"Drinking Song" by Jim Harrison

Our favorite photo, 2007

We were sorry to hear of Jim Harrison's passing. The literary fly fisherman par excellence. Seems like he was just one stop ahead of us on the train, and now he's gone and gotten off.

We'll continue to post him.  You can find all our past posts here: Jim Harrison

You can find the New York Times obit HERE.

And here is the poem of his that has gotten the most hits on this blog. A fitting tribute.

Drinking Song 

I want to die in the saddle. An enemy of civilization,

I want to walk around in the woods, fish and drink.

I'm going to be a child about it and I can't help it, I was

born this way and it makes me very happy to fish and

               drink.

I left when it was still dark and walked on the path to the

river, the Yellow Dog, where I spent the day fishing

               and drinking.

After she left me and I quit my job and wept for a year and

all my poems were born dead, I decided I would only

               fish and drink.

Water will never leave earth and whiskey is good for the

               brain.

What else am I supposed to do in these last days but fish

               and drink?

In the river was a trout and I was on the bank, my heart

               in my

chest, clouds above, she was in NY forever and I, fishing

               and drinking.

"Easter" by JYA

"Dancing in Air II" by Annie Ovenden

A wounded tree

offered up its burden.

Upturned faces fell,

scattered like dead leaves.

Dawn flashed.

A stone moved.

Mist was torn

by a rush of breath.

A voice called

my name.

Now rags of snow

lie empty in the hollows.

New fingers of grass

push aside stones.

Light blooms in the shadows.

Life overflows.

Not dead leaves swirling, but

birds

rising in the sun.

Fly Tying: Tweaking the Soft Hackles

Yellow Mayfly Emerger Soft Hackle

Hook: scud hook 1X short #12

Thread: yellow

Tail: wood duck flank feathers

Body: golden brown ice dub

Rib: gold wire

Thorax: peacock herl

Hackle: brown partridge

This is a larger and heavier version of the Yellow and Quail--with a tail.

The addition of a tail firmly establishes it in the tradition of mayfly

emerger patterns. The larger size brings it into the range

of mid-sized mayflies, more and more of which are appearing 

on Rocky Ford. On the last trip to Rocky Ford I was attracting fish

with a brisk strip of the smaller Yellow and Quail. I am anticipating

 even more enthusiastic attention with this fly. Time will tell.

SKAGAHEIDI

Three things I like: Iceland, beautiful fish, and plain ordinary guys having a Skagaheidi good time.

SKAGAHEIDI // www.southpoint.dk from Stefan on Vimeo.

Life Flows Upward

Three views of one of my favorite tree lines here.

Death Valley Super Bloom

Death Valley Super Bloom from Hal Bergman on Vimeo.
Wildflower blooms in Death Valley only happen when conditions are perfect, and this year was stunning. Due to an unusually wet and mild winter thanks to El Niño, massive carpets of yellow, white, and blue swept across the typically parched landscape. Holding the record for the hottest place on earth, under the right conditions, Death Valley can be a surprisingly and stunningly fertile place.

Through the Guides

Through The Guides from The Noble Lab on Vimeo.
"Through the Guides" is a short form documentary featuring fly fishing guides who show us how to read water, catch more fish, and love the places fishing takes us. Every guide has a story beyond their last trip and fishing report that we don’t see. "Through the Guides" explores the person behind the reel, accentuating their passion to pursue the lifestyle that defines them.
Visiting three very different fisheries and following three very different guides, we see what motivates them and how their life away from fishing influences how they chase fish. Contrasting species, landscapes, and personalities all come together in the context of their passion, coaching, and sharing the experience with anyone on their boat.
The life of a fly fishing guide is defined by water, fish, and hard work. Maybe they were born to guide, or maybe they learned to love it. Either way, their unique approaches and dedication to the sport influence their lives on and off the water.

DUN, April - May, 2016

Keep up with our sisters of the angle HERE.

"For a Friend Lying In Intensive Care Waiting for Her White Blood Cells to Rejuvenate After a Bone Marrow Transplant" by Barbara Crooker

"Woodland Spring" by Morna Rhys

                                                    The jonquils. They come back. They split the earth with
                                                              their green swords, bearing cups of light.
                                                    The forsythia comes back, spraying its thin whips with
                                                             blossom, one loud yellow shout.
                                                    The robins. They come back. They pull the sun on the
                                                              silver thread of their song.
                                                    The irises come back. They dance in the soft air in silken
                                                              gowns of midnight blue.
                                                    The lilacs come back. They trail their perfume like a scarf
                                                              of violet chiffon.
                                                    And the leaves come back, on every tree and bush, millions
                                                              and millions of small green hands applauding your return.

