Road Trip

Help! The Upper Sac’s fallen and I can’t get up…

June 18, 2006, by No comments yet

As the Upper Sac falls to 1400 cfs flows and the river begins to open up, I’m stuck at my cluttered desk trying to make heads or tails of keyword research for a client. I’d cry, but run the risk of shorting the keyboard and delaying things even more. Next week, however, the evenings are mine. And next weekend, those of you with jobs and families will want to shirk both in order to fish the Upper Sac at tolerable (sadly not optimal) flows.

Of course, not everyone’s at home slicing and dicing statistics; the Underground’s Surf Fishing Correspondent Jim Troyer reports in with news (and a picture) from The OC surf, and even ends his report with the Underground’s politically correct “Fun day on the water.” Thats pretty much how every fishing story should end. Here it is:

Jim Troyer ocean fly fishing
Jim Troyer and his pet Calico…

I hit the kayak’s with my friend Craig and ventured off Capo Beach down here in Orange County. We paddled down to the reef off Beach Rd. and drifted the area for a few hours. The tide was on the upswing and Craig metered fish in one area and said ” there’s a bunch right here”. No sooner than that, I cast into the area, let the fly sink and started stripping and got hit by this nice Calico! I brought the 10wt. this time just to make sure I was covered in case a big White Sea Bass came a knockin’. Fun day on the water.

The Raine Road Trip continues, though today’s news isn’t about fish as much as the trip-disrupting power of random gravel flight; below is the front window of the Airstream, the repairing of which kept Jack and Chris from their morning appointment at Silver Creek. More on this major breaking news story (“Exposed in Idaho ’06: A Shocking Story Mineral-based Vandalism”).
Broken Window on trailer
Road Tripus Interruptus…

Finally, we’ve got a few fun links, courtesy the Underground Entertainment Department. First, the Urban Fly Fisher describes the sudden appearance of fiber optics cable spools in his beloved river, then Patrick O’Grady hilariously recounts a family wedding on his non-fly fishing blog (it’s beyond funny).

This last link isn’t entertaining as much as alarming; it’s a GetOudoors story highlighting a U.N. Report about overharvesting our oceans. Sobering, but GetOudoors comes right back with good news: lists of seafood that are OK to eat if you want to protect the resource.

See you having fun on the water, Tom Chandler.

The Raine Road Trip Continues…

June 16, 2006, by 2 comments

Chris Raine and son Jack continue their road trip (presumably) after spending two days on Silver Creek in Idaho. Communication is sparse, but apparently the fishing was at least OK, and all limbs remain intact. Chris’ son Jack sent a couple of videos from his phone, and one recounted the aftermath of Chris hooking a smallish trout, which was immediately eaten by a much larger Brown Trout.

Chris Raine fly fishing Silver Creek
Chris Raine at Silver Creek. For a nice “painterly” landscape pic, click the image below (hit ‘back’ button to return). [Jack Raine photos]
Silver Creek Scenic

While I can’t simply plug the videos into the blog, I’m going to try and embed them into a separate Web page and see if that doesn’t fly. While I wait for more information to trickle in, I’ll leave you with this short missive from Jack about yesterday’s fishing:

“I got three, two 16″ and one 19-20″. Pop got two, a 15″ rainbow and a 16″ brown!”

The adventure continues…

[Update: added by Editor]

Called Chris on his cell phone – in yuppie-esque fashion, he answered it from the Silver Creek Nature Conservancy section. The mornings on Silver Creek have been fishing good, but the afternoons have found the wind howling. Some BWO and PMD hatches, and Chris felt the need to use his 8′ 6wt version of a Payne 102 taper in order to handle the longer casts and bigger fish.

Story of the trip so far has been the 6″ trout that ate his dry, that was in turn eaten by a monster Brown trout (that was way too big for Chris’ net). Unfortunately, he didn’t land the bigger of the two…

He’s staying at an RV park only a mile or two from the L&T Nancy’s father’s house near Ketchum. I know that park, and if he walked through it to the edge of the Big Wood River (now blown), he’d be looking at water I’ve fished the last two winters. It’s a small world after all.

It’s another day or two on Silver Creek, then off to Island Park, a destination that doesn’t make me at all envious. Not one bit. Nada.

Here’s an interesting story (found on Ted William’s excellent Conservation Blog) about Silver Creek’s 30 year Anniversary (at least the Nature Conservancy’s part of it).

The Chris Raine Adventure Watch…

June 15, 2006, by No comments yet

Chris Raine has packed up his shiny new Airstream trailer and – with his just-graduated, headed-for-the-Air Force Academy son in tow – is headed for parts of the West commonly associated with big trout.

Because the technologically challenged Raine refused to install a digital satellite uplink dish on his trailer (or buy the equipment needed to make it all work, including a laptop), we’re going to have to make do with the messages and photos relayed via his son’s cell phone.

First stop was apparently Ketchum, Idaho – home to the Big Wood River (one of my favorites), Silver Creek, and the mega-dollar estates of Sun Valley. With Silver Creek at his front door, and some of the West’s most spectacular (and expensive) real estate looking back through the windshield, what did we get from our adventurer?

Raine hot dog link

OK, so our first installment touches on a familiar subject – food. It’s clear that Raine likes to fish, but – if his spectacular performance at the Great Slaw Dog Cookout was any indication – it’s clear he likes to eat even more. Still, his hastily texted message offers some hope of actual fishing information in the future. To whit:

From Ketchum: Big Wood blown. Silver Creek OK. Windy and cold. No hatch. Try again tomorrow.

No fishing for me last night, but I’m out of here this afternoon. The Upper Sac continues to fall, and I’ve got a couple of midriver spots that are probably just getting wadable. They’re on the radar, I’m on the Internet, but not for long. See you on the edge of your seat, Tom Chandler