And We’re Back

Twice now, the team here at Chi Wulff has tried to hang it up and walk away.  Both times, we were left with that nagging feeling that what we were leaving behind meant more to us than perhaps we knew.  I don’t think anyone particularly missed writing river reports every morning when we stopped writing earlier this year.  But the need and desire to create and inform had nestled itself deep into our minds.

After much discussion and bantering back and forth, we have decided that Chi Wulff simply means too much to us to leave alone.  Sadly, Missouri River Steve, Al the Pal, and Jess will not be rejoining us.  We wish them the best of the luck in their endeavors.

What has changed?  Our name is still the same, but our format has shifted somewhat.  We will no longer be writing daily river reports for the Greater Yellowstone Region.  Any one of the plethora of fly shops in the area will be better able to provide accurate information as both Mark and myself are no longer located in Bozeman.  A growing business venture demanded our presence in the last place I thought I would ever find myself again: Texas.

Yes, the Lone Star State.  No longer can I gaze upon the Bridger Mountains from my office window; instead from my apartment I see urban  sprawl and a couple of palm trees.  The heavy, humid air lacks the crispness of the clean mountain breeze.  The nearest native trout is  hundreds and hundreds of miles away and the land is flat and featureless.

But all is not lost.  The food down here is to die for, the majority of the populace is friendly and outgoing, and the number of beautiful girls  is exponentially higher.  Not to mention the superb bass fishing in the area, the beautiful girls, being only three hours from the coast and  the allure of chasing fish in the salt, the beautiful girls, not having to scrape ice from my car windshield every morning this winter, the  beautiful girls, and the innumerable bluegills and perch that seemingly inhabit any and every body of water and will pounce upon a fly with  reckless abandon.  Oh, and did I mention the beautiful girls??

You get my point.

It’s not too bad.

Anyway, I find myself perched on the outer edge of the metropolis of San Antonio, perilously close to the inner reaches of the concrete  jungle but still far enough out of the city that it is easy to slip out and do some fishing.  Ironically, I found employment at one of the very few  fly shops in the state, (I feel quite certain that Gallatin County has more fly shops than the entire state of Texas!) which I am very grateful  for, as it allows me to remain plugged in to the culture of fly fishing while on my self-imposed exile from God’s Country.

Mark and his wife now live in Lakeway, on the edge of Austin and almost on the shores of Lake Travis.  That lucky bastard is only minutes  away from good bass fishing water.  While the day to day drudgery of running a business keeps him very busy, he still finds time to wet a  line now and then.  Both of us are excited about learning a new system of fishing that we know little about.  Having chased trout exclusively for so long, it feels refreshing to have other fish to pursue.  The saltwater is another utterly fascinating puzzle to solve.

I think I can speak for all of us when I say it is a thrill and an honor to be writing here once again.  While the blog has shifted its focus, some old favorites will be popping up again.  (I think I heard Mark say something about bringing back the Friday Feast…)  Chi Wulff will still provide the same great information, stories, videos and news that it always has but with a much broader focus.  Mark will have a post tomorrow going into more detail about our new format.

Hot damn, its good to be back!

Tags: Chi Wulff

Tagged as: Chi Wulff, Texas