Merry Christmas

Fishin in a Snowing Day

The 4th Annual Christmas Fishin Gathering was held on the snowiest day of the year. The weather would not stop the RBF Pro Staff from enjoying themselves while others struggled with the arduous weather. The members enjoyed a delightful, hot breakfast at the Waffle Shop then cautiously drove to the frigid Paradise for some fine fishin and fellowship.

Agrontrutta enjoying the delightful fishin conditions.

After several hours of delightful fishin in somewhat arduous conditions, the Pro Staff enjoyed some fine food and drink. This year's delights included Bowhunter's Three Alarm Chili, Penn State Bologna, Smoked Steelhead and Caviar, Fried Shiitake Mushrooms and Venison, Belgium Ale, Sam Adams Winter Lager and Gran Pescador Really Hard Cider. The Fair Maiden provided a Christmas Cookie Bag for all loaded with fine pastries. We didn't catch anything on fire this time.

The Christmas table included some fine Belgium Ales.

The Chief preparing a culinary delight.

The Chief's homegrown shiitake mushrooms smothered in butter.

And yes, we caught fish. What did you expect?

Wei-Chung Chang, a curious young man from Taiwan, was so impressed with our happiness on such a snowing day that he featured the RBF Pro Staff on his blog. Check it out...

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/wei888share/12633660

Merry Christmas 圣诞快乐

Gran Pescadora

4th Annual Christmas Fishing Gathering

Saturday, December 19, 2008

Come, enjoy and relax with some fine fellowship during this Christmas Season. Here's the Shore Lunch Menu for this year's Gathering:

• Wild Shiitake Mushroom Soup with Sherry
• Seasoned Wild Venison Tenderloin Medallions
• Smoked Wild Turkey Hen Breast with Sheep Cheese
• Smoked Wild Steelhead Filet and Caviar on Crackers
• RBF's Ungodly Jack Daniel's Christmas Eggnog
• Gran Pescador Really Hard Cider
• Hot Coffee and the Fair Maiden's Christmas Cookies

Steelhead in Arduous Conditions

The Chief's first steelie on 20Mile this year.

Bunyan and the Chief took a couple of days and enjoyed some fishin, fellowship and the Chief's Hard Cider. The waters of 20Mile were low and clear. Nobody was catchin fish except the Pro Staffers and that's the square truth. The Fish Motel at Poor Richard's was nearly empty. The Flatlanders were swooshin wadin chasin all the fish to the boys. The boys then just stealthfully dead drifted some tiny contraptions their way then politely announced, "Fish on!"

"Fish on!"

Happy Bunyan will eat good tomorrow.

Seems the Bunyan forevermore has problems starting his ungodly F-150, you know, the one that smells like roadkill. Seems the starter was fried this time. Try stuffin the Bunyan and all his gear into a Camry. It wasn't pretty.

Before: Steelhead

After: Steelhead

The Chief's recipe for smoked steelhead and steelhead caviar will appear in the RBF Pro Staff Cookbook: Recipes for a Good Day.

Coming soon RBF Cookbook

Any recipe provided by Bowhunter is truly an arduous feat. It takes true dedication to prepare meals fit for the RBF Pro-Staff.

Step one: Plan a buffalo-hunting trip deep into the plains country in the dead of winter.
Sub zero temperatures will aid in the transportation of all meats, only flatlanders permit others to process the game. After all the planning of the hunt why would you trust anyone other than a certified RBF member to handle the most important step, proper cutting of all choice cuts.



Bison Pot Roast – Serves 8 or Wade Rivers

8 – 10 lb Bison Roast.
3 T. olive oil
2 C water
2 T Season Salt
2 - 4 cloves crushed garlic (per taste)
3 T Possum pepper
3-5 chopped celery stalk
1-bag baby carrots
2-3 Large Vidalia onions
5 lbs potatoes

Preheat oven to 300 F. Add Olive oil and Bison roast and brown well on all sides. Add seasonings and cook for 2 hours. Remove from the oven and add potatoes and sliced onions. Cook for 2 hours. Add carrots and diced celery and cook until meat is tender and falls apart. Remove from oven and prepare for a meal fit for kings.

Chief's Wild Mushroom Farm

Since the Chief installed a geothermal heating system, he needed something to do with the vast quantities of firewood produced on his property. He decided to start wild mushroom farming, growing oyster, shiitake, hen of the woods and sulphur mushrooms. This season, enough logs were plugged to produce over 500 pounds of wild mushrooms over 5 years. The farm will be greatly expanded next season.

Late spring crop of oyster mushrooms

November rains and cooler weather provoked the shiitake plugged logs to produce another crop

Fall Scenes - Allegheny National Forest

Early snowfall at Pig's Ear

The other Spring Creek near Hallton

Head shot. Not one ounce of wasted meat.

Pop and his acorn fatted doe, one day shy of his 87th birthday.

Small World

The Chief stopped in the Ultimate Angler in Erie at lunch to get the scoop on the tribs and who in the hell was at the counter describing raccoon skinnin methods....Bunyan!

