Hit The Chetco

WINTER STEELHEAD

Rain Has Quit

54 miles of splendor

WALLPAPER:  RURAL OREGON-1

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.. After some high and low on the river and, after some mostly wet and a bit of damp, the Chetco River is slammin'.
.. If it's not too far to drive, we suggest that you get there yesterday. Today or tomorrow at the latest.
.. Just about everybody is stabbing those fish in the lip. Gear, fly, bait or whatnot are taking some nice fish. You should try it.
.. Take your rain gear. Even the dry days are damp. It'll chew on your innards if you're not well wrapped.
.. On rare occasions there will be sun. Many residents hide their children. You never know what that bright light will do!
.. Get a guide and pick your poison. The most successful rig is a roe sack - right now. Back bouncing with some gear or swinging a very hot streamer is successful as well. Get on it and get after it.
.. For reports and information try WILD RIVERS FISHING. Honest and successful folks out here.

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WALLPAPER:  RURAL OREGON-2

A Perfect Fish Tail

IT HAD TO HAPPEN

Through The Ice Hole

near big as a beluga

WALLPAPER:  PERFECT FISH TAIL

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.. The bright sun and the dead still of a 25°F afternoon on the reflective surface of Hebgen Reservoir will cause some interesting forms of disrobing. 
.. Although we have the revealing images we've been threatened with acts of deprivation that approach the inhuman if they are revealed. Use your imagination.

.. At a depth of 12', through a hole in the ice, a very small shop vac, tipped with a morsel of night crawler, did gall a very pudgy 23" trout, (of the rainbow sort.)
.. She was pulled through the the hole with alacrity, photographed with her head in the hole, and sent on her way.
.. The neighbors have been doing very well on the ice. Limits all around. We mention this as a community service. We doubt that there will be many folks from nearby foreign lands that will bother to visit us for these mere fish.
.. They are too big for a sandwich!

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SMOKED SALMON & AVOCADO WITH CREAM CHEESE ON CARAWAY RYE.   DILL-CHIVE SMOKED SALMON PÂTÉ.   A BIT OF CELERY & GOOD OL' WHEAT THINS.

Bucket List

THE LIFE LIST

We See It Each Summer

better get started 

Welcome to Montana

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.. It's most illuminating when the neighbors have a drop at the locals' pub.
.. Summer is on their minds and observations of visitors and their priorities become the entertaining fodder for conversation.
.. The following is the result:

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THE LIFE LIST

X - Graduate college
X - Get Masters degree
X - Job at Citigroup
X - Buy club membership
X - Buy BMW
X - Join church
X - Job at Wells Fargo
X - Buy wife a BMW
X - Send kids to private school
X - Buy summer home
X - Buy matched pair English shotguns
X - Job at Bank of America
X - Buy .416 Weatherby Magnum
X - Hunt Deer in Mexico
X - Buy house in Malibu
X - Buy yacht
X - Buy Mercedes
X - Hire chauffeur
X - Summit Kilimanjaro
X - Buy townhouse for work
X - Learn polo
X - Join third golf club
X - Summit Tetons
X - Buy ranch in Montana
X - Board position at JPMorgan Chase
X - Hunt doves in Mexico
X - Summit Everest
X - Buy ranch near Crawford Texas
X - Give kids houses
X - Buy Rolls Royce
X - Retire to Montana & Texas
X - Buy new pickup trucks
__- Learn fly fishing

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WALLPAPER:  COME SUMMER . . .

Keeping Score

TOOLS FOR ACTIVISTS

The Contract

track first 100 days

From Wikipedia

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.. There are many proposed presidential actions that potentially affect the American fly fisher.
.. President Trump has published his contract with the American Voter [LINK-1.] We reproduce it below.
.. The "Track Trump" website [LINK-2.] is a straightforward tool for tracking the actions promised in the President's contract. It is quick and easy to follow and will alert the activist fly fisher to impeding actions, actions in progress, and completed actions.

Their stated goals are:

1) Isolate actual policy changes from rhetoric and political theater. We will avoid covering tweets, public statements, and anything else that distracts from actual policy as much as we can.
2) Utilize a digital dashboard to accurately and concisely track and communicate those changes. Evaluating progress against stated goals in an easy-to-digest way works well in the business world, and we are optimistic it will be helpful here.
3) Hold the current administration accountable for the promises they have made to the American voter.
.. There is no excuse for not being informed. There is less excuse for taking no action.
.. You can start here, [LINK-3.] As was predicted  here, [LINK-4.]

