something about flyfishing

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.

"rw"
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.

You can['t always get what you want...
But if you try sometimes....

You might give large mouth bass fishing a shot just for kicks and giggles...
Mexico has some very productive lakes and there's worse things to do.

john

"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

Tom Nakashima wrote:

You sound a little depressed.

I'm not depressed, but I'm bored. I always get bored in California.
Stanley, Idaho is a far more interesting place to live, even in the
winter. I suspect that the large majority of people wouldn't feel that
way, but I do.

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.

I live in the Willows neighborhood, just north of the Palo Alto border
at San Francisquito Creek and east of Middlefield Road. I know where
SLAC is, of course.

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.

I afraid I don't have all my flyfishing gear along, aside from a couple
of sal****er rigs for Mexico. I could conceivably join you at the
Trinity if I could borrow a pair of waders and boots. I've never really
had good fishing in California, so I tend to avoid it.

If you want to get together for sushi I'm game.

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

"rw" wrote


I always get bored in California. Stanley, Idaho is a far more interesting
place to live, even in the winter. I suspect that the large majority of
people wouldn't feel that way, but I do.


I find California far more boring than Montahoming, too. That may be
because I'm here in boring old Winter, there in fishing season, but I felt
the same way years back when I'd travel there for mostly non-fishing
reasons.





. I've never really
had good fishing in California, so I tend to avoid it.



When I first read your post, I scanned my brain for places to suggest to you
.... then decided there was no place I wanted to go fish in California,
either



a 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.


I think we all fish for different reasons, and, yes, each of us for
different reasons at different times. For me, the 'main' reason comes
close to spiritual ... quiet personal interaction with Nature in relatively
unspoiled places, and solitude. When I get uneasy and "need to fish"
far from those places and legal times, I can often find similar psychic
refueling from simple rod-less walks along remote section of river, or along
the beach, or at a wildlife refuge. Fishing is often just an excuse to "go
there" .... and there are other excuses, out of season ... "I need to" being
a fine excuse .. we deserve it.


Menlo Park, California


Whoa, Flash back. About 1970 ( I remember which dog is involved and
her rough age at the time ) I went for a long walk into the large marshland
the used to exist at the end of San Antonio Rd in the East Palo Alto area.
I took a young Golden with me and we scared a mama Mallard and her brood in
one of the sloughs.

She quacked an alarm, the chicks dove, and she went off pretending to be
crippled.

Jenny and I hid behind some bushes to see what would happen after the
intruder was "gone." Soon mama came back and quacked up a storm until
her entire brood was swimming in her wake again.

The whole thing was so cute to watch that ( and I've sufffered guilt over
this for 35 years ) I decided to scare them again to watch the process
repeat.

I stepped out, mom raised the alarm, chicks dove .... and a HUGE swirl and
then another and another boiled around the spots where they went under.
I waited a long time but only about half the chicks ever reappeared.
Thirty five years ago there were still big Stripers in those sloughs at high
tide and I can only guess that one had duckling for lunch. (Where's Sandy
with a wiggling duckling tie? )



I also used to sometimes hunt the very south end of the Bay back then and it
was like a wilderness out there, the city lights far too far away to reduce
the sense of uneasy danger on cold, windy, December mornings. It was
common to see seals, tens of thousands of waterfowl, and big fish herding
and chasing bait.

Life is very short, and a lifetime really shouldn't be enough to see change
in the environment. But in mine I've witnessed the massive degrading of
many, too many, small habitats. ( I used to wade around with a net and
catch crabs in the Chesapeake Bay, near Easton, too, they were thick ... is
that still possible, right coasters ? )

I wonder what our great-great grandkids will do, where they will go, for the
refueling that only Nature provides .. at least for me.

Larry L wrote:

Life is very short, and a lifetime really shouldn't be enough to see change
in the environment. But in mine I've witnessed the massive degrading of
many, too many, small habitats.

The San Francisco Bay is one of the most horrible examples of wetlands
destruction, as for that matter so is the entire California Central
Valley. I've heard, but not observed, that the reclamation of the salt
ponds in the SF Bay is going well. That at least is a ray of hope.

I used to work at NASA Ames, and my office was in the building farthest
toward the bay, right up against the wetlands. There was a pretty good
variety of wildlife: burrowing owls (right next to the building in a
pile of construction dirt that never got removed), gopher snakes,
tortoises, hares, ducks, hawks, and the occasional golden eagle.

