It's like one huge golf course...

And I mean huge !  That right there is a typical windshield view of North Eastern Montana. You see me and MPeasy have a map of our new State that we highlight the roads we've traveled with a goal of seeing the entire State.  So, in between rain storms we did a 3 day 1,000 mile adventure to hike at Makoshika State Park in Glendive Montana ( I saw this stunning geography on Sunday morning television )  and then up to Fort Peck Reservoir to see the country that MP's grandparents homesteaded on and lost to the government when the Lake was flooded in the early 1930's and get a feel for how they lived, what they saw and who what their neighbors might have been like. And then we wanted to drive Highway 2 from Wolf Point to Havre with a stop at Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs near Malta. 

The rock formations at Makoshika are amazing. Of course it was raining and the lady at the check in station told us to use our poles as the rattle snakes were the worst ever...yikes.... I didn't much like that part. But we got our hike in with me grumbling along about snakes. Then we retreated to Glendive as MP perused the 2nd hand store I walked into a music store .

What a surprise and the highlight of the trip for retired guide 003. This place had a as many guitars as any Guitar Center Franchise I've ever been in, for a music hound like me this was huge...but MP finally found me and we discovered the second room with a full sized Tyrannosaurus rex replica . We were astounded . This place is the coolest ever so stop and see it, buy a  t shirt. Guitars, comics, candy....AND as I talked with the owner about how he ended up in Glendive Montana and he showed me the new PRS SE with an acoustic Piezo pickup with two output jacks a guy walks in and says hi who is depicted on the shirt, it was Ron Thral who plays the double neck guitar for Guns and Roses . .The two of them were searching for a slower life so I congratulated them and off we went with a wonderful brush with stardom. 

With the record rains Montana has experienced everywhere it is incredibly green. Fort Peck is gorgeous and huge . MP chatted with some other descendants of the area as I took pictures. The two brothers were city folks who came up for a cousins reunion. There grandfather had worked on the Dam and they shared stories as we gazed on the project from a viewpoint that had a memorial for the dozens of men killed in construction. I loved the story of MP's relative swimming the mail across the river before construction.....I guess I'm just not a good enough writer to tell you how we felt as we drove off but I can tell you it was unusually long and quiet for me and MP.

All over the ' High Line ' as they call it you come across scenes like these. Most of the little towns once active main streets are shuttered and I wondered why, where'd the people go ? Why ? How does one town have a vital commercial are, small but successful and the next town is all shut down ?....How does that happen.  Here's Saco .

I guess every town starts out with big dreams....it's going to be a city someday .  Towns have these 100 year old buildings like this Bank in Big Sandy that now looks a bit out of place and  has a Real Estate office in it....The Visitor and Cultural center reminds me of a Pawn Shop in the inner city somewhere, strange .

Half way to Alaska on the Alcan highway is Laird River Hot Springs . I tell people it's like the lord put it there for car sore travelers. Sleeping Buffalo Hot Springs outside of Malta is no different. Don't drive by without stopping. It's 3 pools are hot, clean and the friendliest staff ever , they're glad to see you and we're glad to see them.

And seeings how I'm passing out endorsements like I was making money from it I gotta give a nod to Ma's World Famous Diner is Loma .  It's owned by a Mexican Lady from Hermisillo so I had authentic Rancheros . Amongst all the cool fish mounts and memorabilia I spot this fish . Yup, and honest to goodness Kenai King Salmon right here in the heart of Montana....I'm feeling connected like I often do. We spotted their billboard up the road around Box Elder and when it said World Famous we agreed we were stopping. As we chatted in the cafe I told them you can't be world famous unless you think you are....

Now you've read through this so far and thank you....but you're probably wondering where the rest of the fish are....Well, I found them at yet again another fantastic State Park in Great Falls called The Giant Springs. Cold clear water creates the worlds shortest river as it merges with the mighty MO. The fish Hatchery has these huge Rainbows that I assumedare the Brood stock as  I know a little bit about old slimey. Well I'm told they're ' show fish '....So you got a place with 20 miles of riverside trails, birds and wildlife and Show Fish...did I mention it's all free ?....what a place.

I can't help but notice that Mile 14 has hit a milestone , 1/4 of a million reads . Wow, all I can say is mucho gracias for letting me share this trip around the sun with you. I'll keep the faith and as I said earlier I see it evolving like most things in life to something it didn't start out to be...the natural order of things at work here at Mile 14....