"For a Friend Lying in Intensive Care Waiting for Her White Blood Cells

to Rejuvenate After a Bone Marrow Transplant"

 by Barbara Crooker from Selected Poems. © Future Cycle Press, 2015.

Rocky Ford Creek Report: The Last Fish of Winter

Winter has retreated to the high country. There it will make its last stand.

Down along the creek it's already spring even if the calendar says it's winter for one more day.

You've brought your new ties, and over the afternoon each pattern--PMD, Lady McConnell, and Adams variant--brings trout to the net.

You bring one in on a black humpy and discover a nice little mayfly tie broken off in the corner of its jaw.

The afternoon goes from breezy to breezier, in the great tradition of March. The pelicans sail over now and then tilting like kites.

The best fly of the afternoon is the little yellow and quail soft hackle. You trail it in the meniscus behind a high-floating stimulator for awhile.

The sun angles lower. On the last trip, this was the time for a lively evening rise. This time the fish stay down.

You change tactics and present the soft hackle with a brisk strip. It works.

It's on the strip that you catch the last fish of the day and the last fish of winter.

You get home and the moon has a halo around it. Looks like a change in the weather.

Winterscapes Norway/In the Land of the Northern Lights

Say goodbye to winter....

Winterscapes Norway from Konabyua on Vimeo.
Intended to capture the beauty of the Lofoten Islands I stayed at Svolvaer for 20 days. I was lucky to see often moderate Noordernlights the first two weeks and fantastic ones the last week!
Everything is captured between februari and march 2012. The period of 3 weeks was dicided by pure gambling on clear nightskies and much aurora. The result was 8 nights showing me beatifull aurora's. One night the lights were everywhere for hours.




In The Land Of The Northern Lights from Ole C. Salomonsen on Vimeo.

Ok folks, this is it. Here is my first video project.

It is a video of the Northern Lights created using stills (stop motion). All sequences are shot in or close to Tromsø in Northern Norway.

I have spent over 6months collecting footage for this, I have shot approx 50.000 stills to choose from in making this video. A goal for me has been to try to preserve the real-time speed of the northern lights, or come as close as possible, and present it the way I experienced it, instead of the northern lights just flashing over the sky in the blink of an eye. It may work on other time-lapse videos with fast moving clouds and sunsets etc, but with the northern lights in focus, it should be presented in it's true speed to reflect her beauty, imo. In the video I have put together a collection of slow moving auroras in the woods, over the mounatins, in the city, in the foreshore, reflected in the sea, with some of the most spectacular and strongest auroral outbreaks seen in many years. Included here is a coronal outbreak, in which I am particularly happy to present, since it is very difficult to get on stills, even worse on "film".

I got a fantastic soundtrack made for the video by local musical talent in Tromsø; Per Wollen. A Huge thanks goes to you Per obviously!

Fly Tying: Rocky Ford Dry Pack

In search of the "right fly": Lady McConnell's, PMD's, and a couple of Adams variations.

Rocky Ford Creek Report: Satisfied

Off over the flats under a decidedly spring sky.

Past the greening hillside to the water.

Another breezy, beautiful day at Rocky Ford.

The Lady, twitched seductively through the riffles, brings in the first fish.

Another fish is hooked and quickly lost. You check the fly: slightly bent. You straighten it. A third fish comes to the Lady and is hooked. It's a heavy fish, and fights hard. You have him three feet from the net when he comes off. You check the fly again: no wonder. Not worth straightening again.

You consign it to the deep.

Humpy time. The fish chase it. One chunky fish takes it.

The clouds cast shadows, the wind paints patterns on the water.

You go to a yellow and quail soft hackle and get a taker on a slow retrieve.

So you hang the soft hackle under an indicator and let it drift.

The indicator slips out of sight and you come up on a very good fish. You play it carefully and get it in the net--barely. This is the biggest fish of the year, maybe the biggest you've taken at Rocky Ford. You get one photo and the fish twists out of the net. You tail it and try to net it again--no go. He's gone.

The sun angles lower and gilds the ridge. The wind backs off. Mayflies flitter in the air and glint on the surface. The fish come alive.

You have the skinny tippet but you don't have the right fly.

You have a small yellow humpy, and that's close enough for one fish.

Dusk comes and the fish slow down. You tie on your new stimulator and get a few bumps, but no one's eating it. Everyone seems to be satisfied.

And so are you.