Hmm… Another semi-local shop has a picture as their Facebook banner of an angler who looks suspiciously similar to a certain fly shop manager. Twins, or unintentional irony, you make the call. But if you want your own picture, feel free to bring in a fish and a camera.

Been looking at a lot of fly shop ads lately. Pretty much every shop claims to have the best guides and the best gear. They can’t all be right, can they? Notice that we don’t make that claim, exactly. A lot of shops also claim to be honest. Are they all lying?

5th Annual Dirty River Guide Bash!

When: Tuesday, May 14 at 6 p.m.

Where: Montana’s Rib & Chop House, 305 East Park Street, Livingston

It’s time again for us to honor all of the guides that do so much for our little fishing town. Free beer and crayfish. Great raffle prizes. A fun time is promised. See you all there.

Thanks to Ryan Somes and the Rib and Chop House for the venue, food, and beer.

Heading upward!

As our home river, the Yellowstone, reaches new heights every day, we find ourselves prognosticating about when we’ll be back on the water. How long will we be stuck in runoff purgatory, driving long distances in search of clearer rivers to fish? Waiting impatiently in the rigging line at the nearest tailwater? Paying our hard-earned cash for the opportunity to ply a spring creek or a private lake? Our guesses usually suck, so we’ll look to you out there for answers.

It’s time for our annual runoff contest. Last year we asked, How High Will It Go? This year, we’re going with a question that’s more important to our fishing lives. When will it end? We’ll set a somewhat arbitrary threshold. 10,000 cubic feet per second at the Carter’s Bridge gauge. That’s about the level when the truly intrepid will begin putting their boats back on the water. Not that you should, unless you’re quite good on the oars.

In the comments below, make your best guess of the date when the Yellowstone River will come back down to 10,000 cfs. The guess that’s closest to the actual day that the river first crosses that threshold is the winner.

What’s at stake? Well, blog bragging rights, for one. But we’ll really make it worth your while. We at Sweetwater Fly Shop will throw in half a dozen Salmon Flies (the imitation, not the real thing). If you’re in our area, they could come in handy this year. If you’ve got no use for the big bugs, we’ll substitute a dozen crappy flies from our bargain bin.

Vote early and vote often!

For the 3rd year in a row, Simms chose to highlight one of Sweetwater Fly Shop’s own in their annual Ice Out Shoot Out short film competition. This year, the spotlight was on Tony V., one of the finest guides around, if we do say so ourselves. Check it out.

As if that wasn’t enough, Sweetwater outfitter and guide Charlie Conn scored himself a supporting role in one of the other films. Or should I say roles. Love the shorts, Charlie!

The big city (Bozeman) is chock full of fish guides this weekend, even more than usual. They’re in town starting today for Simms’ annual Ice Out guide event. Chances are, some of the madness will spill over to our side of the hill, as many will use the trip as an excuse to get a little fishing (and bar-hopping) done. Just what we need, an even higher per-capita ratio of (out-of-town) fish guides!

Much of the 3-day event is just for the guides, but the general public can get in on a bit of the fun this year. The finals of the Guide Olympics competition are open to all comers (and free) tomorrow evening. Open to all spectators, that is, not competitors. The Guide Olympics features several events, including distance casting, drift-boat backing, and a cooler pull. Both the casting competition and overall winners receive $1000 in cash, so the competition should be fierce. The event will be held at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse on the MSU Campus, with the finals starting at 5 and continuing until 7:30. The event will be co-MCeed by world-famous guide, Hank Patterson. Come watch a bunch of fish guides doing their thing for prizes and glory.

Our friend Pete Eaves sent us this photo of a sailfish that he caught on a recent trip to Costa Rica. If you can see it through the glare off of Pete’s legs. It wasn’t on the fly, and he wasn’t wearing waders, but it sure is a nice fish. Besides that, he swears that he was very sweaty, so we’ll let it slide. Way to go, Pete! And he also wanted us to point out his hat. Go Twins!

A big cheer goes out to the 150(!) intrepid souls who participated in the 9th annual Yellowstone River Clean-Up. You are the truly committed, who didn’t let the early start and lousy weather get in the way of your desire to help the river that you love. Hopefully, your clean-up day went better than mine, which included a flat trailer tire and the temporarily abandonment of our borrowed boat during the nasty storm that blew through (and upstream). Thank you, Steve Wilson. I owe you a boat wash and a new boat strap.