View From The Road

Doing a bit of travelling at the moment. This was just after crossing the Mackinac Bridge, looking north back at the UP.

I also spent some time visiting my friend Theo at his shop Dead River Coffee in Marquette. Theo roasts some incredible beans. If you are ever in the area, i encourage you to stop in for some exceptional coffee, great conversation, and maybe a game of cribbage or two.

The Salmonfly

It's starting.

Swinging Streamers

The water up on the creek had gone down quite a bit since the last push, but was still running at a powerful 1200cfs, which made wading a bit of a challenge. Knee deep and down was ok though. Folks in boats were having some good luck, as were waders that had ventured to the creek's upper reaches where there's a bit of slower water. Lots of bugs in the air, and from the looks of things, the big ol salmonflies should be taking flight at the end of may.

RIP

MCA



fuck cancer

Climbin'

Well, a spike in temperatures coupled with a bit of rain, sent the creek up and up, and well...up. It would have been a heckuva day had the creek stayed down a bit, with some nice hatches of brown drakes, blue winged olives and march browns going off a bit after 1p. A tough day fishing, but still an absolutely gorgeous day to be out on the water waving a stick.

With warm temps and possibly some rain this week, i don't see it, or any of the area rivers dropping anytime soon.

MT Fly Fishing Mag

Spring issue out now.
Enjoy.

CLICK TO VIEW

New Toy

Where The Yellowstone Goes

From the producers of Ride The Divide and presented by the folks at Trout Headwaters, this film documents a 30 day float down the Yellowstone, and highlights the people, places and history surrounding the longest un-dammed, free flowing river in the lower 48. Here's a little taste of Hunter Weeks' latest film. Cheers.

Drink Better Coffee

Cold. Dark. Wet. Early spring in the Rockies. This is when only the finest of fuels will do to help inspire the activity of the moment. I like many others turn the magical coffee bean.  And well, the guys at Black Coffee roast a great bean. Once you've tasted some quality roasted, fresh beans, you'll never go back to the swill you've been choking down. Life's too short to drink bad coffee.

Lights Over Marquette

One of the things that I miss the most about living back in Marquette is being able to see the Northern Lights several times a year. The recent solar storms provided some stellar viewing back in the UP. Here's a great clip from a couple nights ago.

EDIT*
The video i had linked to showing the aurora lighting up the Marquette sky, was for whatever reason removed from Vimeo.
So....here's a fun little clip from the same Aurora display a bit further south, in the NW corner of lower MI.
enjoy.

The Tongass

via  The Tongass
At nearly 17 million acres, the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska is our country’s largest and most unique national forest. This magnificent landscape of western hemlock, Sitka spruce, western red cedar and yellow cedar trees is part of the world’s largest remaining intact temperate rain forest – and hosts some of the rarest ecosystems on the planet. The Tongass comprises thousands of mist-covered islands, deep fjords, tidewater glaciers and soggy muskegs that provide ideal habitat for a vast array of wild plant and animal species, including healthy salmon and trout populations. According to the U.S. Forest Service, the Tongass includes roughly 17,000 miles of clean, undammed creeks, rivers and lakes that provide optimal spawning and rearing conditions for the region’s copious wild Pacific salmon and trout. Each year, abundant wild salmon runs return from the ocean to Tongass streams to spawn and die. In this process, these fish bring nutrients from the productive North Pacific Ocean to the much less nutrient-rich land. Because Tongass ecosystems are sustained by the annual salmon returns, the Tongass is literally a “salmon forest.”

Please sign on to support and learn more about the threats facing this important region.
http://americansalmonforest.org/join-the-fight/

Today Did Not Suck

Temps in the mid 50's and bluebird all day.
If you can't have pow, it might as well be sunny and warm.

Canvasfish

Here's a great look at painter Derek DeYoung out of Livingston , MT. Most folks are probably familiar with his work through his partnership with Abel Reels and Simms.

Really good stuff. Enjoy.

What Are Yours?

Soul

yup.

10.5 Minutes of Awesome

Well, since i'm still waiting for the ol' tax return check to be direct deposited before i can go and replace my broken cheap, but serviceable Sci-Angler rod, i've been geeking on the fish porn. This piece by Metamorph  features Mike Kasic and his unique view of the Yellowstone. Enjoy.

