It's rained pretty much non-stop the last three days, and as the low-altitude snow disappears, the Upper Sac keeps growing bigger and meaner.

This happens every time a warm storm rolls into town during the winter, and while temperatures could drop enough to generate a little snow later in the week, it's clear there isn't any Upper Sacramento fly fishing in my immediate future.

Chris Raine called with news of a four-foot hydraulic "pillow" replacing a favorite bankside fishing spot on the river, and we're hoping to lay our hands on his photo of a helgrammite attempting to flee the carnage with an ill-advised crossing of Dunsmuir's River Road.

In true outdoor writer fashion, I could pretend at outrage, cursing the elements for violating my inalienable right to fly fish (I'm pretty sure it's guaranteed by the UN), but in truth, we need the precip, and if it's gotta happen, it might as well happen while I'm hard at work developing and teaching an Online Marketing Boot Camp for a local economic development organization.

Like many of you, I remain amazed at how often work responsibilities cut into my valuable spare time.

Barring a few billion bailout dollars coming my way, it looks as if that ugly trend will continue. Damn.

See you anywhere but the river, Tom Chandler.