how to lose $2400 in 24 seconds from Kurtis Hough on Vimeo.

Tags: Videograpy

I happened upon this pod of brown trout in the kitchen the other day.  Holding in a lie below the cheese grater they seemed to be content to rest, with only the occasional lazy rise at passing food upon the counter.

Somewhat unfortunately, these trout were one by one picked off by a larger and more cunning predator.

Pardon me while I wipe the crumbs from my beard…

Tags: Culture, Books, Art

Ed, Jake and I had a somewhat unusual discussion at breakfast this morning.

Unusual discussions are nothing out of the ordinary for most fly fishers and we never know what the hell Ed is going to talk about when we get together.

Honestly I can’t remember how we got on this particular train of thought, other than the fact that Ed’s older than dirt and he more than occasionally muses about what he calls his ‘final day fishing on this earth’ – a veiled reference to his death.

(For those who missed our first Ed post, read more here. Ed’s never actually confessed as to his real age and he refuses to show anyone his driver’s license or any other form of proof. Though he looks to be in his late fifties / early sixties, hard money says he’s mid-70s if he’s a day.)

The discussion today somehow crept around to what we plan to have done with our remains after our deaths.

None of us have a death wish. Quite the contrary in fact.

While certainly Ed’s most likely the next to go, I’m in my early 50s and would like to be around another three decades given what’s on my must do list, and Jake is a mere 22 with lots of miles ahead.

Ed claims he has 12 years or more of stuff on his list left to do, and dammit, we both believe him. (He’s come up with a plan for what he thinks would be a killer fly fishing app to develop and now wants to open a brewhouse and pub. We’ll keep you informed.)

Not wishing to speak for Ed or Jake, here are my after death wishes in simple form.

• My remains are to be cremated and place in a blue Mason jar, preferably an authentic vintage blue Mason jar.
• The next fly fishing season after my death, my remains are to be dumped into the following five rivers. Said remains shall not be dumped before or during runoff and shall be placed in the identified locations on said rivers.
• Rivers of choice:
• Gallatin (“The Hole” just north of the Yellowstone boundary on 191)
• Firehole (one of our favorite stretches in The Broads)
• Yellowstone (in the Park, below LeHardy, good view)
• Missouri (somewhere in the Canyon stretch, maybe that big bend below the Mountain Palace)
• Snake in GTNP (just downstream from Deadman’s Bar – how could it be anywhere else?)
• Funds will be set aside so the famdamily and Ed can gather the clan and fish each river every season until they get tired of going.

Ed thought this to be grand concept and is thinking of stipulating the same demands of us, though Jake and I are lobbying that he choose five bonefishing destinations for us to with all due respect deposit his remains.  Ed insists that he has no surviving family and has asked that we stand in for the spreading of his remains and the remembrance travel every year.

We of course told him we’d be flattered, that we just wanted his remains to rest well in some beautiful tropical destination and that we’d even help pick the locations for his final resting place(s).

Ed laughed, looked at us both over the top of his glasses and told us not to start packing for the tropics just yet.

Tags: Ed

Innovation.

Creativity.

Persistence.

Marketing Genius.

Pixar.

Rare.

Tags: Culture, Books, Art

9 Pound Trout from Cassady O'Neal on Vimeo.

Reno Film Festival winner.

We’ve all been there.

Tags: Culture, Books, Art

The report of yesterday’s fatal grizzly encounter in Yellowstone National Park is all over the Montana press today.

The incident occurred on the Wapiti Lake trail (east of the Grand Loop Road south of Canyon Village). A husband and wife hiking were roughly a mile and half down the trail when they first saw the bear and continued; the sow with cubs later fatally wounded the man and attacked the woman (according to some accounts).

Here are links to the official YNP news release and what’s probably the best reported version from the Ravalli Republic.

Of note from the RR story -

It was the park’s first fatal grizzly mauling since 1986, but the third in the Yellowstone region in just over a year amid ever-growing numbers of grizzlies and tourists roaming the same wild landscape of scalding-hot geysers and sweeping mountain vistas…..

In June 2010, a grizzly just released after being tranquilized for study killed an Illinois man hiking outside Yellowstone’s east gate. Last July, a grizzly killed a Michigan man and injured two others in a nighttime campground rampage near Cooke City, Mont., northeast of the park.

Bear precautions are posted more or less at every trailhead and are provided to visitors upon entering the park in the park newspaper and guide – with the grizzly population robustly increasing you must be attentive to the potential of an encounter when wandering off road.

