Posts from the “Worthless Opinions” Category

Bad Hatchery Craziness

Posted on March 13th, 2009

This Ken Shultz article came out just before the NY State DEC discovered IPN. The Connetquot represents in one localized microcosm the best and the worst of a hatchery sustained fishery. On the one hand, a stream this close to such high population density could never support pure wild fish with unrestricted access to them. Operating a stream on a pay-to-reserve English beat system with a carefully managed stocking program allows for solitude rather than shoulder to shoulder and the chance to fish larger than normal brown, brook, and rainbow trout. On the other hand, it is not reality. On the one hand, the big sea runs and the cagey eight-pound holdovers with the hooked jaws exist in numbers not seen in normalcy. On…

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Fishing Equals Hunting

Posted on March 10th, 2009

A guy catches the  fish of a lifetime and kills it, and the fly fishing community is up in arms. The non-fishing population, and even many anglers who don’t fly, don’t get it. Isn’t the point of fishing to catch something to eat? I showed the picture to a friend and got that exact response. To many outside the fishing community, catch and release seems akin to torture. Or, as some who have made the hunting analogy say, nonsensical–like wrestling a deer to the ground, dunking its head under water for a quick photo op, and letting it go. (I’d credit the originator if I could remember where I read that one.) That analogy sort of works because, for all the mystical bullshit about…

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Do You Know What Nemesis Means?

Posted on March 4th, 2009

Reading this Moldy Chum post the other day, it struck me…That pic looks really familiar. Then it occurred to me: Cheney’s not Vader. Cheney Equals Brick Top. Who is Brick Top? The American Museum of Fly Fishing has the right to invite whoever it wants to speak at its fund-raising dinner in Manhattan tomorrow night. But the Museum should be aware of what happens when you make your bed with Brick Top. As Turkish explains, If you’ve got to deal with him, just make sure you don’t end up owing him. Then you’re in his debt. Which means, you’re in his pocket. And once you’re in that, you ain’t ever coming out.”

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Treatise On Disgusting Habits, Vol. I: Chew

Posted on January 28th, 2009

We all chewed tobacco some in college. We had the major brands rated. Lowest to highest went Beech-Nut, Red Man, Red Man Golden Blend, Levi Garrett, and the Gold Standard: Lancaster. That one was hard to come by–they didn’t sell it at the Busy Bee–so a pouch of Lancaster proffered for communal use left you in good standing. ******* We all eventually gave it up. Chewing tobacco doesn’t really pay off long term if you like women and/or your teeth. ******* Fact: Chewing tobacco while fishing in crowded places is a great way to secure at least 50 square feet of solitude. ******* Fact: Chewing tobacco while fishing ditches, canals, and residential lakes in the exurbs keeps people from coming too close and asking…

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Ruthless Gangsta, Definition Villain

Posted on January 6th, 2009

We like pike. The reasons are manifold: It is the first game fish we pursued as kids. Pike eat flies. Big flies. Pike grow big. For a freshwater fish, anyhow. Pike have teeth. They can put the hurt in you, especially if you show up wearing a nancyboy stripping guard. (This means you ZB.) Pike are nasty gangster predatory ambush torpedos. You can sight fish for pike. Pike jump. Sometimes anyway. On three separate but documented and verifiable occasions at least. Pike double over eight weights. Pike put the laughter in “manslaughter.”* *(Actually a fact about Chuck Norris.)

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5 Gifts That Won’t Help You Catch Squat

Posted on December 17th, 2008

But we like them anyhow. Tarpon. Standard inflight or train commute entertainment while we pretend to work on the laptop. Car Sloganry Thomas McGuane quote from The Longest Silence in bumper sticker form. Formal Wear. Buy shirt, help stripers via Stripers Forever. Deluxe Mustache Kit. Announce to the world, “I have many leather bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahagony.” Shadow Country. We like Florida. We like stories about Ole Florida. We think Peter Mathiessen is top shelf. We loved this when it was Killing Mr. Watson, Lost Man’s River, and Bone By Bone.  We’re not even done with this yet and we think it’s the best book from 2008. Buy this book, dammit.

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