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.. There's just time between the second pot of coffee and some snow-catching to email our congressman and senators.

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WALLPAPER:  REFRIED AND RICE

Home Grown

Neighbors Favorite
THANKS TO DON MARTINEZ

just tie one on

WALLPAPER:  WOOLLY WORM

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..The venerable Woolly Worm.  The pattern probably started out as a bass fly in the southeastern United States at the beginning of the 20th century.

DON IN FRONT OF SHOP

.. Shortly after the early 1950's it enjoyed immense popularity for a few decades after our local fly tier, Don Martinez, started to tie them commercially.
.. It originally had no tail. Right now it can be found in all colors and most sizes and both with and without the tail. In the middle 1960's it was the most popular fly to come from Japan on carded assortments sold in gas stations and other emporia across the nation.

ISABELLA TIGER MOTH

.. There is little speculation about what it imitates: the Woolly Worm, (woolly bear in the Northeast and Midwest United States.)
.. This caterpillar is the larva of a family of moths. It is often of two colors and sometimes in three segments. It is reputed to have the power of predicting the severity of the coming winter.

PYRRHARCTIA ISABELLA

.. Most caterpillars that are called woolly worms are from the Isabella Tiger Moth, (Pyrrharctia isabella.)
.. These critters hatch in the fall and have a cocoon built before early winter. They have their own anti freeze and can withstand sub zero temperatures, (this mostly rules us out, though there are a few.)
..  However, in the Arctic the summer period for vegetative growth – and hence feeding – is so short that the Woolly Bear must feed for several summers, freezing again each winter before finally pupating. Some are known to live through as many as 14 winters

WORM RACE WINNERS

.. In the Southeast where they are most prolific there is a giant Woolly Worm Festival. In Banner Elk, North Carolina There is a $1,000 prize offered. It's coming up right after the summer - in October. Put it on your calendar. You can read about it HERE.
.. Many of the contemporary "sophisticates" among the fly fishing brotherhood eschew this fly because "it doesn't imitate anything." Sad but true - it does.
.. It's an exceptionally effective catching fly starting in mid summer on the Madison River, Gallatin River, and a few places on the Notellum River. The neighbors are tying a gross or two right now.
.. Lots of folks fish it as a drowned fly. That's fine. It can be weighted if you like. It is particularly useful as a surface fly for searching. Grease it up and watch your buddies do it in their drawers!
..Well it's still warm enough to fish some. Heading to Notellum Creek: after Lunch - for sure.

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WALLPAPER:  FOUNTAIN FLAT

The Way It Was

GET A FORD

Skim The Snow

ideal for our village

WALLPAPER:  FORD SNOWMOBILE

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A PAIR TO DRAW TO

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WALLPAPER:  MONTANA MAIL WAGON

Blind And Complacent Americans ??

BRITS WATCHING YOU

The Evaporating Heritage

real estate developers salivating

SELL IT OFF

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.. While living most of the time in California,  Ryan Zinke has spent his travel time very productively by wooing his Utah allies.
.. Unnoticed and under the radar of fishing blogs the Congress of the United States Of America is passing rules and laws to make it easy to sell and give away your land.
.. The house budget rule places federal land at zero value for budgetary purposes. Just like Utah?

Rob Bishop

.. Utah Representative Rob Bishop has pushed for and achieved a House rules change that declares federal lands as worthless for budgetary purposes.
.. We would like to own Arches National Park: or Zion, or Canyon Lands. Thanks Rob.
.. Look out Bear's Ears !! Who gets this? Are they related to hotel developers?
.. This is more than a shot across the bow. It is akin to a sneak attack on people who love our outdoor places.
.. At least, the United States version of, the British Guardian is aware of this sneaky travesty and betrayal of the trust of American citizens.

Ryan Zinke

.. If you are a land flipper and real estate developer you will be drooling at the prospects.
.. If you are a resource extractor this is a gift to you.
.. If you love our federal lands and enjoy access to them you should be mightily worried.
.. We humbly request that you read the note in THE GUARDIAN [LINK.]

OTHER RESOURCES

>> House Committee on Natural Resources
>> Rob Bishop Webpage
>> Washington Post
>> High Country News
>> The Desert Sun
>> The Mountaineers

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WALLPAPER:  INCIPIENT GUACAMOLE

On Inaguration Day

A MUST READ

Thanks to Moldy Boys

don't overlook this

TEDDY

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.. As Americans we have a despicable habit of selective memory and gratuitous forgetting.
.. We appreciate the note in yesterday's post about "The Real Theodore Roosevelt."
.. Lest we forget, check it out, [LINK.]

