Mike's Glitter Mallows

Man I'm gonna crush the trout next time out. Got my pink Glitter Mallow and treble hooks...
What the hell is a "mallow" anyway? I've had Mallo Cups which are marsh mellows covered in chocolate and they're awesome, but trout bait?
I've used Power Bait in the past at stocked lakes with friends but this stuff is on another level. Also, notice where this shit comes from?
I can imagine some guys from Lodi talking about their day, "Hey, did ya catch any?" "oh yah, got em on da pink Mallows" "oh yah?" "Yah, some big ones too."

Everybody Fished the Little Truckee on Wednesday

Literally every fisherman in CA was at the Little Truckee on Wednesday. Martin and I arrived at about 11am since it was a cold morning and things wouldn't get going till about then...mistake.
By the time we got there there were 10 cars in every pullout and the BWO's were flying around.
I think if we had arrived at 9 we would have been able to scope out a couple holes and be there when the first hatches started, maybe had first crack at a few fish.
We followed about 15 guys and there were only a few good holding spots for fish so they must have been getting hammered.
The weather was awesome. 55 degrees with periods of sunshine and clouds. Talked to a couple guys who caught fish on #22 midges and #18 bwo dry/emerger.

I was a little bummed about getting skunked the last fishing day of 2011 but that's fishing. Especially for me lately. It seems like for the last 2 months I've been hitting spots a day or a week late, or just getting unlucky with something or other.

I actually had a thought cross my mind after fishing for nothing for about 2 hours that maybe I really don't know what the fuck I'm doing. I pictured some guy dressed in head to toe Patagonia and Fish Pond gear with a brand new Sage One rod and a goddamn Tilley hat watching me and shaking his head. Then fishing up stream from me and sticking a big brown on his first cast. This is my nightmare. That's how low my fishing confidence has become.

Luckily every guy but 2 that I ran into didn't catch shit either, and the guys that did weren't doing anything different, they just started earlier and no one caught fish after noon.
I could take solace in the fact that I've only fished the Little Tricky once before but I hold myself to a higher standard than that. Fishin is fishin. Mostly.


I am grateful for the fresh air and the smell of sage brush; for the hatch I got to watch and the fish we saw that stone walled us. And for the simple fact that I went fishing.

Give yourself about 2 hrs to explore this awesome site

I've come across this site when searching for information on various insects but never really took the time to explore it. I'm currently 2.5 hours into the Mayfly section...

http://www.troutnut.com/

A short video from my trip to Baja in May 2010

My Lost Baja Video

Swinging Flies and Dodging Crystal Meth Addicts on the Russian River

Nothing out of the ordinary here

It's been a while since I've done any real fishing. I've been getting my fix by going down to Crissy Field and casting for surf perch but haven't had any luck.
Today I was finally able to get a few guys together and take a day trip up to the Russian where we had heard there were some nice Chromers being caught. I was excited just to get out since I had never fished the Russian.
I was surprised at how beautiful the river was. I guess I thought that since it was so close to the Bay area it would be less scenic or something.

I was also surprised at the number of people walking around some of the little towns we went through that looked like they were either homeless, on speed, drunk, or all three. The first spot we fished was called "Johnson's" I think. It was right in town and there must be a halfway house or homeless shelter right where the parking lot is because there was a bunch of guys just hanging around, clearing their throats, hacking up lungs and bullshitting with one another. I didn't catch any of their conversations. Between the coughing and the "Fuckin A's" i don't think anyone could understand anything they were saying. It was about 6am.

There were 20 guys at this first spot that were throwing spoons and various other spinning gear. We fished for nothing for about 1 1/2 hour and hit another spot down river. Nothing...Nothing all day. We were mostly swinging little Comets and Wooly Buggers.

Big Surf at the Coast

In spite of the crowds, no fish, low water, and crazy ass junkies the day was awesome. We saw an otter eat a Coot too. That was pretty rad. I felt bad for the Coot but the otter was so happy about his kill that I had to laugh. He ate the head and then went around chasing more Coots. He must really like Coot head.

A Rare Saturday in the City

Sometimes sitting at home all weekend isn't so bad

A heads up on a great blog and some fly tying video links

For anybody looking for some great videos on tying flies, I found another blogger that has compiled a great list of video sites. Check them out and follow his blog while you're at it!

Dustin's Fly Box: Sofa Pillows and My list of favorite Youtube tier ...: I wanted first to say THANKS!! Thank you for sticking with me while I was not tying, and really not doing anything. I gained almost 10 foll...