Humbled

 

Yup, I'm humbled by the fishing here in Mooontana. It's bad enough that ol slimey is way harder to catch than I had thought but the rules and regs are about as confusing as it is on the world famous.  I've always, well mostly always , been a rules guy so you can imagine my heart rate the other day when I had this conversation with a Park Ranger while putting the boat on the trailer....you know how I feel about Park Rangers.....

Him....well do I have to get my ticket book out ?

Me...I doubt it, we only caught a couple Walleyes but that darn lake is chuck full of Perch .

Him...You didn't keep any Perch did you ?

( Now this guy must have not have done so well in the interrogation class at the academy because he kinda showed  his  hand and I had the feeling ) sooo I said....

Me....keep them, why would anybody keep them when they're the size of the Angel Fish in my aquarium ?

Him...Well that's a good thing because this is the only Lake you can't keep them until July 1st. 

mmmmmm....well with June 1 right around the corner and having promised some new Team Xers that we'd have an all you can eat Walleye feed before that date and figuring nobody could tell the difference we had some gorgeous Perch....Yikes....and we still don't have enough for the much awaited Walleye feed. Here's pic of MPeasy with her first ever Walleye, may the fish gods grant you more and larger baby.

At one point I was busy trying to tie this new fangled invisible line that I've been told to use and I glance up an MP's rod is hammered down with a Walleye bottom bouncer rig on it . Of course it got off but we now know the big uns exist . She kinda knows there's more to the trip than catching, after all we're the poster kids for  ' the joy is in the pursuit ' movement. She saw a Taniger and although that ain't a Grizzly Bear or a Mountain Lion it's a pretty big deal.

So she's looking in the trees.  Me, I'm looking at boats and fisherman. I'm wondering why this guy is in the middle of the Lake and how fast he's trolling and what's he towing and at what depth. And of course a boat in the high country of Montana is a beautiful thing even if he is running an old smokey two stroke.

So, I got the right depth . I can see the targets . I'm up early . Got nice fresh leeches , my first experience with those babies and they're about half disgusting, really slimey...AND  the rod goes off ! It feels like a...dare I think a large Wally finally ?.....nope, just another normal trout . Ain't know way this helps. It's absolutely impossible for even the most convincing expert pescador to succeed in telling people it's a red meat Walleye....kinda like the fabled White King...I could of  came through in the clutch if I'd offered an all you can eat trout fry.  But who wants to go to that ?

So any of you that were waiting on the Fish fry, it's been rescheduled for August 1st . If we need to we'll import some semi fresh salmon which will be a substitute people will like and I'll of course have crow on the menu for myself.  And to my buddy and mentor that told me " find the Perch and you'll find the Walleye " all I can say is thank you so much for damn near getting me my first and only ever fishing violation . 

FTF

 Of course that's an acronym for what the current CEO, morale and recruiting officer at Team X has decided will be our new motto. Fish through Friends or Friends through Fish , whichever floats your boat ... and that's what it's all about. In fact I'm thinking we'll slowly but surely evolve Mile 14 into a Team X resource and try to grow our brand of geographically and culturally diverse team of fishing friends. I even have a logo in mind.....You guys will want a shirt .

And why....?  Well., I had a bit of a catharsis in my fishing life lately.  I was at a Cinco De Mayo get together the other day and was introduced to a well known fly fisherman who regaled me with the difference between fishing for Montana trout with terrestrials and fishing for Alaska trout with beads and , ugh, even plugs . In the conversation I asked him what his favorite place to fish in beautiful Montana was and....mmmm....well it got real quiet real fast , I was told he doesn't tell people where he fishes. I didn't ask him where he caught the most or where he was going tomorrow, I asked what his favorite place was. So Mike all I can tell you is this....you're one of the few ( out of thousands ) of fishermen I've met with a me and me only attitude so you're gonna have to go to prep school to get that coveted Team X invite . In short it goes like this....we are ALL about the furtherance of this thing that brings us all so much joy. We strive to see all fishermen catch fish, we don't keep secrets, we enjoy seeing you Mike catch a fish as much as we enjoy catching one ourselves, maybe more......So Mike , try to be like this guy .

Me and ol K.L. there spent our first winter together in Mazatlan . When we weren't passing the day talking of books and Mexico fishing he took me under wing and steered the course for my new pursuit of Walleyes on Montana's beautiful Lakes. He made lists of tackle for me , he explained the spawn and where to look, knots, flurocarbon or braid , bait and best of all how to catch them for fun by jigging. I showed and told him I had plenty of tackle from guiding a lifetime in Alaska and he told me that I had two major problems... all of my stuff is to big and I don't know a thing about what I'm doing. So, shopping and Team X emeritus Ernie Mills fixed that with his generous donation of plugs and blades and, well just so much cool tackle and then K.L. fixed the later with patience and interest in my fishing. Mucho Gracias. Here's the first Walleye I ever jig fished two days ago. I missed two good bites before on the third I waited for the flutter on the down drop and set without feeling pressure like I've learned to do....magic is all I can say.

