On Big Fish

 As I prepare to jump the jet in 10 days for Mazatlan I've been thinking a lot about my hobby, my vocation and my quest to be a better person and have a happy life. And it occurred to me it's all the same thing. All that I know applies to all I do....make sense ? So, I was thinking about how big fish really define the quest and I have a few insights to share .

This summer on one of the really good days we had one of my fishing buddies said something to the effect that he never really expects to do as good as we did that day, he was surprised. Well, for me I expect to do well every time and each next fish is going to be the big one . Through my years of guiding I even came to the point where I enjoyed the slow fishing better than the fast and furious fishing. I'd look at it as more of a challenge, a bigger mystery to solve....I've never caught  a ' fish of a lifetime '  because my lifetime ain't over .  

Here's pic of the first grande King Salmon I ever wrestled . Me and my friend Paul Kelly went fishing until 4:00 a.m. to get him. Paul who had lost a hand in an industrial accident got him in the net and it was ON...and the outcome was in doubt for quite a spell.

So here's list of the things I've noticed about big fish....You know how I like a list, it's as close to having any order as we ever get here at Mile 14 , Montana Bureau.

1. you hear in fishing circles " the little ones taste better than the big ones "....well, you hear that from people who don't catch the big ones.

2. You hear " I like Red Salmon better than King Salmon ".... well you hear that from people who don't catch King Salmon.

3. And ouch....when somebody loses a big fish you hear " well I was going to release him anyway "....get your pic first, then release....

4.  If you're going to spend your life chasing grande sized slimey's ya gotta take the time to learn the fine art of the pose. My buddy Lowell knows the way and I personally think he should have had and Adjunct Professor position at the Kenai River Guide Academy .

Now for the nuts and bolts of the chase.

5. Now this might sound stupidly obvious but...Fish where the fish are !  Lots of fish = lots of big fish. Few fish = few big fish .

6. No Laziness. Fresh leader, sharp hooks, fresh bait , start at sun-up , end at sun-down . In Montana if you use wigglers, make sure they're wiggling, ol slimey can tell the difference me thinks.

7.Those that know me know what's lucky number 7...eat Licorice. 

7 . A ....use scents. Shoot the locks off that wallet and support Phil at the  Pro Cure Company.....you're going to need Anise oil , sardine butter  and here in Moootana if you ain't got 40 bucks worth of Berkley Gulp products you're wasting time and maybe oughta take up golf.

8. Mental  imaging . I learned this from a friend who kicked field goals for a living . He told me about a kind of self hypnosis drill he would do and see himself accomplishing what he wanted to do....Well I do that daily now and wallla, no surprises because I've done it all before .

9. Don't brag.....ever....bad ju ju to follow if you do.

10. Being confident is not bragging....Ali said " it ain't bragging if you can do it ".

12. Share all and any things you know. Share lures, I love to give away the good stuff, makes me feel like a missionary. Oh....and share your licorice. 

13. Catch and release.....the bigger the better....salmon have between 1500 and 3000 eggs of which one of your buddies just might catch as an adult in a few years.

14.  Notice the small things. Many small things = a big thing. Notice trends, notice fellow fisherman's success , or lack of . Notice the environment. to hot, to cold . Hot wind ? or a steady breeze...it all shapes the day.

15. Show respect. I've seen Humpies kicked back into the water many a time. One day  in Mexico on a hot Toro bite people were throwing the released fish back into the ocean. I quit fishing so people wouldn't think I was a part of that. So just be gentle , bend over , place old slimey in the water until he's feeling like swimming and give him a big ol smiling adios. 

16. Have fun. Through the years I've heard professional people advise to not mix business with pleasure. Well, I respectively and strongly disagree. I think you can make anything, and I mean anything better by throwing in a healthy dose of levity . In my career the thousands of people I've fished with might tell you they don't remember the fish exactly but they certainly remember having fun....and laughing .

