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Past Month's Moccasin Telegraph
April 2004
| 4/28/04 | Mercy! Where did April go? Since it felt like May, with the exception of
filing taxes, I’m just going to consider it a bonus month and conclude the calendar
doubled up on May this year. With the exception of yesterday (blizzard conditions closed
I-90 between Helena and Cascade) it’s been unseasonably warm and dry; hard to
complain about but a tad worrisome all the same. We’re not sounding any dire alarms
yet, though. The Climate
Prediction Center’s long-range outlooks for this region are  inconclusive, so we’re going to remain cautiously
optimistic, since it’s better for mental health than raging pessimism.One thing, the fishing has been good. We’ve hit the Boulder, Madison, Gallatin, and some local ponds with good success. Most anglers seem to concur, and on that note our favorite fishing reports of late are the weekly versions issued in the Billings Gazette. In a recent issue, we were surprised and amused to see not one but two recommendations for red and yellow Panther Martins as the lure du jour! Montana is one of the flyfishing Meccas of the world, and most fishing reports are heavily flavored with Latin insect names. In fact, any mention of spinning gear and hardware lures is considered borderline heresy. That’s all fine and good. We’ve done a lot of flyfishing, and plan to continue. Lately, though, I’m noticing a reaction against the whole elitist and dogmatic approach many True Believers espouse. For simplicity (not to mention if you want to actually catch fish!) there’s a lot to be said for a spinning rod. Particularly if you have kids along…. Of course, we still advocate catch & release, but you can flatten the barbs on a Panther Martin just as easily as Parachute Adams. What I’ve also come to re-appreciate of late is the utter simplicity. A couple of times in recent weeks we’ve made a late-evening jaunt to neighborhood streams, with only a half hour or so to fish before it got dark. I  don’t know about you, but it takes me almost that long to
don waders and rig up my fly rod. The reach of a spinning rod renders waders unnecessary,
and I can clip on a lure and be fishing in nothing flat. Not to mention it requires no
particular wardrobe…. A few days back we got a chuckle out of seeing a guy wearing
the Uniform (cowboy hat, Gore-Tex waders, and a couple grand worth of assorted
accoutrements) flailing the water at the Cherry River Access on the East Gallatin. If
he’d been on the creek, that would have been one thing, but he was fishing one of the
little ponds, that are about two feet deep and have no fish! He should have checked Fish, Wildlife, and Park’s new online Montana Fishing Guide. FWP has added some very useful tools for fishermen and hunters to their website. Anglers will find the Fishing Guide a bonanza of information. It allows searching for fishing opportunities within a specified distance of a town, by FWP Region, by name, or you can peruse the entire list of possibilities statewide. Included for each are maps, details on available species and distribution, access points, live streamflow reports, and fishing pressure analysis. It’s really an incredible tool, and kudos to FWP for making it available. Of similar value to hunters is the Interactive Hunt Planner. With that one, you choose the species and region of interest, which opens a map of the relevant hunting districts. From that point a host of options are possible, including zooming in or out on a particular district, switching to topographic or land ownership maps, species distribution, and (where available) aerial photos. Also included are legal descriptions, available permits, regulations, and of most keen interest to me personally; the results of post-season success surveys. Those numbers are a wealth of information, with drawing odds, hunter numbers and time spent, success rates, and a detailed breakdown of harvest statistics. Being able to access this data over the web is an incredible resource, and we highly recommend taking advantage of it. Speaking of wildlife; the elk and deer in our neighborhood seem to have come through the winter in fine shape, which seems to be 
the case in most of the state. The northeast corner had the toughest winter conditions,
with some notable antelope winterkill, but from all reports the deer came through in
pretty good shape. Things were not as tough in southeast Montana, and wildlife reports
from that part of the state are also uniformly favorable. A new generation of wildlife
will be hitting the ground soon, and in fact we’ve already had reports of newborn
bison calves north of Yellowstone. Unfortunately, Dept. of Livestock employees were
attempting to haze them back into Yellowstone, which has become a perennial exercise in
futility. This is on the Horse Butte Peninsula near West Yellowstone, where the handful of
domestic cattle they’re allegedly trying to protect won’t even arrive for over
two months yet, not to mention the area is part of the zone where the bison are supposed
to be afforded at least seasonal tolerance. We’re cautiously optimistic that reason
will prevail, particularly once Montana has a new administration after the upcoming
election. On a less contentious note, one benefit to the early snowmelt is that many trails that might ordinarily still require snowshoes in their higher reaches are already accessible. We’ve been hiking and  horseback riding a few times, and are already booking a fair
number of rides & other outings for May and June. We’ve
recently added some superb trail rides in the Absaroka-Beartooth
Wilderness. They’re very reasonably-priced rides from a ranch
in the Paradise Valley south of Livingston, hosted by good folks
with good stock, so if you want to spend some time horseback in
stunning scenery, drop us a line.
If you have a bit more time, consider an overnight horseback trip
to a mountain lake for the ride/hike/fish
trifecta. See you on the trail…. |