All the other stuff

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19
Sep 14

This is your brain on GEOBASS

These GEOBASS guys are kind of hardcore. Really, they are the definition of hardcore. They seem to live on the edge a bit, sometimes hanging over it suspended by grit and determination and duct tape.

The latest installment has them going to Papua New Guinea. I fell a bit like an expert about Papua New Guinea as I represented that country at a Model UN conference for a weekend in college, which was mostly an excuse to drink and go to NYC. Beyond that I know they have a lot of different languages, a fair bit of poverty and some fish.

Good thing none of the group are female.

Check out the Costa sponsored goodness:

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14
Sep 14

The Drought

Here in California things are going poorly on the water front. Rivers are getting skinny, or even stopping flowing altogether. Fires are burning all over the place, one near where I used to live.

This is one (of the many) thing I love about bonefishing. The oceans are not drying up. There are a host of things wrong with the oceans… acidification, masses of plastic, over fishing, netting, effluent from the damn golf courses… it is not a short list.

Drought is not on the list.

September is going to be rough in California. Who knows what else will burn down, but the oceans… the oceans are not going to catch fire… probably.

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07
Sep 14

My “I’m going fishing dance”

While in Montana I broke into an “I’m going fishing dance” before rowing my wife down the Kootenai.

Luckily, this was captured in pictures.

dancing 1

I will likely do a similar dance in Florida in a little under a month.

Fishing still makes me feel like a kid. It makes me happy. It makes my soul content.

If I step back and look at it rationally, it doesn’t make much sense that this activity would give me so much joy. I don’t eat the fish. I don’t get paid to fish. I don’t get any tangible reward from the activity.

And yet… I look forward to every day on the water, be it fishing for sharks off the pier with bait, for 4″ trout with a dry fly on a little creek or a 4 lb. bonefish in a foot of warm and totally transparent saltwater.

I’m even smiling as I think about it.

So, here’s to the irrational joy of fishing. I hope you have it too.

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22
Aug 14

New Mug

A gift from my birthday yesterday.

I do love bonefish, but I have also really grown to love the other things one finds swimming on the flats like cudas and sharks. It is something that happens, I think, when you really start looking around. You start to see the beauty in everything that is there, not just the thing you came there for.

I’m going to need a bigger cup.

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21
Aug 14

The Blog Turns 5

Fishing is good.

I started this thing five years ago today. Hard to imagine, but true. In that time I’ve seen some pretty fantastic places and shared a lot of stories. I’ve gone on my own physical and metaphorical journeys and I’ve brought you lot along with me. I’ve met a few of you and fished with even fewer, but I feel like I know a great number of you, at least a bit.

It has been fun and I look forward to the fun continuing.

I’m posting a bit less these days, but that’s not because I’m not thinking about it as much, I just have had a harder time finding the time with the new baby in the mix.

I don’t know what the 6th year will bring. I know I’ll be in the Keys here in a couple months, so that’s nice. I’m also hoping to do another hosted trip in 2015, maybe to Andros, maybe to Grand Bahama. It remains to be seen.

I look forward to it all.

Thanks for reading and sharing your own stories as well.

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12
Aug 14

BTT Artist of the Year, Al Barnes

I do dig some bonefish art. The good stuff catches your eye just for a second while you are on about your non-bonefishing day and just for a second you can hear the sound of the wind through the mangroves and feel the deck sway on the current under your feet… just for a second.

Al Barnes is the 2014 Bonefish and Tarpon Trust Artist of the Year.

His work does just that.

hail mary-1

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11
Aug 14

What makes the Bahamas Special

I recently came across an article about some resort developer talking about what makes the Bahamas special.

It just goes to show how far apart two people can get when looking to find value from the same object.

When I think about what makes the Bahamas awesome I do not thing about jet skis, dolphin encounters (except when you actually encounter a dolphin, like, out in the wild), golf or horseback riding.

Those might actually be things I find distasteful about the Bahamas. They are the sorts of things and places I actively avoid in the Bahamas.

Here are a few of the things I find awesome about the Bahamas.

This guy is fun to fish with.

1. The Vibe

The Bahamas, I’ve found, are very welcoming. They want you there. They want you to have a good time. They want you to get to know and love what they love, their home. I have not felt resentment or anger at being a tourist. I have only felt warmth. The smile seem genuine for the most part. The pace of life is a bit slower, but that is why you are likely there in the first place.

Perfect

2. The Ecosystem

From the massive mangrove nurseries of Andros to the the Marls, the Bahamas is, for the time being, still a very functional ecosystem. The predators are still there. The prey is still there. You see turtles and osprey and cudas and sharks and permit and tarpon and jacks and blue crabs and so on and so on and so on. It might not stay that way, but it is that way right now. It feels very in-tact.

