The Trout Underground Fly Fishing Blog
Fly Fishing the Upper Sacramento River : Tom Chandler’s Fly Fishing Life : Fly Rods are the Measure of Life
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Beer-loving alcoholics Undergrounders should remember our last post about the Weed-based Mt. Shasta Brewery - the microbrewery the ATTTB (the Feds) are trying to beat down after taking offense at the brewery’s “Try Legal Weed” bottlecaps.
Proving the old adage that “Eternal, beer-related vigilance is the price of freedom” (we’re pretty sure Ben Franklin said that), the ACLU has offered Dillmann help in his fight to retain his “Try Legal Weed” bottle caps.
From the Mount Shasta Herald:
Since the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau ordered Vaunne Dillmann, owner of the Mt. Shasta Brewing Company, to stop using his bottle caps because of a pun that plays on the name of his home town, a whirlwind of supporters has been blowing his way.
One such advocate, the American Civil Liberties Union, recently jumped on the band wagon and is saying the ATTTB’s denial of Dillmann’s ability to place the slogan “Try Legal Weed” on bottle caps for his Weed Ales is simply beyond the pale.
The ATTTB, however, continues to stand its ground.
I heard from Dillmann a couple weeks ago, who said the Feds hadn’t concluded their investigation, but had told him they needed another 90 days to review the situation.
Am I the only Undergrounder who thinks the Feds have really stepped in it, know it, but can’t find a graceful exit?
As The World Leader in fly fishing blog-based protection of your sovereign first amendment beer drinking rights, the Underground has a solution.
Let’s order a couple cases of the brewery’s truly divine Shastafarian Porter, (“…perfect blend of caramel, coffee, and subtle roasted malt flavors… this brew tastes as deep as it looks and at 6% ABV, is stronger than most in its class.”), drink it until the room spins, then make juvenile-quality crank calls to the Feds until they capitulate (”Uhh, you got Prince Albert in a can?”)
Sure, it’s not likely to work, but it’s a plan damnit (we’re sure the Underground’s Director of Beer-Related Civil Disobedience (SLF) would approve).
After all, nobody ever said protecting your First Amendment rights was going to be easy work.
Drink like the wind, Undergrounders - and know you’re doing it for the most noble of reasons.
See you at the bar, Tom Chandler.
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There truly is no place like home - even for a fly fisherman lucky enough to fish a long list of amazing waters over the last month.
Montana was a little slice of heaven (as if the pictures hadn’t told you that already), and Maine was what Maine always is: rustic, ageless and fun (plus pie and lobster).
The L&T headed to town in a Grand Laker Canoe
Still, I feel like I haven’t been home in months.
I mean, what’s happening on my favorite alpine stream? My alpine brookie lakes? The Upper McCloud? My favorite Upper Sac spots? I’m drawing blanks on all of them.
Time to get to work.
I’m wrapping up my Maine trip with this post, and providing valuable information about how you too can become the Wiffleball Death Match MVP (hint: make a headfirst belly flop onto home plate, craft a triple play, a double play, and an Ozzie-Smith-like nab of a line drive, then whine a lot about damaging yourself for the team, and you’re in).
Plus a few leftover pictures, starting with…
The Canoe You Should Own, But Can’t
First, there’s the cedar lapstrake canoe that one of you is not going to win in a drawing by the Downeast Lakes Land Trust, which is a damned shame.
Want to win this? You can’t (and I didn’t).
If I’d twigged to the drawing sooner, I think a great big bait ball sized school of Undergrounders would have thrown down $10 for a chance to win this gorgeous floating canoe (it’s like a supermodel with thwarts), but alas, there was no warning.
The drawing’s over (and I didn’t win either).
Sorry, wood-loving Undergrounders.
Grand Laker Canoe Redux
My posts about Grand Laker Canoes from two years ago still score a lot of traffic. Clearly, there’s a lot of interest in these great craft, yet when people had questions, I had nowhere to send them.
Until now.
Bill Shamel’s still building Grand Lakers (he’s Pop Moore’s son-in-law).
Bill Shamel’s shop in Grand Lake Stream continues to pump out 5-10 Grand Laker canoes annually, and he takes on interesting restoration projects.
Want to know more? You’ll find contact information for Shamel and a couple other Grand Laker builders here.
The Dark and Moody Underground
What’s left are a few kinda moody photographs that simply don’t fit anywhere else on the Underground’s inevitably sunny pages.
See you on the river, Tom Chandler.
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Remember when Popular Mechanics said we’d all have our own fusion-powered personal hovercraft by the year 2000?
Instead, we got airlines that can’t get us from Peoria to Chicago without losing our luggage. But maybe - just maybe - we can get to that secret fly fishing water right away - flying our own personal jetpacks:
Sure, it weighs a bunch, costs $100K, and apparently sucks trees into the rotors if you get too close, but there it is - personal flight.
