We’ve just popped our head back into the cyberworld after being off line since about 8 pm on Saturday night, right in the middle of dinner in fact.

That’s when our hosting service fired an email stating that our server load over the past several days had crept into red-line territory and yesterday finally crossed the threshold that forced an automatic lockout for a period of time.

For several weeks Jake and I’ve been chatting about the fact that a hosting service upgrade was going to be pushed upon us here before long; it appears the time is probably here.

We’ve done some of the routine urgent stuff – trimmed some database fat, optimized the database, upgraded a caching routine – and have at least passed muster to get back up and running for a trial over the next few days.

We have some great stuff coming up when we resume scheduled programming over the next few hours, including an interview with the Headhunters gang in Craig, some positive stuff to say about urban fly fishing for Texas native bass (even more astoundingly from Jake), more on the Madison River recreational plan and so on and so forth.

We’re working to hold future outages to a minimum. Appreciate your patience.

Tags: Chi Wulff

Ok, we’ll readily admit we’ve been living under a rock for the past year or so as far as some aspects of social media go.

True, we’ve been feeling a bit sorry for ourselves being out of pocket and all, and my (Mark) meniscal tear and tibial fracture this summer, besides being a literally pain in the knee and figuratively in the ass, curtailed fishing options dramatically.

Life’s looking a bit better these days; despite it being mid-winter we’re all planning various returns to mountain country, with Jake in line to escape back home before any of the rest of us.

That said, as we’ve crawled out from under our rock we’ve been having fun being a bit more social on Twitter and Facebook.

We’ve overhauled our Chi Wulff twitter page and are slowly getting back in the groove there; we’ll be posting some version of our twitter feed in the sidebar once we figure out a format we can live with.

For our Friday Feast and Thirsty Thursday fans we also launched a Chi Wulff’s Friday Feast twitter feed and will be ramping up our discussion there over the next few weeks. Turns out a hell of a lot of fly fishers love good food and tasty adult beverages and would like to chat a bit more about those things than we’ve been doing in the blog. Look for the Friday Feast twitter feed in the sidebar as well.

Jake’s been in charge of cranking up our FB page again and we’ll be more active there as we’ve had a hell of a lot of fun interacting a bit more with fishers and friends around the country and the world.

We’re even tossing around the idea of a big riverside party sometime this summer – who knows, it could happen.

Tags: Chi Wulff

We have a couple of small projects for a fishy graphic artist / designer and are having a harder time that we thought we might digging up some one who has time and the inclination to take on the little stuff.

None of us progressed much further than the 8-pack crayon stage.

Anybody know someone who might fit the bill?

Tags: Chi Wulff

A hearty Merry Christmas and best Holiday wishes from Team Chi Wulff.

May we all be standing underneath this tree (located near a small vent about 30 feet from the Firehole) next December 25th.

Tags: Chi Wulff

We’re rolling out a few new features and tweaks this morning for Chi Wulff; nothing earth shattering but these are all ideas that friends have been asking us to do for months (and maybe even years for one…).

People of Fly Fishing. Interviews with fly fishing notables are popping up all over the place these days. When we first started doing a few in the early spring of this year during the Montana Stream Access debate it was clear that folks enjoyed a more in-depth glance into the issue de jour or taking a peek into the mind of a fly fishing pro.

We’ve continued doing an interview or two per month since late July and have added a link in the header bar to a new People of Fly Fishing page where we’ll keep a running list of all the interviews we’ve done to date.

There will soon be two new collections of folks we’ll be interviewing. Jess of Fire Girl Photography will be interviewing notable fly fishing and outdoor photographers and videographers, while Jake will be interviewing folks as part of a new feature we’re adding to the site – Thirsty Thursday (more below).

The Friday Feast. We had no idea how popular the Friday Feast might become when we started posting recipes on the now vanquished Best Fly Fishing Yellowstone in the summer of 2007.

Folks have been asking us to do two things with the Friday Feast almost from the get go.

One, post an index of recipes so you don’t have to fish around on the site to find a recipe – it’s now up and running as of this morning. There’s a new Friday Feast link in the header bar above with the Recipe Index link one of the drop downs.

Two, folks have been asking us to produce a cook book / recipe collection. The project is in process as of Monday of this week; we’re playing with the idea of an ebook with videos versus dead tree version (favored by She Who Must Be Obeyed). It’ll be a few months.

Thirsty Thursday. Jake will be adding a new series to the site covering primarily artisanal beers though there’ll surely be the occasional mixer or wine post thrown in. He already has interviews lined up with several of our favorite local Montana brewmeisters and will leave no good local brew undiscovered. Suggestions are welcome.

CW Swag. After years of claiming we were working on it – we’re now actually working on it with a nifty shirt company called ProNaked. Shirts, hats and decals are in the works.

Other Stuff. We’ve reshuffled the top navigation bar and will be redoing our links page (long overdue) soon.

Tags: Chi Wulff

Though she fully understands that it will bring forth a bellowing chorus of moans and groans, a certain feminine fisher we know still likes to say fly fishing is like a box of chocolates.

