In fact, while congress wrangles, I was working my nimble writer fingers to the bone building a new visual theme for the Trout Underground.

Why abandon the look that’s taken me from humble fly fishing writer to groupie-mobbed online superstar?

Simple.

Space (it’s not just the final frontier for geeks).

Bigger. Better. Wider. (It's almost as if we're selling you a car.)

The old theme was a little crowded, and the pictures I posted were limited in size (that’s bad). The new theme gives me an extra 120 pixels in width. So yes, you’ll see bigger pictures, and perhaps longer stories. (And yes, a few more advertising opportunities too.)

Yet despite the width, I wanted something that still loaded relatively quickly. And yes, I wanted something with a little white space - something that had a little room to breathe.

Expect plenty more changes over the next month.

In the meantime, sit back. Relax. Send us $10s and $20s. And enjoy the view.

I’m starting to become mesmerized by the idea of fishing Scotland, especially when the Tamanawis blog describes the terrain in terms like this:

The North is really about the lochs. There are thousands of them, scattered all across the land and each one with a particular character. It’s probably a good analogy to imagine the landscape as a giant bowl of curry. There are endless chunks of onion (the ‘typical’ lochs), punctuated by the occasional tomato (the ‘better’ lochs), and the odd rare and prized piece of tender lamb (the ’special’ lochs).

As with curry, it’s no use having just one ingredient: variety is truly the spice of life and the huge variety of Scottish loch fishing provides hope for a lifetime of interesting fishing.

Am I the only suddenly hungry reader? And hey — who wants to go fishing? You can read his whole post by clicking here (several nice photos too).

See you in Scotland, Tom Chandler.

[tags]fly fishing, fishing, scotland, lochs, tamanawis[/tags]

It’s almost as if the place is taking its first steps towards becoming a grownup fly fishing site (in features if not approach).

Perhaps it’s time to sit down and have one of those talks about responsibility, safe blogging – and not making the mistakes that will ruin your blog reading life.

First, [insert your name], we’re going to discuss:

The “Featured Article”

Theme designer extraordinaire Michael Pollock built me a shiny new theme with “Feature Article” function. This allows me to keep the “flagship content” at the top of the blog while less-important posts (and face it, that’s most of them) slide in right underneath the featured post.

In the “old” days — when new posts automatically went on top — I sometimes didn’t post fun/dumb/odd little stories because I didn’t want to displace a more important post.

Heavy Handed, Parental-Style Moral: if you assume nothing’s changed because the same article’s at the top of the page, you could be missing newer articles underneath.

Sharing is Good

Beneath most posts you’ll find a “share this” link. Click it, and up pops a nifty menu that allows you to email the post to a friend, or submit it to one of the social ratings sites, about which I’ll say this: If you like something I’ve written, please don’t hesitate to submit it to StumbleUpon, Digg or any other social site.

It only takes a few seconds, and it can lead to a lot of new readers (or not, but did I mention it only takes a few seconds?). The extra bodies really pay off in comments — some of the best stuff on this site is written by the Undergrounders.

Heavy Handed, Parental-Style Moral: Get yourself a StumbleUpon account, and Stumble the Underground early and often. Good Karma is your reward.

“My Favorites” Page

I did away with a couple of pages, updated my “Articles” page, and created a “My Favorites” page — a short list of some of my favorite Trout Underground posts (some are included because of the quality of the reader comments).

Heavy Handed, Parental-Style Moral: Want to suggest an article for the “My Favorites” page? Email away…

RSS/email Tracking

Of course, you can make sure you’ll never miss a post by subscribing to our RSS feed or free email service. If you don’t know anything about RSS (Really Simple Syndication), then read my just-updated my prior post about RSS feeds.

If you’re following more than a couple blogs, then just sign up for a free Google Reader or Bloglines account or add those RSS Feeds to Thunderbird, Outlook, Firefox or Internet Explorer 7 (easy), and you’ll know when an article’s been added without visiting the site.

Heavy Handed, Parental-Style Moral: You dolts, stop wasting time checking sites — let technology do it for you…

And yes, I believe there’s more to come. See you around the new Trout Underground, Tom Chandler.

[tags]trout underground, fly fishing blog[/tags]

Yes. It’s Hair Loss.

