"rw" wrote in message
ink.net...
Since returning from Alaska in early September I haven't wet a line, aside
from a short and rather desultory (with regard to fishing, at least)
camper trip to Kelly Creek in northern Idaho. (Great trip otherwise.) I
was, frankly, fished out. The Alaska trip with Willi and Bruiser and Danl
and Bevin was outstanding -- even epic -- but I'd had enough. I had no
real interest in fishing for the first time in many years.

Fall trout fishing in central Idaho can be wonderful, especially in the
high lakes. But there were other things to do -- primarily elk hunting,
which turned out to be unsuccessful but personally rewarding nonetheless.
Then there was politics. Politics in a tiny and somewhat crazy town like
Stanley, Idaho can be all-consuming if you let it be. September and
November were a non-stop whirl of socializing and going to meetings and
hunting and bar hopping. No time for fishing, but my heart wasn't in it
anyway.

Now I'm back in the Menlo Park, California, planning for my camper trip to
Mexico in January, and I'm getting the fishing jones again. I'll fish in
Mexico, of course, but that isn't what I really need. I crave cold water
fly fishing for trout, especially for eager, easy cutthroat coming up
through 12 feet of crystalline water to take a big ugly on the surface.
That's just about my favorite thing in the whole world.

My life is blessed in many ways. My health is good, I have no worries
about money, I have many friends, some of whom I've met through ROFF. In
spite of my good fortune, I'm starting to feel uneasy because I want,
right now, more than just about anything, to go trout fishing on a cold,
clear, familiar, freestone mountain stream. It won't happen until late
June at the earliest.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.

You sound a little depressed.
I can't say I've been fished out since my Alaska adventure this past July,
but I do miss it, so we booked another trip back there for '07.
Where in Menlo Park? I work at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center off
Sand Hill Rd.
If you get too bored, we can share some casting techniques, I'm probably not
too far away.
I may also head up to the Trinity for the Steelhead run, during the Xmas
shutdown....the fishing's been good up there from my connections.
-tom