Merced River

Woke up at 330am this past Saturday morning and drove out to the Merced River. I had heard that the fishing was hot last week and the Beatis were coming off pretty thick.
The trip was supposed to be me and my buddy Martin but he bailed on me at the last minute which is par for my weekend trips this fall. It was probably for the best because most of the fishing on the Merced is pocket water and its tough getting around. Martin is a little older with a bad knee.
I fished some nice seams and pockets for about an hour before hooking my first bow. A nice fat 13 inch fish. I had gone down to a 6x tippet and size 20 brown micro may so he took me down river a little ways before I could find a nice slow spot to land him.
I thought I had figured out the formula but that was the only fish of the day. I fished just about every fly in my box, fished them deep, shallow and everywhere in between.
There was a nice little hatch around 330 of some small Caddis, BWO and midges and I saw some sporadic rises. I did get a fish to come up to my #18 spotlight caddis but that was it.
If you go, take some #18 and #20Para Adams and brown and olive Micro Mays. Maybe some very small midge dries and emergers because I think that's maybe what the risers were eating but I didn't have any so I can't be sure. Take this advice with a grain of salt...I did only catch one fish.

Video of the Day: "Holy Crap" Brown Trout

Video of the Day: "Holy Crap" Brown Trout

Our Boy Is All Grown Up

This past weekend was supposed to be a 3 day trip to the McCloud River. I'd tried to fish this river twice this past summer but both times something came up and I couldn't go.
The plan finally came together so me and a buddy from work were on our way to McCloud at 4am on Saturday morning.
The forecast was 4 inches of snow above 3000 feet, rain snow mix below that for the entire weekend and that's exactly what we got. Allen and I fished in the rain all day on Saturday at Ash Camp. We couldn't get down to Ah Di Na because we were supposed to meet our other buddy Nathan and he drives a... ahem...Miata.

I caught fish on a size 12 Irresistable October caddis and a size 16 flashback PT and size 18 PT dropper. I probably caught a dozen fish but all were small, from 6-10 inches. I switched to a nymph rig to try and get my flies into some deeper pools but I didn't catch anything. On Sunday I nymphed with October Caddis Pupa #12, copper johns, PT and even some midge patterns and could only manage one small fish. We had a nice PED hatch and I had some fish rise to my 16 Para Adams  but didn't hook any.
We had to leave around 2pm because Allan hurt his shoulder or some bullshit.
Nathan never showed on Saturday night because his ahhh....Miata got stuck on a paved hill with about an inch of snow on it. He got a hotel in McCloud and left his car there while we fished on Saturday. We picked up the Miata after Allen pussied out and went home and drove down to the Upper Sac. Our options were pretty limited with the new ride so we just fished in Dunsmuir. We managed a couple of nice feisty bows on FKA Prince nymphs.
We decided our best bet for Monday was the Trinity. We knew that the crowds were epic, even on Monday but we thought we could probably find a nice run with out a million drift boats or old retired guys sitting there dying along with the salmon.

Luckily I brought my switch rod and my new 6 wt Helios. Nathan used my 6 weight since he only brought trout rods.
 I wanted to swing but forgot my Skagit line. I still swung a black bantum for about an hour for nothing. I got frustrated with my shitty rig so I switched to nymphing with a black stone and a copper john. We used a bunch of other nymphs also. Nathan and I fished the run for about 5 hours and Nathan managed one nice Steelhead, one little half pounder, and I managed a big sucker. It was Nathans first chromer so he's finally come of age. Congrats! Welcome to the world of  jerking awake at night while you set the hook in your dreams.

Picture of the Day: World-Class Landlocked Salmon

Just one more thing to look forward to if I ever move back to WI!!
Picture of the Day: World-Class Landlocked Salmon

Feather River and Lower Yuba

Met up with Kieth at 6am on Saturday morning with means I had to get up at 3am. We drifted the high flow section of the Feather from 7am-1:30pm. We were nymphing egg patterns and prince nymphs. Got a few squaw fish and hooked a couple small steelies. Also caught squaw fish on size 16 PMD nymphs.
The Salmon fishing is pretty much over here. We did see one bait guy catch a salmon but it was pretty dark and didn't look like it was very far from its impending meeting with the bottom of the river, or the buzzards. Lots of near death fish swimming around still.
All and all I think it will be a while before the Feather picks up for Steelhead and I wouldn't go back until then.

