Category Archives: current events

I’m in the water mutating your villagers

My ticket to I’m never quite sure whether it’s penance or revenge, but another stud angler shows us the meaning of commitment when his ashes are mixed with 30 lbs of groundbait and tossed into the river.

It makes the “I went three days without deodorant” adventure story tame by comparison.

Mr Hodge’s widow Caroline and daughter Sally were the first to catapult balls of the bait into the River Huntspill to signal the start of an angling competition among Mr Hodge’s friends.

Brownliners don’t have friends, so I’ll have to settle for my executor randomly mailing jars of my corpulent frame to a list of fly shops I’ve prepared in advance.

With the canny marketing savvy of the Trout Underground, and his ” .. the label is irresistible, because I wrote it ” campaign, I should be decomposing in almost every blueline Mecca the “lower 48” offers.

Then again, Tom Chandler could be pulling my leg, and I wind up as a hand cleanser … It begs the question, “Which great unspoiled angling paradise do you want to get dumped in, and why?”

Somehow I think ” … so Donny Beaver can drink me” may be the populist refrain…

Nebraska’s 20 year plan for Hunter and Angler recruitment

Angling for recruits You’re a herd animal, and if you lose your fishing pals you’ll give up the sport entirely.

Can’t say I blame you much as most of my fishing is solo, it takes a special dementia to walk 3-4 miles back to the car in the dark, or wade risky water without anyone knowing your whereabouts.

Nebraska has published some of their plans for retention and recruitment of their hunters and anglers, and the above is just one of their findings.

If you’re enamored of fishing for more than one species, you’ll remain an angler longer and generate additional fees for the state’s coffers.

I say, “Welcome to the Brownline” – as it wouldn’t surprise me to see  emphasis on trophy warm water fisheries; migratory fish are in decline worldwide, there’s no more pristine water for fancy trout “farms”, and warm water fish are hardy, plentiful, and close to home.

Makes you wonder what would happen if they applied the traditional “single barbless catch and release only” restriction to a Largemouth fishery – and whether you’d allow your kids near the water’s edge …

If hunting and fishing are to increase in popularity,
public support is critical. Education and marketing
programs that portray the hunter and angler as the law
abiding citizens they are have not been effective. One
study by Responsive Management in 2003 suggested
the majority of our public still feels that most hunters
knowingly violate hunting laws and over one third of
Americans feel that “a lot” of anglers consciously violate
fishing laws.

… you’re also a poacher, which isn’t much of a sin considering the number of Jack Rabbits and Deer taken during “Steel Belted Radial” season.

All the states are struggling with the same phenomenon, the gradual gentrification of society and the slow erosion of the outdoor skill set, mostly because the outdoors is vanishing as well.

Findings like this will be watched carefully by the other 49 states, and it shouldn’t surprise us to see some commonality in their approach – especially if any are successful.

Eoin Fairgrieve and Speycast.co.uk debut

Fish and Fly is assisting the launch of www.speycast.co.uk, a web site dedicated solely to spey casting and instruction. Founder, Eoin Fairgrieve, World Team Speycasting Champion – and Loop tackle instructor, will add to the creative mix of video, online instruction, forums, and destination information – offered by the site.

Speycast logo

The site will be enhanced to include instruction in modern speycasting techniques, with articles and visual downloads by some of the world’s top casters and instructors.  The site will feature product reviews highlighting the latest speycasting tackle and clothing by leading manufacturers as well as an extensive database of speycasting instructors around the world. 

Spey casting and Czech nymphing are all the rage at the moment, with the print media unable to satiate the demand for information on either, the online migration was inevitable.

Something for you to peruse come your lunch break.

Waders, Rod, Reels, flies, check .. foundation?

Cowboy up dammit, I don't want to hear you complaining about chaffing At least they’ve published a guide for guys to get them on without tearing them, from the angler’s perspective – that’s a start.

Back in the day, when the defacto wader was Seal Dri’s, I remember my buddies coyly hiding behind the truck as they donned pantyhose. It was unsettling, but layers were the only thing that allowed you to stand in icy water more than 20 minutes; pantyhose, followed by thermals, then pants, then those thin latex waders.

I was lucky enough not to have to grapple with transgender, as my brother had equipped us with O’Neil neoprene drysuits.

I figure this is where them 5% of anglers we lost over the last decade went, not sure whether they’re smarter than us or merely made of sugar, but I could embrace “manscara”eyeliner and “mancake” foundation – if they had a DEET base, and an SPF of 15 or greater.

If it repelled mosquitos and protected me from the elements, with a fitting that attached to my float tube pump, so I could apply mass quantities to large fleshy sensitive areas, why wouldn’t we embrace the change?

It may alter the parking lot ritual a dab, but so long as we can skip deodorant, we’d be happy, right?

For them as are not from California, and are recoiling in terror, relax. All you have to do is swear before you say certain words..

“Bob, pass me the %$#@ corn starch, these %$#@@ pantyhose are chafing hell out of me.”

A Hexagenia by any other name is still low in Trans Fat

Mayfly Lasangna I think it was the Existentialist movement of the ’70’s that insisted we “think like the trout, BE the Trout.”

If you’re still struggling with the concept you may want to eat bugs, then again, there’s plenty of other philosophies that would permit you to achieve “self” by eating Ice Cream.

There’s strong evidence that early on, people in Europe and the Middle East routinely ate insects. In the Book of Leviticus, for example, the text states that most bugs are taboo. But not ALL bugs, it says. “These you may eat; the arbeh after his kind, the sal’am after his kind, the chargol after his kind, and the chagav after his kind….” Most scholars agree that these are really names for the same critter, the locust, in various developmental states.

