"January Thaw" by JYA

Marc R. Hanson

Somewhere between shed and barn

he enters the heart of the fog.

Everything trembles, lets go and falls away

like icicles in spring.

In white space he waits breathless.

One sharp birdsong splits the veil thin as itself.

Silence fills the rent as quickly as night

heals the wound of a star's falling.

He awakes in the heart of the fog,

marvels at the weight

of the bucket pulling at his hand,

of himself pressing into the earth.

Just Around the Bend

Now I want to dream this every night until Spring.

FMAO - Just around the bend from FMAO Productions on Vimeo.

Tenkara Angler, Winter 2015-16

You've been curious, haven't you? Find out more about it HERE.

Rocky Ford Creek Report: Mouse Works But Stimulator Brings Home the Prize

You wend your way through the glacial rubble back down to Rocky Ford Creek.

It's another springy day on the spring creek. There are fish moving. The mouse is still on the line from last time, so you launch it out there where you saw some wakes converging.

A fish is on it instantly. It follows it all the way in. You flip it out again, sure that fish is still looking up, and get ready. This time, after a single strip, the fish whacks it. You set and it's hooked. It's just as you pictured it, except for the size of the fish. This isn't a big old trout, but it's a scrappy youngster who knows how to jump. And you do enjoy seeing that mouse hanging from its jaw.

You're the mouseman now, so you work it some more. But apparently that was the only trout at the moment willing to tackle a mouse. Way to go, fish. You clip the mouse off and stick it on your fly patch for later. You affix an indicator and begin to work the depths.

That's fun for awhile. You miss some tugs, and lose some hookups, but bring one in on a little san juan worm.

Time for a change of pace. There are more surface takes going on now, so you go on top with a light caddis. The fish take notice right away, and you get follows, but you have to work a little to coax a take. Another jumper. Not all the fish jump here, but the ones that do jump like crazy.

You get another good fish to take the caddis, but after a brief confrontation it gets off.

You switch the sodden caddis for a pretty little stimulator. It gets a quick take, a little fish that sucks it in on a twitchy strip.

You cast the stimulator out again, and, for some reason, let it sit. It's riding high out there, moving ever so slowly with the current, when a fish rises head and shoulders out of the water and calmly engulfs it. One of the prettiest dry fly takes you've ever witnessed. You wait just the right split of a second, raise the rod, and you've got a hookup.

It takes a few minutes, but you finally bring it close enough to lead it into the net. It takes another few breathless moments for it to stop thrashing and settle down into the basket. You just look at it for a moment. This is one of those long and strong twenty-plus Rocky Ford beauties that make all the miles and all the casts more than worthwhile.

You watch it swim away and know that this has been another one of those moments that define your fly fishing life, when everything comes together and the world makes sense. You stand for awhile and try to make the feeling last.

It's evening all of a sudden, and there's only one thing left to do. You tie the mouse back on and begin to work it. You stay until dark again. You get some follows--one fish leaves a chain of rings ten feet long as it bumps it over and over--but no takes.

 But that's OK. You're still smiling about that last fish.

ARCTIC

ARCTIC | Timelapse from Riku Karjalainen on Vimeo.
http://www.rikukarjalainen.com/
4K/UHD version: https://youtu.be/NfumX8BIWlQ
ARCTIC shows the freezing and at the same time the beautiful conditions that Finnish winter has to offer. I’ve never had the time to work on bigger projects during winter, so this film consists of different sequences filmed during current and last winter. The clips are filmed in: Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park, Riisitunturi National Park, Kivesvaara and Paltaniemi.
Soundtrack: “Malchus” by James Everingham
Equipment:
Canon 600D, Canon 700D & Sony A7S
Samyang 24mm, Samyang 16mm, Canon 24-105mm, Canon 100-400mm & Tokina 11-16mm
DIY slider with Emotimo TB3

"January" by Baron Wormser

“Cold as the moon,” he’d mutter

In the January of 5 A.M. and 15 below

As he tried to tease the old Chev into greeting

One more misanthropic morning.

