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The Chronicle names Del Brown as one of the Bay area notables that will be most missed. " "In the arcane world of fly fishing, Delmar E. Brown was Barry Bonds, Cal Ripken Jr. and Ted Williams all rolled into one. He'd go after any fish, but especially loved chasing the elusive permit fish."
A well-written piece by Scottish author Charles Duncan describes the Miramichi and the need to imitate Canadian Atlantic Salmon protection in Scotland.
A very interesting piece about the history of the Letort River in southern Pennsylvania, the river's role in helping shape the thinking of America's fly fishing pioneers (including Charlie Fox, Vince Marinaro and Ernie Schwiebert), and a debate over whether the Letort's trout are disappearing and why. Is it possible that this one difficult river was inspiration for longer leaders, light tippets, thorax-style dry flies (since traditional Catskill dries didn't work), and terrestrial patterns? Obviously the Letort deserves special attention.
I remember Guy de la Valdene as part of the original troupe of Key West hippies -- including Tom McGuane, Jimmy Buffet, Jim Harrison and Richard Brautigan -- who made a classic, unreleased movie about tarpon fishing in the 1970s. But Mr. de la Valdene is also a French count, and has now released his first novel, set in Normandy, which I can't wait to get my hands on.
This article about rod-maker Doug Kulick in the Reno Gazette-Journal Online mentions why Tonkin bamboo from Guangdong Province of China is the preferred bamboo of split-cane rod builders: "...the distance between leaf nodes, the high point or bump between the smooth lengths of a piece of bamboo, is longest in Tonkin, making for better rods." Doug's Web site is here.
Ran across this link on the Fly Fishing Forum to a site that covers fly fishing the Mediterranean and surrounding countries. There's a suprising amount of information here on an otherwise unpublicized resource. For example, here's a piece on fishing Spain's Ebro estuary.
Guy Martin records his quest for a grand slam (tarpon, permit, bonefish) in the Marquesas and off Little Torch and Howe keys in the lower Florida Keys. Despite getting his geology a bit wrong (the Marquesas is not an atoll, scientifically speaking), and having a guide that seems to say "Dude!" a lot, it's a fun article. In this month's Field & Stream.
Almost 60 years ago, Aldo Leopold remarked on something all fly fishers are now familiar with.
"Then came the gadgeteer, otherwise known as the sporting-goods dealer. He has draped the American outdoors man with an infinity of contraptions, all offered as aids to self-reliance, hardihood, woodcraft, or marksmanship, but too often functioning as substitutes for them. Gadgets fill the pockets, they dangle from neck and belt. The overflow fills the auto-trunk, and also the trailer. Each item of outdoor equipment grows lighter and often better, but the aggregate poundage becomes tonnage."
Aldo Leopold
A Sand County Almanac
Scott Butner of Richland, WA developed this LIE ("Length, Inch Equivalent") tool a couple of years ago. It's quite a hoot.
Guiding vs. Sex
#20: You can't get drunk and guide, period.
#19: Limp rods have no place on the boat.
#18: You do have to hide your fishing magazines from your friends, or at least laugh about how wrong the articles' authors are.
#17: You would never pay to fish with someone else.
#16: In fact, the 10 commandments were written by guides for guides, and guides have just as hard a time following them. Example: Take one day off a week.
#15: Be very curious about what your angler intends to do with all those video tapes.
#14: Best not to talk about your other clients at all, past or present, escpecially the ones you've enjoyed.
#13: Don't let anyone find out that you let someone you didn't know, or at least someone one of your clients didn't know, onto your boat.
#12: You feel guilty all the time about wanting to fish with the really good anglers.
#11: If your regular fishing partner can't fish with you, they want to know who you fished with, where, and how often you caught fish.
#10: Don't ever tell anyone you fished by yourself. Client: "What are you? Crazy?"
#9: If you discover that another professional fisherman has somehow gotten on your boat, immediately head to an area that you know is devoid of fish. Never trust anyone.
#8: Sleazy shops always have the best prices and the lowest BS coefficient.
#7: Under no circumstances should you ever mention that you are a guide in public (especially not in bars or restaurants) and remember: fishing jokes are not funny.
#6: Don't drink out of the same water jug as your client, especially if they are from Hollywood.
#5: There is a very high risk that you will fall in love with the 5:30 AM commentator on the Weather Channel.
#4: If you ever lose or fire a client, you will be asked a thousand questions about why, when and where it happened.
#3: If your partner discovers another sport, you are expected to become as aroused as they are about it.
#2: If you fished on your vacation, always report back that you fished earnestly and without interruption despite having fallen asleep while watching fish rise.
#1: After fishing with you for a while, your partner will excuse themselves to go to the bathroom at all the wrong moments and let slip comments like this: "I'll be bloody glad when we've had enough of this."
Oh, and the last thing is, "Once a guide, always a guide."
Tom Rosenbauer contributed a piece to Field & Stream on the "Mighty Midge" and included lots of tips on using this highly productive pattern.
Loosely translated, the "sportsman's death." That's what the Club de Yates de Veracruz will apparently give Xavier Molina, who falsified his recent 6-lb. tarpon record. The reason: "To impress a woman." According to Mr. Molina's confession, the fish was actually caught more than 300 km away and on conventional tackle.
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