tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14723266312275542252024-03-13T07:07:11.258-05:00Critter's CornerCritterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.comBlogger139125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-19324240829184111182014-01-15T00:00:00.001-06:002014-01-15T00:00:35.901-06:00Steelhead mojo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So there are a couple of traditions that the Jenn-o-rator and I have when it comes to steelhead. The first is that the morning is best started with a snickers and some caffeinated beverage for me. The Jen likes a mounds or Almond Joy for the drive to the first parking spot. </div>
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The second is having Dave Matthews pumping loudly through the speakers; in particularly to get jazzed up for a day of steelheading we like to hear Grave Digger by Dave Matthews. Here is a YouTube clip:<a href="http://youtu.be/i7wSefU2H9Q" target="_blank"> Grave Digger</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-8210386254739971772014-01-05T15:03:00.002-06:002014-01-05T15:03:40.846-06:00A November Musky (2013)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This past November, Peter talked me into squeezing a last run (for me anyway) at fishing. As I've mentioned in a couple of my previous posts, I've been a bit busy this year. After doing a little "figuring," I manged to make a plan to allow me to squeeze in a day with the guys to target Muskies in Northern Wisconsin.</div>
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I met part of our crew up at Peters relaxing cozy cabin late Friday night. We had a shortened "catch-up" session and we headed for bed. The funny part is that Mike and I shared a room that night and we were chatting and laughing in the dark for at least an hour or more like we were back at a middle school sleep-over. I half expected a booming voice from the dark telling us to "shut-up and go to sleep." It was a fun time and it was good to catch up with Mike since I hadn't seen him much this year.</div>
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The next morning our two boats and the gang met up at the landing and prepared our rods, gear, clothing, etc. We had Peter, Mike, Rob, Wendy, Larry and myself together for this little adventure.</div>
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Since I don't have crap for musky flies, Peter let me use his "exclusive" Gopher-fly as tied by Mother Feiker. He didn't let any of his clients fish it all summer, but thought it would be ok for me to use. So I tied it on and hopped aboard Wendy and Larry's boat.<br />
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It was a bit cold and damp out that morning and throughout the day for that matter and we were all sporting our Simms rain gear and several layers of fleece. We drifted along about 30 minutes or so and when casted my fly on to a thin layer of ice that covered an eddy on the side of the river. I pulled it into the water and took a couple of strips when a musky came up to take and miss it like trout would when dry fly fishing. Keeping my cool, and staying like ice, I didn't flinch, change stripping speed or even mutter a word (all are a miracle if you haven't been big-game fishing with me before). I just kept doing what I was doing and then just a few feet from the boat, I felt something and set the hook as hard as I could. Boom! I hooked it, and the game was on!<br />
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I was using a 9wt, and was very glad I didn't grab my 8wt. that I had considered earlier. He circled the boat several times, and tried to go under. Larry insisted I keep pulling up harder than what I was doing, but I was reluctant to do so as I could feel the rod bending into the cork handle! While trying to bring this alpha in, I was also envisioning the rod exploding in my hand and losing it if I put anymore pressure on it. It probably took me all of 5 minutes to land it, but it felt like 15 or 20 minutes!<br />
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Out of nowhere, Larry had pulled out this garbage can sized landing net and was able to boat the musky for me. It was a very iridescent green 42" Musky! It was a nice, strong, wide fish with velociraptor teeth in it's face! It was awesome!!! Wendy got pictures of Larry holding it up for me, I was shaking pretty bad out of excitement and also suddenly very scared and intimidated by my lack of Kevlar gloves to handle that guy when I saw the teeth as he flared his gills wide open at us!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Larry, Critter, and 42" of Musky happiness.</td></tr>
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If I remember correctly, I think almost everyone had a "follow" that day and a couple of pike were landed. But no other Muskies were landed, so I way lucked out!!!<br />
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We stopped for a celebratory beer at one the local pubs and to thaw and dry out a little bit. I think we did a good job entertaining the two bartenders and the single customer that was our audience there for the two beers we stayed for. Then back to the cabin we went.<br />
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The next morning, I made breakfast for the cabin, packed up my stuff and headed for home to get ready for a project meeting I had with my class group. Peter, Rob, and Mike went to float a different stretch of water for the day in hopes that they too would be able to land a musky.<br />
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I am so glad they talked me into going, and that I hit the lottery landing a nice fish, and that I could have another nice Fall memory being with friends fishing. Oh, and Peter let me keep the fly so that I could hang it in a frame with a picture of us with the fish!<br />
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-79198700317155300332013-12-28T22:21:00.000-06:002013-12-28T22:21:15.639-06:00Fall Steelhead Trip #2 (Oct 17-18)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The following weekend we tried to focus on getting Jen a steelhead. The biggest challenge was a pretty bad cold I was fighting that totally zapped my energy level, making it hard to stay upbeat, focused, or happy.</div>
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<b>Thursday:</b></div>
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We got out to a couple of our favorite spots with ease. Fished most of the day, but with no luck. </div>
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<b>Friday:</b></div>
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It was a zoo. There must have been a billion and one fisherman on the river today. We fished most of the day, but again we had no luck. We went back to the hotel to dry out, and have a strong beverage (maybe more than one was had).</div>
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<b>Saturday:</b><br />
We decided to go home early. We were frustrated with our lack of any fishing action, and thought it would just be best to put me to bed and work on recovering from my head cold. <br />
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So our 2013 Steelhead season was not one our greatest, but hopefully next year will be better.</div>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-48019197569833662162013-12-28T22:09:00.001-06:002013-12-28T22:09:40.584-06:00Three-day Fall Trip #1 (Oct. 10-12)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I headed up to Peters cabin after class finished up, arriving a little after midnight.</div>
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The fall colors were beautiful and we were in mostly sunny with 60's and 70's for temperature. There were a lot of people out fishing every day. Some were grouse and woodcock hunters who said it was too warm to hunt their dogs, so they decided to go fishing instead. Looking at the falling temp's in the forecast this week, that shouldn't be a repeat occurrence.</div>
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<b>Thursday-Muskies</b></div>
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Fished for muskies with Peter and Wendy on the Flambeau</div>
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I hooked two but didn't get to fight them very long before losing them.</div>
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Headed up to the Brule motel, fished for steelhead.</div>
