Monthly Archives: March 2013

Love the one you’re with

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Bull Trout saves the day from a skunk

There are days when you just can’t seem to get the fish you are after, what to do?  Well, like the song says “When you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with”.   On a recent end of season steelhead trip the steelhead all seemed to have lock-jaw.  I was getting great swings that I knew were going over fish but they just would not open up and eat.   Luckily I had some grabs and these turned out to be bull trout which saved the day from a skunk and I got to land a beautiful (and endangered) fish.

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Minimalist Fly Fishing

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For the last several years I made the transition to minimalist running, running in shoes that are barely more than a moccasin and allow one to run more naturally like you were barefoot.    This year I’m going to try minimalist fly fishing.

My small stream setup had already become more minimal over the years.  I used to carry a rod, reel, vest and net when fishing small streams and the vest was packed full of two fly boxes, leaders, tippet, etc…  I then parred down a bit and went to a small chest pack that held one fly box, an extra leader, tippet, nippers and some floatant.   Then a few years ago I got even more minimal and went to a lanyard system that has a very small fly box, a few spools of tippet material, a nipper and a bottle of floatant.    This works pretty well with the only disadvantage being that when hiking it still takes a while to put together a 4-piece fly rod, attach the reel, string up the line and tie on a fly.

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The Heart Sutra and the Half Marathon

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On the first lap. Photo by Takao Suzuki

The Redmond Watershed is my home trail, I run there more than any other location since it is so close to the house.   Because of this I try to do all the events I can at the Watershed and used it for my first trail marathon a few years back.  By the time the Northwest Trail Runs Spring Fun Run rolled around I hadn’t quite built up enough mileage for a full marathon so I signed up for the half but figured if I was feeling great I could always continue lapping and do the full, it had to be easier than all the hills at Ft. Ebey.

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I Don’t Practice Santeria…

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Jeff and I arrived in Miami late on Sunday night for our fishing trip and after leaving MIA headed to the nearest Publix to get food so we could make lunches for the week.  In the fruit department I was reaching for bananas and Jeff nixed that idea.  OK, bananas are bad luck on the boat but isn’t it alright to have one for breakfast?   I wasn’t going to take any chances on this front so decided I could live without a banana for the week.

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Biscayne & Islamorada Trip

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Late afternoon tarpon battle

Jeff and I had not fished together for about a year and a half and I never made it to any flats in 2012 so we decided to put together a short trip to South Florida to get together and escape the Seattle and DC winters.   The plan was to fish Biscayne Bay and the Everglades since they offered the best bet in the winter months for finding fish.    Of course I was keeping an eye on the Miami weather weeks in advance and things were looking great until a few days before the trip when a cold front was suddenly scheduled to hit mid-week.   Well, the weather gods had other plans is store which is typical of most of my trips to Florida.

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