17. Any questions ? 

Well , if you're still reading this I'll leave you with a short song from the Movie Tender Mercies  with Robert Duval . I played this song just a couple times before I sang it for you, it was like I just new it . I've had that experience a few times in my life....when ya just know and that's simply magic. So I guess let's all just let it ' flow ' and I'll  post pics from Mazatlan real soon , hope ya come back to Mile 14.

Livingston Saturday Night

 Jimmy Buffet loved this area when he was just starting out and discovering this big ol world . It's weird here in Montana, you hear it all the time in different forms and they might even blame Jimmy to a degree... "it's been discovered '  ' it's been gentrified '  ' it's being ruined '.....What ? Hello ? I don't get ti , not a bit. It looks like all the old timers or non thinkers just like things the way they were and ignore the  never ending spiral of change. I used to tell the commercial fishermen in Alaska that pined away for the old days and wanted to have first rights that if they're able to build a time machine make sure it's big enough for everybody !  For me I see a nice place to live, people who can do it want to live there , it's a good thing and an inevitable thing so the only discussion should be is how do we do community development and shape it into something that is good for everyone....a vital friendly town with an economy and housing for all strata's, THAT should be the goal .

Here's a shot of typical downtown Livingston . It's just gorgeous and certainly has it's share of studios. bistros and real estate offices. I suppose the negativers would rather see empty run down or falling down 100 year old buildings.

Now where I hang my rain gear these days in Helena they took a different approach. In the early 70's while I scratched a living in the frozen north Helena went through a thing called ' urban renewal ' and ripped down major portions of the historic area including the Marlow theatre, the sister to the Wilma in Missoula that is now one of the most wonderful music venues in the Northwest....what kind of town wouldn't want a theater like this one in Livingston ? 

Every town in Montana has one of these . Why should Livingston be any different 

The retro vibe in Livingston is tangible, you feel it. For me it's as simple as the word ' interesting ' and what could be wrong with that....if that's ruined I guess we could all use a good dose of ruinitity....I guess I'm making up a few words here because I guess I just don't have the vocabulary to properly describe how damn stupid people can be...or maybe greedy....it's a type of the old ' I was here first so I have more rights ' , jeez I've bumped into that my whole life and errrrrr... I hate it. 

It struck me....for those that hate change the problem is simple to solve. Just move to Ringling a mere 40 miles up the road, it's a time capsule.

Ringling Ringling slippin away\

only 40 people

livin there today

streets are dusty 

and the banks be torn down 

it's a dying little town

Here's a couple shots or Ringling. One from the road and then a pic of main street and the bar.

behind the bar theres a pile

of beer cans 

been there 27 years

think of all the heartache and tears

in 27 years of beer

So you move to Ringling and you're 40 miles closer to one of the Hot Springs which has wonderfully hot mineral water in several pools. It's one of our favorite places . Interesting Murals of Montana history surround the pools and waterfalls . Because of the minerals etc a lot of the hot springs we've been to look to be rustic with a little algae bloom or debris that collects on the bottom....not this one, it's spotless clean.

And I learned something, which is always good. Untill I really scoped out the murals done by a local guy named Gary Larson I had no idea that the Vikings had a part in pioneering Montana.

11:00 a.m. Sunday in White Sulphur Springs. Church bells are ringing, the air is crisp, cool and clean. There's just a bit of termination dust on the mountains.....life is good.

Well, that's it for my foray into Montana ruininity. Things are different in Jeff's world and I like it. If you don't like the world you're living in I guess there's only a couple things you can do....you can adapt....change your view, get new glasses so to speak . OR....you can move to Ringling.

It's always something

 And I thought Alaska was a place with a lot going on....maybe it's just coincidence but this Montana deal is full of it, dynamic lightning storms that always result in a fire that's treated as routine in these parts. Then there's the accompanying toad strangler as Geno would say, if you've ever wondered what a one and a half inches of rain looks like in 15 minutes here's a  short video. Now in Mexico we've seen some serious rain but not like this and in Alaska the rain just pitter paters around but lasts for days....and I mean days.

