Fright Night

TRANSFORMATION

Cultural Drift

a new world view

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THE HALLOWEEN LEECH

..It hasn't taken such a very long time to move from a religious observation to the capitalistic candy mongering of today.
.. Yes Zelda, the times they are a changing.

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WALLPAPER:   PHYLLO PUMPKIN CUPS

For Old Time's Sake

WALK TOO SLOW

Talk Too Much

fish just a bit

WALLPAPER:  AUTUMN IDYLL

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NECESSARY GEAR

.. The flasks are loaded, the thermos is hot and black, the hard salami, cheese and stale bread are mashed together in plastic bags and, the old gear is ready for work.
.. Each year about this time a few of us get together for a saunter in Yellowstone National Park. We're mostly older than our ancient gear but we use it on purpose.

FIREHOLE FALL

.. We arise early. We gather at the chow house for coffee. We look strange. But the stories start up before the mugs arrive.
.. This is our little celebration of surviving another year on this side of the grass.  We've done this on an informal basis for the last decade or so.
.. The last few years it has been a firm and ritualized gathering. We've lost a few story tellers. We miss them.

ONE FROM PAYNE

.. We will take a couple of old trucks and switch riders along the way. We will stop often and wet a line. We may even catch a fish or two. We know where the benches are. We will tell old truths and a few lies. We will reminisce and enjoy the day. It will be all too short.
.. We trade rods and share flies. The muscle memory of bamboo comes back quickly - maybe never left. We speculate on the future of our pastime.

ONE FROM GRANGER

.. We revel in the past and bemoan it's passing. It's not the maudlin kind of discussion: rather an immersion in the good times remembered.
.. There are very few folks left that have fiddled around in the park since before the middle of the last century.

ONE FROM LEONARD

.. We wonder if we have discovered anything previously unknown. We remember the famous folk that have passed this way. Some stayed or passed through and some moved on. They stamped the place with legend and lies. So be it.
.. We stop to puff a bit of Cuba. We sip some old stuff and pretend that we are warmed by it. Bitter is as bitter does. Fire of a different kind in our belly.

BYGONE GEAR

.. We observe the small changes and large. Trees blown down or burned up. Good holes filled in by sand and silt. New holes opened up by heavy runoff - not yet immortalized by recent sages of the local rivers.
.. We catch a fish and wonder if the tales of ours and others are the truth. Were those fish really bigger before the warming of the Firehole River? Were there more of them?

YES,  IT IS A FLY

.. We relive the battles over the Brown Trout in the North Fork Of The Snake that made headlines in the 50's and 60's. Back before it became fashionable to call that bit of water the Henry's Fork.
.. We observe certain rituals that have long since disappeared. They disappeared with the gear that made them necessary. We take turns stretching each other's lacquered lines.

RIVERSIDE SUSTENANCE

.. We dry and change the silk one. What nuisances we put up with. We thought it was the best of all possible ways to do things.
.. We will pretend that we can build a sandwich from the mashed fixin's in the plastic bags.

ONE FROM F.E. THOMAS

-- It is a brutal bit of nourishment and we pretend to enjoy it. So dry it is that it requires a slosh of something - bitter - burning - or black. Such simple rituals.
.. We, and so many others, create them and extol their value as necessary adjuncts to our pastime. After all fishing is just fishing otherwise.
.. It's getting late early and we need to buzz along. Time's a wastin'.

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WALLPAPER:  ORVIS 99

Get Lost

PERFECT IMMERSION

A Mind Meld ?

is it zen ?

WALLPAPER:  GOOD TOOLS

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.. Fall brings competition for outdoor activities: Fishing, Hunting, Hiking, Biking, etc. Some folks even combine activities: biking/hunting, fishing/hunting, biking/fishing, etc.
.. Of late we seldom hunt. We do fish and shoot competitively. The still cool air is conducive to both.
.. There are moments, sometimes hours or days, when we get lost in our chosen pastime. The targets seem larger, the fish seem more willing, our selected tools get absorbed into our very being and, all is right with the world.
.. We've been told it is a zen moment. If so, so be it. What we do know is that it is a condition where anticipation and anxiety disappear. We don't anticipate the strike of the fish or the strike of the bullet. There is no need for anticipation because the occurrence is a foregone conclusion. There is no anxiety about the outcome .
. . sigh!

PERFECT FORM

.. Anticipation is a powerful condition: both physically and mentally. Tense and anxious we lose sight and focus on just what it is we are doing.
.. We somehow feel that trigger pull is most important.
.. We somehow feel that the back cast is most important.
.. Then we feel that breathing is most important.
.. Or we feel that line speed is most important.
.. Then again we might reconsider the ammunition or the fly selection. These factors are really secondary to doing what we are doing.
.. In 1988 Dan Wieden coined the phrase, "JUST DO IT," for a Nike advertising campaign. Aside from the push as a fashion statement there is a greater truth in the phrase.
.. Immersion in the moment is a wonderful bit of existence. Right now, around  our village,  we see so many folks anticipating rather than doing. When the various bits of impedimenta fall away from the activity - the activity will swallow us up.
.. For some reason the Autumn brings about this relaxed participation in our own outdoor activity. We seem to catch more fish, (and it matters not.) We hit the bull more consistently, (and it matters not.)

