It rained lightly last night, and river flows have actually exceeded the 6,000 cfs mark. With most local options looking grim, I'm staging an afternoon jailbreak and heading into the hills to what might best be described as "Longshot Lake." This is little more than an opportunity to waste $3.21-a-gallon gasoline, but a long shot is better than no shot at all.

Our Montana correspondent Sully reports that his local river (the Clark Fork) is doing a passable imitation of the Amazon, and a recent viewing of the Gallatin revealed a river of slurry. It's tough times all over.

The Slaw Dog story continues to break, and to those who wrote about the possibility of multiple versions of the cabbaged tube steak, I believe that yes - the Eastern and Western species are subtly different. I believe the Western species is the slightly larger slawusdoggus jeffersonius, with the Eastern species best described as slawusdoggus phillipssixtysixus. Look for more scientific discussion of this important topic in the days to come.

Dovetailing nicely with our ongoing "ultimate fly fishing food" discussion was the discovery of an old Sully e-mail from last year's "Amiratti's Buritto – the perfect fly fishing fuel?" thread. The ever-vigilant Sully brought to light a culinary powerhouse from the "pre-movie" era that deserves a revival of its own. I quote:

During my early solo trips to Montana (sonny, we're talking 1970-72), I used to subsist on Eddy's Cinnamon Rolls. Basically spiraled hardtack case-hardened with yummy cinnamon and sugar, the things never spoiled, and, upon ingestion, swelled enough to stave off hunger pangs. One of them could be made to last for a couple of days. With maybe a dozen Eddys' the Donner Party would have become just a prolonged snow-day. When we moved to Butte in 1982 I was stunned to learn that the Eddy's Bread Company there no longer made the cinnamon rolls. A few of them probably still sit on back shelves SOMEWHERE in southwest Montana. Fresh as ever.

If I make it out this afternoon, look for a report... See you betting the longshots, TC

P.S. -- A quick check of my referral pages throws up a site I hadn't seen before: "Ass Hooked Whitey." A quick visit reveals a no-holds barred site that's definitely worth a visit. Those offended by a counter-culture approach to fly fishing need not apply...