One time when I was bragging about my fishiness Chick told me not to hang your hat on out smarting a fish... their brains are the size of a BB. So having yet to catch a trout on the world famous Bitteroot River I decided to work on stupider fish, like Bass. So I research the area and find that we have these filled gravel pit ponds all over the valley that are full of Bass and even 5 pounders. The problem is I don't nothin about fishing Bass and I ain't got anybody to teach me except the fishiest guy I know ( Dan Stewart ) who volunteered to do a zoom consultation with me on the challenges I'm facing. The ponds are full of vegetation from the top to bottom, so thick you absolutely have to be weed less. So finally I've got it, kinda got it. You know that it's a fish that wants to be caught when you have them eating plastic worms and ignoring real worms....and the Frog bait ? I laughed at myself in the store and was even a little embarrassed at check out...but, pictures don't lie.
Now I can understand that on the river the bugs don't fly until it warms up so the fly guys get to sleep in but these bass are a different animal. Once the sun is on the water it's over...So ol Bass guide #003 is going to crush these Montana guys who can't get out of bed. I have yet to not be alone in the morning fishing and it's the best part....how about this sunrise pic that MP took one morning when she came along.
Every morning I've been going and have to say Dan was right about the frog when they hit it " makes you giggle like a girl ". Here's an action pic...ain't no salmon but ya know the newness and the puzzle of it all for me is nice, I like it.
We left a lot of things in Alaska, stuff as well as emotion and comfort / community. But man am I glad I brought my old White truck. The guys at Kenai Auto have it going down the road like a new truck so I decided not to put bike rack on MP's Rav 4 and instead use the receiver hitch on the old truck. The Bike trails here are incredible, we did 15 mile in Missoula the other day and our goal is to beat Bob and Dana's 27 miles....mmmmm....without electric bikes Dana. I guess it's everywhere these days. Here's this beautiful bridge built for Bikes and we keep riding because there's 10 people living on the bridge and drinking...at 8:00 a.m. It bothers me. When I was in Seattle with Sam for a Mariner game he told me to just ignore the street people.....well, I don't ignore so well, it bothers me.
We had another pay off for this lifestyle alteration we made. Max flew over for a long weekend visit and we laughed pretty good for days. We were killing time before his flight after we ate at the famous Oxford in Missoula. I pulled into second hand store for MP and Max tried on a few new duds...that'll impress them on your new job ol buddy !
I actually came out of the covid isolation in pretty good shape. It's true that I'm at 198 but it could be worse and I never got over my Waterloo weight of 200 ....but I did squander a chance to stay at 185. I got to thinking my cardio might not be as good as it used to be but after the three of us did the Blodget overlook hike where we gain a altitude in the 90 degree heat I think I still got it.
Like everybody, we're ecstatic that things are normalizing . We walked by the historic Wilma theatre in Missoula the other day and they had the schedule of summer events and walla....JackPot ! On July 24th we're going to see one of my musical idols and a guy that I cover many songs of, Robert Earl Keen . And then in October right before we leave for Mazatlan it's Todd Snider who I think is maybe the greatest song writer in Texas. We looked for Gary Allan as I got tell you, I'm a groupie with that guy but even though he's setting a personal record for tour dates to make up for canceled 2020 shows he's just not going to be anywhere close enough for us.
This was in front of the liquor store in downtown Missoula....don't ever say that I don't try to pass on good advice.
Got me another new song and I'll record it tonight and have it on the next edition of Mile 14, Ham Bone Montana Bureau.
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