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Obama Fly Fishes for Trout

2009-08-15T22:05:00.001-04:00

From Today's AP:

Obama makes good on Montana fly-fishing promise

By MATT GOURAS (AP) – 7 hours ago

BELGRADE, Mont. — President Barack Obama didn't let thunderstorms and unseasonably cool weather stop him from learning how to fish for Montana's famous trout during his weekend trip to the rustic West and its national parks.

"He insisted that fishermen fish in the rain, so he said, `Let's do it,'" fishing guide Dan Vermillion said. "The weather was really horrendous. We were all real cold at the end of the day."

The president took 2 1/2 hours after his health care town hall near Bozeman on Friday to make good on a campaign promise to learn fly fishing when he revisits the state. His guide said the commander in chief has become a serious student of the sport.

"I found him to be a real good listener. He really wanted to learn about the whole experience of fly fishing," said Vermillion, who runs the Sweetwater Fly Shop in Livingston.

Obama reported practicing the difficult-to-master mechanics of fly casting on retreats at Camp David, Vermillion said.

It paid off. The president did well for a first-timer by hooking half a dozen fish in an area mixed with brown and rainbow trout, but he didn't land any during the afternoon getaway on the East Gallatin River, his guide said.

READ THE REST

Another lost Salmon run

2009-08-14T16:55:00.003-04:00

From Singlebarbed...

The British Columbia Globe and mail report:

Mark Hume

Vancouver — From Thursday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009 10:18PM EDT

The Fraser River is experiencing one of the biggest salmon disasters in recent history with more than nine million sockeye vanishing.

Aboriginal fish racks are empty, commercial boats worth millions of dollars are tied to the docks and sport anglers are being told to release any sockeye they catch while fishing for still healthy runs of Chinook.

Between 10.6 million and 13 million sockeye were expected to return to the Fraser this summer. But the official count is now just 1.7 million, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Where the nine to 11 million missing fish went remains a mystery.

“It's beyond a crisis with these latest numbers,” said Ernie Crey, fisheries adviser to the Sto:lo tribes on the Fraser. “What it means is that a lot of impoverished natives are going to be without salmon. … We have families with little or no income that were depending on these fish. … It's a catastrophe,” he said.

read the rest ....

Obama Administration Okays Major Mountaintop Removal Coal Project

2009-08-13T17:33:00.003-04:00

Let's chalk this up to being a better candidate than an elected official.
This will destroy miles of trout streams.

From Environment360

e360 digest

12 Aug 2009: Obama Administration Okays
Major Mountaintop Removal Coal Project

After vowing to crack down on the controversial practice of leveling the tops of Appalachian mountains to get at the coal seams below, the Obama administration has quietly approved a major mountaintop removal project in West Virginia. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the issuance of a Clean Water Act permit for CONSOL Energy’s Peg Fork Surface Mine, an 817-acre project that would permanently bury nearly three miles of Appalachian streams in mining debris. The Peg Fork mine was one of six mountaintop removal projects that Obama’s EPA initially said it opposed because “they all would result in significant adverse impacts to high-value streams.” Environmental groups criticized the administration for failing to carry through on its pledge to crack down on mountaintop removal, with a Sierra Club official expressing disappointment that the EPA failed to “adopt new regulations or policies that would end this destructive practice.” Mountaintop removal mines in Appalachia have destroyed more than 1,500 square miles of forests and buried more than 800 miles of streams in debris.

The North Pacific Gyre

2009-08-13T08:30:00.006-04:00

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

All the information you would ever need about how our plastic trash is polluting the oceans.

What will the Obama conservation record look like ?

2009-08-12T13:14:00.003-04:00

TODAY'S NYTIMES:

Editorial
Salmon Test

Published: August 11, 2009

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration must notify a federal court next month whether it will do what is necessary to save endangered salmon in the Pacific Northwest. The decision will tell us a lot about how the administration sees its obligations under the Endangered Species Act. The Bush team evaded its responsibilities with amazing acts of legal casuistry.

A dozen salmon species in the Columbia River Basin have been declared endangered or threatened — their spawning grounds destroyed by logging and commercial development, and their route to the sea made more arduous by a gauntlet of hydroelectric dams.

Over the years, the Bonneville Power Administration, which runs the dams, and other agencies have unblocked spawning streams and increased water flows over the dams to help young fish reach the sea. But that has not been enough to restore what scientists regard as sustainable fish runs. And it has not been enough for James Redden, a federal district judge in Oregon who has become the salmon’s most reliable defender.

Since 2003, Judge Redden has rejected two recovery plans devised in the Clinton and Bush administrations. Both promised further habitat restoration and further modifications in dam operations. Neither, in the judge’s view, did enough to ensure the fish’s long-term survival. And while the Endangered Species Act requires that every effort be made to ensure the recovery of a species, the Bush plan promised little more than allowing the fish to go extinct at a slower rate.

Judge Redden was about to toss a second Bush plan earlier this year on some of the same grounds when the Obama administration asked for time to review it. The judge said fine, while warning that he could not accept any revision that adopted the Bush administration’s misinterpretation of the law.

Significantly, he also said that any new plan should leave all recovery options on the table, including the idea of breaching four dams on the lower Snake River. We have long recommended such a course, which many scientists see as the surest means of restoring the fish.

The judge has now given the administration 30 days to get this right. The official who will ultimately make the decision is Gary Locke, the secretary of commerce and former governor of Washington. We would be surprised if he recommended immediate breaching. Ways must be found to replace the power that the dams generate, which amounts to 4 percent of the region’s total. But he has to do better than his predecessors, otherwise Judge Redden could well place the operations of the hyrdroelectric system under court order and devise a plan of his own.

This means that at the very least Mr. Locke must reject the Bush plan, promise to devise a new one in close consultation with regional interests and keep dam removal on the table as very real backup if all else fails.

TODAY'S NYTIME

Rhoenanthus coreanus (Ephemeroptera: Potamanthidae)

2009-08-08T00:03:00.001-04:00

While Fishing, find fossils ....

2009-07-28T20:58:00.003-04:00

Fishing 12-year-old nets Ice Age bone in Embarras River

From the Herald & Review. Com

Monday, July 27, 2009 6:34 AM CDT

By TONY REID - H&R Staff Writer

GREENUP - Josh Brandenburg went angling for a mammoth catfish and came back with a big bit of mammoth instead.

The platter-size circular bone he fished out of the Embarras River is now setting off some elephantine ripples in the scientific community. Experts from the Illinois State Museum in Springfield say the size of the bone means it belonged to one of the biggest mammoths on record from Ice Age Illinois.

The bone also has some "chatter marks" on it, which suggest it was gnawed on by a big meat-eater or maybe even hungry prehistoric humans who had just nailed the mother of all pot roasts.

Either way, Josh's find is something special. The bone is anywhere from 13,000 to 24,000 years old and came from, most likely, a woolly mammoth or another mammoth type, the mammuthus Jeffersonii, which is named for Thomas Jefferson, a major prehistoric critter fan.

Read the rest...

