Archive for April, 2009

Operation Sponsor Gracie

Posted on April 29th, 2009

Our man in Denver Michael Gracie has bravely entered the Costa 2-Fly competition in the Teva Mountain Games. Like Ricky Bobby at the end of Jackie Moon (or was it Anchorman? Old School?), Gracie’s got no corporate dough backing him up. Gracie’s training now but the blogosphere needs to help a brother out. Let’s create a list of what Gracie needs and make sure he gets it: –Trained Eagle to do a fly over Gracie at the opening ceremonies. –Helicopter rental for 36o degree aerial coverage. –Gold Bond powder for the competitive chafing. –Insane yet deadly patterns from Roughfisher or Singlebarbed. –John Montana’s mojo. –Fat Guy Kyle to help carbo load. I’m donating a slightly used Fishing Jones commemorative visor.  Send all cash donations…

BOOK REVIEW: The Alaska Chronicles

Posted on April 20th, 2009

A lot has already been said about this title, so I’ll just add this: The Alaska Chronicles is the best fly fishing book I’ve read in a long time. Miles Nolte’s efficiency of prose is top notch. He has a good story to tell and doesn’t let useless words, thoughts, exclamatory hyperbole, or cliche bog it down. The result is a book that’s hard to set aside, one of those reads that make chunks of time–like the morning train commute or the fly time between take-off and touchdown–disappear. If you don’t know the story, Nolte spent two-plus  seasons guiding at a remote lodge in Alaska, and documented his second on The Drake message board. His daily journal provided a gateway into the guiding life and…

FLORIDA: Drought

Posted on April 20th, 2009

Work last week brought me down to South Florida and then up the Space Coast and  into Central Florida, and the signs of drought are obvious. Old ditches on the roster are currently unfishable due to the dropping water levels. Central Florida seems to have it the worst. “We could really use a hurricane this year,” one of my fishing accomplices remarked, “only without the destruction. Maybe a tropical depression.” He was hoping for something to fill Lake Okeechobee again, like Fay did last September, so that the State doesn’t have a mad rush over the diminishing freshwater supply. It has been the third driest dry season on record since 1932. There are too many stresses on Florida’s fresh water supply as is. With…

BOOK REVIEW: The Big One

Posted on April 17th, 2009

Score one for participatory journalism. In 2007 David Kinney, a career newspaperman, dove headfirst into the collective insanity that is the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby. The result is The Big One, an exhaustively researched window into the people and culture that fuel the derby, and the mania that fuels them. It would be tempting to think this was an easy book to write; go fishing and then type it all out. That would be incorrect. Kinney deserves credit for gaining access to a group so paranoid and insular that getting any of them to talk and take him fishing is remarkable. (In fact, reading some passages, you’re left to wonder if the source is on the level or passing along blatant…

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