http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/runaway-salmon-stir-conservation-worries/

As if the Loch Ness Monster wasn’t scary enough. Now, the Lox Ness monsters could be wreaking havoc in Scottish waters.

Meridian Salmon GroupA salmon cage. The details are obscure, but sometime during a ferocious storm around Christmas, 300,000 farmed salmon owned by the Meridian Salmon Group disappeared from their cages in the sea near Uyea, a tiny island in the Shetlands. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

Follow the link to read the complete article. Remember, farmed fish are bad. They taste like crap and the they hurt natural fish. Shame on those who damage are already damage native runs!

My older brother had a great night of dock light snooking followed by an offshore trip. Here is a great pic of a mutton snapper he caught. Hey it's not fly and its not catch and release. Here is his report. I'll get him fully converted soon enough.

Good day offshore yesterday...4 mutton snapper over 22 and a few porgies, grouper ( small) ..ate the snapper last night...

It is very easy to fight this Bill. Lots of people are complaining about the big corporations and all the money they are spending. Belly aching on facebook and twitter are not going to stop this bill. Thge opponents to free speach are well funded but those of us who love the Bill of Rights and great fly fishing blogs do have a voice. Email your Rep. They want to hear from you. I worked on Capitol Hillback in the day. They really do have staffers reading email and adding up the the messages and phone calls that are pro and con on the issues. It couldnt be easier. Here is a link to to find your Rep. http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/index.aspx Email them. tell them that you want them to vote against this Bill. Tell them you vote and will rememeber how they voted on this issue on election day.  Also do not waste your time writing Reps who do not represent you. they only care about their constituents who are in a position togte them reelected. Its so simple people. Do something. Act on you online tuff guy bluster and lets get this Bill defeated.

I was twatting pix back and forth about some tubes I tied for our upcoming great lake trib trip. I have to give shot outs to Andrew Niethe and Terry Peach for getting me into tubes. I also have to credit those great vid from Caddis Fly Shop that I have blogged about in the past. They were great inspiration. I'll put up the final pix of my boxes at some point too. I welcome comments.

http://www.itinerantangler.com/podcasts/2012/01/podcast_april_vokey_will_survi.html


I love my sport but I am a little annoyed at some of the old boy culture. I am particularly disturbed after listening to April Vokey’s second appearance on Zach Mathews, Itinerant Angler Podcast. I love Zach’s articles and always listen to the podcast. So please do not misconstrue any of my comments as critical of what he is up to. I highly recommend that anyone interested in fly fishing listen to this and all of Zach’s podcasts. You can access them through the link I have included below.

 I have mad respect for April. She makes a living fishing every day.  Isn’t that that dream? I know that it is a hard life.  It seems that she has had a more difficult go of it based simply on her appearance. She is very upfront on her culpability in cultivating these issues.  By her own words she started a company call “Fly Gal” and could have called it “BC Steelhead Adventures”.

The thing I was most disturbed by was how she felt about the tabloid nature and misogynistic way in which the fly fishing press and folks discuss her online. She freely admits that she took part in promoting her image. She went out of her way to look nice in the pictures. I certainly have heard the discussion in the shop and even participated at times. It was quite a shift to see her with those incredible fish. Remember when everyone though that it couldn’t be real. How many times did you hear, ”I bet her BF caught that”.

 I think it is pretty cool that a young attractive woman can be the real deal. She cannot change the way she looks and simply put good for her for using her image to promote her business and conservation. What I am not OK with is the degrading way that some reduce her to a sexual object. This is not only disrespectful to her and women in general but disrespects our art and the fish we all love. Having witnessed powerful women in my life treated the same way it struck very close to home when I heard the pain in her voice.

 I like Zach and know he is producing a product that we all want to hear, but would he ask Lefty Kreh about his dating history. April seemed ok with that line of questioning. Maybe they discussed it ahead of time. Maybe she wanted to set the record straight. I have learned a few things though. I respect April way more than I did before over one simple action; she left a relationship over stocked and pellet fed fish. When she opened that door and saw the feed it was if she saw another woman hiding or was confronted with a drug problem that she had been lied to about. I also have been reminded that men will lie about anything to laid.  All I have to say is, that guy who ever he is a total and complete DB.

Listen below. I welcome your comments. You can find other links to what Zack and April are up to in my links section.

http://www.itinerantangler.com/podcasts/2012/01/podcast_april_vokey_will_survi.html

Get that thing on the reel man. Notice how the fish runs right for me.

These are not my boxes. These are from a master.

In this vid Rick and Rob discuss the convergence of art, science and sport in fly fishing. They also touch on wild fish, small streams and why fly fishing is better than hunting. This was shot on location at our fav Delaware post fly fishing watering hole.

I love these click reels. I wish I had one to swing with. I bet the new bar stock ones are really great but honestly I think the old ones are the best. I love the patina. there is something romantic about something so old and functional. I would liken to using one of these reels on a modern rod to something like dropping a modern engine into a 69 Camaro. Check out the vid on cleaning the reels below.

I have really been thinking about the tribal salmon from the Pacific Northwest. I think Abel put one on a reel at some point. I have been thinking about painting one to hang up in my fly tying area. Here are a few images and some links below.


http://alanbell.wordpress.com/2006/07/25/tatoo-or-not-tatoo/


http://thesandhill.blogspot.com/2011/02/2011-christmas-list.html