"Jeff Miller" wrote in message
news:ck8td.1405$MC.1183@lakeread04...
so...um, have you set the the date for the next u.p. carnivale?
post-skeeter and black-fly season i hope, if i may be so bold as to make a
request. my blood isn't pulsing with the vigor that allows for the
interruption or loss occasioned by wrestling with those critters during
their period of strength.

past weekend, i went out in pursuit of speckled trout (salt water
variety)...caught a solitary too-small flounder, but in the effort i saw
pelicans sky-diving for fish and observed a gaggle/pride/herd, or lotsa,
porpoise chasing bait fish into the shore of a salt marsh. amazing.
sometimes the lookin is every bit as much fun a part of fishing as the
catching.

i'm looking forward to the u.p. and gettin cross with bruce again...that's
a fun part of fishin too. might even like to visit that oxymoron, uh,
octagon, un, onemoregone...well, i know there's a stream nearabouts with a
funny name we can abuse...

"it's all touch and go"

jeff

It's a pity you didn't meet Jay while you were here last time. As you
probably remember, Jay is one of the brothers who owns the shack we stayed
in up in the UP. As a matter of fact, Becky and I had dinner with Jay and
his girlfriend night before last. You wouldn't ****in' believe the house
she's got out in Elm Grove. I mean, this place has got THREE zip codes!
And on a teacher's salary? Uh huh. I don't get it. She's got the place up
for sale.......it's too big. No ****. This place is too big for the
Ringling brothers. The HD TV is kick ass though. And the pool
table......in the billiard room......above the garage. Anyway, we did a
sort of Thai thing. Jay made some kind of beef (well, venison, actually)
and green bean thingy that was just WAY too bland till I mashed up some
ginger, garlic, and black pepper in the mortar and pestle (BIG new mortar
and pestle from Chu Hai, the local Asian market) and threw it in. Turned
out pretty good. I was going to make Tung Tong, but what with the wine
flowing and the muse kicking in, I did a soup instead......mushrooms, lemon
grass, galangal, ginger, lime leaves, lime juice, coconut milk, lotus seeds,
cilantro.......you know. Becky says that Patty just sort of pushed all the
meat and veggies out of the way and ate what was left. What was left? I
dunno. Anyway......um.........

Oh yeah, I taught Jay pretty much everything he knows about fly fishing
(well, and cooking and woodworking and brewing and.......well, never mind)
but he sort of went nuts and started fishing all over the western UP. Well,
he might as well be fishing because when he's not, he and his idiot brothers
are taking the barrel stove out of the shack and putting in a propane heater
(what the **** is THAT about, asks I ......to no avail) and now they're
talking about putting in a ****ing CEILING! Honest to God, I don't make
this **** up! Next thing you know they'll be putting in electric lights and
taking out the gas refrigerator. Whattaworld!

O.k., so, Jay doesn't know much about fishing, but he IS enthusiastic, and
he knows the streams up there better than I do because there's no point in
him staying in one place long enough to catch a fish cuz it ain't gonna
happen anyway, but we should definitely consult with him about where to go
if we were to make another trip up that way......and I think we
should......whew!

SO, whatever, yeah, there's lots of streams we haven't fished up there yet,
and I think we should do it......ALL of them.....what the hell.! May is a
good time. September is good too. No bugs to speak of and the fish are
grand. However.........

Wayne and Bill have been talking about a Troll clave (you know.....the lower
peninsula.....BELOW the bridge.....the big mac) on the holy waters sometime
this coming season. If I was in the business of giving advice, and you of
taking it, I'd suggest we get together on the notion of exploring this
possibility. The Au Sable, so I'm told, is big enough to float a Baker AND
it holds trout!

Wolfgang