MOLDY CHUM

RIP

Why are we born? We're born eventually to die, of course. But what happens between the time we're born and we die? We're born to live. One is a realist if one hopes.

Studs Terkel

What we're giving the trick or treaters at the Chum haunted house tonight

Recycled Chum - Halloween Edition

Anglers reckon that a good dry fly should cunningly mimic the real thing.
There are the right flies for morning. There are different flies for the evening rise.
And so on.
But the thing between Death's triumphant fingers was a fly from the dawn of time.
It was the fly in the primordial soup. It had bred on mammoth turds.
It wasn't a fly that bangs on window panes. It was a fly that drills through walls.
It was an insect that would crawl out from between the slats of the heaviest swat
dripping venom, and seeking revenge. Strange wings and dangling bits
stuck out all over it. It seemed to have a lot of teeth.
"What's it called?", said Mort?
I SHALL CALL IT - DEATH'S GLORY.
Death gave the thing a final admiring glance and stuck it into the hood of his robe."

Via: Deviantart

Frankenfly by Jack Gartside.

Friday Pin Up

Excuse Me, Pardon Me, Comin Through

Are You a Girl? Is it Halloween?

 

Mmmmmmm Steelhead

Mad River Brewing Co. was just recognized with a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in the golden or blonde ale category for its Steelhead Extra Pale Ale.

Via: The Eureka Reporter LINK

There's a first for everything!

Chum purveryor - Julie, shows off her first slab of steel taken from the Muskegon River.

Victorian Chum

Scanned from the "Antique Collecting Incorporating Antique Dealer and Collectors Guide" and sent to us from Robert McFarlane.

Gordon Smith Carried Their Water

In 2002, U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) coordinated with the White House to divert Klamath River water to Oregon farmers. That short sighted decision resulted in the deaths of 70,000 salmon and countless fishing businesses along the California coast.

Next Tuesday Oregon voters have a chance to divert Gordon Smith out of the U.S. Senate

Kayak Angler Towed 11 Miles by Marlin

The Baja version of a Nantucket Sleighride.

During the shooting of the latest segment ExOfficio presents Kayak Fishing: Game On Howard McKim's hooked up with a 300-pound blue marlin and was taken for the ride of his life.

See the whole story and links to photos and video after the jump.

Via: SNEWS LINK

Start your own reel company

Eleven models to choose from. LINK

Leichi Industrial and Trade also offer a full line of apparel, and accessories.

Fish Tails

Vancouver Sport Fishing Museum On-Line Collection

Vancouver's Sport Fishing Museum closed in September but you can still view the bulk of the collection on-line. Their reel collection alone features 450 of the world's most collectible reels.  LINK

Jeweled Objects of Desire

Sidney Mobell, a jeweler from the West Coast, took objects from everyday life and covered them with gold and precious stones. This jewel encrusted fly fishing reel comes from a collection that he donated to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

Slab of the Triassic Period

Behold Helicoprion.  LINK

Taste We Can Believe In

LINK

No Fly-by-night Cabbie Is Jack

A 1982 Sports Illustrated profile of Jack Gartside, whose middle name it turns out is Clarence.

To describe Gartside simply as a hawker of stream-side flies would be like calling Nathan's Famous frankfurters mere hot dogs. Along with John Betts, who ties with synthetic materials (SI, May 4, 1981), Gartside, who ties almost exclusively with natural materials, is in the front rank nationally, which means the world. "I'd put him at the top," says Bud Lilly of West Yellowstone, who views flytiers with an experienced businessman's eye and whose mail-order catalog has featured Gartside's flies ever since the cabbie ambled into Lilly's shop one day in 1976 with a Pheasant Hopper stuck on his vest. "Jack's flies are superb," Lilly says.

Via: SI Vault LINK

If you have not been to Jack's website you owe it to yourself to pay a visit. LINK

Here Kitty Kitty

"If everyone started calling fish 'sea kittens,' they'd be a lot less likely to violently kill them for food, painfully hook them for 'sport,' or cruelly confine them to aquariums," a spokeswoman said.

Via: The Telegraph LINK

Gaston, be a sport and hop on down to the Howell's and borrow some Macallans

Time is a River

The latest novel from best selling author Mary Alice Monroe.

Mia Landa is recovering from breast cancer in a mountain cabin near Asheville, NC, when she discovers the journal of a sensational fly fisher of the 1920s, Kate Watkins. The inspiring words of a woman she never knew finally lure Mia from her shell to connect once more with the world around her. As she learns to fish, she uncovers secrets that span generations--secrets that have the power to change no only her life, but the lives of those in her new community.

LINK

Salmon study under fire for minimizing effect of dams

Kintama Research delivers an early Christmas present to the pro dam constituency.

It's a startling finding with potentially big political implications: Young salmon running the gantlet of dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers fared just as well as salmon on an undammed river.

But even before the digital ink is dry, a number of scientists — including several co-authors of the study — are questioning the results and cautioning about what conclusions can really be drawn. There have even been charges that it's little more than a promotion for fish-tracking technology in which the lead author has a financial stake.

No matter how flawed the science this study will set back dam removal efforts for years.

Via: The Seattle Times  LINK

Steely Eye

Blitz - Bluefish Style

Just one of a host of video shorts and fly tying videos that can be found at Atlantic Salt Water Fly Rodders.

