No Clue

So my pal Stinky Pete didn’t have any clients booked, and he wanted to know if I’d like to go fishing. Of course I would.


We decided not to get on the river too early, because the morning water temperatures are still pretty chilly. The fish need time to wake up, read the paper, and have a cup of coffee before they’re ready to start the day. We put in around 10:00 or 10:30, and we were an hour behind the major surge of boats.

That didn’t mean we had the river to ourselves, though. There were still plenty of wade-fishermen, and we ran into a few other boats as we worked our way down a fairly long stretch.

Whooping and hollering as they passed us, a group of young college kids were piled on a raft with about 42 coolers of beer. A golden haired girl in the back, who was nearly bursting out of her little pink bikini top, looked like she’d rather be somewhere else. The dude with his arm around her, waving a whiskey bottle in the other hand had no idea that she wasn’t having a good time.

The fishing was fairly consistent with small trout hitting our stonefly imitations throughout the day. But nothing bigger than 14 inches was interested in feeding despite all the bugs hatching.

In all my years on the Bitterroot, I’d never caught a brook trout. For some reason they’ve eluded me like I’m the CIA and they’re Osama Bin Laden. They must be getting help from the Pakistani ISI. But on this day, I caught 3.

Near the end of the day, a raft floated by with 2 guys using spinning gear. I’m used to seeing spin-fishermen wading, but this year there are a couple of guides who’ve decided to be carriers of this infection.

When I ask a first-time fly-fisher how was their day on the river, I almost always get a positive response. If I ask a spin-fisher the same question, I get a hate-filled glare and some mumbled excuse about how the fish weren’t biting that day. I think guides on the Bitterroot should make their clients fly-fish; they tend to have more fun and catch more fish.

The 2 fellers in the boat were chucking big gold and silver spoons towards the bank. I asked how they were doing and got the answer I expected. The guy in the front said, “Haven’t caught anything all day.”

As he was saying this, he raised his rod, and there was a 5-inch rainbow dangling from his shiny metal lure. “You have now,” I told him, and he was completely amazed to see proof that fish actually do live in this river.

After they got out of earshot, Stinky chuckled, and said, “Man, those pecker-heads don’t have a clue.”

That got me to thinking.

Some folks are so far out of touch that, in order for their brains to deal with it, they create their own reality and expect the rest of us to believe it. Like Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner with his views on the economy.

Recently, he told ABC’s This Week, “Now, we’ve seen six months of positive job growth by the private sector. That’s pretty good.”

If you look at the numbers, in June there was an overall loss of 125,000 jobs due to census workers being laid off. Private sector jobs created this year total a little over 500,000, but unemployment is at 9.5%, and there are 14.6 million Americans out of work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Doesn’t sound pretty good to me.

He’s also in favor of letting the Bush tax cuts expire for families making over $250,000. He said that it’s the responsible thing to do because we need to show the world that we’re willing to “make some progress bringing down our long-term deficits.” Here’s a hint: stop spending trillions of dollars on new programs that we can’t afford.

Geithner went on to say that letting the tax cuts expire would not have a negative effect on our economic growth. However, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that extending the tax cuts would strengthen our economy and provide stimulus for growth.

Geithner works for a federal agency that prints money and issues debt and whose job it is to implement the President’s economic policy. Bernanke works for our nation’s central bank which directly influences our country’s economy through its actions, and while it’s ultimately regulated by Congress, it operates independently of the government.

In my opinion, one of these guys probably fly-fishes and the other one is a pecker-head who doesn’t have a clue.

I don’t know, I guess I think too hard about these things.