I was blessed with the opportunity to go fishing with some young and enthusiastic fly fishers this week. I can still hang. Colt and Luke decided that it was worth the 5-hour drive from college to come hang out with me and chase monster trout with streamers. Colt even knew that I was going to be talking shit the whole time he was here and still thought it was worth the drive. To be completely honest, the boys can cast. I really don’t have too much to worry about on that front but trying to ease the how to use big streamers to catch massive fish in a river learning curve can be steep. Now, I’m not saying that the boys didn’t have a good idea of where fish might be, how to present different flies, and how to use different techniques. I am saying that it takes time and experience to pull all of that knowledge together, along with the weather and river currents, and also set the hook, fight the fish, and pray to the fishing gods for mercy.

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I’ve always found the “where are you from?” question to be a bit strange. Does it matter? Identity from a country is a residue of when humans were living in tribes. Common identity created the cohesive bonding in small tribes, that was necessary in order to survive. Similarly it leads to blind spots in thinking. Religion, flat-earthers, anti-vaxers, racists, political divides, football hooligans, fashion; it’s all the same root “I am one of these and so this is who I am”.

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(from the aptly titled ‘Panic’ by The Smiths)
 
“Was he worrying your children Madam?”
“No the kids wanted to run over to him from the swing park, but I just pulled them away before they reached him”
“He was in the playground?”
“No to be fair, he’s on the other side of the park, the kids were fascinated..”
“And did you say he spoke to you?”
“Um, no. No we was talking to some bright pink string on the ground. “
“Bright Pink?!”
“It might have been Bright orange. The bit I caught he said “A loop has two legs and a nose””
“A loop has two legs and a nose”… you sure? So he had a collection of plastic plant pots and some bright pink or orange string?

…And a tape measure and rucksack.

And you think he is a danger to the public, madam?”

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Last Friday I almost missed my fishing window. Some issues as always came up and clock was running. Eventually around 2 pm I made it to our lake. Daylight was allready turning.
 
As I arrived lake it was still dead flat and no rises. I was not really expecting huge amount as it is late autumn. Cloudy, grey, misty.... you name it AND water temperature was 3 celsius, air 5 celsius. I turned boat and got gears ready.

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I have an idea where most of our fly casts fail. From beginner level to highest level of casting. Of course it will be much less common at the highest level, but I still see this problem there also. We could argue that it happens at the delivery, that this is where most casts fail. And yes this is where we will see a lot of failures. Some failures are just pure failure of the delivery. The beginner that has done a lot of spinn fishing will do a janky spinn cast delivery and everything fails. Someone going for a long casts and adding too much power at the delivery.

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Ahhhh the joys of Civic Participation. I voted (early by mail) to redistrict CA in yesterday's bellwether election. I may have underestimated my peeps. It was a top-to-bottom rebuke of the current regime here and everywhere. My friends in NY joyously reprised the days of Fiorello LaGuardia celebrating the election of Zohran Mamdani to the mayoralty.  I’ll try not to smoke too much hopium but it’s better than doomscrolling. Good days have been rare and their effect is overwhelmed quickly by scary stuff. Sunday night I’ll call into the Los Angeles County Superior Court to see if they need me to fill out a jury. I’ll be on call all week. Though the Feds are closed, everyone else is open for business. 

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