Bear safety isn’t rocket science and is largely common sense; ignore the rules in the neighborhood and you just might have a close encounter of the bear kind.

Tags: Critters

Both Angling Trade and MidCurrent ran short pieces this past Friday covering the recent untimely death of Mako Reel founder Jack Charlton.

Both ran a quote from Charlton friend Jake Jordan -

“Jack Charlton was born on September 16, 1946 in Montebello, Ca. After a childhood in Tucson, Jack moved to Los Angeles and began working in a machine shop at the age of seventeen. His next employer specialized in machined aerospace products. In this job he demonstrated a real flare for precision machining and intricate design, these talents later manifesting themselves in the production of fly fishing reels. Jack met Judy Keen at the Scottish restaurant in Simi Valley (McDonald’s). This led to sailing in the Channel Islands and 39 years of marriage. A purchase of a getaway in British Columbia eventually initiated a move to the Pacific Northwest.

Jack liked to say because of peace breaking out, and because of a challenge, he designed and produced the first Charlton Flyreel in 1993. The first showing was in Livingston Montana, displaying Signature series 8400 and 8500 reels. In 1996 at the Fly Fishing Dealer Show in Denver Jack’s Charlton 8550 received best in the show for his revolutionary configurable reel. In 1999 Charlton Reels joined Streamworks, later being acquired by 3M. Jack continued to work for 3M until 2003. In 2005 he started Mako Reels, which has continued to set the standard for the fly fishing industry.”

Striking reels and a striking story of a machinist genius who turned the (salt water) fly reel into a thing of beauty and precision. Don’t have one of these beauties but have marveled at a couple that friends own.

Incredible piece of equipment.

And a great story of a gutsy guy pursuing his passion and taking a risk to engage in a business that brought him great pleasure and (let’s presume for his and his family’s sake) a little wealth along the way.

Jack will certainly be sorely missed by his family, friends, employees and clients.

As sad as the above news was, Charlton’s passing wasn’t what actually whacked me between the eyes like a 2×4 swung from the shadows.

It was this phrase, quoted in both stories -

Jack died of a sudden unexpected illness on June 9, 2011….

Doing the math, Charlton was a young man by today’s standards (64, he would have turned 65 this September). Despite the amazing capacities and potentials of modern medicine today, sometimes things turn south so quickly with certain infectious and disease processes the battle is over before you’ve even decided you’re at war.

In a prior life I had the pleasure of spending 25+ years studying and practicing medicine and have seen calamitous events like this first hand. On Sunday your loved one is laughing around the table or at the river and by Thursday they’re gone, leaving an emptiness that you can not imagine will ever be filled.

When I read the story on Friday I slipped back into my defensive medical world for a few moments, pondering what pathological disruption changed the Charltons’ world forever.

Then, in escapist fashion typical of we fisher folk, I found myself wondering when Jack had last fished.

It could have been a day or two, maybe three before the onset of his sudden unexpected illness. It might have been weeks or even months before; I hope for Jack’s sake it wasn’t that long ago.

Think back to your last trip out on the water – can you imagine that trip being your last one?

I can’t. I doubt Jack did either.

It’s not easy making one’s way in the world today; there are challenges aplenty and new ones lumbering up over the horizon seemingly every day. The pace of change seems to be picking up momentum.

That said, there are still guys and gals out there pursuing their passions and squeezing the most out of every day. I’d like to think Jack Charlton was one of those guys. There’s always potential for making today better than yesterday.

That said, we all should go fishing. Today. Now.

Don’t know about you, but I’m gonna fish like it might just be my last day on the water. Again and again and again, Lord willing.

Our deepest regards to Jack’s family, friends and staff.

[Back to our regularly scheduled tangential and irrelevant commentary tomorrow.]

Tags: Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Yesterday’s Angling Trade newsletter reported that Shane Stalcup, 48, had passed away at his home in Colorado.

Shane was a tremendously innovative gentleman at the tying vise and crafted many of the patterns you’ll see at the fly shop and tease out at your own vise.

We’ve admired Shane’s work greatly and had the pleasure of meeting him years ago (o4 or 05) at one of the Snake River Cutthroat Tying Expositions. Grabbed one of his cards and he actually responded to my email asking some stupid question about CDC weeks later.

Godspeed and our thoughts and prayers go out to Shane’s family.

Tags: Damn!

We had missed the tribute to Billy Pate that the IGFA had put up recently – read the full tribute on their site here.

Billy packed a lot into his 80 years and was a true visionary in the world of salt water fly fishing, a savvy businessman and an ardent supporter of organizations whose focus was to preserve and protect fisheries and fish.

