The Ones have now returned home and, as we wrap up their experience here in Extravaganzaland, it is fair to say that “they came, they saw and they froze”!! Setting an all-time Extravaganza record, every night we had a fire in the inside fireplace, in between times the Ones motor coached to the Mighty Missouri River for two days of fabulous weather-friendly and fish-friendly conditions returning to fish our local waters only to see the rivers blown out overnight by a wild rainstorm, complete with thunder and lightning, that “blew out” our three targeted rivers such that, those that dared to venture out on the rivers for their third day of fishing, were met with torrential winds and rains, all except, that is, for Santa Rosa CPA Tim “The Marauder” Moratto who, fishing solo with his 15 year Extravaganza veteran guide Chris Stroup, ventured out to fish the lower Clark Fork for a 20+ fish day, including the above beauty, a “20.01” brown (see the water dripping from his gill plate!), that earned The Marauder a(nother) Yellow Hat to add to his decade plus Extravaganza collection.
The big fish of the trip was Demetry “The Ghost” Kondrascheff’s 21 ½” Mo brown, and, as shown above, The Ghost took home with him Group One’s coveted Yellow Shirt for it—congrats to ya, Ghostman!!
If there was such a thing as a Medal of Valor for Extravaganza participation, those Ones that fished the third day would be each entitled to one. Classic to the boat reports of that third day of fishing was the assembly of all the non-Stroup armada of our boats huddled under a Blackfoot River bridge seeking relief from the relentless upstream wind that made dead drift fishing almost impossible. Nonetheless, the reports were valiant ones, including significantly rookie Shana “The Smile” Bagley Howe’s first ever fish caught on a fly—one that she held onto for dear life and full meaning was given to her of the phrase of “A River Runs Through It” as it was on the Big Blackfoot (the river of which that famed book was written) where that fish was caught and released—congrats, my dear, for as the rest of your Ones know, indeed, a river now runs through you!
Best to all from the scene of it all,
Rock Creek Ron
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