RatherBFishin with the Girls

Spending a day on the stream with my beautiful girls on a beautiful, crisp Fall day is just dandy. Just like the Old Man said to the Boy, "We're rich."

The apple does not fall far from the tree.

My girls.

The Fair Maiden with the catch of the day.

Snapper Fishing

Seems like things have been a bit slow with the RBF staff. All we hear about is trout trout and more trout (especially by Wade Rivers). So I loaded up the truck and pointed it south. After 1,000 miles I decided I better stop or I’d be swimming in the gulf. We booked a trip with the Bluewater Bandit, fired up the twin 250’s and headed out for some big grouper.
After a short ride off shore of 45 miles it was time to look for the big guys. My nephew Erik started off with a big one that he couldn’t budge, so he decided to practice some long line releasing (he didn’t want to bring it up from a mere 225 feet down).
I then had to explain were not fishing for trout and this is strictly a catch and filet trip.
Action proved slow for the big grouper but the Red Snapper fishing was hot and heavy. We landed many 20+ pounders, only to release them to return to the depths (closed season).

Action was steady for the next few hours, and then things got real interesting. I had a nice fish hooked when everyone started to yell I better real quicker that a dolphin (flipper) just turned and was headed my way. Little did I know that a 4 hundred pound dolphin hits like a runaway freight train. For a brief (felt like forever) time I was battling this brute for my grouper. Finally the battle ended and I was fishless, never fearing I asked the mate for another dead smelly fish. I proceeded to drop to the bottom and repeated the process. Only this time the dolphin left go after a short battle. Once again it was a red snapper and had to be released, only to never make it back to the depths. We watched as 3 dolphins surrounded it, then in a flash one darted in and the snapper was no more. We finished the trip by boating 7 nice grouper, one shark and dozens of red snapper and a couple cases of beer.

How it All Started

They damn near ran out of rental cars in Bozeman because Obama was in town for an organized nationalized healthcare propaganda event. Obama was then to visit Old Faithful, of all places. Now the Chief knows why he was subjected to a rectal search at the University Park Airport. Then the damn questions…“Those stickers on your luggage…what’s that RBF stand for? You some kinda right wing domestic terrorist freako?” “No sir!” the Chief responded, “Soc un gran pescador!”

National Car upgraded the Chief into a brand new Chevy Suburban with leather seats, sonar back up alarm, XM satellite radio, power sun roof and an in dash expresso coffee maker. Well, not really, but it might as well had a coffee maker, it had everything else. The Chief applied the famous RBF Sticker to the rear window, dropped the back seats and loaded up six cases of Montana beer, six pounds of turkey pastrami, mustard, sweet onions and Kaiser rolls, four 14 oz. Montana rib eyes, two Montana T-bones, a sack of potatoes, a bottle of Jack Daniels, twenty four cans of assorted sardines, smoked oysters and anchovies, six bags of fig newtons and a can of Slim Fast Shake Mix to hold him for six days in Yellowstone. Then it was off to Livingston, MT to pick up his bear spray at the Yellowstone Exhibitions B&B.

Before fishing the Gardner River, the Chief first stopped at the K Bar Saloon in Gardiner, MT for pizza and beer. You don’t come to Montana for the pizza, but if you do, only eat it at the K Bar in Gardiner, Miners Saloon in Cooke City or Chico Hot Springs in Pray. After the pizza, the Chief went and bitched at Richard Parks for the actions of one of his guides a few years back when the young cowboy tried to evict the Chief from an ungodly hole on the Gardner River. The Chief just don’t tolerate rude behavior in a man or punk kid in this case. Parks somewhat apologized then tried to sell the Chief his book on the YNP. The Chief gave Richard an autographed copy of “Caddis and a Beadhead”.

The Gardner River has some ungodly remarkable features. Travertine ledges, mudslides, geothermal heated bathing pools and huge boulders. The Boiling River flows into the Gardner near the 45th Parallel forming an ungodly natural hot tub of sorts. The Chief had thoughts about bathing here but decided to wait until he got to Chico next week. Seems the hippie chicks frequent the Boiling River. The refined chicks favor Chico.

The beautiful Gardner River

Mudslide

Now that's just incredible!

One of the most ungodly places on Earth ...Yes, there are elk in the background.

After a long hike, the Chief found out that the mudslide of 2008 somewhat filled in that ungodly hole on the Gardner and found it devoid of the big browns, so the Chief started to fish his way back up to the footbridge with some RBF Rubber Legged Bugs. He was glad that he packed his 8 ½’ 3/4 wt for the trip. The rod was perfect for cutting through the gale force winds. Even with his sweet Streamborn in hand, the Chief managed only six trout in a couple of hours in the somewhat arduous conditions. It felt like November in PA.

After the long climb out of the canyon, the Chief adjusted the Suburban’s super climate controlled heating and ventilation system to thaw him out. The Chief stopped at the Food Farm for two bags of Oreo Cookies and a gallon of low fat chocolate milk for the long ride across YNP on his way to Cooke City, MT. There was elk shit on the sidewalk in front of the Food Farm. The cookies were gone before he got to Tower. It sure was good to see the Lamar Valley again. Little did he know that the fishing was to be ungodly.

