Don't ask...

I just had a flashback... of being 11 years old, walking up Highway 1 in Northern Minnesota with a childhood friend of mine, our pellet guns over our shoulders and toting a taxidermy stuffed Iguana by the tail. Just to see what the traffic would do.

Oh yeah and it was the dead of winter.

This is a reasonable re-creation of the event except we aren't in the photo and we were carrying the iguana.

Answer me this:

If you had just 1 day left to fish and you could go anywhere, where would it be and why?

I'll Start...
I'd go to: Belize to fish Permit.
Here's why: Gin clear water, warm sunny weather, sight fishing wary prey after an intense stalk, mind blowing runs when hooked...and wet wading. Plus, wailing on alternative species off the edge of the flat if there are no tails in the air.

Post to comments and let me know what you'd do.

Get back to work!

So I am. Back to work. Made my first sales trip to the new territory last week. Maine, Vermont, New Hampshuh, Massachusets, Rhode Island. When I took the job I was 2 months through reading Lou Tabory's book Inshore Fly Fishing. (I cannot recommend it because I have zero point of reference, although I have a sense that he may comprehend a thing or two more than most on the subject). So when the "man" said "Your territory would be....", I immediately zoned into stripers. When I came to, he was shaking my hand and mumbling something about making a great addition to the team.
So as I was saying I was out in "the territory" last week and the first door I walk through I see two guys looking at the local paper (I was in Northeastern NH). It took me a second to focus on the picture above the article they were talking about. It was a picture of a guy holding up a Big Ass Striper. So that was an easy ice breaker. We talked fishing. They turned out to be nice guys . (I have their number and I fully intend to get them drunk and make them slur all of their secrets at some future date.) Three sales calls later I walk in and there are 2 shadowboxes on the wall containing classic Carrie Stevens-esque flies.



So now I'm thinking. Is this a sign? An Omen? As I was processing this, my (small, narrow) mind does what it often does during complicated and unsolvable processes and jumped to a side item thought, a footnote on the original idea. The footnote became the new idea and I completely forgot about the "Omen Factor" until 5 minutes ago.

The original subject of this post was going to be "good fishing found where you look for it".
These two guys at the counter were trying to make it through another day at work and, unable to do it, turned to discussing just what they were going to do once they were punched out of that underpaid and overworked segment of their day...they were going fishing. And they were fired up. I've seen this same thing happen in St. Louis MO, McAllen TX, and Jupiter FL to name but a few.

The point is this: Home waters are great. Comfortable, familiar and close...but there is an absolute steamer trunk full of exceptional fishing water out there. Don't get too smug and cocksure about being the king of your own turf and master of your watershed. And I say this for two reasons:
1. You don't get to heaven by catching the most sea-run gar on whatever creek runs through your back yard.
and
2. Somewhere out east or down south or up north or out west or in St Louis there are two guys fishing (stripers for example) on an ocean you vaguely remember from 6th grade geography and they are having the time of their lives...and if you were there, you would be too.

Back to the crick.

With trout season winding down, I thought it necessary to hit the crick for an afternoon to see how the browns weathered the summer. JP joined me for a leisurely fish on BEC. I took my 7'6" Schroeder 4 wt, because it seemed the appropriate tool for the day, and an appropriate tool for the my target species (and because, with all the SMB fishing on the big W this year I haven't had a chance to fish much cane).
Well the gods were smiling; The fish were up, eating whatever stage of the baetis hatch that drifted by. Obviously you can dredge nymphs with just about any rod, but when you have a bamboo rod in hand, it's so much more enjoyable to flick dries and emergers.
So I did.
I won't talk about the size of the fish because A. I didn't measure any of them, and B. I know that only one of the browns I fooled was over 10". BUT, the day was dry, the fish were rising and the company was good. Quite honestly, I was just happy to be back on the crick one last time before the season closed.

On second thought, a 20" brown would have made a better story...
...next year.

Kids.

This blog is really about me spewing angling non-sense...But, since these are two of the biggest reason I don't fish as much as I used to, I thought I'd give them an opportunity to plead their case. If and when you care to...spawn with purpose.

Checkin' in.

K sent me this pic that T-mos snapped whilst we were on the Nipigon.
Since content and updates have been slow in coming around here as of late, I just wanted to let anybody who pokes their head in to know that I am not dead. Just newly employed with a wife and two kids, one of whom is cutting her first teeth. (Not a pleasant experience for anyone involved I assure you.) If any of you get a moment, K has put down a few of his thoughts HERE.
Book mark it and hang on. He has been known to have some good ideas and should he decide to share them with you....well... just check out his blog.

K & E sinking, swinging and seeking auspice.

Heritage

That's my daughter Cam with her Grandpa Dale (My wife's Dad). Last weekend Cam joined Grandpa in the boat to watch him pick his herring nets. In the background you can see Dale's house which is built on the plot that his grandpa Chris purchased in 1906. If my math is correct I witnessed the 5th generation of herring fishing on this particular slice of Lake Superior's North Shore.

Equally fascinating to me is the fact that my grandfather logged the forest around this area. I wonder if these old time loggers and fisherman ever crossed paths...

Heritage.

For more information on the local fishing history please stop by The North Shore Commercial Fishing Museum in Tofte MN. http://www.commercialfishingmuseum.org