You never know what you’re gonna get each time out.

The same could be said about fflogging (blogging about fly fishing); you never know where the daily (more or less) fflog may lead.

When we brought Chi Wulff back from hibernation just over a year ago we weren’t sure where things might go.

To our genuine amazement, four days ago marked the end of our busiest month (highest traffic month ever) in Chi Wulff history. We’ve been nothing short of dumbfounded at the increasing stream of folks emailing, commenting or calling with ideas, suggestions, corrections, kudos and even the occasional threat (big gear manufacturer in the mountain West).

[Hell, we don’t mind the threats - it’s credible evidence that 1) somebody’s reading the blog out there, 2) we’ve poked the corporate fly fishing beast once again and 3) there must be a grain of truth in whatever we’ve poked ‘em about.]

For a host of reasons our format has changed quite a bit from the days when we were basically just reporting current conditions on neighborhood rivers; we’d guess our readership has changed a fair amount from those days as well.

To wit, the other day a friend likened Chi Wulff to an addled fly fisher with multiple personality disorder; he said we can’t seem to decide who or what we want to be on any given day.

We took that as a compliment of the highest order.

You have a lot of interests in today’s world. So do we.

Just like you we’re rabid about fly fishing (which may take any one of an infinite number of forms), fish and fisheries. We’re huge fans of good fly fishing photography and videography, rivers, riparian zones, tidal marshes and salt flats.

We enjoy fish porn as much as the next guy (maybe even more), though honestly we’d probably prefer to interview a notable fisher or photographer and get a deeper look into the why behind their approach to fish and fishing, stewardship and life in general.

We’re figuring out that part of being a fly fisher and lover of rivers these days means that you can’t just sit on your ass and expect that things will forever remain the same.

We’re passionate about access and think fantasy fly fishing sucks big time (starting a series on this one shortly).

Though our hearts and home base are located in the Greater Yellowstone area and Montana, we’ve come to understand there’s a lot of nifty water, fish and fishers all over the map out there. (And, as you know well, there are some asshats out there too. We’ll try and irritate one for you.)

Bottom line, we’re not sure what Chi Wulff wants to be when it grows up.

We genuinely appreciate your readership and hope that at some point we’ve brought a smile, pissed you off, motivated you to do something reasonably constructive or even inspired you to broaden your culinary horizons.

Thanks.

And we mean that.

Tags: Chi Wulff

Best Thanksgiving wishes from the gang at Chi Wulff.

We’re dining on the early side and headed out for little cast and blast action today.

Eat, eat.

Cast, cast.

Bang, bang.

Eat, eat.

Tags: Chi Wulff

Tags: Chi Wulff

Just doing some tweaking suggested by our tech brain trust and web host tech gurus (actually on the North American continent) and vaporized a dozen or so new comments today that had slipped into moderation.

Dammit and our apologies if something witty you’ve written today isn’t showing up.

Be witty once again and we promise it’ll make it through.

Finding good help these days can truly be a pain in the ass.

Tags: Chi Wulff

The site’s been as (intermittently) slow as molasses in January over the past few days.

Our hosting service provider has been dealing with some massive DOS attacks of late (apparently originating in China); they insist they’ve just about gotten a handle on things and it appears to be better today.

We’re aware and working on it – we’ve been playing with a web server upgrade for a few months given a big upswing in traffic over the past eight months – guess it’s about time to get it done.

Tags: Chi Wulff

The last week has been a strange one and we’re about to claw back from the virtual grave and get back into our usual routine.

A long anticipated return to home country last week was busted all to hell by what has indeed turned out to be a torn medial meniscus. I’ve been somewhat hobbled and to say the least our trip north didn’t turn out quite as we had planned.  Did manage to work in some great exploring and have cached our boat in Bozeman anticipating a return trip to make up for this week.

MRI this morning with surgery to follow. We’ll be back in the posting groove with the rest of Tom Sadler’s interview and more in a bit.

Thanks to Qdog for the great post yesterday…..

Tags: Chi Wulff

I’ve been messing around a bit on Google+ over the last few weeks and I’ve been a twitter user for several months now. All this media-based socializing has made me think about an age-old fly fishing conundrum that is only enhanced by tools like blogs and facebooks and twitter feeds: just how much information is too much?

Let’s face it, most fisherman turn to the web for information on where to go and what to use once they get there. Fishing reports are the single biggest web-based draw for anglers (although I think videos are gaining steam).  The conflict comes when the fishing reporter feels like he or she is revealing too much information. Lots of good fly fishing bloggers have solved this problem by using the names of well-known, major rivers while keeping the name and location of more fragile fisheries a secret. This is an excellent compromise, I think, but it flies in the face of social media to certain extent.

The idea of social media is to encourage sharing–the more sharing the more appealing the network becomes–something Google+ is staring in the face right now. But fly fisherman are loathe to share too much (and rightly so), meaning social media can only be so effective when it comes linking the fly fishing community together.

