What Happens in the Boat Stays in the Boat

By Daniel Kiely, 6-30-09

	From left, Carolyn Laws-Roos, John Havlik, Daniel Kiely, Hal Harper, Paul Roos, and Karen Knudsen

Thank you, Hal Harper, for arranging a special VIP float of the Blackfoot-Clark Fork confluence at the former Milltown Dam site for the Clark Fork 320.  We appreciate your stellar support of the Clark Fork River these many years.

John and I slept on an island Sunday night in the open air .  There’s nothing quite like opening your eyes straight up to the sky in the morning.  And with no tent to disassemble, we rolled up our paco pads, hopped back in our boat, and fished our way over to Jens to meet up with a bunch of folks for the day.  Becky Guay and her husband Doug Buskirk were in the first boat with Coalition director Karen Knudsen– Becky is a Coalition board member and also happens to serve as the Chief Executive for Anaconda-Deer Lodge County.  Her husband Doug is the owner of Old Bob’s Rods in Anaconda, and he’s also a guide.  In boat numero dos, we had Paul Roos (a stellar guide and also a Coalition board member), Nick Babson (another board member), and Don King, who’s supported the Coalition for years.  Paul’s wife, Carolyn Laws Roos, ran shuttle, and, as Paul put it, “there was never a better-looking shuttle.”

In my boat, special guest Hal Harper won the most dilgent angler award.  Hal serves as a Chief Policy Advisor to Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer.  As we all know, when the fishing is tough, it’s pretty easy to sit back and crack open a beer.  But Hal kept right on impressing us with his focus.  He pulled in some native whitefish (burgers, anyone?), a squaw, and a brown trout.  “These are some fat fish,” he kept saying with every tug on his line.

I tell you what, the best thing about this float so far is chatting it up with all of these new people.  I mean, Hal is a stellar fisherman, sure, but he’s an even better guy.  He had us rolling with some of his jokes (I can’t repeat too many of them here, but ask me later), and we all agreed that, like Vegas, what was said on the boat would stay on the boat.

Meanwhile, in the other boat, Nick and Don had one fish each that morning, but as soon as they came up on us to rub elbows, their luck changed to nada.  But guide Paul Roos handled the lull like no one’s business.  “I mean, who doesn’t love a big brown,” said Paul.  “But here I’ve pulled in two new friends.” Meanwhile, while the guys sat with their lines, Becky Guay pulled in a nice brown from the banks downstream from us.

Definitely not as many fish as we’d hoped.  Paul says that there’s 50 million different things that go into catching a fish, but first, the fish have to be there!  And it turns out that the technical guys who study this stuff say that the fishery is still depressed from the past century of mining upstream.  Breaching the dam at Milltown will surely help, but we still need some restoration focus on this great river and its side streams.

Hal Harper waxed poetic about the Clark Fork River all day while reeling in his token whiteys.  “I’m telling you, this Jens to Drummond section is something else,” he kept saying.  And he’s right.  This little segment of the upper river is a good one– no rapids, no sweepers.  Lots of water narrowing in and then fanning out again.  We saw bald eagles, red-winged blackbirds, and a tiny fawn curled up in the grasses on the banks.  But the best wildlife sighting of all was definitely the wolverine we spotted cruising the banks of the river.  Pretty great stuff.

And we all learned a little lesson from Hal Harper about catch and release practices– mostly, we talked about the 20-second rule.  A good go-to for all anglers– when you pull the fish out of the water, try holding your own breath.  The fish shouldn’t have to hold its breath for longer than you can, and definitely not for longer than 20 seconds.

My blister popped, so at least the waiting is over on that one.  I’m loving being out here in the open air, on this stellar river with a bunch of folks all working to restore the Clark Fork to a vital, thriving ecosystem.  I’ve got plenty to talk about, what with the Superfund cleanup, and now new tributaries identified for additional restoration through the Coalition’s Vital Rivers Initiative .  I’m learning a lot, and I certainly hope I’m spreading the word about this phenomenal watershed.

Don’t forget– you can join me as I float through Missoula this Friday, July 3 .  Hop a free shuttle between 1-3 at Caras Park, put-in with a tube, raft, or boat at East Missoula, and then return to Caras for the ‘One River, One Voice’ party from 5-10 PM.  I’ll see you there.

Fish on!

Daniel Kiely

P.S. We used golden stones, brown drakes, pale morning duns, and caddis on top and had some golden stone nymphs on our droppers.

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