Read and weep, folks, as this year's runoff is turning out to be a delayed and, indeed, frozen one.
The flow along Rock Creek has now dropped to 1,850 cubic feet per second and, with the recent SNOW in Western Montana, the upper elevation snow water content, instead of declining as it does with runoff, in just the last week has now INCREASED by 15 percentage points in the Bitterroot Mountains (the supplier of most of our E-17 fishing water) and by 28 percent in the Lower Clark Fork River Basin.
May and June are typically the wettest Montana months so it is realistic to expect that the upper climes' accumulation of snow is not yet over. Right now it is 51 degrees in Missoula with temperatures forecast to sneak up into the upper 60's and lower 70's in the upcoming two weeks with a smattering of additional rainfall.
What does this all mean, you ask??
Well, as we have done during three prior Extravaganzas now, today I am making stand-by motor coach reservations to trek us over to Continental Divide as we have done before to fish the fishy waters of the Missouri River (just below the Holter Dam in Craig, Montana) where the fish count is 5,000 trout to the mile and the average fish is over 18" in length--in 2011, while fishing the Missouri, we logged in 110 twenty inch fish! With high local waters around Missoula, the fishing is non-existent (the turbidity in the water makes the water the color of mocha coffee such that the fish can't see your flies!) and those waters become unsafe for the navigation of our drift boats. Andy your comfort and safety is our number one priority.
I will keep you fully posted as things develop, but, for the moment, Group One and possibly Group Two should be thinking that fishing the Mighty Mo might be in your near future!
Best to all wondering about the flow of it all,
Rock Creek Ron
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