Big M@*%$& F!($*%# Jungle Fish

I got my hands on this film a few weeks ago and popped it in the other night.  I'm not one for straight up fish porn F3T style.  Most of Felt Sole works for me, partly because I live according to patagonia (despite not sponsoring the film, patagonia has a strong brand presence throughout Jungle Fish).  Beattie Productions has unreal footage and puts out good stuff, but once you've seen one it doesn't get off the shelf much.
Costa has done a good job with this film, the cast, the story, and the fish.  It delivers that holy shit moment while telling a story of pioneering an industry and creating a beacon for rural communities and sustainable development.

Give it a look-see:

 

"JUNGLE FISH" presented by Costa Films

THE FATE OF A PEOPLE IS TIED TO A FLY ROD.
For decades, the native peoples of Guyana have struggled for economic independence. But hope might be prowling in Guyana's rivers in the form of the largest freshwater fish in the world, the arapaima.  Follow three expert fishermen as they undertake a two-week voyage deep into the heart of Guyana's rain forest. Their mission:  to demonstrate that the arapaima can be caught with a fly rod.  If they succeed, it will prove that the country's fledgling sport fishing industry is viable.  And that will mean a brighter future for the native peoples, the rain forest they call home – and the endangered arapaima itself.
29 Minutes Running Time

Simms Ice Out 2012

Simms Ice Out is here.  Checking over the itinerary it look something like this:

Day 1


Drinking
Watching fish porn
Drinking while watching fish porn

Day 2

Product testing (fishing)
Fish porn watching
Guide Olympics (lawn games)
More fish porn
Drinking

Day 3

Same as Day 2
Possibly more drinking while watching fish porn

There are a few things I'll point out.  Robert Younghanz knows his little critters and will be giving a presentation on streamside ecology.  He guides out of Anglers Covey in Colorado Springs, good friend and good flyfisher.

I'll be here in DC, but you should go.

Fish Porn is for Humans

Fly Fishing Film Tour has been making its way around the country promoting nearly a dozen fly fishing films.  Last night the crew was in Arlington, VA at the Draft House Cinema showing their lineup.  A few were underwhelming and a few were great.
Standouts:

Fly fishing and fly fishers can be so damn righteous, this small  mob of middle-aged punk rockers get their fix yelling angry lyrics at angrier teenagers, and occasionally at stubborn trout.  They're not hog tiers when it comes to fishing but you don't have to be to feel the love.


"Doc of the Drakes" has two messages it shares with the world; do what you love and you can do it forever, and any fish can be a trophy... but it helps if it's 25".  Doc is an old man by his own account, and Parkinson's  has left him with a shaky hand.  Of course, that doesn't matter as long as you can set the hook right.  The trout make him work for his catch, but he finds his trophy.


This one takes me out of DC and puts me back in "the land of giants."  Nothing's more exhilarating than chasing steelhead in Alaska.  These guys do it in true dirt bag style.

Now there were some mentionables, Fly a Legacy, The Arctic, and Riding High: A Season on the Fly.
The night was great, with tons of give-a-ways, good food and drink, good people.
Check it out. FlyFishingFilmTour

News to Me

Apparently P:T got some press on OBN a while back that I was unaware of...

Check it out: OBN

And if you haven't had your fill of blogs there are a lot more here.

Thanksgiving in the tropics

Complete with oven roasted chicken, in lieu of a turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing and good company, last weekend we celebrated American Thanksgiving in the Philippines.  The iconic stuffing and cranberry sauce came in a gracious package sent state-side, while the rest of it, potatoes, veggies, 2 chickens, plenty of beer and rum, we found around the island.

There are no ovens to speak of in the Philippines, cooking is done on charcoal stoves, so preparing the bird was set to be the culinary adventure of the holiday.  We devised and successfully carried out our plan to roast our chicken in a beach oven.  None of us had done it before, but we figured it couldn't be all that hard.

Our setting was an abandoned beach front resort.  We had a charcoal grill, a table to eat at, plenty of room for our tents, and no one to speak of but ourselves.

 Here's how it went:

Dig a big, deep hole

Line the hole with rocks and dried coconut husks, they make great coals. Collect plenty of wood preferably not bamboo, but it will suffice.  Build a big fire.

Prepare the chicken(s) with salt, pepper, potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, and a bit of the brine.  Use a pot that doesn't have any plastic on it.

Cover the pot with aluminum foil and then the lid (to keep sand out) and place on a hot bed of coals and rocks.

Build up the fire again, bamboo burns quickly so you have to keep it going.

Make sure the pot is surrounded by hot coals, then partly cover it with sand.  Do not completely smother the fire.