Seeing Spots

2009-07-25T10:55:00.004-04:00

So I packed up the car last Friday night on a bit of an spur of the minute escape. Got everything packed, a little food, tent, fly rods, six pack of beer, and almost packed everything, except I left some of my fly boxes. In fact, all I ended up with were softhackles and streamers. July 18, 19, 2009.

Since I had no dries I just fished right through that coral dun hatch with softhackles. I think every rising fish I saw took the softhackle.

The last fish picture was a trout of about 15 inches. I was fishing in a car sized hole, a bit of a rock ledged drop around it with a nice riffle pouring in. The bottom was filled in with a beaver willow cache. I had already taken about half a dozen smaller fish off the surface with a Soft Hackle on the return & saw a bigger trout strike at one on the retrieve. So I put an enormous streamer on - one that came from an unknown streamer swap, conehead with eyes, and large green articulated rabbit body, about 3 or 4 inches long. Soaked it, cast it in and on the strip had a log like trout hit it take it down into the brush pile and get off. Next cast in, a smaller fish - a brook trout hit is , larger than the one pictured jumped and flipped the fly. Third cast the pictured fish took it an I landed him. This was all in a spring creek hole about the size of me car, with a riffle pouring in.

Police spear Zander Fish

2009-07-14T20:39:00.002-04:00

Monster fish killed after terrorising Swiss swimmers

GENEVA (AFP) — Police divers have ended the reign of terror of a huge fish that was attacking swimmers in a Swiss lake.

The zander, which was 70 centimetres (two feet three inches) long and weighed eight kilos (17.5 pounds), was harpooned on Sunday after it bit six swimmers over the weekend, fish warden Fabio Croci told local media.

Two swimmers were treated in hospital for bite wounds up to 10 centimetres (four inches) long after being attacked on Lac Majeur, which borders Italy, he added.

Police divers at first tried to capture the carnivorous fish with a net, but when this failed they pursued the zander with a harpoon and managed to kill it.

The meat from the captured fish was served up to tourists at the lake.

"It is quite unusual for zanders to bite humans", Croci said, adding he suspected the fish was suffering from a hormonal imbalance which could be responsible for its aggression.

Jim Lee column: Rainy fishing trip finds ray of sunshine

2009-07-12T09:44:00.004-04:00

This story must have been written from a trip taken in May, as it hasn't rained much in the five weeks in the U.P. For those unfamiliar, it is not the wild unbroken wilderness people want it to be, and as this article attests, the natives are skilled at taking fish from the water with spinners, nightcrawlers and set lines. This is about the average experience up there though. Mostly few and smallish fish from the Escanaba watershed. The below is posted from the Green Bay Gazette.

ISHPEMING, Mich. — "All's well that ends well" ... so the saying goes.
Advertisement

"… if you can forget the misfortune it took to reach the finish," I might add, speaking from experience after a recent routine canoe trip got off to a rough start. Then things got rougher.

Bob LaFreniere and I had scheduled a trout fishing float down the Escanaba River in Michigan's rugged Upper Peninsula only to waken on the appointed day under soggy skies amid cool temperatures in the mid-50s.

"A little rain never hurt anybody," said LaFreniere, a native Yooper. "Grab your rainwear and let's get on the road."

Forty minutes later, our two-vehicle caravan pulled up to a backwoods bridge and dropped off Bob's pickup. Ten minutes and a roundabout six road miles later, we offloaded a 17-foot aluminum canoe at the designated starting point, a bridge about three water miles upstream.

Neither of us had experience with this segment of the river and had no idea what to expect, though we had heard trout fishing could be worthwhile at times.

The plan was to drift and paddle downstream to the truck, fishing and taking in scenery along the way.

No problem there. We managed to land a handful of brook trout, including a couple that broached the 10-inch mark, but the wilderness setting was too frequently interrupted by rustic cottages.

"These are all deer hunting cabins," LaFreniere assured. "The owners don't fish."

Some of them obviously had an interest in the water, however, as small docks emerged from several shorelines. A well-worn spinning rod sprouted from one of the appendages, the line still holding to a weed-encrusted bobber stuttering in the current.

The pulsating drizzle was an annoyance, not a hindrance, and the un-summerlike temperature coupled with a gusty wind removed the need for mosquito repellent.

Bob preferred fishing with nightcrawlers. I started fishing with worms, then switched to a spinner. Both rigs were effective.

A five-hour float brought us to the takeout point. When the canoe touched bottom, I made a move to exit. Veteran legs — after spending too much time in the cramped front seat — weren't up to the task.

My foot slipped on a rock. I tilted backward, lost balance and kersplunken ... I tipped the canoe.

After a few sobering seconds of soaking up river flow that eagerly ebbed over the top of my waders, I turned to find a somber Bob pinned in waist-deep water and contents of the canoe floating around him in disarray.

"You know my cell phone is shot," he quickly pointed out.

A dunking is death to a cell phone but considerably less hazardous to rods, reels, creels, boots, bait, clothing, cushions and lunch.

We gathered the drenched booty and hauled the canoe well on shore.

As Bob silently approached the waiting truck with a load of dripping gear, he slowly turned and said, "Do you want to know the rest? ... I left the keys to the truck in the Jeep back at the other landing."

There we stood, looking at one another — Glum and Glummer.

"Someone has to eventually drive by this landing," Bob finally said. "We'll ask them to bring us to the Jeep."

"This is a gravel and dirt road that doesn't go anywhere except to deer hunting camps," I pointed out. "It could be an hour or it could be days before someone comes along. You stay here and I'll start walking the road back out."

Approximately 45 minutes into a lumbering trek in semi-soggy waders, a rumbling pickup truck piloted by three young men stopped and offered to be my taxi. I eagerly clambered into the back of the truck bed, gingerly stepped around a pile of jagged, rusted, scrap metal and found a sprawling spare tire for a seat.

Heaven never looked so good.

After reconnecting with Bob, we made a beeline for Ishpeming, intending to replace the deep-sixed cell phone, which contained numbers vital to his business in Ohio.

No luck in Ishpeming. Ditto for nearby Negaunee. Finally, in Marquette, we located Bob's cell phone carrier — and an angel in the form of a customer service representative. With an ever-present smile, she patiently listened to our tale and helped Bob select a new phone — one with more features and a larger keypad than his defunct unit.

After processing the purchase, she beamed and said, "This is your lucky day. We're having a special sale on that model. After a mail-in rebate, it will cost you nothing."

Then she downloaded all information from computerized chips in the old phone into the new one. The major loss turned out to be three hours of phone service.

As we walked out the door, Bob was smiling again.

"You know," he said, "I never thought I'd be glad you dunked me."

Believe me, I just love a happy ending.

— Jim Lee is an outdoors writer for Gannett Wisconsin Media. E-mail him at jlee77@earthlink.net.

July 4th Evening Sail

2009-07-04T21:26:00.000-04:00

4th of July patriotic fish roundup

2009-07-04T09:12:00.004-04:00

The Hideous Jabbering head of Issak Walton gets a flag doo-rag:

"On this fouthye of Julye more patriotic Phishye"

Two Weekends in June

2009-06-30T23:22:00.001-04:00

Recent pics ...