It was an art (though he never

Used that curious word) as he thumped

The gas pedal and turned the key

So carefully while he held his breath

And waited for the sharp jounce

And roar of an engaged engine.

“Shoulda brought in the battery last night.”

“Shoulda got up around midnight

And turned it over once.”

It was always early rising as he’d worked

A lifetime “in every damn sort

Of damn factory.” Machines were

As natural to him as dogs and flowers.

A machine, as he put it, "was sensible.”

I was so stupid about valves and intakes

He thought I was some religious type.

How had I lived as long as I had

And remained so out of it?

And why had I moved of my own free will

To a place that prided itself

On the blunt misery of January?

“No way to live,” he’d say as he poked

A finger into the frozen throat

Of an unwilling carburetor.

His breath hung in the air

Like a white balloon.

Later on the way to the town where

We worked while the heater

Wheezed fitfully and the windshield

Showed indifference to the defroster

He’d tum to me and say that

The two best things in this world

Were hot coffee and winter sunrises.

The icy road beckoned to no one,

Snow began to drift down sleepily,

The peace of servitude sighed and dreamed.

"January" by Baron Wormser from Mulroney and Others. © Sarabande Books, 2000.

An Interesting Afternoon At Rocky Ford

Had an interesting afternoon at Rocky Ford on Tuesday. Report on the way.

12 Months of Fly Fishing

It's still not too late to fish every month of 2016....

12 months from Ben McCracken on Vimeo.

New Years resolution for 2015 was to fish every month of the year. This project took us as far north as the Canadian border on the Flathead in Montana, south to Colorado and even back east to North Carolina. Though a lot of footage was not shown from some of the destinations, we tried to provide the most compelling representation of our 2015 year. So many people were not only down to fish for us, but in many occasions, help film and provide feedback in post production. This film would be nothing without the people involved and we cannot thank them enough for their contributions and their passion for chasing trout on a fly.

Rocky Ford Creek Report: You Can Hardly Wait

Two long weeks since the last trip. Now, finally, a break in the weather and your schedule. It has been overcast at home since forever. Driving south again you escape its gray grip and enter into dazzling sunlight. Your eyes take awhile to adjust to the unaccustomed glare.

Down here in the banana belt the January thaw that has begun at home has already transformed the landscape. Last time it was snow-covered.

Now the ice and snow are almost gone.

You start with the mouse left in the hook keeper from the last trip. It's a good casting warmup, but it has no noticeable effect on the fish. You put it away for later.

You screw on an indicator and hang a big blood midge off it. Down goes the indicator, up comes a trout--emphatically. It jumps at least six times before you get it into the net. You figure we're all feeling good today.

You stay with that big red nymph for awhile and get plenty of entertainment from it. You miss some takes and catch some more fish.

The afternoon wears on and the big red nymph wears out its welcome.

You try a scud, and the fish like the change.

Soon a scud, too, ceases to get any attention. There is more activity on top now, as the light wanes, so you try a little may, with no luck, and then a smaller griffith's gnat.

It takes some coaxing, but you finally get a take and a hookup.

The moon peeks over the eastern ridge. You're delighted. You haven't seen the moon for weeks.

It casts its spell over the water, and day flees and evening settles in. I hear what I think at first is a fly reel being reeled slow. But it's a precocious frog. It croaks a few times, and then is silent. At the same time I hear a familiar conk-a-reeee from the cattails across the creek: red-winged blackbirds. What are they doing here? Then again, what are any of us doing here?

You know what you're doing here. You knot a deer hair mouse onto a stout tippet and begin mousing.

You work that mouse hard. Mostly it's ignored, or followed with not even a bump. But two times you get a heart-stopping take and hookup. You feel the pull and then the slack as the fly comes out. You ponder that. Is the fly too big? Or are the fish too small? There are smaller fish cruising in pods and you figure it must have been a couple of those reckless youngsters who grabbed the fly.