The Feather at 630 am.

Kieth had to cruise home for Halloween duties with his kids and I wasn't ready to call it a day so I went over to the Lower Yuba at the HWY 20 bridge. I just got a new Helios 906 tip flex and wanted to see how it threw a heavy streamer. I threw a couple different sculpin patterns for about 3 hours until it was almost dark and didn't see one fish. I saw a spin guy catch one trout but I couldn't see what he was using. The new rod worked awesome. The thing I love about the Helios tip flex is it has great power but isn't really stiff in the tip like a lot of other comparable rods. It loads up nicely without feeling like a piece of rebar.
I also had the opportunity to throw Kieth's 6wt Sage switch rod. It was really smooth and at first didn't seem like it had as much power as my Helios Switch but it definitely does. I don't think I could choose one or the other. Both really awesome rods.
The Yuba seemed to be fishing pretty slow although I may have hooked some fish with a nymph. There was a decent hatch of various mayflies and midges around 530 that looked promising. It was a bigger hatch than I had seen earlier in the summer around August. It was predominantly caddis back then and they were nowhere to be seen yesterday.

The Dark Seam: Back inthe Saddle

For all you Steelhead junkies, stay tuned to The Dark Seam for reports from Josh Schwartz and Kieth Scott throughout the Steelhead season...

The Dark Seam: Back inthe Saddle: Hey there Dark Seamers ..... Been a while since i or anyone has posted. It has been a busy summer for us all. Good news... Steelh...

Come To Florida Honey

Bull Red Fish, tons of Sea Trout, Snook, Jack Crevalle and its 85 Degrees!! All that and one of my best friends wedding. That was the plan for my 10 day trip to Sarasota. What actually took place was slightly less exciting, and included me passing out at the wedding.
The first day was spent getting a new battery for the 1987 Mercedes that we would be driving while in FL. Once that was taken care of we were able to hit the beach and catch some nice sized ladyfish. I also hooked some kind of Jack but it came off the hook before I could land it.
On the second day we hit some flats out on Long Boat Key and caught some lizard fish, definitely a new species for me and one that I could have gone my whole life without catching and have been happy.
Lizard or Snake fish are about what you might expect. They are long and skinny and have big toothy mouths like a lizard. They have beady little eyes and are aggressive as hell. I was reeling one in and another one latched on to its side and was shaking like a shark. I reeled them both in and luckily they came of the hook pretty easily.
I caught one sea trout and some other small fish in the same area but didn't get into any fish with size.
That was about it for the good fishing for the whole rest of the trip. A big weather system came in and mixed up the water for the next 3 days. We still fished but the wind was high and the water was really off color making fishing nearly impossible.

We rented kayaks on Thursday and paddled around for quite a while looking for tailing fish or any other action with little luck. We finally found a pod of lady fish but that was it. We did see some dolphins feeding as well as what looked like big snook chasing bait but couldn't get them interested. We also saw a couple of manatees which was cool.
Everything was caught on chartreuse and white clousers or decievers on size 1 hooks, the more flash the better. I tied on some shrimp patterns a few times but only caught smaller fish so I stuck to the larger clousers and decievers. I stripped fast with a slight pause followed by more fast stripping and that seemed to work best. We used floating and intermediate line with the same results.
The rest of the time was spent doing wedding stuff. I was a groomsman and passed out during the ceremony. That was weird.

MadTown

Going home is always great but also really exhausting. I went home this past weekend for a few days to spend time with my family and my cousin Tanner who just got back from a tour in Afghanistan. Didn't do any fishing except for a few casts for some bass in the back yard.

My back yard growing up

University of Wisconsin Union Terrace

"Mark it 8 Dude!"

I walked up to a guy at work the other day and asked if he needed a hand. As soon as he looked at me I knew it was Smokey!
I immediately said, "were you in the Big Lebowski" and of course he said yes.
He went on to tell me that he's more famous for the 2 minutes he's in that movie than a lifetime of making music. He's a singer songwriter and was in town for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass which is a huge festival here in Golden Gate Park.
He plays with a couple bands, one is called the Wronglers and the other is the Flatlanders.
I was fortunate to be able to shoot the shit with him for quite a while. He came back the next day to shop some more and told me about touring with Bob Dylan which was awesome.
The coolest thing about Jimmy is that he's the most down to earth guy you'd ever hope to meet. A real breath of fresh air to be honest. Sometimes I think there are more assholes in San Francisco than in NYC. Actually I'm positive about that.