3. The Food

Cracked Conch, Conch Fritters, Conch Salad and some lobster thrown into the mix. Yes please. Yes and yes and yes again. I love the local cuisine and the care and love with which it is served.

perfect

4. The guides and the fishing

Watching a Bahamian guide work the water is a thing of beauty. The deep knowledge they have in their bones, the eagle eyes, the flawless and effortless casting… it is an experience to be out with a good guide in the Bahamas and one I relish and look forward to every time. Even guideless, the fishing can be exceptional and you are almost certain to have your shots. You may not convert, but you’ll get shots and some days… some days are magical.

Dwayne, calling out a fish to Jason Bourne (photo from Aaron Vanderwall)

Those are a few reasons I love the Bahamas… not because of Atlantis or jet skiing.

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06
Aug 14

Camping and then into misery

I got to go camping with my girl again last weekend. We met up with an old college friend of mine up at Pinecrest. It was a lot of fun and the girl enjoyed herself. I wanted to get camping twice this summer and I did. When you have split custody, your summer is only half as long and it can be hard to fit everything in. You blink and it is gone. Glad I got this on the books and glad my wife was OK with me taking off and leaving her alone with the 7 month old.

The girl, in her natural habitat.

There was, of course, a little fishing, this time on the South Fork of the Stanislaus River. As with most kinds of fishing, we just had to get away from all the people and then got into the fish. They weren’t big, but they were pretty. Most were 5″ to 9″, but I lost one at the very end that was maybe 15″. They were pretty fish with vivid coloration. It was a great little river and perfect for the 4 wt.

Little, pretty trout.

Toward the end of the trip I started having some tooth pain (not my favorite kind of pain) and by the time I got home, I was pretty miserable. Things went from bad to worse and now I pretty much look like I lost a boxing match. I’m about to turn the corner on this little abscess, which is good… because I’m not a fan.

Not awesome.

So, the blog as has been a little light lately due to the camping and the tooth, but I’ll get things back going. Not to worry.

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31
Jul 14

The tough day

Not a bad fish.

It was 10 years ago I went on a trip with my dad to the Babine River in BC to fish waters my dad and grandfather fished for many years, to fish a hole on the river named after my grandfather and to have a shot at a 20# steelhead.

That was my first trip to a lodge, my first week of lodge fishing. I had high expectations, even though I told myself not to.

The fishing was great. The catching, on some days, was not. I was surprised by that. It doesn’t get much more remote than the Babine and it has one of the best steelhead runs left in the world. I kind of thought it would be 10 fish a day and aches and pains from fighting all those many pounds of ocean trained trout.

There was at least one day I didn’t land a fish despite the routine of cast, drift, retrieve repeated 1,000 times.

There were fish caught… even some big fish (although not my 20 pounder), but there were still many hours of quiet, fishless contemplation.

It can be hard, mentally, to get to your dream destination and have trouble finding the fish. Not everyone can have the “it is great just to be here” mentality, especially on your first big trip. It gets a bit easier to take that mindset on once you have done a few trips and have come to understand even at the great destinations, the fish still don’t just jump on the fly.

Be it the Seychelles, the Bahamas, the Babine… fishing is still fishing and some days are better than others, so you better enjoy just being there.

Have you been surprised to travel across the world to find the fish lock-jawed?

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28
Jul 14

Looking up

The clan in Grand Bahama in 2013

I was at my mom’s memorial service over the weekend. It went well. Hundreds of people came to pay their respects as the community said goodbye to an amazing woman. You can read my remarks about my mom (I gave to short speeches) here.

It is easy to get a little myopic when you have something like that coming up. I found it wasn’t until I got home from the trip that I realized I had no idea what I needed to do for the very next day (that would be today) as I head to the World Transplant Congress (a work thing). I had not planned on shifting the nanny’s schedule, or planned on meals for my wife or taken care of much of anything else. I had been so focused on the weekend I kind of forgot about everything else.

It occurred to me there is a parallel to how I am when I have a bonefishing trip coming up. I get a bit focused on that, maybe to the exclusion of all else. We know that to plan a trip makes you happy, maybe even happier than actually being on the trip. I get back from the trip and am at a bit of a loss for a few days, as if I never expected to actually have to come back.

A funeral is different, of course… you aren’t really looking forward to something like that and you don’t want to stay there, but it does consume your attentions.

A bit of a ramble here, but, I think I’m entitled. I’m working at the World Transplant Congress here in SF through Wed. So, if you are a transplant doctor, come by the booth (#311). I’ll post when I can.

Bonefish on the Brain Bonefish and all that relates (maybe a bit about tarpon too).