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<b>Friday-Steelhead</b></div>
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1st day Jen caught a brookie on an egg fly and I caught a brown on a nymph. We ran into Peter who had some luck catching a couple steelhead. He had to bug out back to his cabin as he was going to guide a couple of people over the next two days.</div>
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Met up with several of my St. Paul Fly Tier's at the Kro-bar who were up for our annual Steelhead outing.</div>
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<b>Saturday-Steelhead</b></div>
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2nd day, I caught two steelhead. </div>
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Ed caught his 1st steelhead about midday.</div>
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Overall, it seemed that the fishing was not on fire, but it didn't totally suck either.</div>
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We headed for home Saturday evening so that I could spend Sunday doing schoolwork and incubating a crappy head cold that I have the pleasure of dealing with now. :)</div>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-86694253937978516292013-12-28T22:02:00.001-06:002013-12-28T22:02:28.091-06:00September 2013 - Tenkara in the Smokey Mountains<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Went down to visit my brother in Georgetown, Kentucky for a few days. He took us around to see several sites such as the Buffalo Trace and Wooodford distilleries, a Japanese garden, a horse retirement ranch called "Old Friends," and checked out a couple of local restaurants. </div>
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After that we went camping in the rainy, foggy Smokey Mountain National park at the Elkmont campground which had the very loud <i>Little River</i> that flowed through it. We played tourist for a couple of days checking out some of the main attractions of old churches, water falls, old mills, and cemeteries. Then I had the treat of fishing some of the rivers on the Tennessee side of the park.<br />
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<b>The West Prong of the Little Pigeon River</b></div>
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Open during the day, but the Chimney Tops campground is closed at night due to the high amount of bear activity there. I caught a few rainbow and brook trout on the Tenkara rod. They were not big, but they were fun to catch in the scenery was great, the water cold, and very few spots taken up by other fisherman. This river was totally designed for Tenkara fishing!</div>
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<b>Middle Prong of the Little River</b></div>
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Had a little luck on this river too, it had a little less gradient to it, less big boulders, and would have been better if I had used a normal fly rod as it it was much wider than the first river. </div>
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I didn't take any photos of the trout caught, apparently I was having too much fun catching them and forgot to snap any photo's of the little guys. <br />
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-78306578794091407502013-12-28T21:01:00.001-06:002013-12-28T21:01:07.977-06:00August 2013 Recap<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Greetings my friends! I know I have been a horrible blogger this year, but my lame excuse is that I really have been a little more busy than normal since going back to school for an MBA. With that, I plan to do a couple of posts to highlight a couple of fishing outings taken in 2013.</div>
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This spring I managed to get out and fish the Rush River a couple of times. Nothing epic, but it was all I could squeeze in before my August vacation.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Roughing it in Montana...</i></td></tr>
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In August, I had the good fortune of spending a week with Peter and Doug fishing all over Montana. Typical of August in Montana, it was hot, dry, and lots of natural bugs everywhere. Fires in Utah and over nearby mountains caused for awesome red sunsets and red moonrise's. At times it looked overcast and caused mountains to be foggy due to all the smoke in the atmosphere.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Do you see the black bear?</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>There it is! <br />He visited us in the back yard and then ran up to this nearby hill.</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Evening Moonrise over the Cameron Mountains</i></td></tr>
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<b><i>Lets get to the fishing, shall we...</i></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--WchLmp4q_w/Ur-EbBWujII/AAAAAAAAIxM/RfAYr2Zg3Kg/s1600/P8180048b-Madison+River+critter+rainbow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="141" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--WchLmp4q_w/Ur-EbBWujII/AAAAAAAAIxM/RfAYr2Zg3Kg/s200/P8180048b-Madison+River+critter+rainbow.jpg" title="Critter with a Rainbow on the Madison" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Critter with a Rainbow on the Madison</i></td></tr>
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<b>Madison River</b></div>
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We drove straight out to the ranch house we were to stay at for a couple of days in Cameron, Montana. At the end of our driveway was the famous Madison River. We prepped Peters new drift boat (the "Annie B") and floated the Madison River two days in a row and caught some rainbows on Trude's and pink nymph droppers. The fish didn't come very easily, but Doug managed to catch a whitefish.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Doug on the Beaverhead R.</i></td></tr>
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<b>Beaverhead River</b></div>
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We then floated the Beaverhead River, which was a very pretty little thing. It was barely wide enough for a boat at times. But we managed, and that included us all getting on the floor of the boat as we went under one bridge. We caught a few rainbows and browns, and things got better when I cracked the code with the "right" hopper pattern that they would go for. Doug was able to hook and land a whitefish. I could spend years fishing that river and be content as it had so much character. </div>
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<b>Stillwater River</b></div>
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We fished a couple of sections of this river. One was at a landing, the other was along the property of a lodge. The owner-operator invited us to fish his property as he didn't have any guests staying there for a few days. Which was really nice of him, but the fishing was pretty much dead. Peter did land a couple of trout; Doug was able to land several whitefish!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Doug's first 20" brown!</b></i></td></tr>
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<b>Bighorn River</b></div>
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We moved on to fish the Bighorn river for our remaining four days. We stayed at the Cottonwood and hooked up with our buddies from the Fly Angler fishing crew. Peter, Doug and I caught lots of browns and rainbows. Doug managed to find and hook more whitefish....he sure has a way with finding those things. On the last day I believe I lost the 2nd largest fish I have ever hooked on that river. But all was great. At one point, on the last spot we fished on the last day, all three of us had a fish on at one time. We had a lot fun at that spot! </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Critter's 20" Brown on the Big Horn</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Peter with a beautiful brown on the Big Horn</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Close-up of another gorgeous brown!</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>from Left to Right: Doug, Peter, and Critter</i></td></tr>
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This was a great trip and I very much enjoyed our fishing team as well as the Big Horn gang that we had the privilege of hanging out with at the Cottonwood Camp for a few days.<br />