LINK

Oct. 08 - Month of the Brown

Another day, another huge Brown submitted.  This one was taken by Jon Alverson.

The Most Deadly Early and Late Season Fly Known to Man

The Triple Wammie

Hooks:  #18, #16, #10 Heavy Wire Scud Hooks          

Articulation: 20# Nylon Backing Colored with Permanent Marker

         

Thread: Orange #6 Round

         

Worm Body:  Small Red Chenille Burned to a Taper

         

Egg Body:  Orange Egg Yarn

         

Sort Hackle Body:  Pink Sow Bug Dubbing

         

Hackle: Grey Hen Wrapped Sparsely

Via: Eastgate Anglers LINK

We Give our Hearts to Dogs to Tear: Intimations of their Immortality

An excerpt of this great book appeared in last Friday's SI.

Then gently lifting the trout I released it unharmed into the water. At this, Bungee, who never liked the idea of "catch and release" and thinking I'd gone completely mad, made one last effort to snare the fish in his mouth. And when the trout slipped past him the dog shot a withering backward glance at me, as if to say, "Now see what you've done!"

Via: Sports Illustrated LINK

Wowtauga!

Another October brown - this one submitted by Randall Crutcher.

Sunday Funnies - Calvin and Hobbes Edition

Click to ENLARGE

Big Head Brown and the Monsters

David Porterfield site fished this 26" Ohio slab in a fast crystal clear riffle.  25 inches turned out to be lips and tongue. 

Study in Spey

Friday Pin Up

The Smell of Steelhead in the Morning

A classic Sumatra Mandheling coffee with heavy body, a hint of earthiness, with a buttery flavor and texture.

Coffee sales benefit Long Live The Kings.

Bait Shower

Grayling in Drag

Photo by Pekka Antikainen"

Sweetwater Taimen

Looks like the boys at Sweetwater have been busy this year getting clients on to some Jurrassic Taimen.  These two will have to battle it out for SOTM.

Uncle

Need we say more?  This Kispiox fish pic was ripped from our boys over at Sweaty Waders.

Pebble Mine Construction Now Estimated at $6 Billion

Costs have been pushed up by inflation that is affecting all major industrial projects, as well as the increasing complexity of the project. It is $1 billion higher than was estimated last year and about three times the initial estimate made when mining companies began serious work on Pebble.

John Shively, CEO of the Pebble Partnership, the mine development company, told the Alliance that the project also requires a 95-mile road to a new port that would be built on the west side of Cook Inlet. The mine would also need a pipeline to carry a slurry, a mixture of ore and water, from the mine to the port and a second pipeline to return recycled water from the slurry back to the mine for re-use.

A small pipeline may also be needed to ship diesel fuel for mine equipment, he said.

Via: iStock Analyst LINK

It's raining slabs

Chum junkie, Brian Wise, takes a day off the sticks and gets a chance to fish himself.  And, this North Fork of the White River brown reminded him of what he's been personally missing. 

Apache trout make comeback

The Apache trout has not only become the first North American fish to make it off the endangered species list, it has become a major draw for fishermen nationwide.

The effort now stands as a national model — and offers a blueprint for the planned reintroduction of another native trout — the Gila trout.

Via: The Payson Roundup LINK

When you have real Santa Ana winds life moves just a bit slower.....Unless you have to evacuate the neighborhood

I'm staying with Straq at his rental crib in Ventura during the Patagonia Global Sales Meeting and we came home to this today.

Clearwater Steel

Doug Haacke and his first Clearwater steelie. Just followin' Poppy's instructions!

Turn your head and cough

Dr. Doublehaul throws his hat into the ring with this wicked permit.  Sweet baby Jesus, this month is a gonna be a barn-burner. 

Wild salmon keeping the lawyers happy

If builders and property rights groups have their way you can kiss the remaining stocks of wild salmon goodbye.

Lawyers for the building industry, farm and property rights groups asked Monday that the judges undo the listings of 16 West Coast salmon and steelhead populations under the act, arguing that thanks to abundant hatchery fish, the stocks are nowhere near extinction.

Another reason to Vote the Environment on election day.

Via: The AP LINK

Bud 'n Trout

Chummist, Jonathan Stumpf, sent us this old advertisement from the Dutton, MT newspaper from pre-1940.  Good to see priorities were intact back then.

17,000 miles of Pebble Mine peddalin' kickassedness

In 252 days, Seth, Parker, Chris, and Benjamin start their journey.  They're peddaling for awareness and to garner support for protecting the Bristol Bay Watershed.  And, from Prudhoe Bay to Tierra Del Fuego, it's gonna be one long ass journey.  LEARN MORE

Palin’s Hand Seen in Battle Over Mine in Alaska

The New York Times continues to explore the Sarah Palin Pebble Mine connection.

“I am a commercial fisherman; my daughter’s name is Bristol,” said Ms. Palin, then a candidate for governor. “I could not support a project that risks one resource that we know is a given, and that is the world’s richest spawning grounds, over another resource.”

Many here took her words to heart. But as governor, Ms. Palin has helped ease the way for a proposed copper and gold mine of near-mythic proportions at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, the world’s greatest spawning ground for wild salmon.

LINK

Katmai Bow

 

This 30" by 15.75" pig was taken by Sean Harrell last week on the Katmai.