The Underground’s “2011 Fly Fishing Year In Pictures” Post

January 31, 2012, by 6 comments

Somewhere around the middle of December I lost steam on a “2011: The Year In Pictures” post, the problems being I didn’t have any time, and once I did, I realized I had damn few good pictures from 2011 (in the image department, it was nowhere near as good as 2009).

Still, perspective adds a layer of meaning to even mediocre photographs, so I plowed ahead, and this is what I got.

The Year’s Real Story

For us, 2011 revolved around the record snowpack, which topped out at 170% of normal, and was bolstered by a lot of late snow:

Late snows pushed the snowpack to record levels

Late snows pushed the snowpack to record levels

The winter fly fishing wasn’t stellar, though it seemed to hang on far into spring; temperatures in “spring” were about 15 degrees cooler than normal, so despite all the snow, we never had a giant runoff event. Instead, the water was just… high. For a very long time. In fact, everything was a good month behind “normal.”

ice crystals

The snow -- and cold spring -- were the stories in 2011.

The Upper Sacramento River

It's high, so instead of catching trout, we got all arty and pretentious...

A fall, 2011 Upper Sacramento Rainbow Trout

Still, I found time in the fall to catch a few fish...

The Small Stream Thang

The last couple years have been all about small streams; I often found myself driving past closer, bigger trout in search of a more distant, smaller trout, and in truth I can’t wholly explain the attraction.

Neither am I ready to stop:

Wayne Eng on a high -- but fishable -- small stream.

Wayne Eng on a high -- but fishable -- small stream.

Scott Chandler fly fishing a small stream

A new stream for both me and Older Bro -- that was cold and over its banks. I'll be back...

A small stream Brown trout

The point of the whole exercise...

Wayne Eng (about to hook a brown trout)

Wayne Eng (about to hook a brown trout)

An alpine brown trout

Do I feel like a putz, or what?

A March Brown?

To a fly fisherman, this suggests a good day ahead...

A skinny humpy

The beauty of Humpies is the more they're eaten, the better they get...

A Lassen brook trout creek

Older Bro on one of his favorite Brookie streams

Tom Chandler fly fishing an alpine creek

Hey, that's me! (A rare Underground sighting)

A small stream Rainbow trout

The last small stream trout of the year...

Wayne Eng fly fishing a small stream

Wayne Eng in the spring

Tom Chandler fly fishing a mosquito-infested stream

Mosquitoes are not our friends...

Wally the Wonderdog

Wally the Wonderdog on a hot day; he keeps wandering right into my fishable water.

A small stream Rainbow trout

They're so much prettier than they have to be...

Scott Chandler fly fishing

A late fall trip to a new (to me) small stream.

The Maine Thang

We made it Maine again in the summer of 2011; the place has a solid, built-to-last permanence about I simply haven’t seen out west, and there are times you can catch a smallmouth bass every cast,

West Grand Lake

We pulled up on this island, and started catching a bass every cast...

Maine's Big Lake -- a smallmouth bass paradise

We got over 1.5 inches of rain in just the morning...

Big Lake and a Grand Lake Canoe

The Grand Lake Canoes are still gorgeous.

West Grand Lake sunset

A West Grand Lake sunset.

Industry People, Places & Gear

The Orvis folks proved they had a sense of humor after I made sport of them in a blog post:

Orvis Zero Gravity fly rod

Orvis poked fun at me after I made sport of their blog...

Later, I crafted a revolutionary new IFTD show format that would allow manufacturers to sell their gear via the power of interpretive dance, but the industry — inexplicably — failed to listen. They’re the poorer for it.

YouTube Preview Image

It was also The Year Of The Interview: I neatly questioned a couple writers and a photographer, including John Gierach, falconer Rebecca O’Connor, biologist Anders Halverson, and even uber-fly-fishing photographer Val Atkinson.

Rebecca O'Connor

Falconer Rebecca O'Connor

Val Atkinson photo

I interviewed Val Atkinson for CalTrout.

I even revealed a Forbidden Love:

Whoppers

The Ultimate Fly Fishing Snack Food

And also dealt with a bear who tried to peel up my garage door (and was largely successful):

California black bear

This guy was way too close to the house...

Let’s Hope For More in 2012

I admit to shooting far fewer pictures on my 2011 trips than in prior years — a symptom of someone who wasn’t fishing enough, and didn’t want to give up as much of his fishing time to taking pictures.

Of course, there’s a pretty good reason I didn’t fish as much:

“Little M”

2012 is going to be interesting; we’re making two round trips to Ethiopia, and once M2 (my clever code name for Little M’s little sister) comes home, I suspect fishing time will be hard to come by.