Sun on the hill on the other side of coulee.

A river pic - that is bank work that is one year old.

No big fish, but lots of these small stream fish

We we're at the farm so there were chores to be done.

Grif had to be penned up separate and was not happy about it.

Three of the girls were in heat and it wasn't puppy time.

The orphaned calf had to be fed.

Tractors had to be ridden

Next day we fished a stream that had had 4 inches of rain a couple of days before.

Hot steamy and foggy.

This brown trout lip jewelry is a swap fly.

6am trout

2009-06-14T07:30:00.001-04:00

morning coffee

2009-06-14T06:41:00.001-04:00

At a cabin on a trout sream in crawford co. Wi.

This is still not enough to make me a brownliner -

2009-06-09T15:22:00.003-04:00

Over here they call it squirrelfish. This particular presetation is called "Chrysanthemum Fish". It is cross-cut into small diagonal sections, and then deep fried hard. Surprisingly, there are no bones to speak of and the sauce is a sweet and sour variation local to northwest China.

But it is still carp to me.

Troutenfreude ©

2009-06-07T02:28:00.003-04:00

As those of you following this blog probably know, I am currently out of the country. If from these most recent posts it appears I have spent a good portion of the last week flying from place to place in China, you would be accurate.

It is a most unfortunate time to be out of the upper midwest, where I fish. The streams heading north from Chicago now have a cascading set of fly fishing opportunities, starting in the U.P. where the march browns are on, Northern Wisconsin where the sulfers are in full swing, Brown drakes in the driftless, and at the southern end of the driftless and the most southern sand county streams the hex will be starting in the next week or so. Of course, Caddisflies can be found hatching through this region at any time. Even people who notoriously do not catch fish, can catch trout at this time of year. It might be said that this is the moment, the time, when if you are fly fisher, you look forward to it all year. The time when, as a trout fisher, it is all going on, all available, all ready to fished.

And I am on a business trip for two weeks in China.

Hence, troutenfreude ©; “Philosopher and sociologist Theodor Adorno defined troutenfreude © as “largely unanticipated delight in the suffering of another fly fisher who is not catching trout which is cognized as trivial and/or appropriate.”

Across the intertubes everyone is posting sparkling reports of hatches experienced and trout caught like the millions of stars illuminating the wilderness northern sky at night.
Fortunately there are dark spots.

My brother remained at the cabin for an additional two weeks after my nine year old and I left. He is not a flyfisher of any real ability, basically he can slap a streamer in a sort of crappy roll cast and do the quartering down and across streamer drift. He was taken to one of my favorite locations by my cousin, which I haven’t been able to get to yet this year. This particular river is at the lower end of a large central UP watershed. It was irritating to me that he had the time to go, and I did not.

Despite there being trout jumping and flopping all over the place he caught no fish.
It seemed only right to me.

You there on that famous Pierce county stream seeing trout dimpling everywhere on the Darth Vader hatch with no results; hahahahaha.

Up there in Lincoln County, went out for sn evening hatch but the cold snap only had 3 drakes on the water and no fish ? serves you right.

There I've done it.

troutenfreude © copyright 2009 – Harlan Wallach – all rights reserved

in Urumqi

2009-06-04T05:01:00.000-04:00

at the airport in Urumqi. A sandstorm in Dunhuang prevented landing.

bej->xia

2009-06-02T23:00:00.000-04:00

Hainan Airlines HU7237

on the tarmac

2009-06-02T04:22:00.000-04:00

quarantine officers on board. All passengers are being examined on the plane.

on board the long leg

2009-06-01T14:29:00.000-04:00

Air Canada has nice airplanes. There are many chinese getting on board the plane with masks on. You'd think there was a SARS epidemic on or something.

on the plane.

2009-06-01T10:11:00.000-04:00

in the rain..

no plane so far

2009-06-01T09:24:00.000-04:00

We we're supposed to have already boarded this plane to Toronto. Kind of difficult, with no plane at the gate. Oh well.

on my way to the airport

2009-06-01T06:58:00.000-04:00

5:30 am. Traffic is clear considering the rain storm.

housekeeping

2009-05-31T07:42:00.001-04:00

banner update ...

Boys weekend in the UP

2009-05-30T07:51:00.003-04:00

Took a couple day's extra on a short week and went north to the UP.
This is my regular annual trip to our cabin, where me and my boy meet up with my dad, and brother.

On the way up we stopped at a well loved and memory filled but now vacant farm.

We found morels.

Our morel guide, my cousin, came through big time.

Once at the lake - the BLUEG harvest was on.

Some Big Lake rocks and rock climbing.

This is the boy casting a dry fly upstream to rising trout. Don't know where he picked that habit up from, obviously not inherited.

I netted the one keeper of the dozen or so he hooked.

He ate it.

He also ate the Morels.

These are morel stuffed thai dumplings with plum sauce and my cousin's home brew.

I got out for one evening on the stream fro a couple of hours.
Fished with this fly.

With all of the brown line blog talk I should feel good about catching nothing but these, but, the experience left me hollow.

A flowering Dogwood on the great cyr swamp plain.

This pic speaks for itself.

Last night at camp bonfire.

Coasters not endangered ?

2009-05-30T07:39:00.003-04:00

From MLIVE

Federal officials reject coaster brook trout as endangered
by John Flesher | The Associated Press
Monday May 18, 2009, 4:23 PM

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- Federal officials have decided against placing the coaster brook trout on the endangered species list, even though the fish has become increasingly rare after long flourishing in the upper Great Lakes.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Monday said a yearlong review had concluded that coasters were not distinct enough from other brook trout to list them as endangered or establish protected habitat.

"Coasters" are born in rivers and streams, but migrate to lakes and spend most of their lives there, drifting along the coast. They tend to grow larger than other brook trout, which remain within their native streams. Many coasters are 1 to 2 feet long.

Their historical range took in parts of lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior. Roughly 119 Superior tributaries and a half-dozen streams flowing into Huron once supported coasters. But overfishing and habitat degradation in the 1800s nearly wiped them out.

Today, just 15 stream-spawning and three lake-spawning populations are known to exist -- all in Lake Superior.

The Sierra Club and the Huron Mountain Club, a private hunting and fishing preserve in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, petitioned the government in 2006 to designate the coaster as endangered.

Marvin Roberson, a Sierra Club policy specialist, said the group would consider its options, including a lawsuit in federal court to overturn the Fish and Wildlife Service's decision.

"We strongly disagree with it," Roberson said.

Peter Dykema, fisheries manager for Huron Mountain Club, said: "We believe that the surviving coaster population easily satisfies the statutory standards for listing. We are reviewing our legal options to seek review of the Service's decision."

Researchers are uncertain whether the coaster is a genetically separate species. Still, the conservation advocates contend its unique migratory behavior qualifies the fish for listing as a distinct segment of the brook trout population.

But the Fish and Wildlife Service said its review did not yield convincing evidence the coaster was a distinct population segment, much less a separate species or subspecies.

Instead, the agency labeled the coaster a "life history form" that could be reconstituted from other brook trout under the right environmental conditions.