There’s something strangely voyeuristic about losing your hair. It’s like watching a car crash in extremely slow motion. You know what’s coming, and it’s not pleasant, but it is somewhat fascinating. For a time you quietly pretend it’s not happening, as if looking away will solve the problem. But gradually, as the cars get closer and the sink gets increasingly clogged, it’s harder and harder to ignore.

Sure, it’s odd, but then, we do odd here. We embrace odd — especially when you end the “odd” post with the idea that using a different shampoo might help you tie better flies.

Yup. It’s right there in print. See you in the cosmetics department, Tom Chandler.

[tags]fly fishing, hair loss, tamanawis, blog[/tags]

Cool stuff, eh? (Click the image to see more scans)

[tags]fly fishing, flies[/tags]

Highlights include motorcycle/reel test videos, where they tie a line to a motorcycle, let ‘er rip, and test the drags on various reels.

The videos lack the Lettermen-esque edge we were hoping for, but they did give us an idea for some watermelon-based, high-altitude reel testing. (On second thought, the difference between them and us is that nobody sends us free reels, so we’d be destroying our own gear. Bad idea.)

Overall, the blog is interesting, and the blogmaster is Kirk Deeter — the diver behind the interesting scuba survey on the South Platte.

Like all blogs, it will take a while to find its voice, though we can only hope the Field & Stream Powers That Be take a hard look at the header, which is not only rendered in an unattractive “earthworm” color, but contains these words: “The Ultimate fly fishing blog.”

Ummmm. Hmmmm.

It might be a teensy premature to make that claim, and Top Secret communications suggest this somewhat bold tagline isn’t the work of the bloggers, so we’re exempting them from a further online beating (though perhaps only temporarily).

If there’s an “ultimate” fly fishing blog, it’s probably current traffic champion MidCurrent, probably the only truly adult-powered blog in fly fishing.

Welcome to the blogosphere, kids. The water’s fine. As usual, the Undergrounders are invited to comment.

[tags]fly fishing, fishing, blog, blogging, field & stream[/tags]

What happened? Lots went on behind the scenes, but as far as the happy band of Undergrounders are concerned, we made the whole thing wider (less than 4% of my viewers are using screens narrower than 1024 pixels), added a narrow interior column, and threw a few new features under the hood. You lucky bastards.

Featured Articles

What’s really cool is the “Featured Article” gig, which allows me to “pin” an article at the top of the column until the next “Featured” article comes along (like this one).

That way, the cool stuff stays at the top, and the little articles slide in right underneath it. For example, I held off posting a couple interesting little tidbits while the highly popular “Fly Fishing Movies” topic ran its course.

Now I don’t have to wait (nor do you).

Rotating Headers

Now I can add a new header to a file, and the blog software will rotate through the different headers. I don’t know how useful this will really be, but it seemed so damned cool when the designer brought it up.

I’ll try to use this feature for good instead of evil.

Bugs

We’re still clearing up a few bugs — and I need to do a bunch of graphic cleanup — but feel free to report any odd behavior (any that isn’t related to my writing).

The revamp was due to the hard work of Michael Pollock at Solostream Web Studio, a rather brainy sort.

Anyway, life marches on. See you at the blog software platform administrative interface, Tom Chandler.

[tags]trout underground, blogging, fly fishing[/tags]

The Water Swatters: Fly fishing and whatnot below the Mason-Dixon

It’s new enough that we’ll wait a while before we’re sure what it’s all about, but they did manage to post a kickass bluegill picture and text.

We like bluegill, so give them a visit:

They are the center of a fisherman’s universe. Or very close to it. They always welcome you back after you’ve been off romancing with some beautiful Brookies or some sexy mama bonefish. They never disappoint either.

[tags]fly fishing, bluegill[/tags]

You see, the author used to ditch school to go the horse races.

The Ties That Bind

Mark Freeman is the Oregon Mail Tribune’s Outdoor Writer, but at San Jose State, I knew him as the guy who first discovered the diner that would sell pitchers of beer early in the day (early in the morning, actually).

One day a friend and I stumbled across him on campus. We were on our way to class. He was on his way to play the ponies.

With a background like that, it’s little wonder he ended up a writer.

