March 2011
2 posts
Not quite what comes to mind...
…when a Virginian angler says “March Brown” this time of year. Usually this is a reference to the burly mottled mayfly that hatches in fair numbers around April, a bug that gets due attention from trout as the water is warm enough for them to be inspecting the surface for a meal and the Quill Gordons and blue quills are dwindling.
This time it’s for the lake-run brown...
The end of something...
…is allegedly the beginning of something else. I hate trite sayings but this shoe fits well these days.
After a long and excuseless drought, the Thinking Man’s Idiot Fly Angler has found some inspiration to blog again. Forgive my absence - even though maybe only two or three people have noticed - but all of a sudden things changed. I scored a new job way back in October (which,...
April 2010
2 posts
EFF YEW PENTAX!
Or is it eff me? I’m all full on screw-ups at the moment so I’ll let you take this one, Pentax. Of course I hit my favorite brookie stream in all the land today and the BATTERY IN THE CAMERA WAS DEAD. Sure it makes sense to check BEFORE going but the obvious frequently eludes me. I have friends and a wife who can attest to this.
Never fear, Samsung to the rescue. A feeble rescue,...
Pregnant shads
There comes a point every winter now when my daily routine of driving over the James River becomes an exercise in patience. This is not my lot in life, so a bubble of anticipation - frustration, really - begins to build around January. I know that the procreative urge that brings in shad by the droves will be upon us sometime soon, never certain of exactly when because it’s entirely...
March 2010
2 posts
What a difference three days make
This past Saturday was spent ushering in 2012…you know, with the Apocalypse and all. Warm days, several inches of rain and feet of melting snow kinda happened all at once and all that water came down the hill with a force that I can only liken to the determination of my wife to head to the mall when we get a 25% discount coupon for the Coach store. Every last trickle was a chocolatey...
A real "butte"
Holy mother of God. Drive-thru Espresso (and the chicks who work ‘em), Metolius River and real freaking mountains. And October caddis - in March. These are a few of my favorite things and they all happen to call central Orygun “home”.
In summary, BULL TROUT:
The SISTERS:
and a MULEY:
Eventually I’ll get some of those autumn sedges in here but for now, I’d...
February 2010
5 posts
Power of positive thinking
Reliving the insanity - summer 2009. Spring creeks, huge trout, terrestrials…oh my. A special thanks to my man Dan of Grey Sulphur infamy for never talking me out of the shortest of trips to the Valley. This sort of amusement borders on illegal.
Without further ado a photo essay: how I blew my summer, 2009. May the shad and brookies keep me sufficiently occupied until July 2010.
...
Jefferson (not George) or bust
This coming week my lovely wife and I will be headed to Orygun for a few days with her parents. You read my mind: there’s always a catch. Yep, Orygun. Yep, in-laws. Grand.
So at this point I’m left to tie big bunny leeches and tiny copper johns for Metolius bulls, as I’ll be entirely confined to central Oregon. “Yeah, not so awful” you might think, but at a time...
Grey Sulphur →
A look into the twisted world of a good fishin buddy. Don’t be surprised to find duplicate photos and trip reports on this entertaining blog.
Azz whupped
I’ve been chomping at the bit to fish the Shenandoah NP and since it’s been blanketed in snow for the last 3 months fishin hasn’t been so easy to come by. Skyline Drive hasn’t been open for a month. The cold air hasn’t done much to get the snow off everything and ice has become a formidable adversary.
I used to run back in the day. Much of that training has leaked...
Catsup
Old man winter has been a crotchety shite this year. With 30 inches of snow over the last 3 months in our yard, and probably 2 to 3 times that in the mountains and the valley, ample angling opportunity has been a pipe dream. Locally there’s nothing going on - the James is still damn cold and running well above normal flow. So any chance of getting fish slime on my hands is hours away.
...
January 2010
3 posts
Back in the saddle
I know another dude here who needed a steelhead fix, bad. In fact, the two of us, along with the steelhead junkie mentioned in my previous post, trekked up to the Salmon River in the “Great Norf Cunntry a New York” on Halloween weekend and tangled with a few. But inside every steelhead-obsessed idiot is an even worse character: the masochist. Whether it be torrential rain or...
Colder'n heck
How cold can heck be? We ‘bout froze our nuts off here for about two weeks straight, starting just after Xmas and ending…well…sometime while I was in another state freezing my ass off.
A little more than a week after the last fishin expedition (New Year’s Day), a fellow steelhead junkie and I headed back to a spring crick and took some lumps. It was cold. And the fish...
Adios, 'aughts.
Christ it’s been a while since I had a minute to catch up here. Work prospects are up, even if they involve a hefty commute…but BTDT so if I can get out of the current hellhole I’m happy as a clam.
I didn’t do much fishin in December, mostly due to my wife’s schedule accommodating less work. I took the good with the bad, meaning I spent time with her and no time on...
December 2009
6 posts
Enter the albie
Here’s a brief yet perfectly accurate glimpse into the mind of the author…
Unstimulated by the world of fake science and inept higher-ups, my itinerant brain expends untold energies reliving epic angling adventures, of which I’ve been privileged to my fair share. This is all well and good as I’ve invested an absurd proportion of my existence into the ephemeral thrills of...
Time for a change?
Unfortunately, since I didn’t marry rich, I still have to spend most of my time wishin I was fishin - i.e. workin. Today was another poignant reminder of how closely I’ve toyed with the notion of dropping work altogether, without another job prospect, for two reasons: 1) to send a self-important message to my employer (who has officially promoted 5 out of maybe 75 employees over the...
Whitewashed
A rare December snow in Richmond was a welcome surprise on Saturday afternoon, which meant REAL accumulation in the mountains and the promise of outstanding scenery even if the brookies weren’t in the mood to eat. The rain a few days before pushed stream levels up and with air temps hovering around freezing the fish would likely be stuck on the bottom, but since when did cold and a...
How it all comes to pass
Introduction is a formality I’ll have to entertain despite my best efforts to avoid it. I’m in my early 30s as of this writing, inching (hurtling?) ever closer to mid-30s and coasting through employment that utilizes my skills, a term I use loosely to make myself look good on paper, to a bare minimum. My parents, friends and perhaps most importantly my wife probably have a hard time...
"bucket fillers"
Holy cow. I’m pretty sure this is Richmond…but if only for a few days it sure feels like Seattle. Fine by me. Their coffee is way better than ours and there’s stuff open after 8 PM.
I have become the farmer at work, constantly complaining that we don’t get enough rain or that we get too much. Basically 8 months out of the year it isn’t so bad, but July through...
Work just plain blows...
…but fishin never does. I figure hell, if I get fired, then they gotta foot a few months of unemployment. And if that were to happen, I don’t know what I’d do with myself.
OK, I do. I’d fish every day. Beats the day-in-day-out nut twisting of suffocating under a mountain of work and missing deadlines promised by people who are qualified to … hold on, I’ll...