A cutthroat, a rabbit, a 22, and a broken toe…

For weeks that blasted rabbit had been torturing my dogs behind the fence and when they gave chase this morning and disobeying calls raced across the road after the bloody thing; I said enough is enough or I’m gonna have two dead bird dogs right before bird season.

So tonight after sharing my dilemma with my coworker Allen, he went home during lunch and returned with an ancient Savage 22 that he lent me to kill said rabbit, along with five rounds and I promptly went home and chased the bloody thing throwing my hat and a fishing net at it to corral it back into ‘my yard’, and out from under the neighbors’ car, and then went about missing it with four straight shots and losing the fifth somewhere in the grass while trying to reload!

“%$#@”!!



“Screw this” I said and went inside and rooted around in the dark till I found two shells of some sort of load and went back out with my 12 guage and then couldn’t find the damned thing in the dark. The cows were also a concern since they were close, like less than 100 feet, but I surmised the 22 hadn’t scared them off; “what’s a quick blast of the 12 gonna hurt..?”

Then I spotted it not twenty feet out into the pasture and if its ear hadn’t twitched I’d have never seen it again as dark as it’d gotten. I took careful aim and clean missed it with the first load and after the dust settled I could no longer see the rabbit or the cows.

The herd disappeared to about a 1,000 yards out and I jacked another round and spotted the rabbit just 30 feet further to the right and set the bead on it and let another one rip.

“%#@&”!?


I could see the rabbit take off even further to the right and toward the fence, but I was out of shells and had likely 'pushed the tolerance level of my neighbors’; so thought best of continuing - even though my mind told me to run back into the trailer, grab more shells, and keep shooting...

Still, I was convinced "that last blast had to have done some damage"; and told myself so as I searched my truck for a flashlight, then letting down the cattle gate, I walked the fence line till I saw where I’d hit the ground.

“No rabbit, shit!”



Then I walked a little further and spotted it shaking not two feet to my right in amongst some tall grass and I promptly stomped on its' neck and felt it squirm underneath.

"Gotcha ya"!

I’m not the tortuous type, nor do I enjoy death; in fact I’d been up till now reluctant to deal with the cute little fella in such a way, but I’ll be damned if I’ll have my two best four-legged friends die because of him; so I picked up a large stone and threw it hard toward its head with my left hand and hit my right big toe instead and about died from the pain and stupidity of such a move.

“%#@&”!!

My toe was throbbing in pain and the rabbit had been protected by my boot the whole time, but eventually he succumbed to the weight of a 300lb man standing on his' neck; along with some injuries I later discovered which occurred when I blew his back legs off at some point in my shooting foray.

I gathered the little guy up and slipped him onto the barbed wire as I let myself out and secured the gate behind me, then threw him in the bed of the truck to let the girls out for 'a look see'. At first they bolted off as expected toward where they’d last seen him play hide-and-seek, but when I called them to heel, I held the grand prize and both jumped for joy at the reward, then I dropped him to the ground so they could get a good sniff.

Neither seemed to enthused to grab it and run, both content it was finally dead’ which was nice to see, so I picked it up promptly and threw it back in the bed and sent them inside for dinner and a bag of ice for my toe and some aspirin for my head.


Oh, I also went up to Hyalite Reservoir yesterday and caught over 15 bows and cuttys using dries at dusk - a cinnamon ant pattern was the ticket and it was a blast of another sort...

- This little bird above almost got taken by 'a monster' (something)..take a look below?!


"WTF"? I actually didnt see the fish till later when reviewing my images this afternoon...WOW that's a big fish to go after a bird?!...



Was a beautiful evening and I enjoyed the solitude, as I was fishing alone...


Right at last light though I was granted the presence of this toad of a Westslope Cutthroat and felt sort of deserving of such a prize; after catching nothing but little guys all night.


Till next time...


Moe

A Change of Scenery..

Searching out new stretches of the Stone....

....

First up was 'Loch Laven to Pine Creek' (6.3 miles)


Things were not looking good on my way to pick up my friend Tom for our 'last minute decision to try new water...'


The 15 minute hail storm still didnt deter us as bad as we wanted to float..'


..I'd theorized "this is Bozeman, certainly things will be different over below Livingston.."


"Wrong!"

With wind gusting to 35 miles per hour we were kinda asking for trouble before we even put on, but the shuttle had already been called-in'; so we went for it...and paid (dearly)?!

"%#@&"


This little bit of a clearing gave us hope that the trip could be salvaged, but...