"Thus, the population health of coasters is essentially equal to the population of brook trout in the upper Great Lakes," the agency said in a statement.

"Although coaster brook trout have declined and threats remain, there are at least 200 brook trout populations within the upper Great Lakes and the overall population numbers of brook trout within the upper Great Lakes remains high."

Roberson said the government acknowledged coasters differ from other brook trout in numerous ways, including size and behavior. "And then, incredibly, they say there's no genetic difference between them," he said.

Self-sustaining coaster populations are found in the Salmon Trout River in the Upper Peninsula, which flows through property owned by the Huron Mountain Club, and in the waters of Lake Superior's Isle Royale National Park.

Coasters also live in a few streams on the Canadian side of Superior and in Ontario's Lake Nipigon.

Government agencies, nonprofits and Indian tribes in the U.S. and Canada are trying to restore the colorful fish. Strict limits are imposed on catching them.

Other efforts include habitat improvements such as removing or redesigning dams that block stream access. Some sections of Lake Superior have been stocked with brook trout.

Logging and road construction can harm coasters by causing sediment to erode into spawning areas, Roberson said.

Opponents of a proposed nickel and copper mine in the Upper Peninsula say it also could pose a danger. The mine would extend beneath a section of the Salmon Trout River. Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co. says its project would not harm the fish.

we have morels

2009-05-21T11:26:00.000-04:00

Jonah @ farm - 2009

2009-05-21T10:19:00.000-04:00

big blue bridge

2009-05-21T08:40:00.000-04:00

heading north

2009-05-21T05:21:00.000-04:00

A quiet video report from Lincoln co. Wisco

2009-05-04T06:30:00.002-04:00

This by George Cleveland, insect overlord of the wisfly forum.

Time to start checking -

2009-05-03T16:00:00.002-04:00

The Morels are here...

Morchella Angusticeps - May 1

2009-05-01T07:26:00.003-04:00

A field report from Delta County - U.P. filed yesterday :

HDW-

Found 2 nice black morels, morchella angusticeps, at Farm and one small one at Devil's Creek. Probably walked 8 miles and drove 80 mi for 3 mushrooms.

The woods are filled with hepaticas, a few blooming trout lilies, and bloodroot. Found one devil's urn. No other fungi. At Devil's creek the wild leeks are about 1/2 of their mature size. As usual, they are profuse.

Wild strawberries are just leafing. No sign of trillium or orchis. Apple trees are just beginning to bud. Daffodils at Farm are in full bloom in the sunny areas and just beginning in the woods along with scylla and a few crocus along the pond. Saw a beautiful 16 in garter snake and 6 painted turtles on a log at Long Lake and 6 or 8 wood ducks. There were sandhill cranes making alot of noise but I didn't see them.

Oddly, only one wood tick.

m

No Fish - more of everything else ....

2009-04-28T22:36:00.001-04:00

From Today's NYTIMEs:

Science / Environment

On a Hunt for Fishless Lakes, Teeming With Life

By MURRAY CARPENTER

Published: April 28, 2009

Far from barren, biologists say fishless lakes are hubs of biodiversity. Lacking piscine predators, they are home to a greater abundance and variety of invertebrates than lakes with fish, and provide breeding grounds for frogs, salamanders and waterfowl. But as fish are moved around — legally by fisheries agencies, illegally by anglers and bait growers — fishless lakes are becoming increasingly rare.

Rugged and sparsely populated, the Maine woods have some of the last fishless lakes in the Northeast. Some, like this one, are kettle lakes without inlets or outlets, excavated in the eastern Maine lowlands by melting blocks of glacial ice. Others are clear tarns in high mountains, with outlets too steep for fish to ascend. Still others are simply too acidic for fish. All probably have been fishless since the glaciers receded.

TR| last sunday APR19

2009-04-21T21:58:00.003-04:00

We somehow drove through rain to get to , you know, Greater Iowa, no rain all day, and then drove through rain all the way back, go figure.

Some Landscapes :

Nick_K sneaking up on those trout...

Some Fish:
first one of the day...

second one of the day ..

wherein I lose track ...

One of the better ones, two views...

Some clear clear water

The afternoon dry, a fly I call the Jumjil.
size 18 peacock body, cdc underwing, sparse elk overwing.

Good they are, Jumjils...

some closeups ...

Spring is here, the snakes are out ...

and then Lunch, tragedy averted...

The pull tab came off of the tin of sardines, so the Opinel knife and Austrian de-barbing pliers came into use. Stick chopsticks as utensils, cheese, green onion, and mustard snad, and a couple of Pilsners.

Why did king oscar get rid of the key?

fog in Fennimore

2009-04-19T07:13:00.000-04:00

& 52

4:15 Rockford

2009-04-19T05:19:00.000-04:00

damp, not wet pavement, 57.

some "just in time" tying ...

2009-04-18T23:23:00.002-04:00

half a dozen goddards and half a doz peacock,cdc,elk hairs.

so what is it I am hoping to see tomorrow ?

mobile posting starting in the wee hours.

Angler Access law signed in Montana

2009-04-18T17:17:00.002-04:00

By way of FF in Yellowstone flog

.. Governor Brian Schweitzer signed HB 190 into law. It's a short and simple law. Every fly fisher in Montana should read it and abide by it.

read the rest here

Farm manure spill at headwaters of Kewaunee River

2009-04-17T14:51:00.001-04:00

from the Associated Press
10:57 PM CDT, April 16, 2009

LUXEMBURG, Wis. - Authorities say about 100,000 gallons of liquid manure leaked into wetlands at the headwaters of the Kewaunee River, a Lake Michigan tributary, near Luxemburg in Kewaunee County.

The river was stocked last week with a quarter million trout and salmon. Future stocking has been postponed until the full extent of the contamination is known.

Read the whole story.

BW's parachute BWO

2009-04-13T20:15:00.003-04:00

My friend BW tied this and sent it to me.

I took its picture.

a bit of housecleaning

2009-04-12T21:18:00.002-04:00

banner update ... only a month late.

4 days in April | Trout reports

2009-04-11T19:39:00.006-04:00

A four day fishing trip for the early season. The family went south to Florida. Someone had to stay home and take care of the dog. Figured we would go fishing. The weather looked like it might not be so good.

Saturday - April 04

On Saturday the weatherman was right

2 counties - 2 streams.

One with a very large spring.

The second one had a barb wire fence hanging in the air and a largish black tarp ghost protecting a big trout in a little hole.

Sunday - April 05

On Sunday the weatherman was right

Only 1 stream today, with a big beaver pond with many brook trout in it.

Monday - Apr 06

On Monday, the weatherman was wrong.

Cold, but a high blue bird sky.

A trout ninja

my first fish of the day - it'd been caught at least once before

Can't see it in this pic, but many bwo's on the water

The lunch and lunch time beers in the car park.

many trout on BWO's

Tuesday - Apr 07

The weatherman was wrong again.

Sunny all day - high in the low 50s.

My friend Bruce took me to a stream I had never fished before, these are the boiling springs headwaters.

there were many browns, more were hooked and lost than landed.

This is the first brown trout on fly in 30 years for Bruce. Nice fish.