I'm a Shimano and Daiwa guy. K.L. told me that 2500 size was about right and he too is into Shimano. So I settled on the Daiwa Regal because I remembered how smooth one was that I bought years ago and they're mid price with 8 bearings. I kinda figured for these fish smoothness was better than durability because unlike a Silver salmon they ain't gonna smoke drag and wear out your rollers etc. I put them on the 7' fast action Shakespeares that I used in Alaska and it's a sweet system that I could finally feel the bottom with . And I traded the Power Pro braid I love for the recommended 8 lb P-Line Flurocarbon ....out with the old, in with the new...anybody need a half dozen 4 and 5000 size Stradics with 20 lb braid  ?

So I got myself about 5 Plano boxes that are chucked full, a thing of beauty . I found me an old Canada 

Dry wood crate that they fit into perfectly   and thanks to K.L. I now the difference between a Flicker Shad and an X Rap all the way down to the use of Lindy rigs and Slow Death hooks, and oh, you gotta have it all in different sizes as well. And slip boobers, out with the Styrofoam red ones that could float a Volkswagon and in with the nice yellow wood ones that look like they could be hand carved.

Even Keith Holtan all the way from Alaska pitched in with the Skinny on these whirly bird jig thinga ma jigs that he said would help in stained water like we have now from spring run off....And I'm still wondering how he had intel on the Walleye bite in Lake Helena but hey...that's the way Team X works !

Being an ol Salmon guy I'm a big believer is scents . Now I know they don't call them Walleyes for nothing as they hunt with their exceptional vision but a good shot of Anise smell or maybe some Berkeley Gulp can't hurt eh ? And yes Phil, I'm still buying Pro Cure products although next time I see ya I gotta ask about that ' water soluble '  deal on the label of my anise spray.

And I got my connectors and beads all organized so you're not floundering around in a tackle box looking for an assortment laying on the bottom.....and then my rubber.....and more plugs ...and I'm thinking I need a few more .....well, we'll see as move along on Walleye hunt 2023. Did I tell you I announced an all you can eat Walleye feed before a June 1st....I love pressure , made a living getting used to it on everyday of fishing.

So thanks to K.L for the expert ( a friend told me once that an ex is has been and a spert is drip under pressure ) help and guidance. It takes village. Keith in Alaska, Marty at the Hardware store , Ben who showed me the needle trick, Willie that sends me links to tackle deals , the guy in the beautiful Lund yesterday that told me I was trolling to fast, Todd at Elk Mountain who told me where to find Pike....just everybody , thank you ! And Mike, I'm not saying you won't make the team, in fact we might need you as a kind of interpreter for some of the weirdness we bump into from time to time here in Montana....All I'm saying is this : to quote Team Xer Jacques Lizin from Arville Belgium " Think about it ! "

.

April showers bring more showers

 Or so it seems around here.  As I type this thunderheads are building over the mountains and more snow / rain / is on the way.  Kinda slowed down the adventurous life here at Mile 14 and not much to write about until now...I was at the lake this morning at sun up like I like to do . Had my hearing aids in and it's one thing they really do for me, in a quiet setting I can hear the birds and the splashes of the fish and well, it's just great. I felt good. It might not be a 35 pound early May Kenai King but for me, right now this fish was great, my first of the new season..

I'm pretty sure that the one that bit the tail off my swimfish was bigger...guess it had to be. But we're off and it's a start . I'll be on the big water in the next few days and after spending the winter in Walleye school I'm confident we're gonna be eating Walleyes. A strange local fishing report landed in my text messages yesterday. Keith in Alaska sent pics from a friend who had many nice Walleyes on Lake Helena just yesterday, he even included a pic of the lure. Thank you Grasshopper !  But. it puts me in a predicament , Lake Helena is farm field fed and so full of chemicals that there are warning signs about the bloom and harmful effects.....never mind that the water is so thick that I see it clogging the cooling system on the beautiful Merc outboard I just bought.   So, I gotta give Lake Helena a pass, it's just too strange and new to me, we'll fish the Walleyes where the waters clean . Here's the view this morning from the lake. I saw two different Osprey dive and catch a Bass like the one I caught and I spooked a big ol Blue Heron into the air, or did he spook me ?