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WALLPAPER:  PORK NOODLE WITH SHIITAKI

The Solid 1st and 2nd

SAY WHATEVER

Keep Thine Arms

read between the lines

DOUBLE SPEAK

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.. We're watching closely as a nominee for Secretary of Interior talks out of both sides of his mouth.

Keep this in mind:

.. Amendment I of the United States Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, the press, and speech. It grants the rights to peaceably assemble and to petition for redress of grievances. Nice work founders!
.. Amendment II of the United States Constitution protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. There has been some confusion about punctuation between ratified versions but recent Supreme Court decisions have cleared that up.
.. People across the nation and in the blog-sphere unfamiliar with the record of Ryan Zinke have been swayed by his campaign rhetoric and his well rehearsed testimony before congress.
.. He's well within his rights to say whatever he likes. This is his Constitutional entitlement. There is however a real question about the difference between his speech behavior and other behaviors - like voting records.
.. We don't much like his record for voting to kill fish on the North Fork of the Flathead River, [LINK-1.]
.. We don't much savor his supporting role for the "anti-parks caucus" in congress either [LINK-1.]
.. We're confused, as are his Republican colleagues, about other things as well. We've seen him on both sides of the fence when it comes to discussions about our right to bear arms [LINK-2.]
.. We note he is headed to Utah to review some recent actions regarding public lands. We also note that Utah is the stronghold of the ideology that wants to restrict fishing access and also is a bastion for the privatization of federal lands.
.. The website Verbatim has been watching this cute little song and dance for some time now [LINK-3.] Slippery is as slippery does.
.. We are going to wait and see just which Zinke emerges in his office as Secretary Of Interior - if confirmed. We caution our readers to watch closely. This tap dance could be entertaining and potentially destructive.
.. Most of our neighbors have seen his bewildering attitude here at home. It's a shame that the folks who get their politics from the T.V. don't dig a little deeper.
.. Of course Montana Democrats, and even our local fishers and sportsmen are making hay from his double speak. It's the 'words vs. deeds' stage play that is a conundrum for the uninformed [LINK-4.]
.. The Montana Wilderness Association has provided us with a complete precis of verbiage vs. voting behavior [LINK-5.]

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.. Well as the mid winter melt continues to erode our snow pack we shall go to the fishin' hole and enjoy the mixed blessing of good catching and diminishing spring runoff.

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WALLPAPER: MID WINTER MELT

First Cast

OPENING DAY

River Tay

the garry flows again

WALLPAPER: GOOD GEAR

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OPEN IT

.. So then, two big events: we missed them both this year.
.. First; it's opening day of the salmon season on the River Tay.
.. Second; water restoration of 15 miles of the 'Dry Garry' will commence as soon as a bit of engineering work is completed. This first order tributary has been 'dry' due to hydroelectric priorities.
.. The major breach some 15 miles north of Blair Atholl will  commence in a few weeks to restore flows to the River Garry.
.. An initial breach has already been made at the Struan Weir to begin this process.

COURTESY DAILY MAIL

.. Spring salmon fishing is a big deal in Scotland. The river gets blessed with a toast, a splash for the river, and piping the fishers to the river.
.. A ceremonial cast is made from a mid-river boat and then, the river is inundated with hopeful fishers. Of course they all use Tay Rods for their Tay Casting. Even spin fishers know how to Tay Cast with spinning rods, {see videos below.}
.. The biggest ceremony is celebrated at  Kenmore. This year they are celebrating their 70th year along with the anniversary of the re-opening of the Kenmore Hotel [LINK-1].
.. The Kenmore Hotel was commissioned in 1572 by the then laird Colin Campbell, and has its origins in a tavern built around 70 years earlier offering accommodation and refreshments. It is reputed to be Scotland's oldest hotel.

AILEEN SWINGS A MEAN STICK

.. Although this is Campbell country, save for the pipers, the Royal Stewart Tartan is the most common pattern and the Dress Royal Stewart is de rigueur for the ceremonies.
.. Last year the ceremonies were opened by the Environmental Minister Dr. Aileen McLeod [LINK-2].