The Lamar Valley

Paradise Valley Rainbow

Soda Butte Creek - August 19, 2009

The "Cone"

On this day, the Chief experienced his finest day fishing ever. Well, while not fishing with the Fair Maiden. Never in his forty-five years of fly fishing had the Chief experienced such a day on the water. This section of the creek had changed quite a bit from last year. Despite the summer rains, the water was noticeably lower.

Words alone cannot describe the beauty of Soda Butte Creek (2008)

The Chief arrived at the Lamar Stock Trail parking lot around 10:00 AM. There was a bunch of flatlanders in the parking lot preparing to get saddle sores up in the Lamar Valley. The Chief took time to explain the virtues of American Mammoth Jackstock to the wranglers saddling up their draft cross horses. These types of horses, with their wide backs, will stretch most riders to the point of misery. Jackstock, with their ergonomically shaped backs allow for much more pleasant riding. They were impressed with the Chief’s rather unusual knowledge of equines.

The Chief in 2008 enjoying the beautiful Soda Butte Creek

It was a déjà vu all over again for the Chief when he reached into his beer cooler. Seems that he was here just last year drinking beer. The Chief downed two Moose Drools to prevent dehydration. Moose Drool is far and away the best-selling beer brewed in Montana. It is chocolate brown in color with a creamy texture. A malty beer with just enough hop presence to keep it from being too sweet. They went down easy. The Chief then filled his gel-cooled hydration bladder with three Scape Goats in preparation for the day’s fishing. This English-style pale ale is very smooth, refreshing and well-balanced. A perfect ale to enjoy while fishing! This soon became the Chief’s favorite brew while fishing YNP. He also packed a water bottle in case he ran out of beer.

The Chief hydrating with a fine Montana Ale.

From high atop the water, the Chief could see that the trout were already rising. They were rising continuously. There were spinners in the air, #14 olive brown spinners...Small Western Green Drakes, Drunella flavilinea, or Flavs are quite numerous in the Lamar Valley and can provide excellent fishing. Flav spinners typically fall in the evening, but possibly due to the damn near gale force winds the past several evenings, they decided to fall this morning. Today was calm, partly cloudy and a delightfully balmy 48 degrees.

Small Western Green Drake

The Chief tied on one of his famous RBF Gum Wrappers in an olive, #14 variety with three strands of BRF Zelon for wings. Those hungry Yellowstone Cutthroats that were off the feed for three days began to take the RBF #14 Olive Gum Wrapper with reckless abandon. The Chief has no idea how many fish he caught, but remembers that he had to use three RBF Gum Wrappers due to excessive fish damage. He now has to work on the durability factor of his deadly spinner pattern. I suppose the Chief landed about 20 cutthroats during this one-hour spinner fall, not moving more than 100 feet.

The rises subsided. The Chief took a break and ate two cans of sardines with hot green chilies and watched the flatlanders cross the creek. Having good success previously with a Chernobyl Ant on the Lamar River during mid-day, the Chief decided to walk the banks and cast this ungodly contraption into the depressions and at the water edges. The Chief caught 18 cutthroats before stopping at the footbridge. It was time for a late lunch.

"Rollin', rollin', rollin'...man is my ass swollen"

The Deadly Black & Tan Chernobyl Ant

While the Chief was enjoying some turkey pastrami sandwiches, the fish began rising again. They were on a feeding frenzy again! They were taking something just below the surface. The Chief got out his RBF mosquito net and slipped it over his ungodly Frabil landing net and captured several Flav duns! Oh, the excitement! An evening hatch appearing at 2:00 PM! He quickly knotted on a RBF #14 Olive Sparkle Dun. This magnificent mayfly emerged for a solid two hours and the Chief was into it again! The pace was feverish! Damn near one fish every other drift!

The Chief believes that he caught this fish four times!

The most remarkable thing about this emergence was that the Chief never saw one dun make it into the air! He has never seen anything like it! Those hungry trout were so proficient in sucking in those emerging duns that none survived! Again, the Chief could not tabulate the number of fish landed. He just knows that 99.9999% of the fish hooked were landed except for the bruiser that shot directly downstream in a shallow riffle. The smart trout pulled a tricky maneuver and swam free.

The hatch subsided, the sun came out and winds started to blow. The bison forded the creek. It was now time for some Scape Goat and a fly change. The Chief tied on his one-legged Chaos Hopper that took a dozen trout earlier in the week.

One of many that took the Chaos Hopper

It was back to leisurely fishing, slapping the Chaos into likely lies. Sixteen more trout were caught. The sun started to set and the Chief made his way back downstream. Trout were again feeding below a shallow, shelf riffle. Baetis spinners! A tippet change and the Chief was back into business catching seven beautiful cutthroats on a tiny RBF #18 Rusty Spinner.

The Chief wasn't the only angler to catch this dumb trout

The heater in the Surburban felt good on the drive back to Cooke City, MT. Some days you can catch’em and some days you can’t! The Chief will forever remember this incredible day on the beautiful Soda Butte Creek.

Sunset on Soda Butte Creek