Oh, and as for the new rod, I'm looking at a few different models by Temple Fork and Echo. Both companies seem to make some nice rods, backed by a solid warranty. We'll see...

One In Winter

Another short that I really dig. Great camera work, and an overall great mood. 5:05-5:35 or so is simply outstanding. Shot by Ryan Peterson, and supported by the good people at Patagonia.

Breathe

My favorite clip at the moment. Really looking forward to the full length version of this film.
A film by RC Cone and presented by the folks at Imago.
How do you breathe?

Sled Dogs and Snow

Twenty years ago today my dad and I headed up to Marquette, MI to visit NMU,  one of the colleges i was looking at attending. Actually, at the time I was pretty sure I was going to attend Western Michigan with a friend, or maybe Michigan State where it seemed like 1/3rd of my class of 262 was planning on going. However, I had this conversation with a guy at this grocery store I was working at and his description of the place interested me enough to set up a campus visit. And I figured what the hell, I'd at least be able to get away for the weekend and get in a bit of snowboarding.

So, my dad and I drove up towards Marquette in a blizzard on a Friday, only making it as far as Mackinac City due to the storm. I think they might have even closed The Bridge as well.  The next morning we drove across the UP into Marquette, where i went through the typical college visit routine. Met some professors, toured the Union, walked through campus, etc. However, my mind was mostly on all the snow, and my plan to hit up Marquette Mountain the next day.

That night we went downtown for the start of the UP 200 Sled Dog Race, and I felt as if i were an extra in an episode of Northern Exposure (which coincidentally, was and still is one of my favorite tv shows). The next day, was spent riding the deepest, softest snow i had ever had the pleasure to ride. My time on a snowboard up until this point had been spent sliding around on the many icy converted trash dump/ski hills in SE Michigan, so to be actually riding a "mountain" with little cliffs to drop, trees to ride through, and some ridiculously nice people made this flatlander from southern Michigan feel like he was out in Crested Butte or some other far off mountain he had only read about in a magazine. Damn, what a magical day that was.

                               photo courtesy of Photo Yoop

I sometimes wonder what path my life would have taken had my campus visit been a couple weeks later, with no downtown sled dog race, no 2 feet of fresh snow to ride, and had been met with grey skies and a 25 below wind chill, which is quite common in those parts. Would I have still decided to move up there, or would i have instead decided to go to MSU with everyone else. Would I have then missed out on fishing the Chocolay, the Little Garlic, the Yellow Dog? Would I have missed out on the 103 days of snowboarding i put in in the winter of '92-'93? How many times would i have hiked up Hogsback to camp with some friends under a full moon? How many sub-zero afternoons would I have spent ice fishing with my buddy Mike? How often would i spend all night talking with good friends in large tipis on the shore of Lake Superior? Well, if i had decided to stay downstate and go to college with many of my friends, i can say chances are pretty good that those things most likely don't happen, and I'm also fairly certain that I don't end up here in Missoula.

So, on this night, head full of nostalgia, i tip my glass to the fair city of Marquette.
Thanks.
Yoopternal.

F3T In Missoula

Well, this past Friday I was fortunate to be able to attend F3T's annual stop here in Missoula. The Wilma was sold out on this night, and damn...what a party it ended up being. Most of the films were actually extended trailers, so i'm pretty stoked to actually see the full length versions of several of the films when they come out later in the year. My, and judging from the cheers, most in attendance's favorite had to be Brian Huskey's Doc of the Drakes. A great story about Dr. Robert Franklin who has Parkinson's and his guide Pete Wood and their time fishing Silver Creek in Idaho. Good stuff.



Another excellent short was Sharptail Media's piece on dry fly fishing on the upper Missouri, Sipping Dry. This was the one film that made you just want to head home, grab the gear, the dog, and head for the river.


And, then to top it all off, the fine F3T folks chose my photo from the Missoula showing as their favorite on their Facebook page, and recently sent me a message letting me know a box of swag is heading my way. Pretty damn cool. So, if the F3T brouhaha is headed your way, check it out. I'm definitely looking forward to next year.

Looking Back

So, a few weeks ago we were finally blessed with one heckuva fine winter storm. However, since then it's been  ridiculously dry. Feast or famine, I s'pose. Anyhow, here's a look back at that fine old storm.