The Underground’s a little cranky, my friends, but fortunately for those in the immediate vicinity, I’ve found a pretty good place to vent.

Instead of suiting up to chase the BWO hatch I stumbled on last week, I’m stuck in the vise-like grip of the Keystone Cops of the Insulation Contractor World, who are here now - doing a job that should have been finished last week.

So who’s enjoying the benefit of all my ire?

I’m staring at an irritating story on the Ted Williams Blog about the American Fly Fishing Museum, who have apparently been asleep the last eight years while the rest of us fought tooth and nail to protect our remaining wild places from the likes of thankfully-soon-to-be-EX-VP Dick Cheney.

In a move I’d graciously label as “neuron-challenged” they’ve invited Darth Dick Cheney to be the guest of honor at their Spring meeting.

We can argue about Cheney’s politics all day long, but it’s damned difficult to defend his dismal environmental record, which included interfering with scientists doing their jobs, and singlehandedly engineering water policies which directly resulted in the largest salmon kill in recent history.

Sure, I’m wondering whose skids got greased to make this hummer happen. And while I often reject the notion of an “old guard” vs “new guard” schism in fly fishing, this has all the earmarks of an awkward, tweedy, fly-fishing-as-old-money-and-we’re-all-tweedy-buddies feel to it.

Screw that.

Given his record (and without his fistloads of cash) Cheney would never get within a country mile of any group invested in maintaining a little wilderness filled with cold, clean water.

Invest a minute of your day on the Intertubes: contact the American Museum of Fly Fishing (nicely), and let them know that the salmon-killing Cheney isn’t your idea of a model fly fisherman.

As always, don’t be abusive; simply state firmly and unequivocally you think Cheney’s the wrong choice to speak.

The AMFF Web site “Contact Us” page can be found here. Be nice, but firm:

Ms. Comar:

I was distressed to hear that Dick Cheney was being considered for the museum’s Guest of Honor for the spring meeting.

As one of the fly fishermen who fought tooth and nail the last eight years to protect our coldwater fisheries from Mr. Cheney’s dismal environmental policies, I fail to grasp the logic of featuring him at an AMFF event.

Yes, he fishes, but his environmental policies have been hugely damaging to our fishing and hunting heritage, and after donating so much time and effort to fighting those policies, I feel his appearance is a slap in the face to fly fishermen all across America.

Sincerely,
Tom Chandler

See you on the Intertubes, Tom Chandler.

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The Underground’s Short Casts for 2009-01-05

by Tom Chandler on January 5, 2009

  • Smith River goes from 7,700 cfs to 100,000. Plus Denis Pierce looks at CA Fish & Game salmon goals: http://tinyurl.com/9zt2nv #
  • Back, but stuck at home Monday while contractors do what should have been done last Wednesday. Who do I bill for a lost day of fishing? #

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The Underground isn’t the kind of blog to point fingers and go “neener neener” or anything, but a prior post’s concern about the dangers of walking on frozen lakes seemed eerily appropriate given this little news item:

NAMUR, Wis. - Twelve ice fishermen were stranded for hours on a huge chunk of ice that broke off from shore Thursday and floated into Green Bay, but rescue crews plucked them all safely from the large ice sheet, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Three groups of fishermen had ventured onto the ice, bringing pickup trucks and all-terrain vehicles. But a large fissure ripped through the floe when a freighter passed through the bay, creating ripples that combined with high winds to break the ice.

The pickups and ATVs remained behind, and though there’s a good chance they’ll be recovered if the ice re-freezes, one wonders how insurance agents in ice-bound waters feel about this sort of thing.

As always, the Underground remains ever-steadfast in its support of those who choose to fish atop frozen bodies of water, though we draw the line at anything that might increase our auto insurance rates.

See you on the ice floe, Tom Chandler

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It’s not a great day for fans of the California Delta - at least those who’d like to see it become something other than a salt marsh (from the SF Chronicle).

An influential Cabinet-level group Friday released its prescription for the sickly Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, including a 2011 goal to break ground on a new canal system - without the approval of the California Legislature.

The panel backed away from creating a new governing body to oversee the delta or altering the California Constitution to say that the delta’s health is as important as supplying water to 25 million Californians. That differed from another governor-appointed task force that contended that new leadership and a constitutional amendment were needed to fix a fragile ecosystem that also serves as the hub of the state’s water supply.

In other words, the executive group adopted pretty much every recommendation of the Delta Vision group save those that offered any real protection for beleaguered waterway.

The walking-on-water Aquafornia blog posted excerpted reactions from multiple newspapers, including this from Phil Isenberg in the Sacramento Bee:

Isenberg had not seen the committee’s final report. But it adopted every proposal from his task force except one.