..................................................................
The route. Spent Sat and Mon night at Bruce and Sue's cabin. Sunday night in the music room at John and Debs. Thanks for the hospitality.

pierce county

2009-04-05T20:23:00.000-04:00

mother of all brook trout holes

2009-04-05T17:45:00.000-04:00

yes, that is it.

time for a new license

2009-04-04T11:25:00.000-04:00

Dorn's in Madison

en route

2009-04-04T09:50:00.000-04:00

dog & flyrods in the back

"A blog post gets no better than this"

2009-03-27T12:18:00.002-04:00

Thanks Yellowstoner for the compliment !

Early Season SW Wisconsin Spring Creeks

2009-03-25T22:03:00.006-04:00

a quiet post. first trip to the driftless this season.

Prehistoric fish pioneered sex

2009-03-24T11:42:00.003-04:00

From Rueters

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) - Sex has been a fact of life for at least 380 million years, longer than previously thought. Internal fertilization was widespread among prehistoric fish living on ancient tropical coral reefs in the Devonian period, research published in the journal Nature on Wednesday showed.

The discovery sheds new light on the reproductive history of all jawed vertebrates, including humans.

"It shifts how we think about how reproduction evolved. You're a jawed vertebrate and I'm a jawed vertebrate, so this is our own history," said Zerina Johanson, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London.

read the rest here

Nipigon Canoe trip | 1923

2009-03-12T19:03:00.001-04:00

Lake Superior Ice Pack - March 3

2009-03-07T15:52:00.003-05:00

This picture, provided by those socialists at the NOAA (you know, as Bobby Jindal says, "pictures from space ? who needs that ?") shows a pretty dramatic ice pack on the Great Lake this winter. Hope it bodes well for water levels in the U.P. this summer.

There is an almost ice bridge all the way out to Isle Royale. I don't think that happens very often.

Frank Sawyer videos

2009-02-27T01:12:00.002-05:00

Yes, that Frank Sawyer....

Tonight, the all CDC

2009-02-26T00:11:00.003-05:00

Yes, as opposed to last night's Black scoprion, tonight, it is the, cleverly named, #20 all CDC yellow dun. yep, that's it.

Black Scorpion

2009-02-24T22:52:00.003-05:00

Tied up a bunch of these, inspired by this guy.

Mediumish scud hook.
Bead chain eyes
Black marabou tail, peacock herl wrapped with red copper wire body
Peacok cactus chenille
Grizzley rubber legs.

These look like maybe a trout may like them.

Block Prints | John Koch | Fish Art

2009-02-16T21:38:00.003-05:00

Going to the Great Waters Fly show in Chicago this weekend ?

John Koch, Trout Lily studios will be showing these:

Corner Pool, Paradise

A Small, Quiet Place

The Mirror Pool

October

As well as a whole lot more great work. You chance to purchase and meet the artist all at the some time. Buy a print, buy him a beer.

Tech Report : iPhoto 09 is a failure

2009-02-09T22:11:00.003-05:00

Despite the rave reviews on the new features that Apple has put in to new iLife 09 I am afraid that in this reviewers real world testing it has demonstrated that it is a failure. While it succesfully sorted thousands of images by using the face recognition tool, organizing the images into sortable categories by tagging the faces of my kids, in my last test it has totally failed, rendering this new feature essentially meaning less to me. Even though I tagged 6 of my pictures with the face of my brittany, Griffindor, the software tool has proven to be completely unable to recognize my dog’s face in any of other of the 20,000 or so more images I have taken of this important member of my family in the last two years.

If you notice in the image above despite having tagged six images iPhoto fails to match any more images of my dog. My recommendation to potential users of this powerful software suite at this point is to wait until Apple has corrected this oversight in their face recognition software tool.

Fish Art

2009-02-07T00:51:00.001-05:00

Not trout, but goldfish that look like a drawing but made with wire.

Calder.

Jan 31 Snowpack

2009-01-31T10:25:00.002-05:00

Yes, we are having a real winter here in the midwest this year.

Some softhackles

2009-01-26T21:57:00.002-05:00

getting some winter tying done.

Copper butt & chartreuse butt softhackles.

Tonight is a good night.

2009-01-19T22:56:00.002-05:00

First Trout of 2009 (in Arizona though)

2009-01-18T20:56:00.007-05:00

Added a vacation day to my trip last week to the Bamboo Project workshop in AZ. As usual, this post is not in order or in a particular time based sense, but I got around to it today.
Arrived in Page AZ a little after mid day Friday. Looking out across the tarmac at some real geography.

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore.

Yes, I did catch a trout.

First trout of 2009, on the egg fly dropper off of a weighted cactus bugger.

Full moon rise over the marble canyon

More scenery on Sunday afternoon.

gettin the boat

2009-01-10T09:17:00.000-05:00

dawn. Lee's Ferry Angler.

marble canyon lodge

2009-01-09T17:24:00.000-05:00

Nice view

16 seater

2009-01-09T13:48:00.000-05:00

to Page from phx.

5:22 am

2009-01-09T06:27:00.000-05:00

off to ORD

been doing some tying...

2009-01-08T00:32:00.002-05:00

Maybe I'm going fishing this weekend ...

Happy New Year

2009-01-02T09:59:00.004-05:00

from Ted Williams blog at FFR

"American Museum of Fly Fishing Apparently Run by Morons "

"Just heard from an unimpeachable source that the American Museum of Fly Fishing is going to make none other than VP Dick Cheney--the Anti-Christ of trout and all things wild--the guest of honor at its spring meeting. I had thought that this outfit had a modicum of common sense. Obviously, I was mistaken. Hey, American Museum of Fly Fishing: Get a life! Wake up! Smell the coffee! Where you been these last eight years?

Best,
Ted"

Happy Birthday from Griffendor

2008-12-30T23:05:00.002-05:00

It's Leahs 12th Birthday.

The dog wanted in on the singing.

Dos Candelikas

2008-12-22T19:54:00.000-05:00

Pretty hairy ride south

2008-12-21T19:29:00.000-05:00

0 degrees, fierce wind from the west, lots of snow drifting across US43.

A pack of Feral Brittanys

2008-12-20T14:16:00.000-05:00

I am not sure how my brother managed to get off our frozen bay on Shag lake with this pack of killers closing in, but some how, he did. Perhaps he rubbed their bellies. We'll probably never know.

Almost midnight

2008-12-19T23:58:00.000-05:00

almost warm inside the cabin

dinner @ micky lu's

2008-12-19T17:46:00.000-05:00

Menominee BBQ

12 cars OTR so far

2008-12-19T14:49:00.000-05:00

and only at Sheboygan.

done shovelling

2008-12-19T11:27:00.000-05:00

heading north - 300 miles.

S.Coast Coaster decision delayed

2008-12-07T22:30:00.000-05:00

Agency delays decision on coaster brook trout
by The Associated Press
Saturday December 06, 2008, 10:42 AM

MARQUETTE, Mich. - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has delayed a decision on whether to place the coaster brook trout on the endangered species list.

The agency had planned to make a tentative decision by Dec. 15 about the fish, which once thrived in the upper Great Lakes.

