License to Thrill

My son had his semi-annual heart checkup in Missoula, Montana a couple of Fridays ago.  He was born there, but we moved away when he was 4.  We enjoy going back to visit.  It still feels like home. 

Sometimes I'm a slow learner.  In 2015, I was fortunate to be able to fish in Montana on four separate occasions.  We have plans to spend nearly 10 days in Montana and Yellowstone in August this year, and I'm starting to get a little giddy about the two-day trip my wife booked for me on the Missouri in April.  Fingers crossed that she's coming along.  After my day on the Big Horn River last year, I did a little math and realized that I should have just purchased a full-year nonresident angling license for 2015.  Turns out it would have been cheaper than the daily licenses that I purchased as needed.  With this in mind, Mrs. Fading Angler and I picked up shiny new full-year 2016 fishing licenses when we were in Missoula.

Sure, we could have bought them online, but there's nothing like having that fluorescent yellow piece of waterproof "paper" in your wallet.  It's my license to do what I do.  Rather than:

Bond. James Bond.

You get this:

Angler. Fading Angler. 

 Women may not swoon over me and fish may not fear me, but my drink will always be shaking.  Err, shaken.

Opportunity Knocks Twice, Part IV: A New Hope

This is the final installment in what was planned as a four-part mini-series.  Things didn't quite work out as planned.  You’re invited to start with the prequels if you haven’t read them, but I won't insist that they're prerequisites.  After all, George Lucas started with Episode IV...

• Opportunity Knocks Twice: Prologue 
• Opportunity Knocks Twice, Part II: It's Knot a Problem 
• Opportunity Knocks Twice, Part III: I Am Not Lefthanded 
• Opportunity Knocks Twice, Part III-and-a-Half: Pride and Parkinson's

 A long time ago in a magazine far,
 far away...

Knock knock!

Who’s there?
Opportunity.
Can’t be.  Opportunity only knocks once.

Cute.  But untrue.  In my case, Opportunity is leaning on the doorbell.  My life thus far has been filled with improbable second chances.  I got a second chance with my newborn son, when a doctor revived him after he quit breathing.  Another when he clung to life by a thread for weeks following complications from his first open heart surgery.  Another chance after the accident.  I was 19, and my brother was 16.  I came home from college for Easter weekend on a Thursday night.  In a moment that could have been inspired by “A River Runs Through It,” my brother and I made plans to go fishing the next morning.  We left early, and we didn’t come home for a long time.  One of us never really did come home.

The Great Folks at Sage

Mrs. Fading Angler and I took a quick weekend getaway trip to the Seattle area in October last year.  No real purpose, just a chance to get away for a few days.  We did have a few items on the "might do" list:

• Visit Red's Fly Shop, a 2 hour drive from Seattle, east to Ellensburg then a few more miles south along the Yakima River.  The idea was to scout for future fishing water, and see if they might have any wading boots for her to try on.
• Lunch and beverages at the Pyramid brewpub across the street from Safeco Field.
• A ferry ride out to Bainbridge Island for a quick visit with some folks at Sage.

After lunch, a flight of beer samples, and a pint of the selected barley juice, we waited in line to board the ferry out to Bainbridge.   We've taken probably 20 ferry rides around Puget Sound.  So far, the novelty has not faded.  We arrived in short order at the Sage (Far Bank Enterprises) HQ and hoped that we'd get the same hospitality as we received on our first visit and factory tour in 2012.  We were not disappointed.

The Best Laid Plans & Good Intentions

Goin' with the flow on the Wakulla River in 2012

It's a bit late to make a bold proclamation that another year has arrived.  I spent most of the first 6 weeks of the year just... existing.  Perhaps the Walrus was right and "the time has come" for other things, like planning.  Part of me has always hated planning, and I've never really understood why.  The best I can come up with is that plans create structure, and structure removes freedom.  I like having my options open.

Options aside, the clock is ticking and I'm hopeful that a little structure will yield some results.  It turns out that I'm failing miserably as my own motivational speaker...

I wanted to jot down some blogging plans and fishing plans.  For some reason I need to remind myself that there are things I want to do, and yes, I actually want to do them.  Even so, I feel a little dread when I think about some of this stuff.  I'm also hoping that all 3 of you who read this stuff might hold me accountable.

Blogging ToDo List

• Finish the "Opportunity Knocks Twice" series.  I'm having a hard time with this one.  It feels like there's something ominous waiting for me at the end of that tunnel.  Or perhaps I'm afraid that I won't be able to create the capstone the series deserves.  DONE!!! Read it here.
• Do a full comparison and write up for all the wonderful Sage 5-weight rods we own.  I know why I'm paralyzed with this one:  Pure perfectionism.  I know how I want to do this, and it will require a good investment of time.  I see a few hours of prep work, probably four hours of rod waving and note taking, and 20 to 30 hours of writing
• Try to publish something every week, definitely publish something every other week.

