago, I wanted to devise a way to chronicle and memorialize the larger of the fish that we catch during each Extravaganza. I arbitrarily picked twenty inches as the cut off point, and, from that decision, came our Twenty Inch Club and our annual Twenty Inch Board. Once again limited to the multiple species of trout that abound (browns, rainbows, cutthroats, cuttbows and bull—and we have multiples of each on the Board year after year), anyone catching and releasing a twenty inch (yes, we provided measuring tapes on each of our boats!), will be logged into our Twenty Inch Club, usually a cut off point for getting a Yellow Hat, btw, and the boards from prior years will be on display this year as they have been in the past. Catching a twenty inch trout is a tough and rare event, each of you should know, such that our average number of Board entries is around twenty for each Extravaganza, except that is for the bountiful year of 2011 when, due to excessively high local water flows, we bussed to and fished the Missouri River where, that year, we posted to our then three separate boards 111 (count ‘em!) twenty inch beauties!
3. The Yellow Shirt. The person who catches the longest trout in each group (and, therefore by definition, a Yellow Hat wearer) is awarded the most coveted and yearly monogrammed Yellow Shirt to take home, wear among friends and, of course, bring back to boast among fellow Extravaganzers. Some of these shirts have seen so much wear that their yellowness has been sun-bleached to near white, but, nonetheless, the award lives on in perpetuity.
4. The Bullshit Bell. Pictured above is the cherished and truth-seeking Bullshit Bell that adorns the center of the outside table during each of the nightly Boat Reports. With each group member sworn to seeking out the stretched truth or embellished tale, each is fully authorized to then hit (read “pound”!) this veteran bell to let the assembled multitude that either a misdemeanor or felony has been committed in the then being proffered tale—and nary a night has gone by without its melodious tones having had been heard!
5. Guide Gag Gifts. Something that we started about a dozen years ago, on Day One of each group’s fishing, when you are introduced to you guide (who will be with you for the next three days) tradition has it that you present your guide with a gag gift of some sort—not only is this a great way to break the ice and begin your most important three day affair with him, but it is and has been an absolute hoot of imaginative givings over the years. Everything from lure imbedded toilet seats, to fishing manuals, to “fish-o-matics” (extendable measuring tapes for calculating the length of catches) to beanie propeller hats to mini goldfish nets to land your catch have seen their way to this fun-filled event, and I encourage each of you to go into your garage to see what you might want to get rid of and bestow upon your guides!
6. Hawaiian Shirt Day. For years and years now, Day One of fishing has been our Hawaiian Shirt Day where we each wear the most garish adornments that you can find. Highlighting this day several years ago, one of our guides showed up in an Hawaiian skirt with matching coconut breast plates, lending a true Polynesian theme to the opening day’s festivities. The Best of the Bunch gets a Double Up Outfitter 3x tee shirt to cover up the error!
7. Your Montana Name. From minute one, day one of the very first Extravaganza I began assigning “Montana Monikers” to each of our Extravaganzers and, for you rookies out there, odds are almost 100% that you will come home with a new name to boast. Such names as “Moraine:, “Big Ben”, “SOS”, and “The Ghost” will be found among returning Oners; others like “Fawn Lady”, “CT”, “Sockeye”, “Maven” and “Compari” will be found among the returning Tattoos; and the likes of “Dead Drift”, “Mad Man”, “Zion Man” and “Onefer” (who will be accompanied by “Twofer” and “Threefer” this year!) will mix and mingle in and among Dem Threes. Never a dull moment in Extravaganzaland, writes Rock Creek Ron!
8. The Package. Each year upon your arrival(s) as we go to the Rock Creek Mercantile to license up and receive an initial installment of your Extravaganza swag, the Merc offers “The Package”—a retail therapy opportunity that is not to be passed up of packaged goods that you can and will use during your stay with us. Via the package we help out the Merc and they do the same for us—one good and kind hand washing the other in the Extravaganza way!
9. Der Blog. www.montanaextravaganza2015.blogspot.com is and should be among your favorites as there you can find posted the Camp List that you have already lost, pictures of the day and a summary of activities of each group as each day of the thee week Extravaganza progresses. Tell your friends and families of this site as it is a cool way to communicate with them without even having had to do so---kinda like a FaceBook page on steroids!
So there you have it gang, a summary of some of the many, many Extravaganza traditions that have evolved and developed over the last near decade and a half. The tradition(s) continue and, each year, we add on to those of prior years’…what does this year have to unfold for us?!?
Best to all in the tradition of it all,
Rock Creek Ron
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