( I used to wade around with a net and
catch crabs in the Chesapeake Bay, near Easton, too, they were thick ... is
that still possible, right coasters ? )

That a funny coincidence. I grew up in Baltimore and my grandparents had
a modest summer place on the bay, just south of Baltimore. I had a small
dory-like rowboat that I used for crabbing. I'd lay out a trot line with
floats and droppers with chicken bait (necks and backs). I'd leave the
bait for awhile and then slowly bring up the droppers. The crabs would
follow along and could easily be netted. It was usually no problem to
get a basket of crabs. I'd also catch white and yellow perch, and the
occasional small striper, eel, or the exceedingly ugly oyster fish. Once
I caught a gar.

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

Larry L wrote:
( I used to wade around with a net and
catch crabs in the Chesapeake Bay, near Easton, too, they were thick ... is
that still possible, right coasters ? )

Like a lot of places, possible? Yes. As easy as it used to be? No.
The Bay (that's the Chesapeake Bay around here) is alive, but of very
questionable health. I'm not able to quote statistics, but based on my
lifetime here, it's as bad as it's ever been overall. Some places show
improvement, but I'm not enthusiastic about it ever improving
significantly from here. Among overfishing, runoff, development, and
all of the other bad actors, there's just too much pressure toward
degradation. Hell, my favorite place on the Bay, the quiet little
seafood town of Crisfield, now sports (I **** you not) several
multi-story condominium complexes right on the shoreline, with more in
the works. Word is, the other towns like Deale Island, etc. are
going through the same upscaling. It's unbelieveable.

That said, it is still possible to find a salt marsh and paddle around;
but the crabs are far less plentiful these days.

Joe F.

rb608 wrote:
Larry L wrote:
( I used to wade around with a net and
catch crabs in the Chesapeake Bay, near Easton, too, they were thick ... is
that still possible, right coasters ? )

Like a lot of places, possible? Yes. As easy as it used to be? No.
The Bay (that's the Chesapeake Bay around here) is alive, but of very
questionable health. I'm not able to quote statistics, but based on my
lifetime here, it's as bad as it's ever been overall. Some places show
improvement, but I'm not enthusiastic about it ever improving
significantly from here. Among overfishing, runoff, development, and
all of the other bad actors, there's just too much pressure toward
degradation. Hell, my favorite place on the Bay, the quiet little
seafood town of Crisfield, now sports (I **** you not) several
multi-story condominium complexes right on the shoreline, with more in
the works. Word is, the other towns like Deale Island, etc. are
going through the same upscaling. It's unbelieveable.

That said, it is still possible to find a salt marsh and paddle around;
but the crabs are far less plentiful these days.

Pretty much the same story here in the upper Great Lakes region. The
once bountiful yellow perch, smelt, lake trout and whitefish are all
but gone.

Pretty much the same story around the world.

The GOOD news is that there are no environmental problems......it's all
just scare tactics from a bunch of hysterical reactionaries whose only
goal in life is to impede progress by whatever means, fair or foul,
they can find.

Wolfgang
and good news is better than bad news, right?

"Larry L" wrote in message
...

. I've never really
had good fishing in California, so I tend to avoid it.


I've found some of the best fly fishing in California is in the Eastern
Sierras. There are a lot of beautiful streams and lakes, but you have to
hike in to get to them. Most of your average fly-fisherman are not willing
to work to get there. Some of the lakes and streams aren't marked on a Topo
map in the Eastern Sierra's so it's only by word of mouth. Some are clearly
marked on the map, but when you get there, there's nothing. Some we've
stumbled upon by accident. We have hiked into places where the fishing was
outstanding and the fish would take anything we threw at them, of course the
best thing is not another person in sight.
fwiw,
-tom

"Tom Nakashima" wrote


I've found some of the best fly fishing in California is in the Eastern
Sierras. There are a lot of beautiful streams and lakes, but you have to
hike in to get to them.




So as to not give there rest of the world the wrong impression.
California contains some of Nature's very best efforts, including fishing
holes. But, in early December it's hard to point to any fishing that I
thought might appeal to rw.

Actually, I 'think' the upper Sac is now open year round? Once you're
away from I-5 and the railroad it's lovely and can be very good fishing.

As an ex-mountaineer let me point out that the Sierra is probably THE most
off-trail friendly mountain range in the world. With good topos and some
route finding skills nearly anyplace is accessible without such pleasure
robbing features as huge talus fields, scree, miles of downed forest etc,
often nearly pavement like routes on exposed, smooth, granite can be found.

We have lots of people ( send your money to Planned Parenthood ... less
people is the only hope for the future and I like prevention better than
Bush and Ben Laden control tactics ) and that means crowds exist. I've
been lucky in that I've always worked weekends ( my clients time off for
them to visit their mutts ) and hunted and fished mid-week when solitude can
be found even close to big cities.


Opps, getting sidetracked ( retired guy hazard ) .... anyway, world, ....
California has much great natural beauty to offer, come visit, leave your
money .... and, ah, leave G