And how about this sunrise from the house. It's what made me the morning person that I am.

We fell in love with this house at first sight. It had it all, corner lot, privacy , upper west side , no stairs, expansive views...but we kinda glossed over that it had only one large garage and no place for my truck and boat. so after a year of massaging all the options and out of  concern from all these thunder storms with hail etc. I ordered and built a carport for the old white truck I love. MP and I hauled in gravel and leveled the pad. ( she shovels just like a guy ) 

Then we built the frame and took a few days off to get over those sore muscles. Then we set up scaffolding and the hardest day of all was moving the scaffold and driving several hundred self tapers into the roofing. And we ended up with this, problem solved.

So with the chores, well some of them , we're ready for summer. Hope you come back to Mile 14. We're gonna do a cash recovery trip to Jackpot Nevada real soon. Catch enough Walleyes by June first to have that fish feed I promised and who know....adventure.....How's about a song ?  I used to sing this for all the little kids we love 35 years ago or so and it was a favorite . I was going to facebook it for them and forgot so.....I guess it's little apropos, a song about aging, moving on, changes.

 

Freeze Out Lakes

 We figured out real quick how that place got it's name. This place 103 miles from Helena and is ground zero to see the migration habits of thousands and I mean thousands of waterfowl and birds in general. Since re entry from Mexico I've been freezing , the locals say spring is 2 or 3 weeks behind usual....bad luck. This morning as I shot these pics it  was 28 degrees with a 20 mph wind. As I fumbled with a camera we met a couple of retired educators from Alaska who new my nephew in law and basically told me to quit sniveling about the cold....after all, we're ahead of Alaska in the spring department . 

So needing an adventure badly we leave the house an hour before sunrise after rolling out of the sack at 5 a.m.. We stop at the Town Pump for our favorite breakfast sandwiches and witness the early morning crowd at the store.....well, a guy with a cowboy hat and a side arm was looking out for everybody.  We get to the Freeze Out Lake waterfowl management area and pull up to the kiosk to get the handout info and walla , our first bird ,we see this guy froze to the ground steps away from the kiosk. Weird.

So we park where several people with those Spots Illustrated kind of camera lenses are set up and we find out yesterday was the day, 80,000 birds were there. We also found out that they fly north or into the fields to eat at sunrise so you need to be there on time. Now I'm a research guy and my friend John told me to go early but I shoulda asked  what he means by early. So, we missed the bite by a day and then the mini bite by an hour....but the good news was the lazy ones or the one that were just as cold as us were still around.

Naturally the wild life photographers were impressed with my equipment. This old Minolta second gen digital camera has been with me since 1998. I explain to a guy that it has great telephoto and because it's only 3.2 mega pixel I don't have to manipulate anything to print Mile !4... AND it has an actual look through view finder for aim and shoot which works out in about 10 % of your shots. And yes that stuff you see on the handle of the camera is Pro Cure from Kenai River fish bait... I've been gone going now 3 years and I think I finally don't have any Pro Cure stains on my body or especially in my hair, the stuff is like radiation, you can't get rid of it.

So we drive on with more hot coffee and come across this scene . I say ' they're bedded down "  and MP gets the new Bino's out that I bought her during our intro to birding and life in the 48 back in Green Valley AZ 2021. She focus's on the birds " seagulls " she says...and I ask Glaucous Wing or Bonaparte's ? , surely they couldn't be Herring Gulls .

Then we hit the mother lode . MP scans yet another frozen Freeze Out Lake and there he is, a coyote mid lake that new he was out of shooting range in more ways than one. But I parked as close as we could and hit magnum magnify and got this wild action shot....pretty impressive huh.....he's toward the upward middle.

Before we move onto the hypothermia picnic we had this shot here is my favorite. Like golfers say. it's the shot that keeps you coming back...or...maybe not....might get me to the digital camera store.

So we drive onto Choteau Montana . Mmmmm, I love these little towns, as I took pics with the Minolta I even had cowboy pulling a stock trailer give me a big ol wave and a smile.  Now it was still early in the morning, it doesn't take long to tour Freeze Out Lake with a wind chill of -52 so maybe the town was just quiet. Or, there ain't a hell of a lot of people there. I took these pics of downtown and the Penske moving van was headed out of town, not into town .

But Choteau Montana is not without interesting things . Montana I believe is the USA Dinosaur capital . It even looks like good Dinosaur habitat. So I got this Triceratops and of course every small town in Montana has cool old Movie Theatre. Now it didn't have a Buckhorn Bar like most but it did have and Antlers Bar, that's kinda the same thing ain't it ?

