Greetings, fellow E-17ers:
Well, here we are, in the early days of April and rapidly approaching sixty (count' em!) days until the Wonderful Ones bless Montana with the present of their presence! And what a chilly April it is starting out to be, as witnessed by the above photos from Headquarters taken just this morning…snow, snow, and more snow. So much so that the year to date precipitation averages for Montana are now tracking over 120% of twenty year averages, with the snow water content of the accumulated snow at the higher elevations right at 102% of 20 year mean averages…bueno, bueno, bueno!!
Compare those numbers, if you would, with those that I just pulled off the NRCS website for California where, reflective of the unusually rainy season that we have witnessed here, the comparable numbers are precipitation levels AND water content levels at over 200% of 20 year averages, just as they were in 2011 in Montana when the resulting runoff was so horrifically high that, for multiple reasons, we had to motor coach it over the continental divide to fish, with great success, btw, the Mighty Missouri River. Not this year, however!
Gang: April is a game changing month for us for, just as professional basketball morphs into the playoffs during this month, Mother Nature reveals her full hand to us as to just what She has in store for us runoff-wise. Witness the last two Aprils, where, just at this very time of the year the precipitation and snow water content numbers were identical to what they are for us today BUT in each of those two Aprils temperatures climbed way above norm such as that in each of those two years fully one half of the accumulated snow mass was prematurely sent downstream and, come the traditional runoff month of May, each of those years we effectively started with 50% of twenty year norms, resulting each year in low water levels with higher temperatures come each July. Each of those two years we fared well, nonetheless, but things would have been a heck of a lot better for us had we witnessed a "normal runoff" in each.
So, now is the time to sit up straighter in our chairs, to sharpen our pencils and to take careful notice of what is to occur in the climes of Western Montana. If today's pics are any indication, however, a coolish April should be in our forecast thereby further enhancing our fishing fortunes come just sixty days from now!
More to follow as things quickly move from the theoretical to the practical!!
Rock Creek Ron
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