The summer sun was high in the big Montana sky and two anglers had retired to the shade of the cabin porch to wait out the long summer afternoon. The dull shrill of the Cicadas in the cottonwood trees was the only sound to break the stillness along the river. One angler was a young man in his early 20's; his blond hair was long and braided in a ponytail beneath his battered felt cowboy hat. The other angler was considerably older; the gray mustache which covered his upper lip was highlighted against his deeply tanned face, and his deep blue eyes matched the Montana sky that spread out overhead like a blanket. The younger man settled into an Adirondack chair quaffing a cold beer and his companion settled into an old wooden rocker sipping from a sweating glass of ice tea.

Sitting down at my bench I went about my beginning rituals for a tying session. It may not be exact each time, but I most often find myself tidying up after my last session a bit, then pulling out the particular materials I will need for the flies I intend to tie. My materials are stored in the 3 drawers below my pull-out tying table. So I find it necessary to pull the materials out prior to getting my vice staged on the table or I cannot easily reach the hackles in my top drawer. It may not be a perfect setup but it's mine and I've grown accustomed to it over the years.

I had some things come up so it was later in the morning before I got out. It was 9:00 a.m. when the canoe went in the water, and I usually try to be leaving the water at that hour. I went to a pond close to home so I would have more time on the water. It was very hot, and there was a dry wind blowing. It felt like it was trying to suck all the water out of everything. It was not the best of times to be on the water, but it was the time that I could finally make it.

Kapok is not strange to fly tyers.  It was used England in the late 1890s and in this country since the early 1900s.  It was and is used in fly tying because of its extreme buoyancy.  Let's take a closer look at this old material that is still available.

Kapok is a natural fiber, similar to cotton.  It comes from the fruit of the kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra), which is native to tropical environments.   Kapok is extremely buoyant and for many years was used in life preservers.

I've always kept some natural kapok with my dubbing supplies.  When I'm tying large, bushy patterns for use on rough water, I regularly use it as an underbody material. Kapok is naturally water resistant and immensely improves the floatability of most any fly pattern.

July 28, 2011, the Yellowstone River continued to drop as the tributaries dropped and cleared, however the Yellowstone River would not become fishable until the river dropped enough so that it was no longer washing the walls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. On July 23rd the flow on the Yellowstone dropped to 12,500 CFS, however the gauge at the outflow of Yellowstone Lake was still 8,150 and believe me that is high for that time of year as the normal flow would be 5,510 CFS on the river and 3,380 CFS at Lake. As the river falls the changes in the islands, back channels, riffles, run and pools will become more evident, and from a safety point of view the river should be less than 9,000 CFS for safe floating and anything over that involves greater risks than you would experience when the flows were lower.

November 1st, I arrived at DePuy's just around noon. Right that moment winds started to blow hard from south and blew away all BWO to Canada. I checked around miscellaneous spots but no hatches and rises were observed. I was so agitated. BWO hatch would end any time soon. I needed to find answers before that. I couldn't imagine how cruel it would be if I might have to live with this paranoia until next fall.

If there is a grand pappy of saltwater fly fishing in Louisiana, it's likely Pete Cooper Jr.

From marsh to bay to offshore depths, Pete has cornered enough species and garnered enough spots on Louisiana's fly fishing records list to earn accolades aplenty. His accomplishments are the fruits of a long association with the divine coastal environs of the Bayou State.