You fish in the dark for awhile, and have to force yourself to quit. You hike back to the truck in the moonlight. You're thinking--and you're still thinking--that there will come a day when the time is right and a big old trout will come to that mouse, not to play, but to kill. 

You can hardly wait.

Rocky Ford Creek Report Coming Soon

I had a good afternoon at Rocky Ford on Friday. Report coming as soon as I can get to it.

Four Hours

Four Hours from Zangs Films on Vimeo.
'Four Hours' is a timelapse series depicting Iceland's unbelievably short, but incredibly beautiful winter days - four hours is the average amount of time the sun shines during this coldest season of the year. This series was shot during one week at multiple locations throughout Iceland during the month of January, 2016.
Cinematography/Post-Production: Octave Zangs
Original soundtrack: Four Hours by Octave Zangs
Shot using Canon cameras and Syrp motion timelapse devices.

Eternally Wild

Eternally wild--our hope, our prayer, our task.

Eternally Wild from California Trout on Vimeo.

Eternally Wild is a short film about California’s iconic Smith River, its steelhead, its history and its current plight.

Here there are no dams, no wretched clear-cut blocks, no mitigating hatcheries. Instead... ancient forest, iconic redwoods and a powerful symbol of freedom -- THE SMITH.

But 4,000 acres of the pristine North Fork are threatened by a giant toxic nickel mine operation.

The Red Flat Nickel Corporation has applied to sink 59 drill holes that would pave the way for one of the largest nickel mines in the Western United States. The film, by Keith Brauneis Productions and California Trout, examines current conditions and discusses future threats and asks just how much protection is enough?

Into the West - North America

Y'all come.

Into The West - North America from Mike Bishop on Vimeo.

"Everybody Made Soups" by Lisa Coffman

After it all, the events of the holidays,

the dinner tables passing like great ships,

everybody made soups for a while.

Cooked and cooked until the broth kept

the story of the onion, the weeping meat.

It was over, the year was spent, the new one

had yet to make its demands on us,

each day lay in the dark like a folded letter.

Then out of it all we made one final thing

out of the bounty that had not always filled us,

out of the ruined cathedral carcass of the turkey,

the limp celery chopped back into plenty,

the fish head, the spine. Out of the rejected,

the passed over, never the object of love.

It was as if all the pageantry had been for this:

the quiet after, the simmered light,

the soothing shapes our mouths made as we tasted.

"Everybody Made Soups" by Lisa Coffman from Less Obvious Gods. © Iris Press, 2013.

___________________________________

When you can't fish as often, you can cook more. If you didn't make soup out of your holiday turkey, it would be worth roasting up another one just to be able have a hot bowl of this waiting for you when you come in from the cold.

Use this recipe, or call up your Grandma and get hers.

 

Turkey Carcass Soup

• Prep
  45 m
• Cook
  2 h
• Ready In
  2 h 45 m

Recipe By:BirdNSav

"A great way to not waste a single bite of turkey. This is a delicious soup and one of my favorites. If you want to freeze some, leave out the potatoes."

Ingredients

• 1 turkey carcass
• 4 quarts water
• 6 small potatoes, diced
• 4 large carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cabbage
• 1 (28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 cup uncooked barley

• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 1 pinch dried thyme

Directions

1. Place the turkey carcass into a large soup pot or stock pot and pour in the water; bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook the turkey frame until the remaining meat falls off the bones, about 1 hour. Remove the turkey carcass and remove and chop any remaining turkey meat. Chop the meat.
2. Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer into a clean soup pot. Add the chopped turkey to the strained broth; bring the to a boil, reduce heat, and stir in the potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, cabbage, tomatoes, barley, Worcestershire sauce, salt, parsley, basil, bay leaf, black pepper, paprika, poultry seasoning, and thyme. Simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 1 more hour. Remove bay leaf before serving.

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Printed From Allrecipes.com 1/20/2016