finally met the Zee man

Walked up from the parking lot today and I saw RE (a regular with some acclaim) talking to a guy who looked pretty familiar. Couldn't place the face until later when I found out it was Ray. No comment on his game, except to say that even Zee can't make losing cards win in a 15-30 no-foldem game. If you're running bad, you're running bad.

I can vouch for his being a really nice guy. very pleasant.

thanks for the tips, Ray. If you guys ever get some decent precipitation I'll be sure to make it up there. Won't even look at the Bighole or the Madison either.

Expect 4-10" in the valleys, plus foot in mtns.


Might have normal flows this summer, certainly fine thru July.


Of course we need above normal precip to end drought.


Fished upper middle Madison in Aug. last yr. Temps okay.


Big Hole another story. Heavey irragation demands.


I hope we have a wet spring.

Hope so too. I truly do want to make the pilgrimige, and the wife person is not against it, but I'd rather do it in a year when I'm not putting the fish to too much stress when C&R-ing.

Zee pointed out that the fishing can get red hot when the flows are way low, but he did it with that impish grin of his, so I knew that he knew that I knew (third level fly-fishing-thinking in action here) that what was good for the angler wasn't necessarily good for the fish.


for my own selfish reasons, I hope you have horrible weather for the next few months, big flows through summer and hoppers aplenty in early fall.

I'll be working out my casting arm with my 8 wt until then, looking for the elusive halibut from the float tube.

Water will be a problem here this summer it looks like. Snowpack is in a normal kind of range, but reservoirs need extra because they were tapped last year. We'll see. The pumpers and the surface water people almost went to war last year and will eventually have big problems because of the inadequacy of Idaho water law and management. Both will gang up on the fish here though.

I made a run to the Henrey's Fork last August. Water was flowing to high for good dry fly fishing, irragation demands. I left dissapointed and angry. Not the first time and most likely not the last. I certainly like to see the ag interests lose some of their power.

You tube in the ocean? That has to be a blast.


Generally you can expect decent flows all yrs thru July. Even in low water yrs some systems that hold up fairly well. Water temps do not get to critical levels. If you like small flies, tricos on the Missouri can be great in Aug. In Sept.& Oct.. it cools down. Fishing with Bateis is good, and of course a streamer fisherman is in heaven.


If you make a trip up, let me know. I'll try to have upto date info.

Actually, it's the ocean because it's salt, but it's in a harbor prtected by a jetty. cool also because you can do a modified tube troll/drift with a sink tip or full sink and not worry about hanging up on the sand bottom. a crippled herring pattern works well at this speed.


I gotta get a longer 5 wt for bigger waters. my 6' 2 wt and my 7' 5 wt wouldn't really cut it on the missouri or the madison, huh?

you don't seem like a Powell man. I fish a couple of custom made rods and a couple of st croix rods. can't beat the price. I figure that any money I save on the rods can be spent on trips.

normal precipitation years after drought years only compound the problem. you have to make up stores from the previous season, but people don't believe it because they've seen plenty of rain in the preceeding months. After a year of not washing their cars and wasting in other places, people seem to tend to get pretty wasteful when they think there's plenty of water to be had. as usual, it's the voiceless trout who end up paying.

ST. Croix Legend Ultra, great value. Its become my favorite rod. I don't travel with two rods anymore.