He left some awfully big shoes to fill.

Tags: Weekly Wonders

The 2009 version of the Kaufmann’s Streamborn catalogue served nearly a year and a half of proud duty in the throne room / reading room at Chi Wulff HQ, along with a well worn copy of The Fly Shop’s travel offerings.

Perhaps not as sexy or glitzy as other catalogues available in dead tree form back in the day, Kaufmann’s was a comforting old friend. There seems to have been one around the house in one form or another for the past 20 years or so, though I have no idea how long they’d been publishing one.

It had been my pleasure to have met Randall in Salt Lake City way back in the day when he was considered to be somewhat of a rising hero in western fly fishing circles.

I was even lucky enough to watch him tie a stimulator from the front row as he worked the crowd at the old Angler’s Inn on Highland Drive (SLC again); he signed a first edition copy of Tying Nymphs for me with a smile that day.

Though there’s been a fair amount of mud slung at the Kaufmann’s of late, at least in my humble estimation Randall was a genuine fly fishing luminary, and he was by God making a decent living back then in the fly fishing world. My no doubt vastly unrealistic appraisal of his world made my 80+ hour weeks in the clinic seem like indentured servitude.

It’s been nice to read various tributes to the Kaufmann’s over the past few days, though I think none have been better than Quinn’s over at In the Back Eddy – read his Never Too Old for the Pain of Youth post here.

The days of tough sledding for the smallish local fly shop are far from over. If you’ve got a local hero working at your favorite shop – buy ‘em a beer and thank ‘em for hanging in.

(We’ve heard tidbits here and there that Randall sold out of the brick and mortar fly shops under the Kaufmann name somewhere close to five years ago – can anyone in the know confirm that?).

Here’s to the next round of fly fishing entrepreneurs who will be tomorrow’s heros.

Tags: Inquiring Minds Want to Know

On this ‘day after the vote’ to table HB 309, the now infamous ‘ditch bill’, a few thoughts and a suggestion.

A hearty thanks and congrats to those who love and appreciate Montana’s waterways and her fly fishing legacy. Without a tremendous outpouring from every day folks from around the state and country (and a few friends from other countries around the world) yesterday’s vote probably wouldn’t have happened.

Many different organizations had a dog in this hunt as well, though (at least from where we’re sitting in the cheap seats) Montana TU and FOAM (Fishing Outfitters Association of Montana) seem to have rallied their respective memberships to create a formidable army.

(We don’t know about you guys and gals, but we’re going to pony up for memberships in both organizations. Assaults on Montana’s rivers likely aren’t over, and there’s strength and clout in roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-er-done organizations like these.)

Buy your buddies a beer and go fishing this week; damn the forecast. You’ve / we’ve earned some time on our accessible waters. Read some early press here and here.

That said, HB 309 may yet not be fully dead, buried and gone.

From FOAM yesterday evening -

FOAM members:  House Bill 309, the ‘ditch’ bill, was tabled in the Senate Ag committee this afternoon. Amendments were offered to strip the bill of any mention of redefining what is a ditch and related access issues and to update the Stream Access law to reflect corrections from the so-called ‘Galt Decision’ from the Montana Supreme Court. Even while considering these wholesale amendments, committee members were wary that a stripped-down HB309 could be amended back to the original language in the House or in a conference committee formed to iron out any and all amendments from both the Senate and the House.   With this possibility in mind, Sen. Taylor Brown moved to withdraw the amendments and table the bill.  The committee voted 8 for tabling, 3 against.   Sen. Brown may try to have the House suspend their rules barring introduction of any new bills at this late date and try to cobble up a committee bill to bring forward the Galt Decision language in a new bill, but the chances of an unused bill draft being available and the House suspending their rules to allow it’s introduction are sketchy.  FOAM will track the final throes of HB309, but today’s committee action may well be the end of this saga.

From Mark Aagenes, Montana TU’s go to guy on the ground in Helena (via email yesterday) -

THIS ISSUE IS NOT DEAD; they are already talking about ways to bring this back to life.

As our friend Dwight from Bozeman emailed yesterday – we’ll believe it’s all finished when this legislative session is gaveled to a final close on the 21st of April.

We’ll be watching to see if 309 rises from the grave in the next four weeks or so.

Finally, a suggestion to head off the next round in what shouldn’t become a water access war.

It’s crystal clear that there are good folks, working folks, our neighbors and friends in the agricultural and livestock community that have some very legitimate, heartfelt concerns about hybrid irrigation systems and their accessibility to recreation.