CASUAL TOOLS

.. For some folks catching the fish is the most important part of fishing. For some folks hitting the bull is the most important part of target shooting.
.. For us, just shooting or fishing is the most important part.  AND, WE DO CATCH FISH AND HIT THE BULL - so?
.. Getting lost has nothing to do with being lost. It has to do with immersion in the moment, in the activity, in the experience. We can get lost while tying a gross of flies. We can get lost while loading our 22 PPC cartridges. We can get lost in our living room - it's so rewarding.
.. For whatever reason we seem to get lost most often in the Autumn. We like it that way.

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WET OR DRY

.. Right now there are white miller caddis, baetids of a couple sorts, small fry, other fry, and nymphs galore on the west side rivers in Yellowstone National Park.
.. The expert counter help is warning folks off of the Gallatin River as "TOO COLD."
.. Avoid this river if you choose. There are many active fish taking small streamers that imitate fry. Some patterns of the caddis sort may be fished above and in the film as well as below and soaked to the bone.

DRY OR WET

.. Catching is on the mind of so many of the pro fishers that they seldom enjoy fishing.
.. Right now the fishing is excellent in these pleasant Fall days.
.. We're in the 60's and the sun is playing with the wispy clouds. There are scattered flurries of mixed precipitation and the wind is just a gentle breeze.
.. Catching is pretty good too!

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WALLPAPER:  BREAKFAST EXTRAVAGANCE

Preview Of Coming Attraction

UKES IN WEST

January Cometh

improv for the ages

..

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.. Just to let you know it's on for year two. Two masters and a classic we all know.
.. Especially for  Nate Schweber !!

Sunny Bugs

VERY BIG ONES

Very Sunny Bugs ?

who knew ?

WALLPAPER:  MONSTERS ATTACKING

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.. We've been taught by the local experts that the little mayflies get smaller as the seasons move toward Winter.
.. We've also been taught that all the mayflies like the weather sort of dreary and overcast.
.. We've have been taught so many things that we believe what is repeated by "those that know."

COULD BE BIG GREEN DRAKES ?

.. Seldom have we been  taught about these big bugs that appeared on the Madison River yesterday about noon in the bright mid day sun - in late October.
.. The days have been bright and too warm. It should be 60°F today and may reach 65°F tomorrow. We'll take it.
.. Somewhere in a box we even have some big flies for the occasion. We certainly hope that they come to visit again. The fish liked them so, we will too. Some of the neighbors think that these are late blooming Ephemerella  grandis - some say  Drunella grandis - we certainly don't know the difference - if any.

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WALLPAPER:  A BIT OF GARLIC BREAD

Curiouser and Curiouser

WHAT'S UP ?

H.U.D. vs. Interior

misdirection

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.. The fake news and misdirection tango is alive and well at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's also thriving at the Interior Department.
.. Yesterday we followed the bouncing ball and noted the cagey play being employed by "Binky Zinke."

BEN CARSON

..On October 16, 2018 HUD Secretary Ben Carson bid assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Suzanne Israel Tufts ". . . a fond farewell" in an email to department employees.
.. Tufts " . . . has decided to leave HUD to become the Acting Inspector General at the Department of Interior."[LINK-1]

HEATHER SWIFT

.. On October 18, 2018  Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said ". . . the announcement less than a week ago by HUD Secretary Ben Carson, in which he said that HUD Assistant Secretary Suzanne Israel Tufts was going to become the new acting IG at Interior had false information in it."[LINK-2]
.. We truly enjoy the wonderful transparency of the departments in the current administration. Their internal coordination and communication sets new standards.
.. This post should be taken in conjunction with the preceding one. Enjoy the roller coaster !!

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LITTLE CARROT

.. The sun has been too bright and the weather too nice for fall fishing. Happily the catching belies the weather and warm days are grand for stabbing dozens of trout in the nose.
.. Today was exhausting: tomorrow should be even nicer.

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WALLPAPER:  FLAUTAS

The Beyond

BEYOND FISHING

Beyond Fly Fishing

beyond 'right' or 'left'

WATCH ME NOT

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WATCH ME NOW

.. We're pleased to note that MoldyChum is keeping us informed about how to avoid being investigated for questionable acts while serving some of the American People, [LINK.]
.. We would suggest that there is much more to this story than meets the eye, (or ear.) Check out the threats to the people's property, (it is ours - you know!)
-> https://www.outsideonline.com/2281851/trumps-budget-will-destroy-national-parks
-> https://www.outsideonline.com/2266216/man-flies-his-own-flag

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BLOND FEATHER DUSTER

.. The West Entrance to Yellowstone National Park will close soon and with it the end to legal fishing in the park.
.. Today might be a good day to visit the Firehole River and avoid the elbows at the conga lines where there might be runners.
.. Think we'll try it.

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WALLPAPER:  ORANGE RHUBARB RAISIN LOAF

Our Secret Secretary

ASK WOODY

Pay Attention

fish now & smile

WHO OWNS PUBLIC LANDS ?

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.. Just a brief note to keep us all informed about the quiet deceptions our Interior Department Secretary is conducting:

>> https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/13/politics/ryan-zinke-calendars-interior-secretary/index.html

.. Just ask Woody!

..

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WALLPAPER:  BACON AND AVOCADO