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It’s been said the Internet is primarily a porn delivery vehicle, and I say it’s about time it delivered a little Live Web Cam Fish Porn for the Undergrounders.
Sugar Creek Ranch (an hour north of Mount Shasta) has reinstalled their live underwater fish porn cam, so now - instead of performing reverse trend analysis calculations in that spreadsheet - you can watch big trout swim in and out of view.
Sweet, eh?
This is a screenshot; click the graphic to go to Sugar Creek’s live camera page.
Remember, you heard about it here first on the Underground, which is fast-becoming the Internet Home of Underwater Trout Porn. Or something like that.
See you underwater, Tom Chandler.
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I wasn’t planning on throwing a pair of enviro stories at the Undergrounders this morning, but this one’s too sweet to ignore.
The California Attorney General’s office has weighed in on Nestle’s proposed McCloud bottling plant (.pdf document alert), and like seemingly everyone else on the planet, they don’t much like what they see (excerpted from scan of letter):
These days, bad PR is falling on Nestle like rain in a Midwest thunderstorm. Their Web site says “Good Food. Good Life.”
Judging by the sheer volume of anti-Nestle rhetoric flying in the mass media and on the Internet, it might be time they started looking for a new tagline.
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A new report predicts the impacts of climate change on the Rocky Mountain West’s trout populations, and for trouty types, the news isn’t all that rosy:
If nothing is done to reduce human-produced greenhouse gas emissions—the primary culprit behind global warming—trout habitat throughout the Rocky Mountain region could be reduced by 50 percent or more by the end of the century.
The “Trout in Trouble” issue paper was written by the NRDC and Trout Unlimited’s Montana State Chapter, and is available in two different formats.
A four-page summary paper is available here (.pdf alert), and those wishing to read the full paper should point their browsers at this address (another .pdf document).
Rather than speaking in generalities, the paper looks at the probable effects on eight different Western trout rivers, including Gila, Green River, Fraser River, the Bighorn, the Big Hole, and others.
Will we all be fishing tailwaters in a few decades? And are those even “climate change proof?” (hint: not really).
Even if you’re willing to wave good-bye to a large chunk of our trout populations, the economic impacts are clear:
In Colorado alone, sport fishing in 2002 had a total economic impact of more than $800 million and supported nearly 11,000 jobs.
Sadly, you don’t get a lot of attention from politicians until you start talking pocketbooks. In this case, somebody’s pocketbook is going to take a beating.
The good news? The West is rich in sustainable resources like wind, solar and geothermal, and could actually stem the tide of climate change by developing those resources.
See you in the reading room, Tom Chandler.
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Tennessee fly fishing guides Ian and Charity Rutter just posted a nice, serene, four-minute video showcasing rising trout eating caddis.
They’ve managed to make something engrossing and real, and done so without a rock soundtrack. Fly fishing, it turns out, doesn’t automatically require a lot of tarting up. Enjoy:
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The L&T and I knew we were facing a long travel day home, but we didn’t figure it would end halfway.
Rather than snuggled warm in our own bed, the L&T and I are sitting in a hot, stuffy hotel room in Salt Lake City, sans luggage, food, and any sense of time or place.
The Underground Travel Curse strikes again.
Veteran Undergrounders will remember last year’s Maine return trip; we found ourselves stuck in Boston, holed up in a hotel room (a $400+ hotel room) for more than a day.
Given the current airline climate, I guess stranding us in Salt Lake City - which is, after all, farther west than Boston - constitutes real progress on the part of Delta Airlines. Yay, Delta!
My lower back is painfully aware of the fact that our 4.75 hour flight west found us rooted in our seats for better than eight hours, and I’m also pretty clear on the fact there are damned few trout at the Salt Lake City Airport Inn.
Thus, a New Underground Constitutional Amendment is born:
If I Can’t Drive To It, It Doesn’t Exist
More when my butt hurts less, and my eyes are open more.
See you where vertebrae go to die at the airport, Tom Chandler.
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Early tomorrow morning, the L&T and I pack up, leave Grand Lake Stream, Maine, and head back to the Trout Underground/Man Cave World Headquarters in Mount Shasta.
Our stay in Grand Lake Stream, Maine has been big fun (and big calories), but the dialup access is so slow and spotty I’m not even trying to post anything until I get home.
The food has been awesome, the fishing sublime, and yes, the Wiffleball game went the way of the just and righteous Underground’s team, with yours truly representing big for the Underground Way of Life to the tune of a headfirst slide into home and a triple play.
More on my athletic (and eating) prowess after Sunday’s travel day, which likely won’t end until midnight, and that’s assuming our close, personal friends at the major airlines don’t strand us halfway.
See you traveling, Tom Chandler.
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The Singlebarbed Blog Stop Nestle Waters
