Home From The Sea

WET IS FOR FISHES
The Tying Bench Looms
maggots are missing
blogs are blogging
it's good to be home

.. Precipitation in its whiter forms is far more salubrious than in its drenching forms. We enjoyed the fishing, the old friends and some new friends but the wet was as wet as anyone can remembered.
.. The old adage about rain and steelhead seems true, and there were some fine fish caught. But it's good to be home.
.. Thanks to all for the continued visits to the intermittent posts. The site statistics showed a constant dribble of visitors; and the votes for rivers show that we will fish some less glorified waters - come Spring. Just our Cup 'O Tea.
.. The sledhead season is in full swing in Yellowstone Country. Snarling snowmachines are buzzing around town like angry hornets, and running over each other and pedestrians. On a sadder note a couple of deaths have been noted in avalanches on the back side of Lionshead Mountain - and it's not yet January.
.. Fishing is good outside Yellowstone National Park. The Madison River between the lakes is producing some large fish for those willing to wade through belly deep snow.
..Ice fishing is just getting started on Hebgen Lake and the town is already suffering a maggot shortage. Meal worms are always in short supply given the large number of pet lizards in town so the folks with their ice augers are using bits of night crawler and red worms for the excitement of string-in-hole fishing.
.. Winter at the bench will include about 200 dozen flies of the mundane variety and a few orders for some classics. Materials are again available after the bird flu scare, and the kind folks in Reddich have sent us a couple gross of hooks.

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.. The ankle deep snow of the El Nino Winter, in and around the environs of Mt. Shasta, has prompted THE TROUT UNDERGROUND to provide us with a telling picture of some frost and a fly rod - NICE!

.. Here's one in a similar vein from the photographer's blog of Jim Levison.

.. There are also some very well done winter fly fishing photos at the Global FlyFisher about Danish Winter. The "Gallery" section presents us with an excellent picture-story about fishing in winter and its many rewards.
.. The "INNY OF THE YEAR AWARD" goes to Moldy Chum for their Flesh-O-Rama photo of "SKINNY WATER."
.. The Invasive Species Weblog reminds us that we should keep our minds on our soles. They posted a note about felt soles on waders being impossible to disinfect - thus posing a means of transport for invasive organisms.
.. The bay-area blog Get Outdoors has rediscovered fishing in the form of the "Rocket Fishing Rod." Just the thing for urban commandos and the wily gutter trout.
.. Protect Your Waters has been keeping us current with the latest in signage efforts by concerned citizens and government in Plum Lake, Wisconsin.

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BLOG OF THE YEAR

CONGRATULATIONS TO US ALL
We Blog When We Don't Fish
we fish when we don't blog
and work if we have to
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..This could have been a more productive journey into the maw of steelheading. It has however, produced more computer time than usual. And, truth be told, the fishing realm of the blogsphere is of a far higher quality than most of the rest of it.
.. The posts, from frivolous to fantastic, display a level of humor, erudition, curiosity, and diversity not shown in the majority of the mundane blogs in existence. We should be proud.
.. From the personal through the professional to the crass commercial there is a ring of authenticity in our bloogging that reveals an honest and sincere interest in our chosen pastimes - Blogging & Fishing.
.. Even the most cranky of the bulletin boards shows a surprising continuity of subject matter and insight into our souls. They are an interesting form of combat as well as information sharing.
.. The generally unselfish nature of the tone and presentation in fishing blogs is refreshing. Compared to "MY (ego) SPACE" or other first person deliveries, the fish blogs - (even if written in the first person) - are more frequently information based and delivered as a service.
.. Happily, our bloggers are also surprisingly talented and deliver entertainment as well as information. Waxing poetic is not to be left aside, and it is notable that the authentic voice that our community speaks with seldom engenders meaningless rants or diatribes.
.. Feel free to copy the Time Cover above and place your own blog in it - YOU DESERVE IT! {Special thanks to Karmasoup.org for the "Typewriter Full Of Fishies" image.}

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.. Before we return to the easy chair and some warm Brie & Brandy a bit of fish reporting is in order.
.. The wonderfully wet coastal weather has provided challenging situations for the stalwart steelheader. The sage fisher folks have retreated to the shorter coastal streams that clear more quickly - no names, you know them well, some even have sea-run cutts. Most of the bars have been blown out, and the breaks in the deluges provide excellent fishing. Even the chromies know enough not to brave the silt and seals. We'll be heading to the Smith, Gualala, and maybe even further south next week. Just look for the fishmobile.
.. The amazing volume of water that has been dumped in the last two weeks raised the Deschutes, Snake, Clearwater & Grand Ronde variously to as much as 3' overnight. The combined bed load and suspended load of these rivers guarantee that next year's anglers will find significantly different rivers next spring and summer.

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As a parting thought, (borrowed from Gary Gao,) EMBRACE THE BLUR
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Too Many Rivers - Too Few Fish

... Babine, Skeena, Bulkley, etc. & etc. Pretty places, a few fish and pure exhaustion. It's time to hit the Klamath, then the Chetco, then the Smith; and if the seals back off, the Gualala should be in fine form for Superbowl Sunday - - sorta traditional.
... Thank Poseidon for good rain gear. There was a time when waxed cotton and rubber took second place to a fine piece of tightly woven wool. No more, and it's a blessing.

... There's a new pop-up widget for links, no surprises! Try it out:

Trout Underground
Moldy Chum
Get Outdoors
Chetco
Ranger Gord (where are you?)
Kutzkey's
Wild Rivers Outfitters
Seiad Vally Guid Service

There's a new site format in the works that will place all posts and notes about any given river, or fly, or whatever together. No more clicking about the site to find posts about your favorite stream, river, fly, hatch, etc. Hope it's done in about 140 days.

... Some pictures before dinner.

SHOULD'A STAYED HOME

900 MILES LATER & SNOW

is there no justice

.. We have caught some fish, braved some elements, and changed our priorities for accommodations: fireplace in the common room, attached saloon, high-speed, and a mud room. There was no need to leave West Yellowstone to find weather like this.
.. Fishing the Web is akin to surfing the Web, in that, both take time and require some quiet corner with a bit of glow from the fire and some warmth from a nice single malt.
.. Surfing, we're led to believe is energetic. Fishing, on the other hand, is far more salubrious and relaxing. We prefer the latter. Here are some results from the glow of the fire while fishing the web.

.. Deer On The Net, (via The Outdoor Pressroom,) Bet the girls really like that decoration.
. . With the rain and snow and poor catching there was time for web fishing for slabs in honor of the apparent glories of the large fish.

..Found a couple of slabs for the folks at Moldy Chum - Check out the kid's slab at Dave Jacobs web site.

.. And just look at what the folks in B.C. think of fishing and architectural slabs.

.. Jenny's "ifish,net" has grown since we were last by this way. Check it out for good news, good deals and good vibes. She's got a slab of her own.

.. We fished the deep waters of C.E. Chaffin's Blog and found a poem about Fishing On The Lost Coast that sucked our soul right into the laptop.

.. Voting on the side bar poll lets us know that our readers are sophisticated and prefer the more intimate streams to the big name glory waters. That means we get to fish where we usually do next year. Avoiding the crowd is always a good thing.

.. After a rest tomorrow we're going to flip a coin and decide whether to go north or south. The Gualala and the Smith are calling, so too the Cal-Salmon. The weather maps and fish maps up here are too coincident for our taste.

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.. Well, its back to the warm glow and then some dinner. There's also this nice little girl fishing guide that is 40 years our junior and humors us with feigned interest in fly boxes - thank god for 50-year-old Wheatley's and 18-year-old scotch.