dragfreedrift.blogspot.com

theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com

The Average Steelheader: Spring Song of the Steelheader

http://theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com/2014/05/spring-song-of-steelheader.html

Tuesday, May 20, 2014. Spring Song of the Steelheader. Give us the beautiful coldness. Give us a cool mist passing slowly, blotting out the sunrise. Give us a chill morning when all others lie in the indulgent trance and warmth of their beds, and give us a river whose cold water travels over our boots murmuring memories of ice. Give us all their cunning and grace, and their indescribable beauty! Take away your echoes of Summer, your midday sun, your blue skies and your swelter. Take away your heat. For t...

musingsofamadfisherman.blogspot.com

Musings of a Mad Fisherman: December 2006

http://musingsofamadfisherman.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html

Musings of a Mad Fisherman. Welcome to my blog! Its purpose is to chronicle my adventures as I relentlessly pursue Canada's cold water species - more specifically, salmon and trout on the float rod and on the fly. I will however, stray to other lands and other species from time to time. All of my experiences, successes, failures, the fish, the wildlife and people I encounter along the way will be documented here. Sunday, December 17, 2006. The River is Greener on My Side. Posted by BCM at 1:55 PM. As he ...

theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com

The Average Steelheader: April 2013

http://theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com/2013_04_01_archive.html

Wednesday, April 17, 2013. And suddenly, again; it's not about me anymore. Yet another underpinning of my life has become not so much something I do, as something I share. The Opener is quickly bearing down on us. Despite a recent wintry dump of wet snow followed by a warm spell, which is all very promising, and I'm sure to enjoy some time on the water; yet, what I look forward to most is spending at least part of opening day with Sam. So, logically and pseudo-scientifically, I know already what new leve...

theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com

The Average Steelheader: Equinox Chronicles

http://theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com/2014/04/equinox-chronicles.html

Tuesday, April 22, 2014. Part I - Late March. The conditions seemed as though they would be ideal, so I went to bed in a fair degree of excitement that night. I slept, though a little on edge. 4:49am - Through the thick veils of sleep. I hear something. It's not my alarm. It's my cell phone. Sleepily I wonder who could be texting me so early and I fall back asleep. 5:30am - The alarm rings and now I get up; like a shot, ready to go. I check. 6:15am - Oliver: "Good luck with it! 6:50am - Oliver: "Cool!

theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com

The Average Steelheader: September 2013

http://theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com/2013_09_01_archive.html

Tuesday, September 24, 2013. Return of the Chinooks. Roe bag number thirteen was quietly riding the slow current, snugly held up by a float just above it. Twelve other roe bags over three trips had gone and done the same; they all died in vain. Munched, torn, shredded - one or the other had happened to all twelve. And the thirteenth was to be no different. But whereas the twelve that went before it had missed their mark, the thirteenth would not. Me in the hunt for the "boots." We had an interesting ...

theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com

The Average Steelheader: January 2014

http://theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com/2014_01_01_archive.html

Sunday, January 12, 2014. What is Built (Fall 2013 Recap). I think back to a time, not so long ago, when the ice hadn't come yet. We smelled it in the air, we whiffed the frost; we knew it was coming, as surely our bones did. Nothing can prevent the Winter from descending with its own pack of blessings, not even wishful thinking. And a fine tomorrow it did bring, indeed. We wasted little time getting there. In the morning; Fidel and I. For Mike and Bill, other waters beckoned and other pizzerias doub...

theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com

The Average Steelheader: April 2012

http://theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html

Sunday, April 22, 2012. Steelhead fishing in April and May is always a “hit and miss” proposition. Miles of beautiful, beckoning river can betray the angler into fishless pauperism. But when the timing is right, schools of hungry drop-back fish can make everyman (or woman) feel like the King (or Queen) of the fishes. That being said, carpe steelhead: seize the steelhead while you may. My favourite moment of the day came just before our first switch of locations, after the morning had pretty much gone dea...

theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com

The Average Steelheader: February 2015

http://theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com/2015_02_01_archive.html

Wednesday, February 11, 2015. Smoke in the Snow. Shoveling the driveway yet again, I paused to light up. Little halos of smoke fluttered away into the night as I puffed the little stogie to life. I got back to work. Push, scrape, lift, toss; repeat - pausing every now and again to luxuriate in what some would consider stench, though it will always delight me. When -3 degrees Celsius feels balmy, it's clear that we've passed through the. Heart of Winter, even though we've yet to reach the other side.

theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com

The Average Steelheader: November 2012

http://theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com/2012_11_01_archive.html

Sunday, November 25, 2012. Of Chrome and Other Things. The oddest thing about steelheading - and this can be said about almost any discipline in which a fairly high degree of expertise can be achieved - is that we sometimes forget the basic principles. Despite all our best laid plans, we proceed with all confidence into - well. - a situation that is somewhat less than we expected. So what a miracle it is, isn't it? And not only to be here, but to share it with a good and constant and faithful friend like...

theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com

The Average Steelheader: September 2012

http://theaveragesteelheader.blogspot.com/2012_09_01_archive.html

Tuesday, September 18, 2012. Summer, though it's only just starting to feel like it, is coming to an end, but one might have problems convincing the Chinook salmon of this. A couple of cold nights in early August seem to have been enough to call them up from the deeps, into the little hot-tub creeks of our little stretch of the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. But this was followed by only very few nights with temperatures less than 18 degrees Celsius, and many days exceeding 30C. A deeper section,. I woul...