Fishing Report,    fly fishing small streams

More Proof Your Gracious Blogger Isn't Really All That Bright

By Tom Chandler 5/28/2012

For a couple hours Saturday, my life was neatly contained by the following: boulders, cliffs, and giant fallen logs.

This was the result of a bad gamble, but then, you probably already guessed that.

Rainbow trout 

Instead of a long drive to a known-fishable stream, I thought I'd try a couple local streams, figuring they must have fallen into shape by now.

Which highlights the following reality: my predictive powers need some work.

You go into this stream at the bottom of a tiny gorge and come out at the top. You could say it requires a certain commitment.

This stream is smothered in willows, boulders, bluffs, cliffs and fallen timber (often in devilishly Gordian combinations), and while you can usually escape the worst of it by simply going up the middle of the stream, it turns out you can't if the stream is running high.

Every ill-advised trip has a moment -- the go/no-go decision when the smart money says "this isn't looking all that good."

Apparently, I drove right by that moment, and at freeway speeds.

Tree-choked small stream 

Instead of exhibiting common sense, I climbed up and down and over and under and through things until my legs retained the raw masculine strength of cooked spaghetti. Fortunately, I was able to console myself with the fact it simply means I'm criminally out of shape, 51 and fat.

The Old Guy Trifecta.

I did manage to scrape up four nice little rainbow trout, which -- if I'd eaten them -- would have returned approximately 1/10 the calories I burned on the trip.

Behold the mighty hunter. Feel my rippling thews.

See you trying (and failing) to pry the lid off the extra-strength Tylenol, Tom Chandler.

wildflowers

AuthorPicture

Tom Chandler

As the author of the decade leading fly fishing blog Trout Underground, Tom believes that fishing is not about measuring the experience but instead of about having fun. As a staunch environmentalist, he brings to the Yobi Community thought leadership on environmental and access issues facing us today.

Beautiful photos, as usual. Beautiful things to see when one's face is in the dirt...
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If it were truly criminal to be out of shape and fat, we would have no one left in this country not in jail. Except the people who would be building more prisons...ones with much bigger cells.
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I'm actually the recipient of Ibuprofen's Lifetime Achievement Award; I just didn't think "pry the lid off the extra-strength Ibuprofen" sounded right. At the Underground, we're about being lyrical.
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Tom, I fished what had to be a smaller copy of your local stream this weekend in Southern California for four trout, three rainbows and one brown. Besides the logs, rocks, and overhanging branches, the stream was also surrounded by blackberry bushes that did their best to snag my clothes every time I left the stream. Still nice to find mountain streams with native trout only a little over an hour ... more from Los Angeles!
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As one of the spokesperson-champions hawking analgesics, balm and bandaids to the ‘Old Guy Trifecta’ crowd, may I suggest you alternate a dose of ibuprofen (analgesic AND anti-inflammatory) with your ES-Tylenol (analgesic only). Take two or three and call me in the morning.
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Not sure where to best post this but thank you Tom for the very informative article on the Klamath River in California Fly Fisher. I hope the dams come down but I wonder how long the charade can go on.
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