In fact as I type this morning the world famous is experiencing another flood watch. The Snow River Glacier dumped ( the Jokulhaup )\which is does routinely and with another 5 days of rain in the forecast the Kenai River is sure to reach at least minimum flood stage. Now in Soldotna I've dealt with that many a time, I've worn raingear for 27 days in a row, I've had it rain so long that I never had to wash the boat for 3 weeks....but I ain't never had it run in the house like here in the Big Smokey Sky country.

And how does that work....well, just the other morning me and MPeasy were driving up the hill to our house when a red pick up with flashing lights passed us and Mp said " guy sure is in a hurry " . And I said  " yup he sure is. looky there ".

That was just the start of the show. Turns out our house was the perfect place to watch from. it is literally only about 5 blocks away right up into our mountain view. Here's a look see without tele.

So for me it was kinda the Helena version of watching Yellowstone being filmed over in Ham Bone. I got on my bike and humped the hill for a closer look. I was impressed with the industry of fire fighting. We easily had 30 trucks and another 20 police blocking traffic as well as two helicopters and a four engine jet that brought the red stuff that put the final touches to the 18 acre fire which nobody knows how it started.  

Now how do I say it...mmmmm.....well I've known a few firemen in my life and I've never met one that don't drive a new pick up truck, ya know what I mean.  So I figure with all the watching, preparing , radio calling and nut scratching there had to be about 1.4 million in payroll hanging around.

But I gotta say , those guys are good and there was no doubt that fire was going out. The State Forestry people got in the air first and the guy driving that Huey pretty much put the fire out single handedly. He flew that thing like a piece of his body . He never hovered just kept moving and swinging the load so the water would disperse in a line . He made a trip from a local lake about every 7 minutes, it was like watching choreography.  He had the bucket on a short leash so it wouldn't swing much, watching a man and his trade is a beautiful thing.....thank you firefighters.

So, being a little stressed from all the natural disaster avoidance me and my running mate decide to hit the links and we drive back to our new favorite golf course in Elliston. We hit our first shots right to the edge of the Blackfoot River where MP notices that the chokecherries are ' gorgeous ' and perfectly ripe. So as we tee up for the next hole out comes a real Bear. Now this guy is about a 300 pounder as ol retired guide 003 has seen a few bears. He's acting like he owns the place because of course he does.  Now the left side of my brain said ' he's only a black bear ' and the 69 year old side of my brain said ' you need to quit doing stupid stuff all the time '....so we decided to not play through. we were the only people around and well it was time to make an adult decision. I left a note in the money box and Tom the owner invited us to another round on him. 

With the air quality index in the red and me being an asthma guy we got up Monday morning and decided to exit stage left. We found nice clean air at our new favorite casino, Northern Quest in Spokane where I won 20 bucks. Yup, we spend gas, food lodging and of course a few Pacifico's for twenty bucks..  But the highlight of the trip was Kootnei Falls in the very Northwest corner of Montana , very close to both Idaho and Canada.

What a gorgeous spot. You can feel and hear the power of the water. It's a mile and half hike to the suspension bridge which of course we had to walk. My only other experience with a swinging bridge is in Puerto Vallarta where they have everyday suspension bridges over the river that are rusty and  well, mexican. But they're only 15 feet above the water....now this baby is tall , long and sways pretty darn good. Perfect . 

And the views....man oh man....

So Team X will be in Mazatlan October 25th.  I'll have pics of Day of the Dead celebration and I'd bet dollars to donuts a few slimey's . I'll get a couple Mile 14's out before but please come back...I'll get inspired by something more often I'm sure....😎

Look for weird and you will find it

 Once me and MPeasy found the elevation temperature trick we've been going up and over the divide routinely, it's always 10 degrees cooler. So we get our jugs filled up at the 4500 ft  point with nice fresh spring water and then we looky see.  I was looking for moving water to shoot another song video like the one at the end of this Mile 14 story and what do you think we stumbled upon ?

Elliston is small and the hometown of an old friend in Alaska. I've driven by it hundreds of times in my life and never stopped to looky see. Right next to the semi-world famous Blackfoot river is this golf course that nobody knows about. They actually call it a green course because what it is 3 or 4 acres of greens with no fairways, just greens and then three or four tee boxes with different angles to hit from. What a great idea. Here's apic of the club house and then the course from about the 3/4 extent of the distance.