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-34073984116899706552013-08-12T21:33:00.003-05:002013-08-12T21:34:28.155-05:004 days and counting...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As of yesterday, all my bags are packed, and I am ready to go.</div>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-48762538736981361962013-08-06T23:15:00.002-05:002013-08-06T23:15:25.394-05:00Planning for Montana - August 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The past eight months have been busy, challenging and rewarding. I must confess, I have put on less than 300 miles on my motorcycle and only one day on the river where I guided a gal fly fishing for trout at the <a href="http://castingforrecovery.org/wordpress/cfr-minnesota/" target="_blank">Casting for Recovery retreat</a>. So now that I have a two month break between classes, I can enjoy summer. Which means, time to go fishing of course! Starting off with a trip to the <a href="http://www.cottonwoodcampbighorn.com/" target="_blank">Big Horn River</a> with a group of people through <a href="http://www.mnflyangler.com/" target="_blank">The Fly Angler</a>.</div>
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I have met up with my buddies a couple of times in the past two weeks to work out a general plan of attack for our ten day vacation in Montana. All though I have fished Montana ten years (11 if you count this one) in a row, this will only be my 2nd time fishing it in mid-summer. </div>
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I'm excited to hit some new rivers that I have not fished before and too see Western Montana. By the looks of it, we will be driving to Ennis. Why is that significant? Because it is more west than Livingston, a town that I have visited once before and fell in love with because of the feel of both the town and the beautiful scenery.</div>
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Cigars have been ordered from <a href="http://www.cigarsinternational.com/" target="_blank">CI</a>, fishing license purchased online, and I have spent the last two nights in my Man-Room and at the fly shop, fiddling with flies, sorting out rods & reels, checking equipment, and making my "List" of what to pack and in general day dreaming about whats to come. It's been a year since I've taken more than a couple of days off and I am in need of some unwinding time.</div>
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My triad will be departing early Friday morning, on the 16th. I'm so excited for the trip to get started!</div>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-15925739895296292832013-04-18T14:31:00.001-05:002013-04-18T14:31:48.143-05:00April 18th<div><p dir="ltr">Both the flooded streams and my fly boxes are full.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Five more inches of snow!</p>
<p dir="ltr">Both my patience and bourbon are running  low.<br>
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</div>Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-88934606512393471242013-03-29T20:22:00.000-05:002013-03-29T20:22:46.077-05:00Big Horn "Plan B" 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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After the deception, lies, and fleecing of America by that little rodent who goes by the name of Punxsutawney Phil (I'll call him Punky for short). It seems that Punky has finally unleashed Spring upon us after all his tom-foolery and media shenanigans. That rodent really needs a new agent, anyways I am watching the feet of snow melt down to inches and walking around creeks of snow-melt in the street and driveway to get the mail while wondering if I should take my motorcycle out of storage this week. Spring is here. </div>
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I will not be joining my buddies this Spring for the annual Big Horn river midge trip due to conflicts with school. However, that does not mean that the Big Horn river or the infamous <a href="http://www.cottonwoodcampbighorn.com/" target="_blank">Cottonwood Camp</a> will elude me. Nope, it just means that I jump on an alternative opportunity that should be just as fun and adventurous.</div>
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This year, over my summer break I'll be heading out on a trip with the guys from <a href="http://www.mnflyangler.com/" target="_blank">The Fly Angler</a> to Montana to fish the Hopper Hatch (or whatever else the trout may be feasting on at the time). Plans are loose at the moment, but that will remedy itself as we get closer to August. So far, I know I am going, I have the vacation approved by the bosses, and I'll be floating with Peter and Doug. Heck, that's a pretty good "plan b" for me. :) </div>
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Now, where did I put my cigar lighters, wading boots, turkey calls, motorcycle helmets, homework notes, and........or maybe I'll jus take a quick nap.</div>
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Wishing you a genuinely <u>Happy</u> Easter weekend.</div>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-40564659131262411202013-03-24T08:59:00.000-05:002013-03-29T18:53:40.774-05:00Fly Fishing Expo 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As many of you know this weekend the <a href="http://www.greatwatersflyfishingexpo.com/Home.html" target="_blank">Tom Helgeson's Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo</a> is taking place. And holding true to tradition, the past couple of days has been full of fly fishing vendors, presentations, reunions with old friends, and meeting potential new friends. </div>
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This year a met a couple of budding fly tier's, I should say they are already great even if their feet don't quit make it the floor as they are tying in their chairs. Also there are three representatives (one from Grand Marie, MN, one from Columbus, OH, an one from Colorado) here talking about the latest buzz in the industry, Tenkara fly fishing. </div>
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I didn't see a casting pond this year, but there were two different areas where you could shake a stick to convince you to just buy it, or you can work on casting with the FFF peeps to get rid of some of those bad habits.</div>
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So far I scored on a cool rod rack, a funky fish art coffee mug, and a nice brown furnace dry fly cape. I also donated a little bit to the <a href="http://www.projecthealingwaters.org/" target="_blank">Project Healing Waters</a> supporting wounded veterans who fly fish and bought a raffle ticket from <a href="http://www.twincitiestu.org/" target="_blank">Twin Cities Trout Unlimited chapter</a> for a bamboo rod made by the hands of the illustrious <a href="http://www.davenorling.com/" target="_blank">Dave Norling</a>. <br />
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I'm finishing up breakfast right now and am on my over for the final day of fun and tying flies for people on Fly Tier's Row. </div>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-20868823800722002572013-03-07T22:26:00.001-06:002013-03-07T22:28:15.928-06:00Tenkara Presentation Delayed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Tonight Sensei Eric and myself (Tenkara kid) were scheduled to give a presentation to our<a href="http://www.stpaulflytiers.com/" target="_blank"> fly fishing club</a> on <a href="https://www.tenkarausa.com/" target="_blank">Tenkara </a>style fishing. We had gadgets, rods, flies, and a power point presentation all set up to go. But we got bumped out of our meeting room at <a href="http://www.schroedersbarandgrill.com/" target="_blank">Schroeder's</a> by some other riffraff group that went by the <a href="http://www.winter-carnival.com/" target="_blank">St. Paul Winter Carnival planners</a> or something. So our presentation has been rescheduled for next month.</div>
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Regardless, it was good to see the guys and finally meet Eric's very nice wife. In fly tier's fashion, we made due and quickly conducted a business meeting in the bar in preparation of the upcoming<a href="http://www.greatwatersflyfishingexpo.com/Home.html" target="_blank"> Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo</a> in two weeks. Minutes were taken down on a napkin and then we were back to swapping stories and generally enjoying not being trapped our houses.</div>