At this point we settle down on the beach with a half dozen San Miguels a piece, a bottle of rhum, and some red wine to watch the sun set.

After three hours, carefully remove as much wood and coals as possible.  Be careful of the sand, and remove the pot from the beach oven.

Let it sit for a few minutes, then peal back the foil to reveal the most wonderful, fall-off-the-bone chicken you'll ever eat.

Behold, Thanksgiving dinner...

and the company to share it with.

Sea's Bounty

There are some strange fish in the markets.  These are from the biggest market on the island. In smaller towns you find more reef fish and less blue water species, but it appears that around here all fish are created equal.

P:T Goes Abroad

P:T GOES ABROAD.  Announcing P:T's first ever international fly fishing adventure.  Where too? The Philippines.  The Philippines is not sold as one of the world's premier salt water fly fishing destinations, but with over 7,000 islands and world class diving there must be something to target on the fly.  That's right, I will be traveling to the Philippines, officially to work with a UK-based community conservation organization and unofficially to test myself in the waters of the South Pacific.  Giant Trevaliy, sail fish, exotic reef species, await my catch.

I will be located in Salvacion on the island of Busuanga, southwest of the Capital Manila.  My stay extends from October 15th or so until just before Christmas.

http://siargaofishing.com/

I will be traveling with an 8wt and a 12wt, floating and intermediate lines.  My knowledge of this corner of the world is limited, I know only of boxing, my grandfather's WWII stories, and the sort.  So a plea to anyone with word to share, hand me some intel.  Any insight into the fishing, people, culture, food, beverage, sailing, will help in my presence.

http://siargaofishing.com

Denali in Sight

We've covered over 4,200 miles since the 15th of May and we are at last in Anchorage.  The short drive in on the Glenn Highway was easy but felt longer than it was.  We were eager to be out of the car and in one place for more and a night since leaving San Francisco.  It took us until after lunch, after dinner even, to realize that we weren't getting back in the car and driving another 10 hours the next day.

We couldn't ask for more than a yard with a dog, a bed and delicious meals

Our bed in Anchorage are with some family friends who have been in Alaska for decades.  Their cozy house and generous meals have slowly brought our bodies back to life.  Good beer and conversation help too.  We seem to have brought good weather with us as yesterday was perhaps the warmest and sunniest day Anchorage will see all summer.  We took the chance to stretch our legs and went on a beautiful albeit strenuously steep hike above the Seward Highway.  We scrambled up and gained hundreds of feet earning a panoramic view of Turnagain Arm and the north shore of the Kenai Peninsula.  As the we sat there the traffic heading south picked up as people left for the long holiday weekend.

Most of the trail was literally straight up the face of a  ridge

The Seward Highway follows Turnagain arm east before going through the Kenai Pen.

This weekend marks the opening of many of the rivers and streams on the Kenai for King Salmon.  This coming week we'll be floating some of the rivers for kings and hopefully have the chance to score steelhead as well.

This is the best way to undo 90 hours of driving

For now relief and recovery are deferring reflections of our drive.  A full season of guiding ahead leaves time for little else.  Hopefully these entries will return to trout, salmon, and the world of fish.

Plus Grand Que Nature

Highway 37 through northern BC has to be one of the most beautiful drives around.  We overshot the turn by about 20 minutes as we followed the flooded Skeena River west towards the coast, but eventually realized our error and turned back.  We stopped at the junction to fuel up, paying nearly $6.00 CAN per gallon.  I spoke with the mechanic at the pump while I gave him most of my earnings, and he said to look for bears as we headed north.  Everyone says look for wildlife, moose, deer, bear, porcupine, all of which we've seen, but you never expect to see them so readily on the roadside.  Sure enough within ten minutes we saw our first black bear.  Not long after, we saw a grizzly, then more black bears, and more, and more.  All together we saw two brown bears and possibly as many as 16 or 18 black bears, we lost count.

A sow and cub turn their attention away from the grass momentarily

A young brown bear was enjoying his meal too much to care about our company

The best we could figure is that they move towards the roadside in the spring to feed on the grasses that grow where the Dept. of Transportation removes the trees.  Grasses are the first to put out new growth in the spring and these bears are eager to put on pounds.

Both brown and black bears feed primarily on vegetation in spring and summer

We were happy to be out of BC and that much closer to Anchorage

Eventually the Cassiar Highway took us up into the Yukon.  We turned west and within hours were in Whitehorse.  Whitehorse is the capital of the territory, and for me musters memories of Jack London stories and images of life in the far north.  Today it's a tourist destination for the cruise ship type that port in Skagway, AK.  Other than seeing displays around town telling of the gold rush history, dam building, logging and so on, there isn't much to do in Whitehorse.  It's hay day has pasted.  We camped across the river from the town, on a little ridge overlooking Long Lake.  The sun set late so we walked down to the shore and surprised a beaver making his evening rounds.  He didn't mind too much that we were there, thumped the water a few times but otherwise minded his own business.