You don't approach 1/4 million reads if you're a blogger that doesn't see the obvious, everyday. every hour, every second .....it's right in front of you. THIS place is flat gorgeous ! ...but cold...stop that Jeff. 

So as we cruised the Rocky Mountain Front we snapped pics on a road neither of us had been on in our lives. So we have a new area to highlight on the map of our travels....Well played MPeasy, thanks for hanging around, it was a great day and I'm finally warm......JEFF stop that !

Finally : push comes to shove

 MP and I arrived safely back in Helena Montana a few days back and I know I should write about that and the wonder of my life. It's early in the morning as I type and the lights of the valley twinkle in my window and....I just can't write of that as I'm bothered by the news from the Kenai , the unprecedented total closure of  ALL fishing for Kenai Kings, sport / guided / commercial . Now I know nobody likes an outsider with strong views, I know they don't for sure in Montana but in this case I think, no, I know that I've earned a seat at the table and maybe my views can finally get some traction. It's all hands on deck to save and what remains and then common sense at the same time we should plan for the future for our beloved River and Salmon....Craig Medred has a wonderful synopsis of where we are now with the commercial set net fishery . Funny how how it took the wheels to come off the cart before any innovative thinking was accepted....not funny, sad. https://craigmedred.news/2023/03/22/lifting-the-curtain/

I've been wanting to post this picture for years .  I never did it to until now as to be honest I didn't want to run into a commercial fisherman beaming with anger and entitlement at the Fred Meyer store.  Through my history in fish politics I realized that this sport / commercial thing could be violent, so much passion involved....but this pic is revealing. Do you see hard working business people with fish blood covering their Grunden's with a lack of sleep in their eyes from working the nets 100 %/////Nope what you see is a bunch of entitled ' hobbiest ' with a smirky carelessness about them that has become the face of the set net fishery. After all as I 've been reminded many a time, they were here first .

You know how  I like list's so here's some observations from me and then I'll shut up about this forever.

1. The river had it's first closures of Kings over ten years ago. IF recovery doesn't come in a reasonable time and I don't know what that is but if they ain't coming back it's time for the introduction of hatchery fish . 

2. IF we get numbers to allow a return to the hey day or regulations are imposed to allow for commercial and sport fishing I have these suggestions.

A.  Use historical fish tickets to identify the beaches that harvest the most Chinook and close them. I think it will be shown that those areas are Salamantof  south. Or just expand the closed waters area at the mouth of the river to include all those sites.

B. The winter King fishery in Homer has to be looked at seriously...it defies common sense that a good chunk of those fish aren't immature Cook Inlet , ie : Kenai Salmon. 

C. The sport fishery on the Kenai has never had a starting date and I've alway's felt that the first Kings to the river were caught at a way higher rate than later in the season when the river get's twice as much water and get's it's Kenai green turbidity that also helps cut down on harvest.  I remember days of excellent results with sonar counts that were in the handfuls...

D. For sportsman a yearly harvest limit on ALL salmon. It might work something like this....you have a punch card for one King, so many reds, so many silvers etc .  Structured so that Alaskans who live off of eating fish have all they need but not from the harvest of the smaller runs .

E. Just as we need a start to the season we need an end to all fisheries, especially fall Silvers . 

F. No derbies, tournaments , fund raisers until the fish come back.

G. Escapement goals are ridiculously low .

3. We need to re vamp the Board of Fisheries . The politics, the appointments the whole system basically stinks. It might be open and more fair than the North Pacific Fisheries Council but that ain't saying much. Maybe it's time for the long talked about paid professional Board .

4. by catch in any and all fisheries has gotta be looked at with the goal of  zero. Reward the people who figure it out and penalize the ones that don't want to, can't or don't care.. 

Well...I'll stop there. I've vented .  And yes , I feel a little responsible like I know all my peers do. Nobody either commercial or sport did anything they weren' t allowed to do. We just did what Americans do, see opportunity and take advantage. Now that I'm retired I look back and remember thinking that we were building this guide industry for the future and that we did. But a few things went off the rails and it's so sad that for at least the chase and harvest of those gorgeous , huge and sporty not to mention absolutely delectable fish turned into a one generation deal. I'm sorry for that . We should have done better. That boat , all of us .

Me and my friend Bill with a 70 pounder. I hope and pray they return and I still think they can....but the cost and sacrifice is sooo huge . This where I wish all my friends on the Kenai the best .  Hang in there.