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I'm looking forward to another great fishing season and with Wisconsin C&R open, I wish you all the best for in your fishing adventures and hope to see you at the Expo!</div>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-4161817302614007392012-11-18T20:34:00.001-06:002012-11-18T20:34:36.125-06:002012 Species update, Season Recap, & Thank You<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Two fish were added to my fish list in 2012, bringing my total up to 45 different species of fish that I have caught over the years. The first of the two was due to a planned mission on a summer vacation to Estes Park, Colorado. Jen and I were fortunate to catch a few gorgeous Greenback Cutthroat trout while hanging out with an awesome local guide. The second species caught was not planned, not pretty, and not wanted. While I was trying to make a drift to active steelhead through a technically difficult seam, I was rewarded with a big creek chub on the Wisconsin Brule River that had taken my dropper egg fly. Good governor! But it adds to my list, and it relieves the magnificent weight on my shoulders of being able to cross a chub off my list of things to get in my life. Doh!! Did I just say that? </div>
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The rest of the fish/things caught over the season encompassed my usual fare of rainbows, browns, brookies, smallies, pike, steelhead, trees, rocks, cased caddis, myself, trees, shrubs, logs, many 1st & 2nd cousins of the Snagasaurus family, and sadly not muskies. </div>
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While I did fish subsurface with nymphs and streamers this year for many of the above mentioned quarry, all of the trout were caught on dry flies. The dry fly challenge this year wasn't planned initially. It started out with great dry fly fishing this spring on the Big Horn River in Montana. Mother Feiker and I had a lot of fun with it and even came up with ideas on that vacation for patches and stickers for us such as "HA!" (for Headhunters Anonymous-with a picture of fish skull that has one of those voodoo bones going through its' nostrils) and "HHH" (for the Happy Head Hunters). There were other ideas we came up with too that week, but those were the ones that stuck with us through the summer.<br />
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When I returned to my home waters is when I challenged myself to continue on with the "Dry or Die"campaign. I enjoyed it this summer, it was good timing for me and gave my ol' game of fly fishing a new twist. Then I bought a Tenkara rod, which also encouraged me to keep fishing on the surface. Don't worry, I am pretty sure I won't become a dry fly snob or anything like that. I have been reading more about the Tenkara fishing, and I have learned that there are subsurface tactics that I need to try out if I am going to learn all it has to offer. In fact I ordered a couple of things online today specifically for Tenkara fishing including some funky hooks for some Tenkara fly patterns I want to attempt to tie. So we will see how that turns out this winter.</div>
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As for you, yes you. Thank you very much. I would like to say thanks to you and all the people that have provided me with positive and encouraging feedback on my blog over the years. I sometimes forget that people actually read what I write and every time someone says to me "hey, I read that and..." or replies with an email response it makes me smile and brings me warm fuzzies. Not that I write for those reasons, but it is nice to know people don't always delete my posts when they get sent out to your email inbox. To date, this will be my 147th post since February 2005. If you are looking for those 16 posts of my first year, you may not find them as they were on my initial attempt at blogging. You're not missing much as they were, well, kind of weak as I wasn't yet clear with what my intention(s) was going to be with writing a blog at the time. So there was a conversion period where they were at the time and where the blog is hosted now on Blogger. </div>
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To everyone: <br />
Happy Thanksgiving, tight-lines, be well, namaste, live long and prosper, hug your loved ones, fire-cracker-fist-bump, and all that jazz.<br />
<br />
Critter<br />
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-8943914753464159622012-11-13T21:43:00.001-06:002012-11-13T21:43:08.054-06:00Last Steelhead weekend for 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong>Friday:</strong></div>
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My first sign of good luck, the two quarters I got out of the pop machine when I but in my dollars for a soda. They were shiny 2007 Washington state quarters that had a picture of trout on one side. So with that, I thought two quarters with fish on them had to mean we were going to catch at least two steelhead this weekend! Good thing I bought that soda. I got home at a decent time from work to get ahead on the drive but then I had a 45 minute delay due to a work issue. Dammit! I Got the issue resolved, logged out of the laptop, and we were off and headed up to Brule. After checking into the hotel we had a late fish fry dinner at Roundy's, where Peter met up with us for a bit.</div>
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<strong>Saturday:</strong></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>big-ass "creek chub"</em></td></tr>
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There was rain, drizzle, rain, drizzle, and then the river was starting to cloud up. Now this is what we have been waiting for all season. We fished the day and I hooked and lost one steelhead, after catching three little skippers and a very LARGE Creek chub. </div>
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After changing out of the trout pants and getting some dry cloths on, we spent the evening with friends at an end-of-the-season party at the motel, where Peter fired up the barbecue and broke out various munchies, and ribs, and beer. We had few visitors too, including Ollie, Minkster, Bucky and the Honorable Steelhead Senator Struif. they all had other things going on, but it was nice of them to stop in and say hello and share some laughs. Thanks again for hosting the party Peter, it was a great night!</div>
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<strong>Sunday:</strong></div>
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We got out to the river and the water was stained, the air temps were dropping through out the day, and at one point we had sleet coming down. It was great, and both Jen and I each hooked nice steelhead out of one of Peters favorite spots. I was able to get mine to the net, and it was a nice 25-incher with a pretty pink stripe along its' side. Finally, I got a legitimate sized steelhead before the season closed. I think the river knew it had to spit one up to us for all the effort we put in this season. Thank you Brule River. We fished for a little bit more, but then called it a season. </div>
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Now, time to unpack everything from the past two months and hopefully get the living room and kitchen cleared from all the camping and fishing stuff that we kept out for easy access for the weekend adventures. That would include putting away the rods that I have laying on top of the curtain rack in the dinning room. :) What can I say, skewed "Priorities" I guess. <br />
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Tonight I drove the motorcycle over to be stored for the winter. Over the next week, I will set time aside to visit the storage unit and exchange some stuff, and then do a bit of work to the house and yard for the upcoming winter. Maybe even tackle replacing that annoying leaky toilet that has been <br />
annoying me when we have been home between fishing trips.<br />
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-55230641158082310322012-11-04T19:58:00.003-06:002012-11-04T19:58:40.349-06:00Action has slowed down<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It was a chilly weekend this past weekend on the Brule. The good thing was the wind was pretty insignificant. The river temperature was up to 39 degrees. Thanks to MN Deer opener, there was significantly less fisherman on the water and that was kind of nice.</div>
