there is shit in the river!

damn. i tried really, super hard to fish this weekend. really. and i "fished" but didn't really feel very fishy about it. see, first there was saturday, after finally getting over my guilt about leaving my wife and baby to go fishing (this subject will someday have its very own post) for a half day, i set out for a river at about 1 in the afternoon. a 40 minute drive, 10 minute stop for a license and dark at around 7 means 5 hours fishing MAX, plus steelie is along which cuts at least another 30-60 minutes out for dog management. i hightail, get there and see lotsa no parking signs at planned stop #1, stop #2 has plenty of access but i see the river, or lack of it, and realize my odds are low...at least i brought the single-hander. all that aside, i still got to fish and caught a decent trout, but that wasn't the point. it felt like a bust, much like getting amped up for a porterhouse and getting a cookie cutter feed lot grease burger instead...edible, but barely.

sunday. ahhh yes, good ole sunday. no more worries about the whole guilt thing cause kari and elsa were coming with. we got rolling at about 11:30, which, all things considered was pretty damned solid. when we made it to the river we had to spend a little time getting elsa prepped, rods strung and the dog under control, but it went well. the water was a little dirty but very fishable. kari sat down on a nice log seat to feed elsa and i went upstream to fish a greasy little tailout fulla boulders and the like. i got about ten casts in and kari gave a holler and a wave. so i reel up, head down and see the milk that is supposed to be ingested, was outgested, all over elsa's clothes and kari's waders. oh well, not a big deal, we'll go back to the car, re-group and head upstream to the original destination a little further from traffic. about half-way there i look at the river and it is a fucking mud slide, like literally, this shit was one part per million away from being mud.

we hit the highway for plan b, get ten minutes down the road and i lose all electrical power in the car, all the dash gauges are out, radio is out, heater fan is out, etc. this isn't a great thing, i thought, battery? alternator? hmmm? and then the power was back on, then off again, then on again and off and on. the whole time the car ran great, but with a 2 month old in the rig it was probably best to try to make it home. and we did, but barely. the car finally lost power at our exit, we made it up the ramp doing about 30, and i thought we were gonna have to hit the ditch, but when i pushed the clutch in and sat at the stoplight for 30 seconds i got all my power back, everything came back on. wtf? ever since, the problem has not come back, but my wipers are still slow and some other weird shit is going on so the beast is going to the shop tomorrow. hopefully, next time we try to go fishing, we will be able to fish. that would be great. wish me luck fools, i need it!

three weeks ago

forgot to post this...it was good, one night of camping, a day and a half of fishing, and three less hatchery pukes to dilute the wild genes. all removed via long rod, floating line and small fly.

Ahhhhhhhh......

I took my own advice and went fishing. It was most superbly awesome. We saw no fish, but something did make a pass at my pink leech. I was fishing for Coho and it felt like a trout, but Coho are known to sometimes be very light biters, so you never know. Nonetheless, the real highlight was that the whole crew came along. Kari put Elsa in a little sling and we hiked in to a spot mostly off the beaten path, we had a big stretch of river to ourselves and soaked it all in. We were out from about 1-7 and Elsa proved herself to be a champion of the riverbank at a mere 17 days old! Hopefully this is foreshadowing things to come...I have high hopes :) ...on to the pictures already!

Deep thoughts, by the leech

This whole parenting thing is throwing my mind for a loop. I don't have a journal, this is sorta my journal, so I am writing this here even though it is sure to piss a couple people off.

Additionally, parent how you want to parent and I will do the same, but this is my blog so I'll write what I want......feel free to criticize, I'll let you know if I change my mind.......

People's cynicism and skepticism is mind-boggling. Anything that so much as presses a finger to a wall of the happy box of existence is chastised. Where did common sense go, was there ever any? You would assume, evolutionarily, that common sense would be universal...do you think it ever was, and in which case, systematically dismembered, starting at birth, for nearly everyone? Or do some people just have it and others don't?