DRESS STEWART TARTAN

.. This would be the same as a cabinet level person coming to our village for the opener in Yellowstone National Park. It would hardly happen here.
.. For more information just run a web search. This is big news in Scotland. SALMON FISHING SCOTLAND is a good website for information, accommodations, activities, and fishing stuff.
.. The ABERFELDY website is a grand introduction to the area. Year round activities and other bits of interest are supplied by the site. Sort of like a regional chamber of commerce.

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..
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 SEE ALL ABOUT IT

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..Well it's approaching a warm 0°F, so it must be time for breakfast and then wash and wax the car.

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WALLPAPER:  SALSICCIA, CARROT HASH, TATERS, 'N' EGG

We're Saddened

THE GREATEST SHOW
ON EARTH
Gone But Not Forgotten
a change in values
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THE PASSING OF CULTURAL CONTEXT

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.. Our childhood was blessed with many things. One was living on the outskirts of a major city. Development was not rampant back then. Huge vacant lots dotted the low rent district.
.. Those vacant lots were playgrounds, ball fields, war zones, and fields for dirt clod fights. We thought it was grand.
.. Not too far from the Union Pacific and Santa Fe rail yards and real close to the stock yards was a very interesting place to dwell.
.. Significantly, when the circus came to town we could walk to the rail yards and watch the unloading.
.. We could then go to the giant, dusty, debris laden vacant city blocks and watch the set up.
.. Some of the neighbors got jobs helping with the skut labor. Small money but free tickets. A deal that, in those times, was like gold.

.. Then it was time for the parade. From the rail yards, past the stockyards, into downtown and back to the big top. We'd bicycle along and spend half a day getting exercise and free entertainment.
.. It was best to attend the second show. That way we could stroll the midway and take it all in. Anticipation was greatly enhanced as we listened to the entertainment in the big top.

.. Cotton candy by the bushel - we were wired!
.. The strongman, strong women, bearded ladies, and the 'freaks' were the big draw in the small sideshows. Shame on us!
.. Our culture has moved on from those days. Wars have come and gone. Big bands have given way to rock and roll and then to rap and then to whatnot.
.. Country music has become country and western. Maybe it is even roots rock and, now has moved from Nashville, to Austin, to Bakersfield to New York City,  --  my my.

.. The greatest show on earth just couldn't keep up. The cultural catharsis provided by the circus is passé. Other forms of mass cathartic release have become ingrained through the years.
.. We now have gladiatorial football, collision basketball, woodstockian concerts, and of course politics.

.. Politics has become the circus entertainment of today. The schismatic and harmonic mass thrust of local and national politics cannot be denied. People are the performers.
.. So then for politics: no animals, no trapeze acts, no trained horses, none of the anticipation or excitement. The entertainment value is still high and available on T.V.

.. Political catharsis is both overt and subliminal. No circus can match that.
.. Our hysterical devotion to the super bowl allows our society to explode and then spend a year in anticipation of the next catharsis. No circus can match that.
.. Our population is now large enough that subcultural cathartic events grow to sizes beyond belief.
.. Fly fishing trade shows, one fly events, national ice fishing tournaments, Indy Car racing, Formula One racing, Stock Car racing, each and every one is replacing the catharsis of circus.

.. Whole towns are now devoted to cathartic experience. Go to Las Vegas and enjoy gambling, circus, sports, music, magic, spectacle, rewards, punishments, etc. The simple times are gone.
..Yes indeed, we are saddened. We are not sad to see Barnum & Bailey disappear. We are however, morose that it lets us know that we have experienced something that is no longer a popular cultural topic of conversation.
.. So much of our past, (indeed every culture's past,) is gone. Without the chronicle of history the wheel must be reinvented with each generation.
.. Gone and forgotten are the comparisons, myths, similes, metaphors, etc. We must now figure out how to express the awe of seeing a sword sallower for the first time. Just what is a 'high wire act?'
.. At least for us goin' fishin' has remained pretty much the same for a long time. Our staid modes of fishing and catching allow for personal cathartic moments. We like it that way. We also enjoy watching schools of fishers reinventing the wheel of fishing.
.. New terms for very old concepts: bless their untutored historicity. Without the poor memories of fishers the tackle giants would have a much harder time selling the latest and greatest.
.. Without the memory of spectacular 'old-timey' flies contemporary fly tiers would be deprived of the simple joy that comes from feeling creative. That indeed is entertaining.
.. Time for a midnight nap. Then a few three hour snoozes. It's a symptom of our stage in this life. A circus can't compare to that.

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WALLPAPER: ALMOND VANILLA CAKE AND CHOCOLATE RUM FROSTING