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We had one steelhead contact on late Saturday on a bend, but it won and shook itself free in under eight seconds. Other then that, the general steelhead action from the people we talked was not too great. Just enough for the serious anglers to keep going, but not enough action to get you super excited. </div>
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Jen spotted a bug in the water big enough to make Godzilla step aside and ask "what the hell is that?!" It was about 4 inches long and and 1.5 inches wide.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What is this thing?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No seriously, what the hell is that?</td></tr>
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We saw a LOT of deer this weekend, even had a spike buck escort us down a trail for a bit before stepping off it. He circled back into the woods but would have been great for any bow hunter or photographer. He just stood there about 20 yards away and looked and us for several minutes. My attempt at getting my pocket camera out while he was close failed as I was too slow before he lost interest in us. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Basket Spiked Buck along the Brule River.</td></tr>
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Next weekend is the last weekend of going up as the season is coming to a close just after that. We are crossing fingers and washing our fleece in hopes we can land something of significance. </div>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-2189559599929435602012-10-30T16:29:00.004-05:002012-10-30T16:30:54.776-05:00The search continues<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Narrowly escaping a delay at work <b>Friday</b>, Jen and I headed up north for another weekend of steelhead fly fishing. By chance, a couple of buddies (Mike and Phil) saw us as we passed through Superior, WI and they called my cell phone to say hi and we pulled over for a couple of minutes to say hi and take a little leg stretch. We caravanned the rest of the way to the motel and after checking in, stood outside in the dark brisk parking lot looking up at an almost full moon taking away about who had heard what for fishing reports and what everyone's plan was for next day.</div>
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I could have stayed in bed all day <b>Saturday </b>instead of fishing. But we got dressed and ran the truck for a awhile to get rid of the heavy frost on the windows and ventured out. All the normal parking lots were pretty much full and that was causing me to get frustrated in trying to get away from the crowds. We went back to the least full parking lot and thought we would give it a shot. Even though there were many cars at this lot, we pretty much only saw one fisherman who had a European accent. But, we saw him over and over and over again. And that got on my nerves trying to get away from him. Whatever. Jen caught and landed a nice 18" skipjack that day so she was doing pretty good. Myself, not so much. I hooked and lost one fish, hooked many rocks, logs, branches, trees, and my rain jacket. At one point I lost my composure and threw my rod on the bank in the mud. Pure frustration coupled with annoyances of not being able to get way from euro-dude and not being familiar with the stretch of water were were on and not catching steelhead made for a short day. We called it quits earlier than normal with the idea that I just needed to stop fighting with whatever forces were at odds with me.</div>
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The evening went much better, after we changed and grabbed a beer at the hotel room where we were found by the Bob's (who just pulled into town), Peter and his wife Kris, Crazy-Luke, along with Mike and Phil. They had better luck than myself and a more enjoyable day when it was all said and done. We went out to dinner together for the evening since it gets so dark so early now to catch up and make plans for the next day. </div>
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<b>Sunday </b>was a better day for my disposition in spite of the thick frost on the cars on a crisp 26 degree morning, and our fishing luck improved....sorta. Jen hooked a larger skipjack that had it not been for my slow response and her quick landing would have been a netted. But since I was slow on the draw, fish spit the hook where she had almost beached it and it swam off. She was kinda not happy with me, even though she tried to cover it up. We both know, that I screwed that up as net man. In my defense, I do think that was the quickest landing of a steelhead that she ever executed. I hooked three that day and landed none of them. The Green Bay Packers won. Yoda, hooked and landed a 25" up river from us; Mother Feiker lost a nice one on his last cast of the day. Yoda was able to get a lot of the battle on his Go-Pro, but in the end the Steelie spit the hook and gave Bob the fin. Crazy-Luke caught four on Saturday and one on Sunday. I don't remember the numbers for Mike and Phil, but I do recall they did really well, especially in one particular hole. </div>
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Jen and I spent the night there with the Bob's instead of hurrying home since we had taken Monday off to just chill out with each other and to go to an hour long appointment I had set up after I had taken the day off. More about that later....maybe.</div>
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<b>Tuesday </b>morning I had taken off to go fishing with Mike and Dad for small mouth bass in Location X. Dad however called last week and cancelled his spot. But since it had taken so long to work out a date and get time off, I went anyway fishing with Mike anyways. We met at Mikes place and we kind of dragged a feet a little as it was another balmy 28 degree morning. We got the boat launched and did some fishing. The first half hour we kind of battled the thin layer of ice that had formed on the water trying to cast over or through it with our flies and fly line. But the once the sun came out and waves picked up the ice broke up. Mike ended up with two smallie's landed, and I caught two very small pike. So my streak of small mouth fishing success continues to be not exciting. That change, someday. </div>
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Now I'm on the countdown again. Only three days until we head up again for another chance at catching AND landing some good steelhead.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A new form of "Ice Fishing"- fly line on top, fly dangling down below.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-63451157263568143732012-10-23T14:53:00.001-05:002012-10-23T14:53:28.312-05:00Yes!<div><p dir=ltr>143 and rising!</p>
</div>Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-60055237876662443712012-10-22T20:21:00.002-05:002012-10-22T20:21:21.367-05:00Steelhead weekend summed up.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This past weekend:</div>
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some friends were seen,</div>
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some potential new freinds were made,</div>
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some beverages consumed,</div>
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some blueberry ribs were ate,</div>
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some rainbows, smolt, and steelhead were caught,</div>
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on prince nymphs and pale eggs</div>
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saw two circling bald eagles, one otter with trout in it's mouth</div>
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worn out, tired, very happy, </div>
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five days of work until we can do it all over again.</div>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-84803970073262583132012-10-08T21:27:00.001-05:002012-10-08T21:27:48.876-05:00Weekend Summary<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong>Friday:</strong> </div>