Having little Elsa around has, for me, renewed thought about these questions, and many more. For example, there is an obsession in our society to "control" our children, right from birth and I found myself acting out these hidden traps culture has set. Like feeding the baby on a schedule, what the hell sense does this make? If you were really hungry and someone had your next meal, but withheld it because you just ate 1.5 hours ago and they thought you should only eat every 3 hours...isn't that some form of torture? Yet I found myself pacing the house shushing and bouncing and swaddling the baby to calm her because I thought she should wait another 45 minutes for her next meal, even though she was obviously ready to feed again. It teaches your child, right from the start, that communication is worthless! Her only methods of communicating are showing restlessness, sucking hands, rooting behaviors (searching for the nipple) and finally crying, when we ignore all of these the reinforcement is that communication is completely useless!

I am very pleased that we realized this as soon as we did and not when we had a 12 year old on our hands that wouldn't talk to us because from the start she learned communication was pointless. Instinctive parenting makes sense. Also, if the goal for everyone was to create an open-minded, thinking, communicating, caring child, rather than an "obeyer", would the whole world not be exponentially better?

(note: I clearly need to go fishing.)

Bloggers: Meet Elsa Ann

at the leech we think population growth is good, as long as your DNA isn't stupid.

here is the newest fighter for the rights of native fish everywhere!

A beatdown with leftovers

I spent last weekend on an epic Oregon summer steelhead river. As expected I came home thoroughly skunked. It was a solid getaway though and much needed. It's a goofy time of year for summer steelhead in any river, as ultra hot, sunny days are generally unfavorable and it was certainly ultra-hot, and sunny. Nonetheless it was quite nice to get out on a full weekend, solo expedition...likely the last for the forseeable future. A tip, if you want to fish a lot don't buy a house and have a baby due in two months! Kinda more important things than fishing to do, and as f'ed up as that is, it's truth. (I had to re-read that last sentence at least 4 times, it kind of surprises me, but in a mostly good way).

Digress, digress, digress. I brought Steelie along for his first trip to unsaid river. He did quite well, stayed away from the road, didn't turn into a total whiney bitch when I occasionally left him in the car to fish a quick run and otherwise performed well. And even though I didn't catch a fish, the trip did leave me with lasting memories......memories still very vivid in mind, as I try not to itch the gotdamned poison oak remnants on my legs! Drats.

In Memoriam

I found out my paternal Grandfather passed today. It was expected for some time as he has been battling a pretty ferocious cancer in his spine and brain. I am writing simply to pay tribute to him as a person who treated me with utmost kindness, love and respect. I can't really speak to who he was before my memories begin, I don't really know how he treated his children or his wife or even my own siblings as they are considerably older than I. But I do remember most of the times I spent with him and he was not the type of old man to tell you what you did wrong, but one who emphasized what you did right. He always had a hug and a smile for me when I came to visit. He was always genuinely interested in the events of my life and was elated at my choice in a wife, he would always say, "you've got yourself a real keeper there, you've done well". He would say this with a fairly intense seriousness, which he didn't use often. Mostly I remember him being humorous and very quick witted. I am happy that he was able to live a full life, only cut short in spirit by the passing of my grandma 15 years ago. But from that he recovered, believing that he would meet her again when his time came. That time has now came and went and I wish both of them eternal happiness.

For Grandpa Les, 07/02/09

a weekend in pictures

wipe down of the mental slate

i swung flies for a couple hours today. it was fantastic. i even ass hooked a sucker. i stopped to take a picture of the steelie dog rummaging in the flooded brush, when i started to strip in the slack there was the no-nonsense (read: "nonsense") tug (read: "sally throb") of none other than the mighty asshooked sucker. i thought about preserving the fine specimen in a photograph, but had just re-cased the camera, and it was a sucker, hooked in the ass.

anyways, it was sunny and 75 and it didn't matter that my waders leaked and there was little to no salmon for the dog to get poisoned by and the screws i put through my wading boots to hold the soles on held, bonuses, all.

ticky tacky

we are looking for a house. given the low(er) prices, we thought we would be able to afford a nice house in really nice neighborhood, or a really nice house in a nice neighborhood. we drafted an offer a couple weeks ago, but when we got home, kari said "something's not right". so we double checked our budget....ooooops! forgot daycare! needless to say we had to withdraw the offer. so we regrouped, relooked, and its looking more like a sorta nice house in a nice neighborhood, or a nice house in a sorta nice neigborhood. this makes for a much tougher decision. we will only need daycare for 3 days a week, the "reasonably" priced (not high buck, not low buck) daycare charges 800-850 dollars a month for an infant, 3 days a week. pretty sure i followed the wrong career path. (edit.: after re-reading, i am also very glad i didn't try to be an accountant.)