Fly Angling ToDo List

There's no dread here.  This is spectacular.

• March - 1 day on the Yakima River - Washington State.  My first fishing trip to these waters. (Didn't happen.  Rainfall preceding the day I planned to fish stained the water, so I bravely ran away to fish another day.)
• April  - 2 days on the Missouri River - Craig, Montana.  The midge and BWO hatches of April 2015 were quite a sight.  Trying to convince my wife to accompany me this year.
• Weekends in May and June - "The Driftless" in Southeast Minnesota.  The wife's Mobile Hotel® (aka fifth-wheel RV, see The Amoury) gets parked and we spend 6 weekends camping 20 yards from a trout creek, part of the Root River watershed.
• August - Mobile Hotel® Road Trip with the family
• 1 day on the Flathead River - Columbia Falls, Montana
• 1 day on Rock Creek - Just east of Missoula, Montana
• 3 days around Yellowstone National Park - hoping for 1 day of fishing
• 2 days camping on the Tongue River forks - Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming.  Really looking forward to finding some cutthroats and brook trout.
• September - More Minnesota Driftless weekends 

Other Stuff
Notes to self...

• Practice knots BEFORE going streamside
• Teach knots to the Offspring

If the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, it appears I'm constructing my own private ten-lane superhighway.  Drive it like you stole it.

But pull off occasionally to wet a line.

Epic Spirits: A Tale of Two Gins

From my liquor cabinet...

The Fading Angler is an avid fan of adult beverages.

I've travelled around the country for work on a near-weekly basis for 14 of the last 18 years.  This has provided me with excellent opportunities to sample a variety of beer, wine, and spirits.  I savor these opportunities because many of these beverages are not available outside of the borders of their home state, due to arcane and archaic federal laws and rules controlling the interstate distribution of the evil that is alcohol.

I believe, but am not certain, that this is the case for both of the spirits feature herein.  One is a product of the State of New York (upstate!) and the other is produced in the Puget Sound of the State of Washington.  I have visited both distilleries once and look forward to doing so again.

I am not an aficionado of any sort, gin least of all.  I've sipped gin martinis.  I've enjoyed the occasional gin & tonic with Bombay.  I have also endured a few others made with the cheap gin (and lots of lime) that are now stocked as the "complimentary" bottle in the lounge of the airline to which I have sworn fealty. (Correction, 3/24/2016 - It seems that Delta has recently replaced the rotgut with a decent Bombay in their Skyclubs.  Surprising and welcome.)  However, I sample new things when I can, and I've found both of the items up for review to be exceptional.  If you are also a traveler with a wandering palette, I offer these for your consideration.

Not Going Steelhead Fishing This Spring...

My generous Wife and I had been contemplating a trip to the Olympic peninsula to try our luck at fishing for steelhead.  It's a bucket list item for me.  Instead, we made a last-minute decision to cross a different item off the list...

In case it isn't obvious, I'm a Broncos fan.

Looks like Parkinson's Disease has given me permission to live a slightly wild and crazy life.

Flyfishing Below Freezing

I've often looked at photos of folks steelhead fishing in "cold" weather.  They're usually standing under overcast skies, soaked with rain, and generally looking chilled.  Having never fished for steelhead (yet!), I've often wondered if it would be worth it, and how I'd hold up to the colder temps, versus the warm summer days I'm usually fishing.

A window opened for me to finally try winter flyfishing this past weekend.  The 2.5 kids and their mom all had plans on Saturday.  The daily highs in most of Minnesota had ranged from below zero (Fahrenheit) to the mid-teens for most of Januray.  They'd finally break into the 20's F on Saturday.  "Warm enough to scratch the itch," I said to myself, thinking back to how jealous I was of fisherfolk I'd seen on the Missouri River in Montana the previous weekend.

In a true expression of my ambition, I overslept an hour Saturday morning.  Coffee was brewed, gear tossed into the all-wheel drive SUV, and I made the 3 hour drive from my home in central Minnesota to the southeastern "Driftless Region."  A quick stop in Chatfield, then a short drive to Trout Run Creek.  Another SUV was already parked, but the only thing moving was the water.  I'd been concerned about ice, given the somewhat prolonged period of temperatures near zero F.  Yet I found this spring-fed creek with only a little "shelf-ice" on each side in most places.  Definitely fishable, and not too dangerous.