Archive for February, 2009

FLORIDA: Amberjack

Posted on February 14th, 2009

I spent a few hours on the water with Scott Hamilton targeting spinner sharks. We saw over 100 spinners but they were in no mood to eat flies.  Actually, we’d just got the game going when a completely clueless dude in a cruiser ran within ten feet of our boat, sending all interested sharks swimming for cover and ruining that game.  We messed around with some reef fish as a plan B.  I caught my first ever amberjack on fly; a little one that still put on a bulldog fight. It looked a little something like this, give or take 100 pounds. (I forgot my camera.) But to a larger point, if you’re cruising along in what is by all accounts a giant ocean,…

FLORIDA: Brownline South

Posted on February 12th, 2009

It’s a driving game. The suburban sprawl is such in Southeast Florida that it extends all the way out to the berm of the Everglades. Spliced through it all is an intricate maze of manmade lakes and ponds and freshwater ditches plugged into the main engineered drainage canal system. The entire system is rife with species that aren’t supposed to be there based on the natural order of things. Which is kind of fitting for a manufactured ecosystem gone awry. Peacocks, though, were introduced on purpose. Mostly to combat the proliferation of unwanted fishtank pets dumped into the system. They have thrived. I started fly fishing for peacocks 10 years ago almost by accident. My buddy ZB’s Dad had a place out west where …

FLORIDA: City View

Posted on February 10th, 2009

This is what I’m looking at right now out of my hotel window. Not bad, but I should be looking into the prehistoric glowing eye of a night time tarpon. Plans get cancelled, beers get purchased, balconies get occupied. Plan B is in effect. Sneak off for a pre-work scramble after some freshwater invasives. Show up to the 10 A.M. bidness junket with fish slimed clothes; shake hands with a sandpaper thumb.

NEWS: Will Cheney Be Arrested In VT?

Posted on February 7th, 2009

Other blogs and particularly Fly Rod and Reel magazine have been all over the Cheney invite to the American Museum of Fly Fishing, but how funny would it be if he showed and got arrested? UPDATE: Thanks to Alex and others who emailed on the side that the dinner is in fact in NYC on March 5th. So in the Green Mountain State Cheney will remain a scofflaw at large. Oh well.

Remembering What It's Like

Posted on February 6th, 2009

This is the longest stretch I’ve had without hitting the water in 12 years. Seasons and external forces have conspired to keep me shore bound for longer than a person can take and be expected to retain sanity. It makes a grown man confront his fears, consider options he’d normally decline. I’ve found myself watching fishing shows, something I swore I’d never do again.* That last and  seemingly insignificant  striper brought to the boat last fall suddenly takes on disproportionate meaning in recollect. The windburn, the sandpaper thumb, and the line cuts have all faded away. It’s a slow and steady spiral down the path to soft and suburban. But that’s all about to change. I’m going to Florida next week. Going to get…

Remembering What It’s Like

Posted on February 6th, 2009

This is the longest stretch I’ve had without hitting the water in 12 years. Seasons and external forces have conspired to keep me shore bound for longer than a person can take and be expected to retain sanity. It makes a grown man confront his fears, consider options he’d normally decline. I’ve found myself watching fishing shows, something I swore I’d never do again.* That last and  seemingly insignificant  striper brought to the boat last fall suddenly takes on disproportionate meaning in recollect. The windburn, the sandpaper thumb, and the line cuts have all faded away. It’s a slow and steady spiral down the path to soft and suburban. But that’s all about to change. I’m going to Florida next week. Going to get…

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