Underground Coming Back to Life; Canoe Hat Drawing Imminent

I’m slowly re-evolving from a one-celled life form back into a living, breathing human being, wondering where the whole week went.

Of course, it went down the rat hole called the flu, and given that I spent a couple weeks in Maine, invested a week running the Shasta Summit Century, and then got sick for five days, it’s hardly surprising that I feel a little disconnected from my “normal” life.

What I know about current fishing conditions on the Upper Sacramento comes entirely from outside sources — an uncomfortable state.

Meanwhile, Dave Roberts is agitating for a trip to a few Oregon streams whose names he won’t reveal, Bertrand’s got a line on something very interesting somewhere on the McCloud River, Wayne Eng’s up for a float tube adventure on a local lake with brookies, and now-fulltime guide Craig Neilson was hinting around about some things I should know (but probably don’t).

The cumulative effect is largely overwhelming, and that’s not even considering the places I want to fish but haven’t in the last couple months.

That I’m trying to cram each and every one of these trips into a mental schedule — at a time when my diet is still largely saltines and bubbly water — is more a sign of desperation than what you might technically call sanity.

Still, it’s all I’ve got. And when you’re sick and haven’t been fishing in ten days, you go with what you’ve got.

Stay Tuned for the Amazing Stupendous Hat Giveaway

Tomorrow we announce the lucky, spoiled-for-the-rest-of-their-lifetime winner of the amazing Underground Canoe Hat.

This prize has aroused so much passion among the Underground’s canoe-loving membership that Alert Underground Reader Mad Dog forwarded this canoe-related gem from the Outdoor Retailer Show:

Has a finer piece of hand-crafted, canoe-related furniture ever existed?

Headed Our Way

I’ve got a pile of stuff I should post, but lack the nausea-free time to do so. I’ll sneak in what I can over the next few days, and then I’ve gotta fish some, and also do what the rest of the world calls “work.”

I’m sure you find it as distasteful as I do, but there’s no denying its ability to keep us in fly rods.

See you in the Saltine aisle, Tom Chandler.

[tags]fly fishing, fishing, canoe, [/tags]