It’s what it is, though I have uncovered some interesting small streams not all that far from home, and there’s still hope for a quick escape to another state.

I think every new year comes with a healthy set of expectations, most of which are just waiting to be dashed by weather, sickness, work and other surprises.

Still, I hope to see you on the river in 2012, Tom Chandler.

What Russell Chatham’s “The Angler’s Coast” Really Teaches Us

January 30, 2012, by 6 comments

An Undergrounder sent me an old hardback copy of Russell Chatham’s The Angler’s Coast, and while the writing is evocative and the stories interesting, the most intriguing aspect of the book was its look at fisheries that — in many cases — no longer exist.

Chatham was something of a fly fishing bum and the stories reflect it (he’ll fish almost anywhere for anything), but a modern fly fisherman can’t help but sit up and notice when Chatham tells us Bill Schaadt caught between 800 and 900 steelhead on the Russian River in 1956, yet when the book was written (the early 1970s), Schaadt would have counted himself lucky to land twenty.

What would that number be today?

In other words, the steelhead hasn’t always been the “fish of a thousands casts” and it’s interesting too see how its scarcity has created a folklore that isn’t — historically speaking — true.

Time adds weight to some written works (Swift’s A Modest Proposal is a shining example), and I’d recommend The Angler’s Coast to any newer fly fisherman (especially those in California) who wonders why so many are fighting so hard to restore our still-declining steelhead and salmon runs.

As someone who started fishing in the mid-70s and graduated from high school in 1979, Chatham’s stories about the west’s fisheries fall just outside my grasp; they overlap my childhood but were largely gone before I was old enough to notice, leaving me with the impression of something I should remember, but can’t.

The book was written four decades ago and things have largely gotten worse instead of better, and while it’s not a weepy recounting of what we lost, it is a robust set of stories about the very tail end of the losing, and perhaps an incentive to do the things it will take to recover at least a fraction of what have become the West Coast’s version of the buffalo.

See you in the stacks, Tom Chandler.

The Fly Rod Edition: Chasing The Upper Sacramento BWO Hatch

January 29, 2012, by 1 comment
Upper Sacramento, BWO-eating Rainbow Trout

Even the piteously overworked among us occasionally get to turn a couple spare hours into recreation, and with the Upper Sacramento peaking out at just over 1100 cfs and then falling to what I’ll suggest are wholly fishable levels, Older Bro and I made tracks for the nearest Potential BWO Hatch.

Fortunately, we found one:

Upper Sacramento, BWO-eating Rainbow Trout

An Upper Sacramento, BWO-eating, gullible Rainbow Trout

This is the week all the smoke has cleared away, and it’s time to forget about snow removal and rental hassles and turn words into payable, actionable (and billable) work for a client.

So the full report will have to wait a day or two. Sorry.

See you chasing BWOs, Tom Chandler.

You’re Not Crazy Until The LA Times Says You Are…

January 29, 2012, by 9 comments
Mount Shasta

A half-dozen Alert Underground Readers forwarded this LA Times article about all the odd people living up here, and while I’m forced to point out we’re pretty accepting of crazy up here (witness the County Board of Supervisors), I have to admit the surge in Bigfoot sightings mentioned in the article is probably my fault.

Mount Shasta, home of crazy people

The mothership is docking...

From the article:

The mountain has been touted as the site of an energy vortex that allows passage into the metaphysical dimension; the birthplace of a spiritual foundation whose adherents believe they can ascend to the eternal realm; and a hot spot for UFOs that hide in the clouds and enter the mountain’s core through mystery “portals.”

Newer to the repertoire are sightings of Bigfoot (the word serves as both singular and plural, like fish and sheep), believed by some to conceal themselves by passing into a fifth dimension.

“Mt. Shasta has always had a spiritual drawing, but it’s getting more and more popular,” said Karen Anderson, a supervisor in the town’s visitors bureau, who estimated that a fourth of the area’s tourists come for that reason.

To assist seekers from around the globe, the bureau’s website includes a list of energy healers. Shops carry crystals for the “spiritual pilgrim.” Drop-in channeling sessions are held each Sunday at a spiritual center. Guides lead soul-cleansing treks up the mountain in all seasons.

I can’t speak to the UFOs (locals believe the Lemurians’ giant space ships are docking with the mountain when the summit is obscured by lenticular clouds), but the recent Bigfoot frenzy can probably be blamed on… Singlebarbed.

I twice took Singlebarbed fly fishing on the east side of the mountain.

I should have expected someone would make the inevitable mistake. (Not that I’m suggesting he needs a shave or anything.)

See you on the mothership, Tom Chandler.