anyways, we put in another offer yesterday and will know if we got it tomorrow. we aren't expecting anything, but it would be nice to be done with the madness. plus, we lowballed the hell out of 'em, we'd be sittin pretty :)

on other fronts, i went fishing about a month ago with n^2, i went 2 for 2 plus a grab and the n^2 went 1 for 1 with 2 grabs. i am savoring that day of steelheading for as long as humanly possible, which i've surpassed by at least a week. additionally, we built a trailer, just in case i finally win the powerball and can afford a shuttle, i might be able to float!

two big finds

one.....




two...

i almost forgot

i suppose i should also update on the subjects that were left hanging prior to my sabbatical....

1) i got a job!

2) some mother fucker stole my trailer the day after i called the dude that hit the trailer and told him to give me some money...suspicious, no? can't prove shit and i'm out a trailer...

3) the bloodied up hatchery steelhead pictured in the previous post was caught two days after the january 21st post in which i was pissing and moaning about not catching shit! the same week i got the job...a good week, indeed.

i'm baaaaccckkkk

i feel it is time to start writing again. i almost changed blogs, or at least re-named this one, because one thing i can guarantee you, there will be much less fishing coverage here in times to come. string leeches do more than just fish though, i mean, you need only look at its very beginnings to see that, assuredly all string leeches (at least those tied proper, with the wasckly wabbit) start their lives hopping around some pen, then go for a ride, and most then end up in a vat of dye...i could go on, but i think ya get it. i suppose i am trying to say everything is a journey of some sort. i started the blog to write about fishing and mushrooms mainly, but now find that fishing and mushrooms occupy, relatively, much less mental space than they did a year ago. first there is this....


apparently we decided the dog wasn't nearly enough responsibility, so we went and did this....


i probably don't have to explain any further...but just to prove that expectant fathers aren't all the home ridden losers they are oft made out to be, i would like to submit the following evidence....

(yes, the black line on the fish is a string leech, remember, the string leech abides!)

to sum, if you don't want to read a guy beaming about his child to be, yapping about his dog and occasionally telling about his outdoorsly exploits...then don't come back, ya hear?!?!

udder randomness, mostly

I told you some of this shit would turn around, didn't I? The dude that hit my trailer stopped by the house this evening. He lives down the road, and apparently within the neighborhood gossip chain, cause he heard my AXLE (I now realize I used the figure skating spelling in the last post, oops, my bad) was bent in the mayhem. He's broke as shit, which makes me feel a little bit bad, but he's gonna pay up anyway, cause I'm more broke as shit than him!

There has also been movement on the job front. Nothing firm, but something better than nothing.

The steelhead, however, continue to fucking evade me. I even had the boober and jig out this weekend. The pisces of shit now officially own my mind, again.

One more thing, hail to the chief!

Nice gettin to know ya George, not. Have fun in Texas, hope your a steer. Love, the leech

turn this shit around, shall we?

i can't believe it's been over a month since i've posted here. a whole bunch of shitty stuff has happened with regards to fishing, which is probably why i haven't wrote. first, i didn't get a job yet and i'm quickly approaching way too fucking long without work. second, i got skunked hard in december on the swung fly, but picked one steelhead up plugging on a cold day with good friends which was nice. third, while i was away for christmas some jackass hit my trailer which was parked out front sans boat and chained to the curb. the lock is broken, the wheel cover is bent into the wheel and the axel has a very unnatural bow to it. the neighbor saw it and got a license plate # but i just talked to the cops and apparently it was not correct. the number i gave the cops is on a car, not a truck as the neighbor described, and belongs to a couple that was in missouri when the shit went down. fuck hole, suck hole. but thats great, see, i have all this money lying around and i needed something like a fucked up trailer axel to use it on! bingo!

anyways, i hate whining. i am kind of whiner though, which sucks for me. but alas, i can feel the tides turning. soon i will have a job, and my trailer will be in working order and i will bury the hook deep into the jaw of a big fat chromer. you just watch.