So the Pro's from Dover are ready to tee off. I take the first shot and it's maybe 70 yards. Having not golfed for a while I tell MP I'm gonna hit a 9 iron and take some off of it....well, that baby was about as good a wedge/9 iron shot I've ever seen and flew straight over the green and across the river at the irrigation pump....this  'green course ' has no rough, just forest, river and rocks and snakes. 

So MP Chili Dips her first shot and then devises the perfect strategy for this hidden gem we've found, keep it on the ground so she putts and putts and gets a five to my snowman.....mmmmm.....here's pics of a couple fine tuned athletes.

So after that first hole I had to get to doing what I like to do in most all things in life....win. I got the giggles twice , once when my shot was way to hard but the role was stopped by a water hose that gave me a huge assist.... I finished with a 47 and MP with a 54...and we're going again real soon and I expect to lower my score to 45 or so now that I know the course. I lost 4 balls and had a horse fly draw blood. Great day.

Elliston has maybe 25 houses and one Bar.  We stopped for a couple Rainers to go which is kinda unique to Montana. I've always thought that Mazatlan runs on beer but this State of Montana can give them a run for their money. They might not have the beer iced and will bag with more ice if you want like Mexico but they do have the very largest selection of craft beers at the ' Man Store ' that I've ever seen....There are at least 7 breweries in Helena. SO, where was I going with this ???? oh....we got the road cokes and then took one of those short cuts home that I'm good at finding.  Yup, the road up and over Mullan pass was gorgeous but the torrential rains we've had made the road almost unpassable. One stretch of road to a whistle stop called Austin took us one hour to go six miles. But damn, it's gorgeous although a little hard on MP's new car. I reminded her it's an S.U.V. and we were just doing a little of that sport stuff.

Fishing ? yup, Tom and I got to Hauser Damn right at sun up. I had two rods set up for a slip sinker deal and a Gamakatsu # 2 octopus hook for the worm needle that Glenn taught me. So I taught Tom and after changing weight for just the right life like drift to go with our life like threaded worm we were on fire...We caught 20 trout in about an hour that were all 2 to 3 pounds. We could have filled up the smoker but as we had a nice little hike to the place we just released promising ourselves that next time we'll have a back pack with a cooler for fillets. I like the catch and release fishing of course but sometimes when the fishing is really good it gets little weird so we bid adios on that adventure .

As were hiking out Tom told me had fished in Montana his whole life and never caught one fish right after another like this morning....I  replied " of course you haven't, you've never had a guide before "

I've been working on Hobo Jim songs...it makes me feel good and I know he'd like having his memory kept alive that way. If any of you like this kind of story book music you can get all his music at Amazon.com...His wife, his family and friends would appreciate it .. This song is kinda close to my heart, Alaska salmon fisheries are changing like all things in life. The once famous catches of Kenai Kings are gone and fishing closures are hoping to protect the left overs...In the day I fished 90 trips a season, my last year I worked 38...I feel for everybody....Love and miss ya Jim . 😎❤

Walleye School and another Alaska list

 Ya know when I was a kid with an old wood boat and more courage than brains I don't really remember learning a new fishery as a difficult thing to do....you just went out and did it. Well this Wally deal, learning the fine arts of catching the best consumables in the state is kinda humbling me. But I've learned a lot, I got me the harnesses you need and all the right electronics and bait. We spent a couple days camping at the Lake with our friends Bob and Dana and I had a few breakthroughs, and yup, I finally caught a couple that were a bit bigger . I caught two like this.

Keith being about as fish goofy as anybody I've ever met has walked me through a lot of the basics and introduced me to the Worm Blower. Never in my life would I imagine that someday I'd be stabbing a night crawler with a hypadermic  needle and giving him .75 pounds of air pressure to help him float., ya gotta have a nice floaty wiggler for the Lindy  Rig.....and then I met this guy.