We’d urge the fly fishing community to take the lead in cobbling together some type of working group to collaboratively address the issues at hand and fix what needs to be fixed.

We have a gut feeling that the overwhelming majority of fly fishers in Montana agree with our friends in the ag community about cornerstone access issues; if there’s refinement in the law to be done, let’s do it collaboratively, openly and fairly for all involved.

There are lots of folks out there who still believe that 309 was a ‘revenge bill’ driven by big money in the Bitterroot; we’ll probably never really know. If it’s true, to hell with those guys.

It’s much more critical that we address the concerns of our neighbors and friends in the ag community. We can do it around a table somewhere or eventually in a courtroom.

That said, thanks again to all those who helped fight this fight.   Enjoy the fact that sometimes the right things happen and the good guys win.  Go fish.  Have another beer.

Tags: Access

Congrats to all who’ve been fighting this one.  HB 309 has been tabled this afternoon.

Just back in from being on the road all afternoon and evening – a few key thoughts / caveats and a suggestion to follow in the morning……

Well done.

Tags: Access

An anniversary almost overlooked today – on this date, 24 January, 1965, Sir Winston Churchill died at the imposing age of 90 surrounded by family in his Hyde Park Gate (London) home.

We’ll raise a wee dram to honor his spirit and legacy tonight.

According to accepted lore Sir Winston did indeed partake of a daily breakfast whisky and soda, and as many before me have suggested, a ‘wee dram’ in Sir Winston’s mind was likely a generous offering.

(And yes, whisky is spelled correctly when referring to the products of Scottish distillers – Johnny Walker was apparently his favorite).

Through a quick, cursory search this evening I’ve stumbled across a couple of obscure references to Churchill fishing – hopeful assumption pictures him fly fishing but that’s unconfirmed thus far.

He would have been one hell of a full day float companion on a crisp, fall Montana day.

Tags: Culture, Books, Art

By this time you’ve no doubt seen mention that Arnold Richardson, the Montanan who played the aged but still fishing Norman Mclean in ‘the movie’, recently passed on.

There have been several good write ups about Arnold offered up in the past few weeks; probably the best we’ve seen was done by a local Montana paper – the Helena Independent Record.   Read their story Cast of a Lifetime here;  it offers some thoughtful background information about the man and his fly fishing legacy.

Last night a friend from Helena fired over an email adding a bit more to the story.  Our Helena friend is a physician who has practiced in Helena for some time now; he’s a pain management specialist who is probably one of the kindest men I’ve ever met.

And of course he fly fishes.  A lot.

Here’s a part of his email that adds a nice touch to the story:

…..I wanted to make sure you had seen that Arnold Richardson expired on the 6th last month.  He was the Montana actor who played the elderly Mclean in the River Runs Through It.

I had the pure pleasure of meeting Arnold more than fifteen years ago.  He had fairly impressive degenerative disc disease in his lumbar spine; years of construction work and aggressively banging around the Northwest (including an impressive stint in Alaska) had wrought extensive degenerative changes in his spine.

There wasn’t much I could do for him and he was loath to consider any type of stabilization surgery (good for him) but we did strike up a bit of a friendship and fish together some.

He was 80 or 81 then and not really spry enough to wade; he was fishing Canyon Ferry a fair amount then and was still a demon on the water.   The man loved to be on the water with a fly rod in his hand.  We floated the Missouri a few times and the Big Hole at least once together.

I’ll never forget one day with him.   One glorious sunny fall afternoon, prime time Missouri River, he grew quiet in the front seat of the boat as we eased through the Canyon section.

To my surprise he was weeping quietly.   This was quite out of character for Arnold and had me bewildered for a moment.   I can’t recall his exact words, but Arnold simply said he was thankful, deeply thankful, of his days spent on beautiful rivers fishing, and that he was saddened that his aging body couldn’t keep up with his heart and his will.

We eddied out, had a sandwich and a beer, and talked about his times in Alaska and Montana.  The day ended well with a spectacular afternoon Caddis hatch that had Arnold all smiles again.  Even at 80 (more or less) he was all business that afternoon and boated fish until the sun dipped below the ridge.

May we all have those kinds of days to look forward to, and please tip a glass sometime in the next few days to the memory of Arnold and Frances.

Well said, Dr. K, well said.

Tags: Fish Stories

She’s off the market boys.

The Fly Fish Chick got hitched yesterday.

The best to C and the Prof from the Chi Wulff Gang.

Tags: Events