I haven’t been drinking. But I’ll admit to a certain lack of sharpness due to the 29 hours spent running the Shasta Summit Century this weekend (huge success: perfect weather, 600+ riders ecstatic, volunteers great, etc).
That means two things. First, I’m behind in my work. And second, most of my time this morning has been spent staring vacantly at my PC, like some kind of hatchery trout, but dumber.
So I do what any smart writer does.
I steal from others to make a post.
Ed Engle Talks Tiny
I’ve been an Ed Engle fan for years. I don’t even hold it against him that the best book he’s written is the barely fly fishing-related “Seasonal” (no longer in print).
I still think his “Fish Small Flies” remains a seminal work on the subject, and today – rather than write something meaningful about Tricos myself – I’ll let his entertaining column in the Daily Camera do it for me.
So how is it that a simple fisherman finds himself thrilled by the romantic lives of a million tiny insects? That, at least in the beginning, has to do with the trout that rise in great numbers to consume the spent tricos floating on the water’s surface.
You will see 20 or 30 or 40 of them all gracefully taking the tricos. It’s easy pickings and for that moment, for the trout, life is good. And for the fisherman who struggles because in this time of great abundance his tiny artificial fly is often ignored, life is also good. How can it not be? He stands as witness to nothing less than one of earth’s great natural spectacles — like wildebeest or caribou migrations, sandhill cranes high over head or a mountainside covered in wildflowers.
Creativity Daily
Drawing Flies Daily remains one of fly fishing’s most interesting – and creative – blogs.
We highlighted this blog way back in the spring, but Jeff Kennedy’s latest attempts to produce a fly-related piece of art each day for a year have been goofier – and more interesting – than ever:
(photo Jeff Kennedy)
He even etched a fly drawing into a Genuine, Bison-produced Buffalo Chip. (You won’t see that in Fly Fisherman Magazine.)
A fly drawing a day for a year? We’re still watching.
More Siskiyou Supervisorial Stupidity
Regular Undergrounders will remember our group spat with Siskiyou County Supervisor Marcia Armstrong, who wanted to turn our public fly fishing waters into private fly fishing waters.
Happily – with the help of the Undergrounders, CalTrout, and a lot of unhappy locals – we turned that one back, but now that same wacky group of supervisors is lobbying hard to keep the Klamath Dams in place, and this despite the fact that removing them would lead to a significant (and sustainable) economic boon to the residents of the county.
The KlamBlog points out the Supervisors’ latest group stupidity – a trip to Congress:
It is difficult to imagine what this trip could possibly accomplish. Congress plays no role in whether or not the dams will be relicensed or removed. PacifiCorp owns the dams and if the company decides it is in its shareholders’ interest to remove them there is nothing that Congress can do to prevent them from doing just that. Furthermore, even if PacifiCorp decides to continue the quest to have the dams relicensed, it is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and State Water Resources Control Board which must approve the license – not Congress.
Unlike last time, we’re not asking you to flood the Supervisors with emails (to the tune of better than 1000 of them like last time). While stupidity on the part of political types isn’t exactly fresh territory, we’re just hoping enough folks remember this event (and the natural resources nightmare) when elections roll around again.
Scientest Confirm Ice on Mars, But What About Trout?
NASA scientists have confirmed the existence of ice on Mars (using their Pheonix Mars Lander) but didn’t immediately propose another – far more important – mission to detect the presence of trout (a fact which both saddens and disgusts us):
Scientists said today they have “found proof” of water ice on Mars away from the polar ice caps, a discovery made by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander.
The finding is a crucial first step toward learning whether the ground on Mars is hospitable, because all life as we know it requires water. Now scientists can get on with the business of studying the chemistry of Mars dirt in more detail.
Who’s with me in demanding NASA immediately begin planning a series trout-oriented Mars Rover missions? Why are our tax dollars being wasted in further tests “studying the chemistry of Mars dirt”?
Dirt is dirt, my friends. The most you can hope from dirt is that it grows things to eat, yet water grows trout which you can fly fish for (and I trust we know which is more important).
See you on Mars, Tom Chandler.
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