The Hidden Spot

I don't think I've ever been to a truly "hidden" spot and while the place I fished isn't exactly hidden either, hardly anyone knows about it, or has the means to get there. Thanks to Keith's Land Cruiser we made it down pretty easily...but slowly.
I had visions of 20" rainbows and big Browns attacking my streamer. At the end of the day we managed a couple nice bows in the 15" range and had to leave early for fear of rain washing out the already horrible road we had to take to get down into the river.
All in all it was an awesome day.

2011 Fishing Back Log (Abbreviated Version)

January 7th - Trinity River - Downstream from Steel Bridge
I small hatchery Steelhead and one Steelhead lost - Jimmy Legs #8, Golden Stone #10 Red Prince #12

January 8th  - Trinity River - Steiner Flat and Junction City
Skunked all day.

January 9th - Trinity River - End of Steiner Flat Road

1 wild Steelhead landed - Jimmy Legs #8, Golden Stone. Weather was sunny and about 40 Degrees.

January 10th - Trinity River - Down river from steel bridge by hwy
Fished early...probably too early. It was only about 24 degrees and water was COLD. Skunked.

January 16th - Trinity River - Big Hole
Fished #8 pink egg and Jimmy legs. Water was cloudy from recent rain. Cloudy with light rain. Got schooled by a nice sized fresh fish. Much more active than the previous week. Landed a 1/2 pounder.

January 17th - Trinity River - Med Hole
Fished the bright egg patterns again, along with Jimmy Legs. 1 Small fish FARMED.

January 31st - Putah Creek by Dam
Cruised up to Putah for the first time ever with Sebastian. Used Pink egg, #18 Zebra midge, and #18 Copper John. Only fished from 9-noon and got skunked.

March 7th - Lower Sac drift through Posse Grounds
First time on the Lower Sac. Water was clear up in Redding despite the rain and snow melt. Partly sunny and about 60 degrees.
#16-18 mayfly and #12 tan caddis poopah. Landed half a dozen fish from 16-22" and farmed a few.

March 14th - Mokelumne below dam
Cruised up with my friend from the shop Sam.
High water and dirty. I heard there were big fish here and I used big streamers for about 3 hours for nothing.  Switched to nymphing with big copper johns and red egg patterns. Quit fishing after some dude said I couldn't wade and they were giving tickets for wading. Then I saw some meth heads walking on reds and I said FUCK this place and probably wont fish it again.

March 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th - Panama - Pacific side
Stayed at a sick resort for $100 a night. All inclusive! Amazing. Brought rods and reels for all my buddies thanks to the Orvis Loaner program. Got hassled at the airport for my fly lines...what the fuck do they think i'm going to do, choke the pilot with them?
Anyway, caught some little jacks from the beach on the 26th and 27th. They wanted a really fast jerky retrieve and Chartruese and white clousers were the only thing they liked. Only had to cast about 50 feet into the ocean.
Went out with guide Tony Herndon on the Bayano River for Tarpon at about 5am on the 28th. I'll write a full blog about this trip sometime but for now suffice it to say we didn't catch a Tarpon, but we caught some Mangrove Snapper and a couple of other fish that I can't recall the name but they fought like hell. The best part of the whole day wasn't the fishing, but bullshitting with Tony all day. What a crazy guy, worth every penny.
Saw monkeys, Gators, lizards, ...oh and rolling Tarpon that wouldn't take a fly. Oh well...

April 4th - Alpine Lake Marin County - Below Dam
Caught a bunch of hatchery bows after fishing for bass for a while. I think the water temp was still too cold to get the bass going.

April 18th - Lower Sac (wading)
Flows were back down to 6,000 CFS. Fished Posse Grounds and RR bridge by dam. Tried every fly in my boxes and got skunked. No hatches all day, no rising fish. Sunny with scattered showers. 70 degrees.

April 26th - Lower Sac - Second Drift

Fished with Steve and Josh. Used Steve's 117 switch rod, Awesome. Caught a bunch of fish on Oregon Cheese, next best was rubber legs and 1 was on a PMD nymph. PMD's coming off all day but the fish liked the cheese.
Met Ernie.