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Jen and I drove up in snow flurries to my friends cabin in northern Wisconsin. I Realized that I forgot to pack my fleece pants to wear under my waders at home. We chatted and formulated a plan for the weekend over <a href="http://www.jamesonwhiskey.com/default.aspx" target="_blank">Jameson</a> on rocks, and then headed off to bed.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e0lYfrH9_u0/UHOJ-gH5oxI/AAAAAAAAFLk/N5_kZ8U4P68/s1600/PA060007a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e0lYfrH9_u0/UHOJ-gH5oxI/AAAAAAAAFLk/N5_kZ8U4P68/s200/PA060007a.jpg" width="200" /></a><strong>Saturday:</strong> </div>
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Peter and I fished for Muskies on the Flambeau River in the blowing snow...I was reminded by my cold legs and numb hands that I forgot fleece pants at home. We did not catch or land any fish, but it was good to see Wendy from the <a href="http://haywardflyfishingcompany.com/" target="_blank">Hayward Fly Fishing company</a> again and so many eagles flying along the river. After the day was done, we headed even further North to thaw out with some pretty decent home made pizza at the Kro-Bar. We bumped into my Joe form Merrill, WI and talked to him and his buddy for awhile and played a little pool. I only see him like once, maybe twice a year, so that was a nice surprise.</div>
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<strong>Sunday:</strong></div>
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We woke up to thick frost on the car at 23 degrees. Got our stuff together for a day of fishing for Steelhead, woke up Joe and his buddy, who asked me why they decided to try to keep up in doing shots with the 23-year old's. I just laughed, and wished them a good day on the river and thinking it was good that I didn't participate in that game with them. </div>
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We got down into the river, and reconfirmed my irritation towards myself for forgetting my fleece pants at home and the growing list of crap that I forgot, broke, or misplaced that I have to work on before coming back up. Peter started his steelhead season within fifteen minutes by landing a healthy skip-jack. We fished for a few hours and then took a lunch break before driving off to another spot where I caught nine and landed five fish. Four were future steelhead ranging from 8" to 14", and the fifth one was a legit skip-jack coming in at 17-inches. Three took the pale yellow egg, and two took the #12 PTN. So the search for their feisty parents continues. </div>
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I also had a foot and a half long witness checking out my casting technique. He swam across the river to hang out with me. He hung out on the shore behind me for about twenty minutes after his swim, and then disappeared. My guess is the 42 degree water might have slowed him down and needed a little sun bathing on the beach to get going again.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Common Garter Snake sticking tongue out at me.</td></tr>
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To top off our great fall day, Jen and I headed home through Duluth, MN and stopped in for a nice anniversary dinner at <a href="http://blackwoods.com/" target="_blank">Black Woods restaurant</a> where I proposed to her. The service and food was great, and it was nice to stroll down memory lane and reminisce about our earlier days together.</div>
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More to come later, as for now we to put a "pause" on our fishing as we have a wedding to attend next weekend someplace in Iowa called "<a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=images&q=bettendorf+iowa&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x87e236b2100937db:0x7c66abb5c13b34df,Bettendorf,+IA&gl=us&ei=4XpzULn2M8rbyAHF1oFQ&ved=0CMABELYD" target="_blank">BFE</a>" I think. It's between "Some-town-I-haven't-been" and "it's-that-close-to-Illinois-really???" Then after that, it's back to the north woods fishing adventures.</div>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-43234043562800679242012-10-04T00:24:00.001-05:002012-10-04T00:24:35.070-05:00And the winner is...Me!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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That's right, me. </div>
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Two weeks ago I won a random drawing for pretty nice healthy cooking cookbook. Hey that's cool right, I haven't won any thing in a while. </div>
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Then two days later I logged in and found an email from the <a href="http://www.nationaltroutlearningcenter.org/" target="_blank">National Trout Center</a> in Preston, MN informing me that I had won <a href="http://www.nationaltroutlearningcenter.org/uploads/Raffle2012Flyer.pdf" target="_blank">Grand Prize for the 2012 Raffle</a>! The Grand Prize being a Headwaters Bamboo Company fly rod. Specifically, a Peerless Santiam 7'0" 5/6 wt, Medium action with two tips and a very nice rod sock and tube. I confirmed that they address they had was correct and they said they would send it to me via UPS. Great! But, it showed up the day after inland trout season closed. So I'll have to wait a bit before slaying some trout with my newly won prize, but I think it will be worth it. </div>
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I did take a peek at the <a href="http://headwatersbamboo.com/" target="_blank">Headwaters website</a> and it would appear that the value of the rod is the $800 range, not bad for spending much less than that on the raffle tickets, unless you count up (and let's not do that) all the raffle tickets over the years trying to win a bamboo rod made by <a href="http://davenorling.com/" target="_blank">Dave Norling</a> at various Trout Unlimited Raffles. The Headwaters rod felt very nice and has great looking real seat. I'll have to take some <a href="http://www.nationaltroutlearningcenter.org/uploads/Raffle2012Flyer.pdf" target="_blank">pictures</a> to post of it when I have some free time later on.</div>
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This coming weekend, I'll be fishing for Muskies on Saturday with a friend on our annual trip with Wendy from the <a href="http://haywardflyfishingcompany.com/" target="_blank">Hayward Fly Fishing Company</a>. As for our 12th wedding anniversary on Sunday, Jen and I will be holding on to our tradition of the past several years, which is that we will be standing in cold water fishing for steelhead in the north woods of Wisconsin taking time to stop from our busy lives to enjoy mother nature, friends, hopefully a fish or two and life in general.</div>
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Fall is here...go hunt, go fish, go ride your motorcycle, just go out and enjoy it all whatever it is that gets you going! Winter will be here before you know it.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lrM_hOKnNOM/UG0crXEwMOI/AAAAAAAAFK8/Ax7q_kPMlCY/s1600/Brewery%2520run%25202012%2520029-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="209" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lrM_hOKnNOM/UG0crXEwMOI/AAAAAAAAFK8/Ax7q_kPMlCY/s320/Brewery%2520run%25202012%2520029-.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our group (Star Chapt 444) that went on the Lienie's fall motorcycle ride.</td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
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Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-54285635371805727242012-08-11T22:24:00.002-05:002012-08-11T22:24:23.768-05:00General reminder, Trucks don't Float.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So I went did a float today with a buddy for smallmouth bass. The day was perfect as far as the weather goes. But my day started out like this.</div>
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Alarm clock goes off. Ok, time to shower. Oh crap I forgot to pack a lunch. Oh crap, I have a WI, MT, and CO fishing license, but no MN license. I go online to take care of that. Good. Oh crap, I need gas. Oh crap I need cash, ok, I can get cash when I get gas. Good. I fill up, get cash, oh crap. I forgot my cell phone. Normally not a big deal, but I was going to a place I wasn't sure I could find so I go back and the cell phone. Good. I get half way there and realize, oh crap I skipped breakfast with all the other oh-crap distractions. Oh well.</div>