Another John Gierach Interview Floats To The Surface

January 27, 2012, by 3 comments

Fly fishing uber-writer John Gierach has always given the appearance of a reclusive nature, but the last couple years have found interviews popping up like mushrooms (including mine).

It’s just possible we’ve learned almost as much about him via other people’s writing as we have his own.

This interview (found via Moldy Chum) was conducted by a Colorado writer, and it’s long and detailed and while the writer occasionally heads a little far afield into gonzo journalism territory, he does a nice job of profiling John Gierach’s conservation work, which we don’t read about much in Gierach’s own essays:

“I have no idea if anything I’ve done will make a difference in the long run, but you have to try. Every generation has to try. Because if you give up, the bastards win.”

There are other engagingly candid moments (he quit working with the New York Times because “they were all assholes”), and frankly, quotes like this make it worth the read:

“I wouldn’t over-analyze it too much,” Gierach said when I asked if his philosophy degree influenced his passion for the sport. “I think it’s trendy to link fly fishing with spirituality these days. There might be something like that involved, but most of it’s crap. In the end, it comes down to this: I like catching fish.”

(This dovetails nicely with one of the Underground’s Absolute Rules Of Fly Fishing Writing: the sport is special and all, but descriptions of fly fishing should not include the word “soul.”)

Keep writing, Tom Chandler.

Today’s Fake Fish Painting Post

January 26, 2012, by 5 comments
Goldfish

These aren’t real goldfish — they’re handcrafted by a Japanese artist who painstakingly builds them up layer by layer.

I’d love to see what he could do with a small pod of Brookies.

Goldfish

(Click here to see more pictures and watch a pretty fascinating video.)

Weekly Short Casts for 2012-01-26

January 26, 2012, by No comments yet

Powered by Twitter Tools

Save The Baby Electrons: The Underground’s Short Casts Go Weekly

January 25, 2012, by No comments yet
200handstar

I’ll admit I’m ready to be reversed if the Undergrounders form an Occupy The Underground movement, but I just transformed the daily Short Cast posts into a single, awe-inspiring digest post set to appear once a week (it’s set for Thursday).

It seemed like the daily Short Casts were starting to clutter up the place a little, and yes, when I see a string of them I’m reminded I haven’t written anything for days.

As it is in the House of Representatives, the victory here will go to those who make the most noise.

If you want to experience my Short Casts in realtime, just subscribe to my Twitter feed.

See you being all geeky and shit, Tom Chandler.

Finally — Hope For Fly Fishing’s Helplessly Addicted…

January 24, 2012, by 12 comments

Never let it be said that the Underground turns a blind eye to the plight of steelheaders those struggling with addiction, which is why we’ve chosen to courageously publicize perhaps the Most Important Press Release We’ve Ever Received:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: LOS ANGELES, CA – JANUARY 24th, 2012 – Doron Ofir Casting, (Millionaire Matchmaker, My Strange Addiction, Jersey Shore) officially confirms and announces for the first time ever, real people struggling with addiction will have the opportunity to take part in a revolutionary and groundbreaking documentary series chronicling the emotional and physical struggles of addiction—“REHAB with DR. DREW”.

Participants will be given a once in a lifetime opportunity to enroll in a no-cost, 30-day treatment program to begin the process of breaking free from the bonds of addiction and take their first steps down the road to recovery.

VH1, in association with Irwin Entertainment and Doron Ofir Casting, is currently searching for those struggling with substance addiction but not ready to give up hope.

“If you are ready to fight to take your life back into your own hands, I’m hoping to find you! Instead of giving in, make a change and seek the help you need. I want your story and why you need the help. Your story can be someone else’s hope.” Doron Ofir, Executive Casting Director

Realize that recovery can become your reality.

Please apply online at http://www.rehabcasting.com

Wow. Who knew there existed a reality tv-based cure for addiction?

Of course, we’re 100% sure the casting of this wholly non-sensationalistic show won’t be biased towards those with the ability to fill a C-cup, so all you fly fishermen — who as a group tend to peg the rattiness meter — should apply right away.

Make sure to tell them you’re not only addicted to fly fishing, but have developed a Spey craving that has cost you several relationships.

With the coastal rivers running either dry or muddy brown as of late, you can also truthfully say you’re hitting rock bottom.

Even as I write this, I am dabbing at the tears forming in the corner of my eyes (just like I would were I chosen for this reality series [hint, hint]).

At the Underground, we can’t help but give. You know that about us.

See you in reality TV rehab, Tom Chandler.

Short Casts for 2012-01-24

January 24, 2012, by 2 comments

Powered by Twitter Tools