The Underground’s 2007 Year In Review Post: What the Hell Happened?

As I leaf back through the Trout Underground’s 2007 archives, I’m struck by the fact that yes — the year has officially passed me by, and yes, I’ve got several hundred thousand words to prove I was awake while it happened.

(I can’t remember — is it the memory that goes first or is it the knees?)

 
Maine ain’t hard on the eyes.

The Environmental Thing

We had more than our share of fun in 2007, though if you take a run through the archives, you’ll notice it’s also the year the Underground got a little cranky with the people (and the predatory corporations) that want to denude our watersheds, extinguish our salmon runs, steal our water, privatize public water, and flood our rivers with higher dams.

I have little desire to turn the Underground into one of those spittle-streaked blogs where every other post features a venomous attack on Nestle or Westlands or our prehistoric Board of Supervisors (not that it wouldn’t be fun) or some other environmental miscreant (plenty of available villans), so I’ve passed on stories I probably should have run.

Those are backcountry Brookie rise rings. We love it.

And I haven’t even touched on California’s water wars, which encompass a battery of largely farcical statements, unacknowledged realities, and plain stupid behavior.

The obvious answer is to fire up a separate water/fly fishing issues blog — complete with an “action” list of people who need to hear from the “strike team” of readers.

Sadly, there’s that little question of time. Given the amount of non-revenue producing time already invested on the Underground, a new blog represents a one-way ticket to insolvency and divorce.

I have no answers, but I did want to acknowledge the question. If anyone has an idea, feel free to write it on a winning lottery ticket and mail it to me immediately. I’ll give it every consideration.

Stoneflies in June. Part and parcel of every year.

In 2007, the Underground Stayed Close to Home

Though I fished in Maine and Tennessee again, 2007 found me sticking closer to home. No trips to Idaho in Winter or Belize in fall, though I did hike my way to a lot of backcountry waters I hadn’t seen before (and a few I had), and yes, that did cut into my time on the Upper Sacramento.

I’d feel bad about that, but it’s hard to argue with jewel-like (and admittedly small) trout in tiny streams and impossibly beautiful mountain lakes, and there are only 24 hours in a day.

The backcountry. Spent a fair amount of time there in 2007.

And admittedly, the latter part of 2007 was consumed by things which — like a herd of little space-time carnivores — pretty seriously ate into my fishing time.

In the interest of not sounding like a massive whiner, I won’t list them here (though our very time-consuming fight with the Sisikiyou County Board of Supervisors ranks among them). Sometimes, life just intrudes.

Still, anyone who lives near a lifetime’s worth of fly fishing water probably shouldn’t expect a lot of folks to cry along with him, and so I’ll move on to…

What’s Next?

That’s a good question. If the Trout Underground were a corporate enterprise, I’d have a “Mission Statement” and Team Building exercises (and you’d all have to take drug tests).

Given the somewhat doubtful chemical histories of many of my readers, I suggest we skip the corporate angle, and move forward with the predictions.

Expect to see the usual philosophical fishing reports, the typical barrage of pictures, the same snarky take on the industry and world at large, and a few longer, more serious articles.

 
There’s a stream there somewhere. Rest assured we fished it.

We might also plunge into the shadowy realm of podcasts, and yes — I am trying to find a sound commercial footing for the Trout Underground.

I love this blog and the community of seriously odd people that have gathered round it, but in truth, it’s hard to imagine any non-trust-funded writer generating original content at this pace without eventually burning out or enjoying some kind of financial return.

That’s the subject of another half-written post: The online fly fishing world — where it’s headed, and why it’s probably not sustainable in its non-commercial form. Stay tuned.

Of course, feel free to post ideas, suggestions and rants in the comments section.

Above All Else, Enjoy Fishing in 2008

That’s the bottom line. Fly fishing is simply an excuse to do something engrossing in a beautiful setting, and while there are a million and one reasons not to go fishing, they’re mostly bullshit.

Ian Rutter on Hazel Creek.

Each year gives us a handful of real memories, and while I’ve got a bunch tied up in the L&T that we’re not going to discuss, most of the others revolve around friends, trout, fly rods, and — in my case — some outrageously beautiful backcountry settings.

You don’t generate those memories from your office, and you won’t generate them doing something you don’t want to do, so here’s the Underground’s advice — get out and fish the way you want to fish, and to hell with all the folks who think you’re not being as “efficient” as possible when it comes to catching fish.

We really are here for a short time, so don’t waste it generating non-memories. That’s 2008 in a nutshell.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

 
Home, sweet home.