When the Jake and Mark started years ago with The Best Yellowstone Fly Fishing Blog (or something like that, Mark, help me out with the title), one of the primary draws was the daily fishing reports. Yes, daily reports. I remember reading those reports and wondering how they found the time. However they did it, it helped contribute to a popular blog in a unique way: who else was posting reports for every single day?

Now fly shops (like Headhunters) have a vested interest in sharing a ton of info on a consistent basis, but the average fly fishing blogger and social media user will reach a point at which sharing more information might help their internet profile, but will likely reduce their fishing enjoyment. So fly fishing networks on social media are an amalgam of conservation posts (which social media is perfect for), photo posts, links to oddball fishing stories, and cryptic fishing reports. The only problem with this particular mix is that it neglects that thing that most fisherman turn to the internet for in the first place: where to go and what to use when you get there.

Perhaps Google+ with its ease of limiting just who you share with, will change this equation a little. But overall I don’t think it needs changing, not really. Some part of fly fishing is tied to the idea of not knowing exactly where to go and what fly to tie on. I have a feeling that the easier that part of the equation gets to solve, the less enjoyable the answer might be.

Of course that is just one fisherman’s opinion. If you don’t agree leave a comment, or tweet it, or blog it, or tie the message to the leg of carrier pigeon and send it out into the world.

Tags: Chi Wulff, Inquiring Minds Want to Know, So What?

We’re starting a new project here on Chi Wulff tomorrow that we think most fly fisher folk will find damned interesting.

We’re not quite sure what to call it as of this morning, but we’re sure what it will be about.

A bit of background is in order.

I’ve personally been fly fishing since 1984; I came to the sport lifestyle late though fell in with total abandon. Fly tying and rod building followed within 18 months of my first cast; a drift boat was under construction in the old shop out back the next spring.

It was in fact during the drive from SLC out to Vida, Oregon to visit Greg Tatman’s wooden boat shop on the McKenzie (now West Coast Wooden Boats by the way) that an epiphany of sorts happened.

To make the logistics work I had left SLC in the wee hours to reach Greg’s shop in time to load up all the supplies and lumber for two boats – my first and another for a friend. I hit the shop about 330 that afternoon to find Greg and his team placidly rummaging about his somewhat eclectic shop rounding up the last materials for the boats.

I had wanted to put mahogany gunnels (rails) on my boat and Greg had ordered in some gorgeous mahogany stock, ripped it to width and they were in fact just running it through their ancient planer when I arrived.

The planer shredded it; there was something about the orientation of the grain in the stock that he’d ordered in, probably coupled with a set of planer of blades due sharpening, that made it impossible to work.

Greg felt terrible, refunded my upcharge in cash out of his pocket and insisted that he buy me dinner in a little eatery just up the road.

Before we left the shop, he ducked into his tiny office and I peeked in to see a pile of books (include the complete works of William Shakespeare) and a watercolor in progress.

We snugged the load down on the trailer and drove up for a quick burger, GT in his well worn jean overalls. As we chatted about fishing I couldn’t help but ask about the books and the watercolor.

To make a long story short, turns out Greg had earned in years past a masters in either English or American literature (I can’t remember now), had written quite a bit and was in fact an accomplished water colorist.

We parted fairly quickly thereafter and as I pondered the afternoon’s events driving across the great emptiness that can be eastern Oregon, the aforementioned epiphany struck me.

The fly fishing people that I had been meeting over the past months were damned interesting; most (not all, but most) were different than my professional colleagues and non fishers in my circle of friends.

While there are fly fishers who are misanthropic, antisocial-personalitied asshats out there, the world of fly fishing seems to have drawn an astounding array of gifted and interesting folks into the fold.

Clearly we’re biased from where we sit, but none of us can think of any other sport or recreational sector that generates the volume of good prose, photography, videography and art that fly fishers create.  We’re also impressed as hell to note that fly fishers are beginning to wake up and smell the coffee when it comes to preservation of fish and fisheries.

Finally back to the point of this post – starting tomorrow we’ll begin posting a new series of interviews focusing on the people of fly fishing. What makes them tick, what are they working on, why do they do what they do.  And more.  

First up tomorrow – Sam Snyder from Alaska, author of the Headwaters of History blog, musician, father and perhaps emerging as one of fly fishing’s preeminent historians.

Tags: Chi Wulff

Actually saw 114 during the long road run yesterday.

She Who Must Be Obeyed has been called back for a work emergency (being a manager can be a bitch sometimes), necessitating a manageable but long dash back from Durango.

We’ll be back in the more or less normal posting groove shortly.

Tags: Chi Wulff

No, we haven’t fallen off the face of the planet.

She Who Must Be Obeyed and I are en route from Austin to Bozeman and have been running hard for the past couple of days.  Had a little business to take care of in Ouray / Montrose and blasted on north from there to Jackson Hole arriving late last night.

Just about every river we’ve seen from northern NM on has been high and dirty; just about every river north of Durango that we’ve seen has been running out of its banks.

Pics to come this afternoon – on the road early through GTNP and Yellowstone to Bozeman for an afternoon meeting and then a bit of play time.  Caught a great sunset outside of Pinedale looking at the Wind Rivers last night.

Tags: Chi Wulff