Our campsite above Long lake across the river from Whitehorse

The following morning took us back across the boarder in Alaska.  Changes in the landscape were immediate, with aggressive, sharp peaks to the south.  We drove late as the sun was still high and made it within hours of Anchorage.  We spent the night in the trailer again, insight of glaciers, peaks and a river below.  In the morning prints in the dirt showed a moose had come to sniff the trailer.

Wrangle Range lie north east of Anchorage

This is as good as it gets on the road

The Oregon Coast

Since our departure, we've driven 1,000 miles north and a little west to where I finally write.  We are just south of Lincoln City below Despoe Bay on the Oregon coast staying in a beautiful, warm beach cottage.  The sun has just set (20:41) and it has, at last, stopped raining.

Until today it had been raining since we arrived in San Francisco on the 15th and we were lucky enough to spend two of the first three nights in homes.  I have an aunt and uncle in Berkeley whom I don't see enough. We stayed two nights with them, spent a day with my cousin and a friend and shipped out after eggs and bacon on the 17th.  With the San Jauquin Valley, SF and $4.45/gal behind us, we followed the Sacramento River north towards Oregon.  Then we left I-5 to follow the Rogue River northeast before turning back to Redford and Eugene, still in the rain.  We spent that night outside Eugene.  This morning we drove west to reach the coast, then up RT 101 to Newport.

Boats in the Newport Harbor

Cliff along the OR coast north or Florence

Newport's a great fishing town on either side on the Big Elk River.  On a recommendation we had chowder and Fish & Chips at Mo's down by the water.  We saw the seals at the harbor and stopped by the Rouge Nation World Headquarters on the south side of the river - highly recommended.

Rogue Nation World Headquarters, Newport, Or

This makes me giddy

When we had seen enough we  followed the coastal cliffs north to this cottage.  I've been in absolute awe of the Oregon coast since we hit it, almost all of Oregon in fact.  A friend of Conrad has lent us her beach cottage for the night.   So we'll be here for the night and then somewhere north of here tomorrow night, perhaps Portland or Washington.

Low tide in  Lincoln City, Or

Our cabin for the night

Oregon has some of the biggest names in fly fishing, and for good reason.  The McKenzie, the Rogue, the Deschutes, and a countless number of other streams, rivers and lakes produce world class steelhead, salmon and trout year-round.  Maybe we can afford another day here and head east to wet a line.

Long Road North

Every now again we are blessed with the opportunity for adventure.  Adventure takes many forms, mostly fruiting from one's own efforts to seek the experience.  An adventure can be a day on the water or six months abroad, a matter of happenstance or the culmination of weeks of planning, taken alone or with friends or with complete strangers.  I am lucky enough to have an adventure on the horizon - another long drive.

This particular adventure has been on the horizon for  a year now, and my preparation started with building myself a tear drop trailer.  Teardrops are fascinating.  They have the spacial efficiency of boats with the practicality of cars and tents.  This one also doubles as a storage unit.  I was introduced to teardrops through this book: Teardrops and Tiny Treailers by Douglas HeisterTeardrops and Tiny Trailers.

The Cover of Doug's book

The drive north covers some of the most beautiful country of North America

So I decided to build myself one, how hard could it be?  When I returned from Alaska last summer I consulted with a friend of mine more verse in the ways of hammers and nails, drew up a number of blueprints and began construction.  (I hardly documented the construction) but five weeks later I had a teardrop.  It has since enjoyed a few improvements and here is how it stands now.  So far it has about 4,000 miles on it.

New coat of paint and finished inside

Near the Colorado River in AZ

Sunday I leave southern California en route Hope, Alaska.  The drive will take me nearly 4,000 miles up the length of California, through Oregon and Washington and past some of the most prestigious North American waters before reaching British Columbia.  From there we (myself and Conrad) continue north through BC into the Yukon, through Jack London territory then west into Alaska.  In the two weeks we have, we hope to cover much water, see parts of this country and Canada we've never experienced, chase spring north, and enjoy our most recent adventure (for Conrad it is a particularly sweet treat, perhaps he'll tell you why).

Fishing the San Juan River in Northwestern NM

Dawn in Arizona

So this is as much as we've planned,  leaving room for decide-as-you-go tactics.
Teardrops and Tiny TrailersTeardrops and Tiny Trailers
Stay tuned to Prescription: Trout for news and photos from the drive.