But Jessica Hogrefe, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife regional office in Minneapolis, tells The Mining Journal of Marquette for a Saturday story the agency is pushing back the decision until April to get more data.

"Coasters" are a type of brook trout that migrate from streams to lakes. Their historical range took in parts of Lakes Huron, Michigan and Superior, with spawning runs in more than 50 streams flowing into Lake Superior from Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.

A stroll along the north branch of the Chicago river watershed

2008-11-23T22:43:00.003-05:00

The stroll starts a block from my house at the bus stop where the sidewalk ends.

This 10 pt buck hangs out about 50 yards further in.

Time for lots of mad running.

27 degrees ? not too cold for a swim.

The ice at the edge is a bitch though.

frost on the leaves.

No birds here.

or here.

This place looks a little different in the first part of May.

'Fish technology' draws renewable energy from slow water currents

2008-11-23T22:26:00.002-05:00

Drawing renewable energy from slow water currents

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Slow-moving ocean and river currents could be a new, reliable and affordable alternative energy source. A University of Michigan engineer has made a machine that works like a fish to turn potentially destructive vibrations in fluid flows into clean, renewable power.

read the whole article here...

Midnight Regulations & Salmon Extinctions

2008-11-22T20:35:00.002-05:00

IT is the midnight hour for the Bush administration and they are trying their hardest to permanently cement, for all time, this administrations place as the single most hostile government to fishing, and environmental causes. As this administration goes extinct the regulations it puts in place will further damage watersheds and air and water quality every where. The illustration below is from this week's SF Chronicle.

20 salmon and trout species are not expected to survive in California in the next few decades unless radical changes are put into effect to insure that there are adequate flows of water into the habitat that these species need. I would call these endangered species. The midnight regulations being put in place in the last week aim to gut the endangered species laws, once and for all.

It is not just in California. There are examples all over the U.S. of how the extraction, power generation, and agricultural industries are being blessed by these outgoing executive rules that can hopefully be over turned by the incoming congress and the new president.

Banner update time

2008-11-15T09:59:00.002-05:00

The season has been closed for 6 weeks. I guess I've been in denial.

Winter stuff, tying flies, maybe some writing.

A centrist will not do

2008-11-15T09:24:00.002-05:00

Advice from those radicals at Mother Jones

The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect public health and the environment. Yet the agency has not done much protection of the environment, public health or the public interest in many, many years. The President-elect's pick for the agency is going to have to turn around an environmental crisis that mirrors the financial one. While Obama's rumored cabinet picks are largely people who cut their teeth in the Clinton administration, or showed rare bipartisanship over the past eight years, one place a centrist will not do is the Environmental Protection Agency.

There are some good environmental laws on the books; the problem is enforcement. The Bush administration has encouraged the worst industrial practices by, for example, refusing to regulate mercury from power plants or allowing mountaintop removal mining—and the incrementalists who ran EPA during the Clinton administration bear at least some responsibility. They should not be invited back.

The new EPA leadership is going to have to do two things.

The first is to throw the moneychangers out of the temple, literally: Replace Bush's corporate goons with public servants who will put science first, and rebuild the agency's enforcement capability and take on corporate interests who, not unlike the financial industry, have operated in an anything-goes world. The second, and perhaps more important role, will be to rebuild confidence in the agency and in the federal government's commitment to protect our citizens and our environment.

read the rest here...

Asian Carp : Welcome to the Great Lakes !

2008-11-11T07:51:00.003-05:00

Just don't know what to say about this anymore. Apparently the corps of engineers built an electronic barrier that will only work if the charge is a hazard to people and barge traffic. Good thing there is nothing really important at stake here.

Great Lakes, Great Peril

Low-volt jolt: Carp barrier ready, but can't be operated at peak strength

By Dan Egan of the Journal Sentinel

The man in charge of the Army Corps of Engineers' electric Asian carp barrier says it looks like the $9 million contraption is ready to be turned on, but not at a power level biologists say is necessary to actually stop all sizes of fish.

That means the door to the world's largest freshwater system will remain cracked open to the giant filter-feeding fish that could ruin the Great Lakes' multibillion dollar fishing industry, ravage their ecology and threaten recreational opportunities such as water skiing because of their dangerous penchant for hurtling out of the water when agitated by the whir of a boat motor.

The fish have already overwhelmed stretches of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers and have migrated to within about 15 miles of the barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

The electric gate was finished in early 2006, but aside from testing, the Corps has refused to turn it on because of worries about the dangers the electrified water could pose to barge operators and pleasure boaters plying the manmade waterway that links Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River.

On Oct. 31, the eight Great Lakes governors wrote the Army Corps and U.S. Coast Guard seeking answers. The letter followed an Oct. 5 Journal Sentinel story showing about $1 million of the $9 million so far spent on the project has gone toward more than two years of safety tests and other work to make the barrier safer. Yet despite all that effort, the federal government still wouldn't say when - or even if - the barrier would ever be activated. Now the Army Corps says it looks like it's ready to finally flip the switch.

"I think it's probably ready to go," Chuck Shea, barrier project manager for the Army Corps, said last week. "We've done a lot of tests, and recent results appear fairly promising."

But there is a catch: At this point the Corps would allow the barrier to operate at only about one quarter of its maximum power, or one volt per inch. That is the strength of a smaller "temporary" barrier currently operating in the canal at a level that biologists agree is not strong enough to permanently keep the carp out of the lakes. That is also the level the Corps promised the barge industry it would not exceed in a 2006 agreement allowing the new barrier to be turned on in an emergency if the temporary barrier fails, according to documents the Journal Sentinel obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Barge industry leaders fear that operating the barrier any higher than one volt per inch poses too much of a risk for sparking between barges, or for anyone who might fall overboard.

Power struggles

The Corps and Coast Guard say they still need more studies to determine if the barrier is safe to operate at its maximum power level of four volts per inch, but the one volt per inch level should be enough to protect the lakes from the supersized carp dubbed the 100-pound zebra mussel because of its ability to vacuum nutrients from the water.

The science says otherwise.

A throttled-down new barrier should repel larger adult fish, but little juvenile fish are less affected by electric currents and therefore need a bigger shock, according to laboratory research.

Shea said last week that the new barrier was always designed to operate at a "base" of one volt per inch and would be turned up to four volts only "if smaller fish become a concern in the future."

That's news to members of the advisory panel of scientists that has been helping the Corps get the barrier built.

"It was my impression that it was designed to operate at four volts per inch," said Phil Moy, a former Army Corps employee who now works for UW Sea Grant and is co-chair of the barrier advisory panel.

Panel member Irwin Polls said increasing the voltage was a major reason to build the new barrier in the first place.

"I do not remember anyone from the Corps mentioning that (the new barrier) would only operate at a higher voltage if young fish were present in the area," said Polls, a consultant who previously worked as a biologist for the Chicago sewer district.

Indeed, the Corps' own documents from 2006 note that the new barrier "will be operated at higher field strength, four volts per inch versus one volt per inch for the temporary barrier."

