Friday Morning at the Underground: Damn You Friday!

[Update: the software's gone batty, so comments were turned "off" on a few posts. I turned them back on. Fire away!] 

It’s been quite a week, but it’s time to clean up the house so the L&T Nancy doesn’t walk in the door, take a look around, and file for divorce online (yes, you can).

Scattered around is the fishing gear from the trips taken since my return from Tennessee; time well spent even if I didn’t have the time to spare.

The Upper Sacramento at sunset – close and personal (click the image for a big version)

I wrote last night’s fishing report when the clock had already ticked past midnight, so I left a few things out.

First, there a lot of different bugs flying around, including golden stones, a couple of salmon flies, the Pink Alberts, and a few others.

There was even a few long, skinny mayfly spinners (a thin #10?) fluttering around. The river’s in great shape; a little over summer flows, but most of the thing is wadeable.

Which begs the next question: who’s going fishing this weekend?

It’s Friday, And We’re Still Crazy

No Friday post would be complete without the usual Friday weirdness. It’s become a staple here, and it gets me off the hook for generating real fly fishing content, though I’ve been doing a hell of a lot of that lately.

Still to come? Want to write a Tennessee trip wrap-up, and I’ve four book/DVD reviews in the pipeline, though it’s hard to pen those when real, paying clients are waiting for their stuff.

Without further babble:

Bighorn Nightmare

The always-good Ed Dentry of the Rocky Mountain News writes about fishing the Bighorn river, which apparently includes trying to beat all the other drift boats downstream and then sitting on your favorite spot.

In light of our recent conversations about fly fishing, it’s an interesting read, including passages like:

You wouldn’t want squatters beating you to your fishing spot. It happens on the Bighorn, a world-class trout river with at least 40 resident fishing guides and an international constituency.

You wade in to reserve your spot. Then the rest of the world has to float through. This foot-in-the-door approach is the only way to fish, if you ask most Bighorn anglers.

Of course, the Bighorn is also embroiled in a fight over water (shocking, eh?), where Wyoming boaters want more water held in the upstream lake for recreation, while fishermen want more water released to restore the river’s long-gone 6,000 fish per mile trout population.

Like most of the water wars, expect acrimony. (Oops, too late!).

This is the seventh year of drought, and the Bureau of Reclamation has squeezed the flow from Yellowtail Dam to 1,500 cubic feet per second. The stingy release is meant to hold back water so Wyoming boaters can launch in the reservoir upstream.

That has raised the ire of fishery officials and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who claim the restrictions jeopardize the Bighorn’s famed trout and the local economy.

The Smell of Onion

Found via Moldy Chum, the Onion web site broadcasts a stirring, tearjerking story about a Brook trout who refuses federal protection.

You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. And mostly, you’ll wonder why in God’s name you’re wasting your time here.

What more could you ask for a Friday?

Ask For This

In the Underground’s never-ending quest for Top Money Making Environmentally Friendly Business Concepts, we bring you this from Australia:

A car wash using recycled water (and — oh yeah — the women scrubbing your car are nude).

Sure, it sounds like the x-rated plot of a bad movie (and in fact it is), but those wily Australians in Canberra have taken the concept off the big screen and put it behind screened barriers (so passing motorists aren’t “distracted”).

Australia, we salute you. See you at the carwash, Tom Chandler.

[tags]fly fishing, upper sac, upper sacramento river[/tags]