The task force recommended a new policymaking council to bring
cohesion to the more than 200 agencies that manage the 740,000-acre
estuary in a haphazard fashion. It viewed this as a key initial step
before starting major waterworks and habitat projects.

But the committee opted to delay the governance question while starting work in other areas, including canal planning.

“I think it’s too bad they didn’t make a recommendation on that,”
Isenberg said. “I’m not shocked, but it’s too bad because everyone in
the puzzle knows you can’t fit the pieces together without a governance
solution.”

I’m on my way out the door right now, but it’s hard to support any water solution that doesn’t involve specific guarantees for the California Delta, which the state’s water users have treated roughly the same way a baby treats a diaper.

Update: Dan Bacher (Fish Sniffer editor) weighs in on the plan, and it’s not pretty. Here’s only one passage from his editorial:

The plan includes a timeline of proposed actions and associated events for the destruction of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the largest and most significant estuary on the West Coast of the Americas. One of the amazing things about the plan is the sequence of events and actions it includes. While the plan’s goal is to “break ground” for “new conveyance in 2011, the timeline doesn’t require the Department of Fish and Game to “recommend in stream flows” for the Delta until 2012!

Wouldn’t it be more logical to only begin infrastructure construction after in stream flows for fish are recommended and secured? This prioritization of the canal over the needs of fish clearly demonstrates that the plans “eco language” of restoring the Delta is nothing other than green washing of the most environmentally destructive project in California history.

See you on the Delta, Tom Chandler.

ps - you can follow this issue on the Aquafornia blog, and via the Sac Bee’s Twitter Feed.

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The Underground’s Short Casts for 2009-01-02

by Tom Chandler on January 2, 2009

  • AEG members resign from group (they seem like most of the group, but…). What happens to the 2009 film tour? http://tinyurl.com/7vrd3v #
  • Every time I utter the words “It’s perfect BWO weather; I’m going fly fishing today” the damned sun breaks through. #
  • Back from the Olive hatch. Not great, but not bad. And yes, rising trout in the middle of winter. More to come. #
  • Fished new “sticky rubber” wading boots (Patagonia); surprised by how much better they gripped than my old studded rubber Weinbrenners. #
  • Tired of gear reviews? StoryARC outdoor literary blog looking for readers and submissions: http://storyarc.squarespace.com/ #

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The Upper Sacramento’s sub-par BWO hatches are finally lighting off, so naturally, I’m getting out of town.

Timing, it seems, remains a weak point.

Upper Sacramento Rainbow Trout
Blurry image, pretty trout. It’s the Upper Sacramento, Winter BWO edition.

Since there’s a plane waiting for us - and the downcanyon drive to Redding will be a slow one due to snow - this will be short.

On Thursday, an old friend and I headed for one of my midriver dry fly runs, arriving to the spectacle of a medium-sized BWO hatch already in progress.

A sight like that creates a jarring mix of emotions; you’re irritated you didn’t show up sooner while you’re simultaneously trying to get dressed and rigged before it’s over (which seemed to be 2:30 or so).

I got five grabs, hooked three, and landed one (the blurry pic above) - a nice 16″ Upper Sacramento winter football.

Intriguingly, the small olive parachute didn’t do any business at all. Instead, a Roy Palm soft hackle emerger and Quigley Cripple got the job done - a not-that-surprising reality given how many adults floated downriver unmolested.

Catching trout on the Upper Sacramento in winter means typically catching trout a bit bigger than the rest of the year, and one of the fish I lost ran me around at will, my 8.5′ 5wt Steffen fiberglass rod bent to the water.

It was an impressive display - one that ended when the fish decided he’d had enough and took off like a freight train, wrapping my leader on a rock.

We never did see the fish, but he was likely bigger than the 16″ speciment by at least a couple inches.

Hot damn.

Meanwhile, back on the Mountain

While I was poking around on the river, the L&T was climbing up Mt. Shasta and skiing her way down, and because I (again) stuck a dying battery in my camera (yes, someday I’ll learn), I’m stealing one her pictures to pad the report.

Mount Shasta, the L&T
That’s Avalanche Gulch behind the L&T’s sunglasses.

More to come about this trip - including my test-flight of a pair of Patagonia’s “Sticky Rubber” wading boots, which seemed to grip better than my old studded rubber Weinbrenners?

Why am I trying new wading boots? Simple - my high arch is falling and my foot is lengthening, so suddenly all my sport shoes are getting a little short.