'Revisionist history'

The Army Corps has been wrestling with the voltage issue since 2004, when a barge operator reported electrical arcing between vessels at the temporary barrier. That could be a potentially hazardous situation because many of the boats carry flammable materials.

In 2005, records show, the Coast Guard asked the Army Corps to shut the temporary barrier down so safety tests could be conducted, but the Corps declined to leave the Great Lakes unprotected from the carp, and instead settled on new set of rules for boaters in the barrier zone, including a lifejacket requirement and no hitching or unhitching barges.

There have been no new safety incidents reported.

A big problem for the new barrier is that it was built just upstream from where barges unload their coal at a power plant. The Corps has spent $330,000 on a system to keep electricity flowing out of the barrier zone and into the coal loading area, and it appears to have worked - provided the barrier operates at only one volt per inch.

Work, meanwhile, is about to begin on a twin barrier just upstream from the new barrier. Its designers maintain that the new two-barrier system was always designed to work in tandem as a single unit, with the upstream barrier at times operating at a higher level and the existing new barrier typically operating at one volt per inch.

They say the new upstream barrier will be turned up above one volt if small carp are determined to be in the area, but that should happen only for a brief period each year after the annual spawn because the fish grow so fast.

That is nonsense, according to biologists who make their living studying Asian carp. The fish spawn throughout the warm months, and their growth rate can vary widely depending on how much food is in the river.

"You can find fish of any size in the river at any time of year," said Duane Chapman, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

And if the fish are smaller than about five inches, tests have shown one volt simply will not repel them all.

"Until we got close to four volts per inch, we were not overly effective at stopping small fish," said University of Nebraska biologist Mark Pegg, who conducted shock studies on the fish between 2002 and 2004.

Great Lakes Fishery Commission biologist John Dettmers said he has personally witnessed other species of small fish swimming just fine through the temporary barrier, and he calls it "revisionist history" that the Corps says the new barrier's normal operating level was never intended to be any higher than the temporary barrier.

"It's extremely disturbing that the Corps believes one volt per inch is sufficient to protect this very important waterway," Dettmers said.

He also said it is folly to think the barrier can be turned up only periodically to stop juvenile fish.

"We know small fish can be in the (river) almost the entire year, and it's going to be very difficult to determine exactly where those fish are at any time," he said.

More studies planned

Coast Guard officials in charge of safety on the canal say they are wrestling with a complex issue.

"The fish barrier must both prevent invasive species from migrating into Lake Michigan and also minimize the very real risk it poses to the lives and health of those many recreational and commercial waterways users who regularly pass near and over it," said Capt. Bruce Jones, the Milwaukee-based commander of the Coast Guard's Lake Michigan sector.

But advisory panel co-chairman Moy said he worries that biology is taking a backseat when the barge industry talks to the Army Corps and Coast Guard about how to best operate the new barrier.

"I'm just a little afraid that some of the science and invasive species biology might be left out of some of those discussions," Moy said. "I don't know of any biologists that have been involved with the discussions between the Corps and the Coast Guard and river carriers. Somewhere, some of the information is apparently not getting to the top."

While the carp have been mysteriously stalled about 15 miles below the new barrier for the past couple of years, biologists say that after a big spawning year they typically make significant gains in their northward migration. The fish were imported to Arkansas from Asia over three decades ago and escaped their containment ponds.

This past year the carp had a big spawning season.

Still, nobody should expect the barrier to be turned on to levels that will repel all the little fish anytime soon.

The Corps might be able to turn on the new barrier at the one-volt level in the coming weeks or months, but Shea said it "will not be operated at higher voltages until the higher voltage tests are completed, reviewed, and approved by the Corps and Coast Guard."

History suggests that could take years.

And that has a growing number of people demanding faster action.

"Failure to use that barrier as it was intended to keep the carp out of Lake Michigan is not an option," said Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, who also serves as the chairman of the Great Lakes Commission.

The cool kids @ buster & Barack

2008-11-08T19:23:00.004-05:00

From Buster wants to fish, an invite to fly fish:

Open letter to President-Elect Barack Obama

Dear President-Elect Obama,

You prolly knew this was coming and stuff, but we at the Buster can’t help but put it out there proper since no one else has. Besides, we know you’ve been busy stomping fools and doling out extra-strength cans of robot beatdown.

If we recall right, you said, “One way or another, after this presidential process is over, whether–because I lose or because I win–and I’ve got a little vacation time coming, I’m going to learn how to fly fish.” and we sorta dug your whole heavy vibe there. It’s what we woulda done if we were in your shoes, but we’d have probably done it sooner and forgot about that long, yadda, yadda presidential race thing. Bad timing, it being fall and what not. Salmons, steelhead, muskies, smallies and trout—things go off in fall. You’ll learn.

That said, let’s do us some fishing. Be pretty cool to hang out with some regular folks instead of all those D.C. humps. A couple of us have boats that don’t smell all-too-bad, trucks that sometimes run and Smiff’s a professional fishguy that might even be able to hook you up with some sweet free pants or something. Thee and WT are 169% dialed on the Washington scene and Wally knows how to keep Thee’s surly quelled provided he hasn’t gotten into the brown liquor, Wook’s got the Northeast locked and people fear him so there’d be no need for the Men in Black. Creek’s even down in the Dirty, Dirty if you can’t get North.

You like hiking right? Salty’s always cool for an anklebone cast and blast and the Banknote and I’d be happy to put you on a swung-fly steelhead, but then you’d prolly quit your day job and buy a truck with a canopy and end up with capilene bonded to your legs or something from just bumming out all winter and such. Be pretty cool, tho. The hell with Joe the Plumber when you can get Bacon the Steelheader, right? You like Dinty Moore? Sweet, I’ll get two cans. Genuine unity, fella.

Hell, B, I’ll even take you salmon fishing. I know, it’s not all fly fishing, but it’s real badass and a good reminder of how real, regular folks still put real, unprocessed food on their family’s table. If we find rollers, maybe I’ll show you how to huck shooting heads. No promises there. You really should know how to tie your own bait loops and thread a sandshrimp and eggs beforehand, tho. See, I gotta row the plugs while you backbounce. No free rides and normally I’d say ass, grass or gas but we’ll let all those slide because you’re Mr. Obama not Mr. Clinton. We don’t have to talk like politicos or anything either, except I do wanna get some stuff straight about what’s-her-name’s support for the Pebble Mine because it’s gonna really put a lot of my friends out of work and let foreign interests irreparably wreck a national jewel like Bristol Bay. And the Columbia River gillnetters, the Snake River dams and all that private industry logging that steals both from our public forests and our Northwest identity, which oughta be cool since you said you were committed to restoring the Northwest salmon in that Portland speech last fall. Umm, what else? Eggs go to the boat and don’t mind the dog. She’s a female and all, but sometimes she’ll lay her hump on into your leg like a male would. I don’t know why. She’s cool tho. Brings the mojo. You’ll see.

Last thing: We’ll prolly have you out well after dark, so you might wanna set it up proper with Michelle and the kids so it’s not our last time on the water. Done right, you’ll smell like fish so as to prove we didn’t just go to some peeler club instead of fishing. Gotta keep the ladies happy. Always.