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I find our meeting place and from there we launch the boat and we are fishing. In general the fishing was slow bu we both had several takes. Enough to keep us engaged, but nothing to write home about. A couple were even landed.</div>
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We saw probably the biggest beaver that I have ever seen! And then it must not have liked that we disturbed his nap on the bank, and slid in the water ahead of us for long time, screwing up our fishing. We hit the other bank after getting tired of his shenanigans. </div>
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ok, fast forward and we see a guy who launched his boat at a landing....along with his truck. No matter what happened today, our day was far better than his was. the truck actually floated around the dock from the high side where the landing was to the low side of the dock. As we drifted down, eventually all the truck sunk far enough down that the water was over the hood of it. Here are some pictures and keep this in mind next time you think you are having a bad day.</div>
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>
</div>Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-37977215899318952182012-08-10T22:50:00.002-05:002012-08-10T22:50:36.396-05:00Rocky Mountain Vacation Summary (Picture Heavy)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As promised to many of you, though a little late, here is a recap of our most recent vacation, we hope you enjoy. :)</div>
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A week ago we got back from a week vacation with Jen's family. Troy and I rode our motorcycles out to Estes Park, Colorado while the girls rode together in the Highlander. We left on Friday with perfect weather drove through South Dakota and arrived on Sunday afternoon to our campsite at Moraine campground in a pretty heavy rain. It cleared up in an hour or so. In fact pretty much every day it rained from 2pm to 4pm and was partly cloudy and pretty good the rest of the time. For temps at the 8,000' level where the campsite was, it was mid to high 40's at night and high 70's to low 80's during the day. But pretty much every day Jen and I wore our fleece jackets as we were higher up where it was chilly and very windy a lot of the time. At one point in the week we ran into an overlook where the ground all around us was freshly covered with sleet and snow. </div>
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Monday, Jen and I went out to explore the park and found that the air was thin up there. We really noticed it during our hikes, which surprised us since we had changed our workouts at home thinking it would help prepare us for this. Fact is, we live at 950' in elevation, our campsite was around 8,000', and some of the spots we ended up visiting was between 12,000' to 14,000' in elevation. We were flatlanders in foreign territory. </div>
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We saw elk, lots of mule deer, big horn sheep, moose, gray jay's, fuzzy cute birds called Clark's Nutcracker, smelly llamas, the puppy-like marmots, and <a href="http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=pikas&qpvt=pikas&FORM=IGRE" target="_blank">pikas</a>. I have to admit I really liked the marmots and pikas and they made me smile and laugh often.</div>
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We drove up Trail Ridge road is a must for anyone that goes out there. I really enjoyed visiting the <a href="http://www.thespiritoftherockies.net/spirit/Hikes/TollMemorial/TollMemorialHike.html" target="_blank">Toll Memorial Trail</a> that is right off of the road. There were marmots, pikas, a neat marker at the top of a bolder pile at the top of the hill, and wide open views of many mountains in all directions surrounding us. Further up the road was the <a href="http://www.rmnp.com/RMNP-Areas-TrailRidge-AlpineVisitorCenter.HTML" target="_blank">Alpine Visitor</a> center which had a great view and the mountain side was littered with mule deer sunning themselves.</div>
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We hiked around Bear Lake, Sprague lake (and fished this lake too), several other hikes that led to water falls. The major trek being up the Longs Peak Trail by Peacock pool on up to the beautiful greenish-blue Chasm Lake, where Jenny dipped her feet into the 35 degree snow melt lake. Jordon and I went a bit further and dunked our heads in, but Andrew took the prize for stripping down to his boxers and totally jumping in.....twice. The second time was for the photo for proof of craziness. </div>
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Wednesday, Jen and I had a day fishing with a guide. We fished the Big Thompson river, the St. Vrain river, and the Alluvial Falls where we caught brookies, browns, and Greenback Cutthroat trout. Our luck was on Hopper and midge patterns like the mercury midge and the RS2. Later that day is when I landed my first fish on my Tenkara rod, a 10" brookie that took a #14 Hemingway Caddis along the trail of Sprague lake.</div>
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The evenings were filled with family gathering around the campfire at our campsite with many conversations going on at once with suppers, munchies, cocktails, cigars, and stories to share. We had three campsites for the thirteen of us, all in a row. In the mornings we would wake up at sunrise and watch the deer walk among the tents while grazing. They must have been on the Parks Payroll, as they gave us plenty of photo opportunities every morning.</div>
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Thursday morning Troy and Laurie headed out to Sturgis, South Dakota on the Harley where they would spend the next week of their vacation at the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally. The rest of us broke camp Friday morning and all made our ways back to our home states of California, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Our 15.5 hour drive via Nebraska with the idea of making it back over two days, turned out to be a 17 hour drive straight through with a small forced break at the Perkins in Albert Lee, MN to wait a thunderstorm out that had winds reaching 55 mph. Not the best thing to be driving through, pulling a loaded trailer late at night and having been on the road all day. But really there was nothing between Omaha, NE and Des Moines, IA, and when we reached Des Moines I thought we could make it home with now issues. We finally pulled in around 3am Saturday morning and immediately found the bed. A very welcome site for our lower backs after the putting on over 1,000 miles on the motorcycle, long hikes in the mountains, sleeping on the ground all week, and of course after sitting in the truck all day for the drive home. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Calypso Cascades</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">15 minutes earlier we had clear skies</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clark's Nutcracker</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">face on this 30' tall boulder.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Park Ranger & her 3 smelly llamas</td></tr>
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</div>Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-89149890458748629282012-07-22T20:14:00.000-05:002012-07-22T20:14:01.785-05:00Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado...that's where we are going for a one week vacation. Jen and I spent the whole weekend preparing for our upcoming vacation with her immediate family (about 11 of us all together). <br />
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Jen and I plan on the usual itinerary of some fishing, some photography, some hiking, and hopefully a lot of smiles, relaxation, deepening of my zen practice, and checking out some local watering holes. We also hope to add the greenback cutthroat to our species list, and the potential additional twist of catching some on my 13' <a href="http://www.tenkarausa.com/" target="_blank">Tenkara</a> Ayu rod that I have recently been fishing with that I bought from <a href="http://www.kinnicreek.com/" target="_blank">Kinni Creek Outfitters</a>. I don't think that will be too hard, especially since Jen and I booked a 6-hour trip with a local guide from<a href="http://kirksflyshop.com/" target="_blank"> Kirk's Fly shop</a> that was recommended to us by my fellow Tenkara buddy, Eric.<br />