This, I think, is old age.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

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The Underground’s Short Casts for 2009-01-01

by Tom Chandler on January 1, 2009

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The Underground’s Short Casts for 2008-12-31

by Tom Chandler on December 31, 2008

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It’s the last day of 2008, and I’ve spent the morning taping drop cloths in place so the insulation crew don’t leave a lot of “earth-toned” carpet in their wake.

It’s not exactly the kind of job I planned for the last day of 2008 (a fly fishing trip leaps to mind), but warm & happy is its own reward (not the least of which is a much reduced utility bill).

Fortunately, I stumbled across the Perfect New Year’s Gift for all the Undergrounders who simply haven’t been catching as many fish as they’d like:

Sure, those other fancy-pants fly fishing blogs delve into innovative fly patterns, insect behavior and a host of other “elitist” topics (even that Singlebarbed brownliner guy is getting a little uppity with us), but at the Underground, we’re All About Effective Solutions to Vexing Fly Fishing Problems.

Combined with our hard-hitting reportage, fly fishing blog leadership on critical economic topics, and regular doses of frankly brilliant ideas, it’s not hard to see why we’re widely considered the Albert Einstein of fly fishing blogs (we are, aren’t we?).

I hope everyone had a wonderful 2008, and wish each and every one of you (except you snots at Nestle) a prosperous, bountiful, and seriously cool 2009 (don’t drink too much).

Happy New Year!
Tom Chandler

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The Underground’s Short Casts for 2008-12-30

by Tom Chandler on December 30, 2008

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The Underground’s Short Casts for 2008-12-29

by Tom Chandler on December 29, 2008

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It’s warm (by winter standards) and raining, and our formerly pristine, powdery snow drifts are rapidly turning into what’s appropriately called “rotten” snow - crunchy, slippery stuff that isn’t good for walking, skiing - or much of anything.

The icicles ringing the roof of the Trout Underground/Man Cave World Headquarters have melted away, and the ski park - which just opened before Christmas - is watching its snow disappear. It’s like the messy, muddy spring weather, only without hope of warmer weather ahead.

With 40 degree highs forecast for this week, the outlook for skiers isn’t good.

For that matter, the outlook for fly fishermen isn’t all that great either.

Warm temperatures (and worse, warm rain) melt the snow on the ground and spike river flows, which are currently rising, though at a still-fishable 500 cfs (expect these to continue their upward trend).

You never speak of such things in absolutes without looking like a complete moron (you can’t be everywhere at once, and somebody’s always got a secret something going somewhere), but the Upper Sacramento’s BWO hatch has been spotty at best.

Winter’s coming to my neck of the woods a little later than normal - only a couple weeks ago it was clear and warm during the day, and damned cold at night. Hoar frost was building up just under the surface of the powdery soil on some nearby walking trails, creating a false surface supported by long, thin strands of ice.

Wally the Wonderdog and I would hike on what appeared to be a solid dirt path, leaving 2″ deep footprints behind us.

I wouldn’t classify it as surreal; more a reminder that nature doesn’t always act like we expect it to, especially if our expectations are fueled by lifetimes spent in unnatural environments.

Balloon Payments, and Paying Dues

The Upper Sacramento’s poor BWO hatch is clearly an Immediate Karmic Balloon Payment for our stunningly good, extended-way-too-long October Caddis bite, which saw us catching big trout on big dries until the first few days of truly bad weather.

Like the killer Green Drake hatch of two years ago, the fly fishing was almost too good - if you suffered from a proper upper midwest upbringing, you’d firmly believe you didn’t deserve that kind of success.

Later, you’d remember all the fruitless hikes along the river, the skunkings, and the hatches/spinner falls that never came off despite the absolutely, almost painfully perfect conditions, but because of your upbringing, you’d never think to say anything.

They’d think you were complaining, or worse, bragging.

Still, on several occasions, I strongly hinted the Undergrounders should abandon their families and jobs and race up for what was probably the best dry fly fishing of the year, but frightening numbers of you clung to your adult responsibilities like, well, adults.

While we appreciate your nose-to-the-grindstone contribution to the faltering Gross National Product (GNP), frankly, you weren’t doing much for the Underground’s just-implemented Gross Happiness Index (GHI).

The Underground’s Crack Staff of Analysts & People In Charge of Generating Numbers That Back Our Theories assure us the GHI has been falling for some time now, and despite costly infusions of dry fly capital, the GHI credit market remains locked up.

Unfortunately, it’s winter, and save an unexpectedly strong ice bite or sudden resurgence in underperforming BWO derivatives, it looks like the GHI will remain poor until spring, when I fully expect you bastards to drag your asses to your nearest fly fishing water and boost the GHI.

We’ll provide as much information stimulus as possible. Do it for your country.

See you propping up GHI, Tom Chandler.

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