I was lucky enough to camp right next to Glenn from " over the hump, in Pahrump "  Nevada, one hell of a guy....another great fisherman who had everybody awestruck with his killing power. After the warm up he dialed me in on the Night Crawler needling when you need just the right presentation. He says ya just can't have an old in active balled up do nothing worm.  Ya gotta thread him onto the line which does two thing's, it makes for a life like look and it hurts so bad the worm really squirms for a while.  So you know me, it was off to the worm threader store and bought one for me and  all my close friends, didn't have to spend much money.  Here's a pic to prove it really exists as I kinda doubted it myself for a while..

So if you acquaint this learning Wally's with any school I'd guess I'm in about 6th grade right now....just starting to grow hair ya know.  It's a weird problem to have but one of our biggest problems is the darn trout, they are everywhere. I'm here to tell ya these lakes are chuck full of them and we kinda wade through them to get at Wally. Yikes.....this one that Bob has is real typical.

The first night we slept in the camper our camping future was in doubt. That damn bed is so hard I couldn't stand up straight for three days . But we found a couple of comfort mats at Walmart in the pool floaty dept for 5 bucks a piece and walla another layer did the trick.....the problem though was that with the stock hard  cushion with an added inch of temperpedic topper along with the comfort mats that every time I sat up in bed to go in the middle of the night I knocked my melon pretty good into the ceiling......Here's our camp and MP and Broda Bob cooking breakfast....which just had to come during the best time to Wally fish.....mmmmmmm.

So I put a Kenai River Guides Association sticker on the ol Minnow 6 , I think I've got the liberty to advertise for my buddies as well as promote the overall sport. I got this outfitted for sure. Garmin plotter / finder and GPS. Cannon downriggers...man, that's a beautiful thing . Here she is at rest in front of our camp where we had to pay 5 bucks to use the dock. That Lady that ran a place called Stewart's Landing in Alaska would hit me for twenty bucks and bottle of chardonnay.

It's hot here. I've always thought there had to be a way to beat the heat and my plan worked.  Yesterday morning we spent a few hours watching MP's nieces and nephews display their  4-H projects, steers and pigs....the pigs are more fun, I liked the way they kinda cane em to get them to walk in front of the judges.....but I digress....By the time we were out of there it was 96 degrees. We love to picnic so we picked up Chinese from Panda Express then bought some Coors and headed up to the Continental Divide, 15 miles away. We went to the top of the top and as we climbed the temp fell and fell until we were lunching in 84 degree weather with this view.... I was kinda proud of myself .

And the Bass....well I'm a little ahead of 6th grade with them. I go to the pond most mornings. I get there right at sun up and though this is a busy Park I'm alone for the first two hours and usually catch 5 to 15 fish. I love it. It's quiet. I'm alone . I'm tricking new fish. It's good. Here's a sun up and of course ol slimey so ya know I ain't B.S.ing. 

Being the original ' what's worth doing is worth over doing ' guy you won't believe the garden we have. We've been picking these guys for two weeks now and can't keep up. We've had Zucchini fried, fritters , bread , salad.....I know we shouldn't let them get so big but at a certain stage they grow and amazing half a foot a day. So, any of you Helena peeps that read Mile 14 that might want squash just give a holler and I'll deliver, no kidding.

And in my rare but inciteful political action section of Mile 14 I  gotta post two pics with two statement's , you decide which goes with which...I don't know but I just read that Exxon reported a 17 Billion, yes billion in profits in the last quarter which amounts to $ 2,800.00 a second...and I don't think they're Democrats. And, I'm with them. 

AND NOW...last Mile 14 I did ' Things I miss about Alaska. This edition...

Things I don't miss about Alaska

1. Living in Rain gear...

2. Fish politics....

3. Deet. ..we were in the Big Hole country last week and the locals thought the bugs were bad....na, nodda

4. those @#%& eagles screeching outside my bedroom window in the morning.

5. Humpies

6. October

7. ' free postage does not include Alaska and Hawaii '

8. Red eye flights

9. King Salmon shortages on going

10. Howard Woodford