Thanks, a sincere congratulations on that thing last Tuesday night and we’re looking forward to fishing with you, good sir. We bid you dogspeed,

The Buster Wants to Fish Crew

PS: I like Rainier. Talls. In a brown paper bag. Sorta assuming you’ve got the hook-up, so maybe you could score some of those old-schooly Rainer pounders in the brown glass bottles too? KThnxbye.

If those rowdies are a but much for you, and you are looking for some more local to Chicago fly fishing, hdw-mobile is glad to step in.

Fly tying season

2008-11-07T08:05:00.002-05:00

These are a dozen 18 CDC BWO Cripple Emergers destined for a fly swap.
I call them "whatchoolookinat".

BOO !

2008-10-30T23:07:00.003-05:00

You know.. those places where trout live.

2008-10-27T21:27:00.001-05:00

New EPA rule would weaken regulations for power plants
By RENEE SCHOOF
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency is working at the Bush administration's direction on a new rule that would weaken regulations for power plants, allowing them to increase emissions without adding pollution controls.

EPA officials have been working on a fast track to meet a Saturday deadline, but many of them are arguing against changing the rule, said former EPA attorney John Walke and an EPA career official who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because the official wasn't authorized to make statements.

They said that the EPA was expected to decide later in November on another eleventh-hour rule that would allow more power plants to be built near national parks and wilderness areas.

The rule about power plant emissions is something that power companies have sought for many years, and it was part of Vice President thingy Cheney's 2001 energy plan. Rules finalized more than 60 days before the administration leaves office are harder for the next administration to undo.

The Clean Air Act requires older plants that have their lives extended with new equipment to install pollution-control technology if their emissions increase. The rule change would allow plants to measure emissions on an hourly basis, rather than total yearly output. This way, plants could run for more hours and increase overall emissions without exceeding the threshold that would require adding pollution controls.

The Edison Electric Institute, an association of shareholder-owned electric companies that represents about 70 percent of the U.S. electric-power industry, told the EPA that it supports changing the rule because improvements at plants would allow them to produce more energy with less fuel and in this way reduce emissions per unit of electrical output.

The EPA official said that concerns in the agency were that the analysis justifying the rule change was weak and the administration didn't plan to make the analysis public for a comment period.

The EPA originally argued that changing the rule wouldn't seriously harm the environment because another law, the Clean Air Interstate Rule, reduced power plant emissions, offsetting any increase under the new rule. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated the interstate rule, however, and the EPA was stuck with having to develop a new analysis to justify the change.

Walke, who's now the director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's clean air program, said EPA officials in two departments told him they were under instructions to finalize the rule by Saturday. When such rules are made, it's common practice for the White House and the vice president's office to give the EPA their views, then the EPA chief makes a decision.

Walke said two EPA officials told him that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson and Robert Meyers, the assistant administrator in charge of air issues, didn't agree with the new rule. EPA spokesman Jonathan Schradar said they hadn't made a decision yet and that he had no comment about their views.

Schradar said the EPA was committed to finalizing the rule by the time Bush left office in January. He said work was continuing on it and that "rumors are exaggerated" about a Saturday deadline.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the administration was moving to adopt the changes to the power-plant emissions rule.

1 million hits in 36 hours

2008-10-26T14:07:00.001-05:00

Sexploitation and HDW-Mobile

2008-10-20T19:05:00.005-04:00

The yellowstoner has noticed it has been three weeks since my last post.

I've been in a bit of a shell shocked state since the closing of the season, a heartbreaking post of staggering genius to come shortly...

Fall cast and blast IV

2008-09-27T23:33:00.005-04:00

Today I did morning and evening blast and no cast as we really did have to do the winterizing.

Some landscapes with gun and dog. My Brother took these so no claim as to composition or real pic value.

Some shotgun pron.

and no boyds but me & and the dog had a good time.

The one on the top is my grandfather's Winchester 12 gauge model 1897 total take down made in 1913.The one on the bottom is my uncle's 1985 Montie Ward WesternField 20 gauge. This is the same Winchester as above with two ducks and my grandfather in 1958.

No woodcock or grouse were harmed in the production of this blog post.

Fall cast and blast III

2008-09-26T23:00:00.007-04:00

Decided to flip the day and fished first and then did the bird hunt this evening. In an an effort to work on the south shore coaster projetc we went after the lake runs this morning. Hit one of the U.P. streams with one of the greatest stream names ever.

Some dead stuff on the stream bank.

We brought home some Lake Superior Coho.

And this evening the shotguns were exercised. The woodcock and the grouse remain unscathed.

iPhone to iFly

2008-09-26T22:56:00.001-04:00

Drowned iPhone 3G Reincarnated as Beautiful Fishing Lure

From Gizmodo

It's the circle of life, really: man drops iPhone in river while fishing, iPhone dies, iPhone is torn apart, iPhone becomes fishing lure, iPhone catches dinner. Life goes on.

read the whole post here

Fall cast and blast II

2008-09-26T08:44:00.004-04:00

Day 2 results much similar to Day 1. Grouse flushed with none accidently flying into the direction that the birdshot was flying. The day was warm and the dog got a work out. Here he is lying down on the ground drinking from his bowl refusing to make eye contact with me because he is so disappointed in one half of the team.

As usual the cast portion of the day went much better.

With no grouses to bring home I took a couple of trout for the old man back at the cabin.

There are essential vitamins and nutrients in fresh caught brook trout that are very beneficial for 86 yr olds.

Fall cast and blast

2008-09-25T09:24:00.001-04:00

under the "time to close the U.P. cabin" category I did the late night north woods run after work Tuesday. Headed out Weds morning with the dog and the shotguns, left the camera at home, and the hunting was good but the shooting was bad, which is our traditional family way. Spent the afternoon on stream.

a rock ledge in the cedar swamp off of the river, with a free flowing seep, and seep where it goes into the main channel.

some of the locals trouts.

@shag

2008-09-24T04:09:00.001-04:00

big bridge

2008-09-24T01:15:00.000-04:00

green bay

mlwkee

2008-09-23T21:26:00.000-04:00

heading north

2008-09-23T20:18:00.000-04:00

on the Edens

so totally not your fly fish zen ...

2008-09-22T19:41:00.004-04:00

Once it seemed, the NYTIMES had good outdoor writers. Now they print this trash.

"Unlike Matt and Arma, who had been fishing most of their lives, I was a rank novice with a decidedly ambivalent attitude. My sole previous experience consisted of a two-day course in freshwater fly fishing at an exclusive upstate resort that had left my head swimming with indigestible biological minutiae and my sought-after quarry swimming unscathed in their natural habitat."

I don't really care if this guy doesn't like fishing. But how about printing something by someone who "likes, uh, can write". I mean... "serendipitous" ? WTF ?

Executive Pursuits

Dinner, From Hook to Fork

By HARRY HURT III

Published: September 20, 2008

If I happen to die a happy man, it will be in no small part because of the serendipitous seafaring expedition I took with Arma and Matt on the afternoon of our feast at the American Hotel.

HDW - mobile

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12 Aug 2009: Obama Administration Okays
Major Mountaintop Removal Coal Project