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We are adding another twist to this vacation in that Jen her younger sister will be in the Highlander with all the stuff for the vacation and the brother-in- law and I will be riding separately on our motorcycles out there. I've got a '08 Yamaha Raider 1900, and Troy has a Harley Davidson Fat Boy (96cc I think. I'm used to metric engine sizes and not sure how that works for a Harley. Using the Harley engine measurements, I think mine is a 113). But I digress and it doesn't really matter cause, they are cycles and we are riding. This trip should be a a great adventure. <br />
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Oh and another thing, about five miles away, is a small 13-acre lake I loaded with trout that I want to visit due to it's name,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprague_Lake_(Colorado)" target="_blank"> Sprague Lake</a>. Sprague is one of the six or so spellings our family has that I found while do a lot of research on <a href="http://ancestory.com/">Ancestry.com</a>, and thought it would be neat to see and maybe take some photos while fishing. The adventure starts this Friday! We will be staying at <a href="http://www.recreation.gov/camping/Moraine_Park_Campground/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70943&topTabIndex=CampingSpot" target="_blank">Moraine campground</a>, which from what I have read, is very very basic, which is the way we like it, Perfect!<br />
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The proposed route is the most direct route, but should be a heck of a lot more scenic then going through Nebraska. We'll be going west via I-90 and have several of us meet up in Sioux City, SD for the night. Then continue on through the bad lands the next day towards Rapid City or Cheyenne for Saturday night, and finishing up the drive to arrive at the campsite Sunday morning-ish for check-in. <br />
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Updates on Operation Schultz Family Vacation 2012 to be continued.<br />
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</div>Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-77873480603273784432012-06-06T22:22:00.004-05:002012-06-06T22:22:44.957-05:00My last weekend with Ed.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong>Saturday morning:</strong></div>
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So for our last weekend hanging out together before Ed moves to Texas for his new job, we started off early Saturday morning. We started off with breakfast over at the <a href="http://sanpedrocafe.com/home.asp" target="_blank">San Padro cafe</a> in Hudson. I highly recommend it to anyone and will be back there again. We basically found it by accident as we were fifteen minutes too early to the nice cigar shop we wanted to check out called the <a href="http://stcroixcigar.com/" target="_blank">St. Croix Cigar Company</a> which had a large variety of products from my current favorite cigar brand, <a href="http://www.perdomocigars.com/home.html" target="_blank">Perdomo Cigars</a>. We were very impressed, and the guy behind the counter seemed to be an encyclopedia of cigar knowledge.</div>
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Then we moved on to River Falls to check out both the <a href="http://www.kinnicreek.com/" target="_blank">Kinni Creek Lodge fly shop</a> and the new <a href="http://www.lundsflyshop.com/" target="_blank">Lunds Fly shop</a> out of curiosity and to maybe get some insight on what the fish have been hitting on. We eventually did make it to fishing. We started out fishing Lost Creek and worked our way up on the Rush river to El Paso. Ed borrowed one of my bamboo rods to see what fishing one was like and I strung up another for myself for the weekend. We had some success with sulphur parachutes #18 and comparduns #18, and white parachute BWO's. Word on the river was that others had good luck using caddis patterns, but I did not have any success using them. The trout must not have appreciated my artistic interpretation of the caddis flies I tied.</div>
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<strong>Saturday evening:</strong></div>
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The reason for our fishing up to El Paso, WI was that our <a href="http://www.stpaulflytiers.com/" target="_blank">club</a> was celebrating its 60th anniversary and the dinner was being hosted at the <a href="http://www.piercecountywi.com/El%20Pas0%20Rest%20II.htm" target="_blank">El Paso Bar & Grill</a>. We had a great turnout with many members and their spouses and significant others. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Denny even set up a banquet table with some old club memorabilia, which I thought was a very nice touch. To save us a lot of driving a few of us spent the night at the local Super8 motel; which sadly has been the nicest motel room I've had in a long, long, long time. But it's not my fault, it's the fishes fault for not having better places for me to stay at when I go visit them. </div>
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<strong>Sunday morning:</strong></div>
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Sunday morning Ed and I had breakfast with Yoda and his saint of a wife, Sandy. And we were off again fishing the Rush river. The trout pretty much took to Sulphur parachutes and comparaduns, white post parachute BWO's. Ed mentioned that it was kind of fitting that we fished at the Stonehammer bridge to catch his last Wisconsin trout before moving to Texas as it was the first place he caught a trout on the Rush when he moved here to Minnesota. We had rising fish and the fishing was good until the bikini hatch broke out. We had six girls in two piece bikinis and one guy in shorts trying to float the river on little black inner tubes. While the scenery was appreciated as they all modeled their swim suits very well, they put the fish down dammit. The last gal who was a little behind the rest of her group was not so impressed with the decision to float the 40 degree water and said she would rather be fishing with us then floating in the cold water. I told her that this was the first time in the ten years of fishing this river that had seen anyone try to float it. Too bad, I didn't have an extra set of waders for her. Anyway, Ed and I adapted and we sat on the bank of the river and lit up a couple of cigars and waited for the fish to come back. It didn't take too long and they were back rising. <br />
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<strong>Sunday afternoon:</strong></div>
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After a good morning on the river, we left for lunch at the Silver bridge in Martel. The <a href="http://www.stpaulflytiers.com/" target="_blank">club</a> was having one of our monthly fishing outings and grilled brats with sour kraut were on the menu! I think we had around 15 people or so attend. After lunch, one of our newer members, Eric, was showing us his new <a href="http://tenkarausa.com/" target="_blank">Tenkara rod</a> he bought the day before at Kinni Creek Lodge. While showing us how to fish it on the section that goes by the park, he hooked five fish. They all got off before he could land them....but he's still working on figuring that part out. :) </div>
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And that was our weekend. Not bad if you ask me. I wish Good Luck to Ed and his girlfriend Angie on thier new chapter in thier life in Texas, even though I warned them numerous times that Texans live in Texas.</div>
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</div>Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1472326631227554225.post-26371480375710199222012-05-21T15:15:00.001-05:002012-05-21T15:15:47.674-05:00Moth Video (Cercopia)Video clip of a moth (Cercopia) that was found at the <a href="http://www.cottonwoodcampbighorn.com/home.html" target="_blank">Cottonwood</a> fly shop Thursday morning.<br />
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<a href="http://www.critters-corner.com/">www.critters-corner.com</a></div>Critterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07838541129860533214noreply@blogger.com0Fort Smith, Mt, USA45.3127799 -107.9363945.3016134 -107.956131 45.323946400000004 -107.916649