May 19th - Sacramento Delta - Stripers
Caught a few small stripers on grey/blue/ and white clousers. Wind really picked up fast around 11am so we went and casted some top water stuff for bass. Snake Charmer was working, red and white. Casted Keith's TFO 8 Weight with the Rio outbound short line...sick! I'd like to throw that line with my rod.
The wind was gusting at probably 40mph so we got the hell out of there. Off the water at 2pm.


May 26th - Hit up the American with Keith for stripers. 
Farmed a nice fish and landed a couple smaller ones. Caught them on my smaller red and white clouser. Didn't catch anything until about 11am. Off the water by 2pm. Nice day, no wind and about 75 degrees.

June 2, 3, 4, 5 - Wisconsin trip
Fished Lake Monona for bass and pan fish but the bass had just finished spawning and weren't that interested in what I was throwing. Caught one tiny bass.
Went out to Gilson Creek, Blue River, Tainter Creek the rest of the days. We had great fishing and were catching fish on PMD nymphs and dries and Para Adams, mostly size 16 and 18. I also caught a lot of fish on FKA Prince.

June 13th - Lake Manzanita
Used Steves 6 wt intermediate line and a black woolly bugger for about 4 hours on Sat morning and only was able to get one brown....and i hooked it in the ass. I should have tried some different flies but was totally unfamiliar with this lake and was busy just chillin in my float tube, enjoying the views.
I went back out in the eve and caught a few on a PT.

June 14th - Lost Creek
Went down to Lost Creek with Steve and one of his buddies. This is an awesome creek, crystal clear and really skinny water but there are some big fish in here. I wouldn't know, except I spooked a bunch while I caught little rainbows.

June 18th - Hat Creek
High fast water.
Hit this river for the first time with Jordan. Used a #5 sink line and stripped a few different small streamers. Caught some nice fish off the bat but then it slowed the further up river I went. Caught some on #16 Prince.  Didn't try dries. Lit a fire and chilled out for the eve.


June 19th - Hat Creek
Water still high. Walked up stream about 1.5 miles. Awesome walk but fishing was tough. Just a few dinks.


June 28th - Striper fishing in Hercules Bay
Weather sucked, rainy, windy and cold.
Threw clousers  for a few hours in the eve. Incoming tide. Sebastian hooked 2 and I didn't hook anything. He was using a bigger clouser with angel hair instead of deer hair. Maybe I needed a brighter fly because the water was dirty.


July 8th - Lower Yuba River
Got to the river mid afternoon and it was about 100 degrees. I fished a big hole on the other side of the hwy 20 bridge for about 20 minutes and just about got heat stroke. I decided to wait till the next day and went to the bar in Nevada City for the rest of the afternoon. Camped on the south fork of the Yuba. 


July 9th - Lower Yuba River
Walked up river from hwy 20 bridge. Everyone else thought it was too high to wade (5000 cfs) but I caught a bunch of fish including 2 over 16 inches. One about 18-20. Used FKA Prince and black stone.
Fished from about 8am til 2pm and cruised home.

July 21 - Lower Yuba River
Drifted with Keith and Carson. Hoppers everywhere but the fish weren't really cooperating. Carson picked up a nice one later in the day. Fucking heat got to me so we didn't fish the eve.
Flow was about 3800cfs

July 22 - Upper Sacramento
Fished the lower section well below Dunsmuir. Picked up a couple fish on tan caddis poopah. #16.
Carson picked up the nicest fish right as it was getting dark. Some dry fly action but the bigger fish seemed to be staying below.

July 23 - Upper Sacramento
Fished the park in Dunsmuir as well as the portion from the bridge past the Retreat entrance up to the waterfall. Lots of fish on #18 olive micro may and AKA Prince. Carson was sticking some nice ones on a size 8 Bitch Creek. I tried a large black and olive stone and didn't get the same response.

In the afternoon we fished Pit 3. Nice fish here. Landed some smaller ones and lost two huge fish. AKA Prince and #8 Kauffman stone. This was nearly impossible to wade but worth the hassle. I got dunked totally underwater once and fell numerous times.

July 24th - Upper Sacramento
went back to the lower section south of Dunsmuir. Tried micro mays early for nothing. As soon as we switched to Caddis we started to stick fish. I lost two nice fish and landed a few smaller ones. Carson lost a real lunker that he never saw.

August 6th - Lower Yuba Clinic #1
Met Kieth around 7:30 and fished under hwy 20 bridge for nada. Used Hogans S&M, Jimmy Legs.
Hit the big hole just across the bridge with a bitch creek for the hell of it and stuck a nice 16 in bow on the second cast. Met the clients around 9am and got them into a few fish. They couldn't fish so it was pretty tough.