Intrigued? Visit his blog at: Link to Mail Tribune Blogs » Outdoor Journal

His paper started several blogs, but pop in to his once in a while and we’ll drive the outdoor blog visitor count far beyond that of the Mail Tribune’s “lesser” blogs, scoring a significant moral victory for the outdoor world.

Or something like that.

[tags]mail tribune, outdoors, blog, blogging[/tags]

In a prior post I mentioned the Teh Wind Knot; a literate site with an interesting view of life on the stream, yet I somehow managed to screw up my RSS feed and missed a couple gems.

Foremost among them was his series outing the membership list of the happy-to-privatize-your-rivers Spring Ridge Club in Pennsylvania.

Worth a visit.

The Wet Boots

Written by a soon-to-graduate college student, The Wet Boots is based in the Southeast . The author’s mission includes:

I want to show that there is a young group of anglers and writers who have a severe passion/obsession for this spiritual sport. Welcome to The Wet Boots. (No Bait Fishermen)

There you go.

[tags]fly fishing, blogs, blogging, teh wind knot, the wet boots[/tags]

I slaved over a hot laptop all morning long, upgrading my blogs and adding a neat new feature to the Trout Underground.

When you leave a comment, you can check a box (just under the comment) and receive an e-mail notification when anyone else responds to that post.

It’s yet another example of the Trout Underground never resting until your blog-reading experience is as special as it can be.

Who loves ya baby?

[tags]blog, blogging, wordpress, trout underground[/tags]

We tumbled for carbon offsets, which are easy, affordable, and I even accounted for my Web server and home office. That means the Trout Underground is green too.

Ha! Take that, MidCurrent. Eat my dust, Moldy.

Yes Undergrounders, those big city blogs with their global-warming, fancy-pants ways are right now turning green with envy.

But enough crowing. I’ll cut right to the clear, simple explanation.

The Clear Explanation

Essentially, a carbon offset translates your global warming guilt (represented by your dollars) into carbon-dioxide free energy - which you buy in an amount equaling your carbon footprint.

Several Web-based companies offer carbon offsets, though I chose Terra Pass for its excellent reputation. Patagonia clothing - no slouch in the green department - uses Terra Pass, which was research enough.

From the Terra Pass Web site:

When you buy a TerraPass, your money funds renewable energy projects such as wind farms. These projects result in verified reductions in greenhouse gas pollution. And these reductions counterbalance your own emissions.

You can use their online calculator to figure your carbon offset and even buy an offset online.

Remember, you heard it here first - from the blog that dares to take on the fly fishing industry and beat it into submission with a yarn indicator, three split shot and a handful of carbon offsets.

[tags]carbon offset, terrapass, blog, copywriter underground[/tags]

Plus, this guide (Biggie) is up to making fun of golfers, and runs hilarious politically incorrect videos about major political figures - reason enough to plug him here.

We’re adding Biggie (Josh, actually) to our RSS feed, and warning him that we’re watching…

Link to Biggie’s Bugs and Ramblings

[tags]fly fishing, guide, blogging, biggies bugs and ramblings[/tags]

This one still has that new blog smell; it only features a few posts.

Still, Richard Lee Merritt’s blog offers an interesting mix. He loves old books (I love books too), plays chess (I played in a few tournaments in my day, and yes ladies, I’m already taken), and fly fishes.

I simply couldn’t pass it by.

And yes, I want a pipe just like his. Someday, I will be hip. But not today.

[tags]fly fishing, blog, fly tying[/tags]

Sure, I’m not much of a joiner, but I didn’t get to sit at the “Cool Table” in high school (cross country team and chess club) so I figure this is my chance.

Soon, I’ll be hanging with famous celebrities and being photographed with Paris Hilton as she crawls in and out of limousines sans underwear.

The other fly fishing blogs will turn green with envy, pestering me with pleading e-mails attempting to curry favor.

I, of course, will act contemptuous, ignoring their “D” list pleas. Life will be a whirlwind of depravity and high-volume blog traffic.

Think I’m overstating the benefits? HA! Here’s Proof:

Me Before 9Rules:

Me After 9Rules:

Let the Groupies begin to gather. See you on the A List, Tom Chandler.

[tags]9rules, blog, paris hilton, metropolis[/tags]