I'm huddled inside, surrounded by all the usual springtime cold goodies (kleenex, cough syrup, tea, Wonderdog, etc).

Still, if I had to be sick, I didn't pick a bad day for it; the wind is bending the L&T's fruit trees almost to the ground, and the sky is bright blue - neither of which portends a great day on the river.

In fact, temperatures on our back porch have yet to reach 50 degrees, and it's closing in on lunchtime in the second week in June.

I'm inside and working (though when my head gets full, the words come slowly), but still stealing a few minutes to read what's on the Internet.

There's a lot to comment on – and I'm saving some of it for coming days – but here's a couple things to chew on while I'm brewing tea, and getting ready to renew my assault on the local fisheries.

Ode to Old Guys
Singlebarbed pens a wry observational piece about the value of old guys, and while he's pretty much older than dirt himself, it's still an engrossing read (and a rare glimpse into the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club's bygone years).

There's something magical about Old Guys, which is why I enjoy their company so much. I liken it to the baseball pitcher that knows he's only got 90 pitches in his arm, and treats each without wasted motion, executing the delivery without the frantic movement of youth or temper, merely going about his business as thoroughly as his arm allows.

Salmon as Invasive Species?
While Chinook Salmon populations plummet along the USA's west coast, in South America, Chinook are finding a home for themselves in the region's undammed, largely unpolluted rivers.

Hard to believe it's the same species. But the chinook salmon, conservation heartbreak of the U.S. West Coast, is invading and thriving in South America.

Chinook, or king salmon, largest of the five North American salmon species, reached South America some 25 years ago as people tried to farm them there, says Cristián Correa of McGill University in Montreal. Now a broad survey of records and stream visits finds chinook reproducing on their own in at least 10 Andean watersheds that empty into the Pacific...

In a decade or two, will we be in the embarrassing position of flying to South America to catch salmon we've extirpated from our own rivers?

See you on the couch, Tom Chandler.