..ten minutes later we were tying up to some random island and running for shelter as lightning split two trees before our very eyes on the opposite shore.

"%$#@"


For all our efforts we were rewarded with only two fish in the 2.5 hour float; not bad considering we only fished about 20 minutes of it. The rest of the time we rowed our asses off and prayed we wouldn't die while trying to navigate a much narrower and faster river the closer we got to town.

..

Next up was "a 2 Day Float" first, I went with Tom and Chuck down a familiar stretch 'from Emigrant to Mallards Rest' and we had a blast!!

At the ramp we me met a crazy friend of mine Angus who was about to float alone the first few miles before he picked up a friend; I suggested he take Tom (who could row) and he agreed and we floated nearby each other the rest of the day bantering back-and-forth'.

My mistake though, as with Chuck's "limited rowing ability" I was now pretty much stuck on the oars, but we managed to boat about 14 nice cuttys on hoppers; on what we all agreed was "...a pretty slow day"*.
Tom, Angus, and his' friend they picked up at Mill Creek Bridge; "..managed to boat 20" - so they said?

* Thats (a 13.8 mile float) and only 14 fish computes to about one-per-mile or 2 per hour depending on how you look at it...

....


- Lately I'd begun asking random customers I'd never met before 'if they could row a drift boat' and a few could; so that's how I met Jack. He was friendly sort and had extensive experience behind the oars having guided whitewater in the famed 'Yankee Jim Canyon' for several years; so because of this we ventured further upriver to float '26 Mile to Grey Owl' (9.2 miles).

For all our combined river rowing experience (mine very questionable) we only caught 7 fish between the two of us; and at the end of that week I was about in need of a doctor afterward as I was plum whooped, my equaliberium all out of whack, and had the beginnings of third-degree sunburn to boot?!

....

Because of the 'limited footage of big fish caught' (or any fish pictures for that matter on the latter trip), I've condensed these two trips into one short photo essay below)...





















...

Lastly, after a few days of work at the fly shop 'squeezed in to my busy fishing-schedule', Tom and I hit 'Carbella to Emigrant' yesterday (15.5 miles) and made up for some blunders in the weeks' past...





Amazing views on this stretch and not very crowded on this particular Friday. The high winds were a factor early in the morning, but calmed before noon. The fishing wasn't epic, but good and we boated over a dozen nice sized cutty's, two bows, and a few foul hooked white fish as well (the latter on black whooly boogers, they tried but couldn't ingest).




We'd attempted huge and wild patterned streamers early, based on some 'good reports days before', but only "turned some nice fish" and I personally like to catch them' so we stopped all that nonesense and switched back to little pink hoppers once it warmed up a bit.



It's always nice to be able to pull over into a shady spot and have lunch or just rest a bit...its actually one of my favorite parts of floating.




















The predictable afternoon storm on the Stone, is something I've now grown used to and yet we got drenched still; even though we were wearing Gore Tex hoodys. The wind whipped us silly and before we could even pull over the boat had a few inches in her once the first storm passed.
The second one looked "really bad" though, so we 'pushed on through' as the lightning accompanying it was fierce.


Leaving Emigrant Access..(around 7PM)


The forest fires in the western part of the state have created some very cool sunsets as the smoke makes its way across the Monatana horizon; and made for some neat rides home after floats on the Yellowstone.

..I still have several stretches of the Stone to search out, and fish for the first time; so check back and see what we find...

Later,


Moe

Hopper Time!!...

Just spent two more Wonderful Days on the Yellowstone River...

- Above is a gorgeous Native Cutthroat... One of a half dozen we caught on a short float and each as beautiful as the other; all on dries (hoppers) no less....












............




"The Girls" obviously miss me when I spend my days-off afloat - instead of devoting my every second to them; so I play extra long games of "catch the tennis ball" and at least Mocha seems content at the end...





Suzie seems to miss me to the point of biting me almost sometimes when I finally do 'get home', but even she is content once I throw her a bone.

.....
Day 2


Small rainbows taking hoppers at dusk..(7:00PM)





And 'a few bigger bows' began biting around 8:00PM ..(night float)..











Now thats what we're talking about; a nice big brown taken with a dry at 9:00PM on "a purple chubby" (stone fly imitation).

....


Not that we didnt keep fishing, using the moonlights' reflection as a way to spot strikes (aside from sound)..and landed a few more hungry fish before take-out...


The full moon and its reflection was bright enough to cast a shadow of me onto the front of the boat, and 'just light enough' to guide us into Mallards Rest at 10PM last night.

The end of Another Great Day here in Montana.


Moe