Somehow there’s always a trendy SoCal eatery involved, as Californian’s insist on being on the cutting edge of every dubious trend possible.

“Right now, it’s the ‘in’ thing,” says Brian Vidor, proprietor of Typhoon, a trendy Pan-Asian restaurant at the Santa Monica, California, airport.

About six years ago, Vidor added stir-fried crickets and ants to his already extensive menu. The word swiftly spread, and soon the restaurateur found himself struggling to ensure that supply would meet the demand.

I’m not so sure the angling community is ready for “Singlebarbed’s Guide to Tasty Ephemera” – but what better way to break new ground than to prove Hydropsyche tastes like shoe leather, and the LaFontaine Caddis needs Garlic?

If you’re struggling with all of this, go lick your windshield.

I’m getting fitted for my white hat

We may be the good guys for once I’m not so sure we’re not the good guys.

We travel great distances, spend gobs of cash, and when we’re lucky enough to outwit a fish, we don’t belittle it, make a guppy face, or give it the finger.

We slide it into the water or the fry pan as painlessly as possible. Some regard us as eccentric, some think us cruel, but all of us can agree that despite the quarry – there’s a hint of respect in all this.

Them other folks, the non fishers they’ve got some ‘splaining to do:

I’m thinking the moral high ground is ours for a change, and uncomfortable as it feels, bask in it while you can…

They torture us, we torture them back

88% of the time you're returning home It’s both surprising and predictable, a statistical glimpse of the evolution of fishing and outdoor tradition – after a couple of decades of Ronald McDonald, over protective parents, and absent the sterile blessing of Saranwrap.

Pennsylvania Fish and Boat commission released a trout angling survey last week that has an uncommon tilt; of those surveyed only 3% confessed they fished to eat the result.

82% fished bait, 59% lures, and 40% were fly fishermen, the majority preferred bait (53%), but they also preferred to release the fish (88%) at least half the time.

That seems abnormally high – and may include small fish thrown back in favor of larger quarry, which may qualify as “half the time.”

Pennsylvania being a couple thousand miles away, California’s interpretation of this time honored practice suggests; 97% of us are neighbors of the 3% that keep fish, so we can expect freezer burned “gifts” at any moment.

That about covers the fly-by’s ..

cafire14 With 109 degree temperatures outside and the smoke reducing  visibility to about two miles, it’s a wonder that anyone has a desire to go out-of-doors.

I sure don’t, and now the Mayflies hatching in my driveway want inside to lay eggs – can’t say I blame them with everything outside all the same color.

I have always been fascinated by airtanker’s doing what they do best, and Tanker 00 used to be stationed next to me when I lived in Redding, California, some years ago. This is a USFS contractor buzzing some high rent real estate in Santa Barbara, part of a 17 photo series hosted by the Boston Globe on our California fires.

Makes for some serious wallpaper for your desktop.

Ordering a Pizza might be a better way to get fed

Fishing with a cell phoneSkipping the fishing to go straight to the catching part sounds potentially cheaper, but the virtual odds sound much too realistic to be a cost savings.

I don’t think you’ll want to leave your cell phone lying around; $10 for three casts approximates the cost of fly fishing, but the idea that your kid could pizzle away your entire paycheck, worse yet, could win two or three hundred pounds of fish should cause you to blanch.

The game — called “Ippon Zuri” (which means “pole-and-line fishing”) — was created by FIT, a Fukuoka-based system development company who teamed up with a local seafood wholesaler. Game play is simple: players use the phone keys to cast bait to promising-looking fish in the game’s virtual waters, which include sea bream, crab, and other seasonal fish. When a fish takes the bait, the player is sent to a slot machine screen where, if luck prevails and 3 numbers line up appropriately, the virtual fish is hooked and reeled in. A message is then relayed to the wholesaler, who picks up the real-world equivalent from the local seafood market and delivers it, whole and raw, to the player’s doorstep.

Hardened anglers will balk at the slot machine segment, decrying that fishing could ever compare with any game of chance. I’m not so sure that fading light and tiny naturals isn’t exactly that – chancy at best to pick the correct fly and even less of seeing it to set the hook.

They tried the live action version on those Internet deer hunting sites, I’m guessing the webcam flavor can’t be far behind.

I may have to side with the Fundamentalist’s just once

Genetically engineered piss-water I never thought about the perils of genetically manipulated beef, with my meager BBQ skills I usually eat briquette of “beef like substance”. Charcoal is a spice – get enough black on that haunch and the genetics are the least of your worries.

I’m fine with modified grains – and anything else derived from stem cell research, figuring whatever plague we unleash would be tame compared to what we’d already done to the environment, and it might even weed a few of us conspicuous capitalists off the landscape – lessening the burden somewhat.

But a fellow has to draw the line somewhere’s …

The current flap over a new sewage treatment plant for the Provo River may be our call to arms, not in the traditional sense – but if the manager has his way, they’ll be adding trout to the outflow to test water quality:

Matthews has his own idea for demonstrating the water’s high quality. He wants to build a 10-foot fish tank in the sewer plant to hold a couple of trout from one of the nearby fishing holes. The district will run treated effluent through it.

“If there’s a problem,” he said, “we’ll see it in our own plant.”

The old “canary in a coal mine” ploy – but what if a half dozen fertile fish were to escape after a couple seasons of inhaling pooty water?

It could stimulate catch and release fishing out of self defense, then again, they could be the next Invasive Species – intermingling and inter-breeding with native fish so everything tastes like warm Pampers.

Suddenly I’m waffling on the science front, brown trout are fine – but I don’t want all of them that way…