Little Guys, Part II

7/30/08
Last issue in MSJ, our fly fishing columnist, ratted out a little gem
of a creek, (crick to some) and we took some heat; mostly by a few guys that fish it. Sorry guys, we will be more careful in the future. Then again, we can't just write about the Bighorn and the Madison....
Regardless, I enjoyed a quick evening out on a local stream this evening, six feet wide and fertile. I don't expect to catch any fish over 22" here, but on a Wednesday night, it was just the deer, pheasants and I sharing the creek bottom. Two hours staring at a hopper indicator is better than Prozac or therapy. Now back to work. And don't ask me to rat out this creek. I understand why one can get protective of these little guys.

Fishing For Dollars?

7/14/08
Governor's Cup Walleye Tournament-Ft. Peck, MT

This was only my second fishing tournament. And after spending hundreds of dollars for boat gas during a week of "pre-fishing" and having the first day canceled because of strong winds, I was wondering what I was signed up for. Our first actual tournament day wasn't much better and we were sent out to battle wind gusts up to 40 mph. My partner Mike Upgren and I played it safe; we didn't run the 15 miles down the lake that many made. It worked out fine as we caught one nice walleye, while many teams were fishless. Day two was beautiful and we traveled anywhere we wanted. By 8:30AM, we had boated 12 and 9lb walleyes. If there was ever a time for "man-hugs", this was it. We were flying high and finished in 6th place out of the 80 teams. We even cashed a nice-sized check for our troubles. Maybe this tournament fishing isn't so bad after all..........