3300 CFS. EC Caddis in the afternoon.

August 13th - Lower Yuba Clinic #2
7 ppl including two gay guys, two 10 year olds and their aunt, and two dudes that were mildly proficient fishermen. Everyone was having trouble getting their flies out where they needed to be but it was tough fishing also.
We got the two dudes on fish later in the day at rattlesnake. Caddis dries and LaFontaine deep sparkle pupa (swinging).
note to self - No more 10 year olds allowed at the clinics.

September 3 - Labor Day Weekend on the San Juaquin!
Jordan and I drove our asses all the way to the eastern sierras because I missed fishing the Mammoth Lakes area. After spending the night at a hotel on the western side of HWY 108 we came over Sonora Pass and into Bridgeport. Had breakfast and drove on down to Mammoth. Didn't stop at the East Walker because I was with Jordan. Decided to take our chances and try for a camp site on the San Juaquin. Unbelievably there were a ton of sites open and we got one right by the river. The fishing was good all day but right at dark it was REALLY good. Lots of PED's and the fish would hit any Adams size 14-18. Used my new bamboo all day and got to lay out some nice casts right at dark about 50 ft from the campsite. All the other campers were sitting around the fire and I was catching fish after fish on my new bamboo. Nothing better.

September 4th - San Juaquin and little tributary to the Tualumne in Yosemite at 9500 ft.

Fished just below this water fall for about an hour.  Couldn't get too close because it was really windy and wet. Saw some spinning dude catch a nice trout near the bottom of the falls. I hooked a couple down river about 200 yards.

Hopped in the car and drove through Yosemite. Stopped at a little creek on the side of the road and caught some tiny little rainbows.

September 10th - North Fork of the Stanislaus
Not much of a day but memorable. Picked up English Tom. Drove 3 hours to river. Fished for two dinky fish for an hour. Got rained on for 2 hours. Drove home 3 hours.
Tom caught a 12 incher swinging a tiny muddler. Water was super warm from rain up stream. Lightening and wind also.

September 16th - Steelhead on the Feather

Lots of Salmon in the river. Didn't hook many steelhead. Sebastian caught one small hatchery fish. We hooked some salmon which was fun but will return when there are more Steelhead in the system. The steelhead and the salmon were hitting size 12 prince nymphs and beads. Also hooked a big salmon swinging one of the Strickland Specials.

September 24th - North Fork of the Stanislaus - Orvis 301
20 ppl. Me, Steve, and Nathan. Kieth baled cuz Lovey was sick. Long fucking day but overall it was cool. Didn't catch much nymphing in the morning but most people caught or hooked something on an orange stimulator in the afternoon. The hot dogs were a hit, especially with one dude name Jim who is also probably the worlds most helpless person, and cheap as hell.
I did my first dry fly presentation. I think it went well.

September 25th - Beaver Creek
First time to this little creek. Jordan caught the fish of the day and her first ever! on an orange stimulator. Of course I dropped the damn thing before we could get a picture.

Fished most of the day with just a dry fly. Lots of fun.






















http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45tZzFrt6qY

My First Ever Blog Post

Starting a blog sounds like fun and lots of people do it so when I decided I would start it seemed easy enough. But when you finally sit down and decide to post something that the world can see, its a little hard to get started, and I consider myself to be relatively private.
So for my first post I'm not going to write about myself at all. This picture is of Clark Strickland. Clark is one of my co-workers at Orvis. He has been fly fishing far longer than I have been alive and his passion for fishing is evident in the hundreds, probably thousands of stories he holds in his 86 year old mind.
He's originally from way back in the sticks in Georgia and told me that they were so far away from civilization that his dad didn't know what day he was actually born so when they brought him to get his birth certificate it was simply marked January 1st, 1925. He was raised mainly in Tennessee so his southern drawl adds a little intrigue to those stories. Its almost like something out of a movie; when you hear him talk about guiding famous people on rivers in Northern California.
Clark has an amazing collection of old bamboo rods and he sold me one a few weeks ago. I had never even casted a bamboo before I bought this rod but Clark kept insisting that I try bamboo and of course he was right. Its an amazing thing to cast a rod made from grass, especially one from circa 1940 that had never been used. I don't think I've had as much fun catching trout since my first rainbow about 13 years ago.
So here's to Clark.