Posts from the “Worthless Opinions” Category

Indiana Jones Wears One

Posted on January 6th, 2012

I am not a vest guy. Vests are born of  trout fishing and its complexities in fly requirements and gear adornment. I just like to have a pouch I can sling on my back and haul a few flies, some tippet, and a jackknife. I used to use this great waterproof sling pouch that Body Glove made for a while for surfers. It finally frayed around the zippers after 10 years of abuse. Body Glove stopped making it. I searched in vain for its equal before settling on the massively imperfect North Face Roo Pouch. (Meant to be a fanny pack; I adapted it to satchel duty.) I’m normally not a gear salivator but when I saw that Orvis came out with the Safe…

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Shadow Boxing the Apocalypse

Posted on June 3rd, 2010

Did we not see this coming? The Chicago Sun-Times called out BP three years ago for dumping toxins into Lake Michigan. A Wikipedia page lists a long litany of offenses, mentioning that Mother Jones twice named BP one of the world’s 10 worst corporations. Another report says BP’s safety record is worse than you imagined. I fully realize it does nothing now to care and express anger after the fact. Do we need to refocus our conservation priorities? What good do slot limits and cutting up the little rings on plastic six-pack holders do if one careless, or possibly malevolent, corporation can so effortlessly undo any collective environmental gains? And who else has the potential to take a dump in our backyard?

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Close the Parks? Paterson, You’re Gone

Posted on February 23rd, 2010

So this is what it’s come down to in the budget, closing State Parks–some of the only accessible green in the giant NY metro complex–to trim budget deficit. Even though it likely will save very little money. People are coming up with schemes to keep the parks open. Private operation, corporate naming rights,  non-profit donations. New York has one of the most labyrinthine State governments in existence, with the most insane amounts of over-legislation and money drains imaginable. Biblical length books have been written on the subject so no point going into it on a fishing blog, but these proposed closings would cut access to a lot of green–and fishing water, to be honest–needed by many to keep their sanity. Me included.

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A Quick Bit From Rivers of a Lost Coast

Posted on February 7th, 2010

I finally watched Rivers of a Lost Coast. Totally worth the wait. Since it’s been reviewed pretty heavily already I’ll just mention one of my favorite moments: Hearing Russell Chatham talk about how Bill Schaadt, who he considers the greatest angler who ever lived, never paid for anything. Using a reel that made a clunk, tying on tippet that other people threw away, bartering salmon for a tank of gas…

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Shades

Posted on December 19th, 2009

A lot of so called necessary accouterments can be shed when getting down to the core simplicities of fishing. Not the shades. All the shit we’re going to get under the tree next week to help us in our pursuits, exchange it back and get the proper eye coverage. Through your eyes is how you want it all to go down, burned into your occipital lobe for recall when you’re doing something mundane at a later date. I find donning the polarized helps me in all facets of life–driving in the rain, walking, glancing askew. I prop them up on the hat or head indoors and forget they’re there, leading to exchanges like the following: You got your sunglasses on your head, man… Yeah…

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Common Threads in Fishing Cinema

Posted on November 11th, 2009

The two movies that fishermen gravitate to are Jaws and A River Runs Through It. Other than some crazy big fish action the movies are disparate in countless ways. Yet they are quoted by the same anglers, often on the same trip, and sometimes to the point where you want to punch the quoter in the sternum in hopes of jarring some original material. But there is one common unifying thread to both movies: That song. It takes on a major role in the shark flick, but you could blink and miss it in River, when Norman walks in to bail Paul out of the drunk tank and the little old man is singing it. So any future fishing movie better have this song somewhere…

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Fly Fish Journal

Posted on October 31st, 2009

I wasn’t going to pay for it. I found the only copy in my local Barnes & Noble, barely visable in the “Sports” section of the news stand behind a misplaced rap magazine. I flipped open to an article called “Eden’s Tarpon” and couldn’t put the mag down after that. I read almost the whole thing just standing there. It has great photography, interesting writing, no top ten lists, no “look at me Ma, I’m fly fishing” articles, and even a solid Head reference. I was going to shelve it but then decided these guys need to get paid so they can keep doing it. $15. And thanks for the bluefish love.

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Going Up Around The Bend

Posted on August 19th, 2009

The car thermometer read 94 over asphalt today. If I’m going to be hot, make it worth it. I’ve got ideas. Put me in the back country and erase any semblance of chronology so that a word like “Tuesday” loses its bearing and the future is what’s around the bend of a mangrove channel. There’s where the ambient heat is a lesser thing to stand.

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