Two Amigos

Well Morin finally finished his plastic making mission and the plant can now roll along with its own impetus.

Life is weird..
How the fuck did we get here?
Oh well..

He obviously has an important job and I am proud of him...even though he is a POS.

Untitled from Gene Norland on Vimeo.

So the plan was to fish Today and tomorrow.
Hard

The weather cooperated.

Beatng up the fish in Nov 2010 from Gene Norland on Vimeo.

The water was close to mint...right around dead sexy...or to use a new and apt phrase...it was rated PG ( Perfect Green..LOL)


I was jacked.

I can't remember the last time Morin and I fished together and although it meant that I would have to shelve any delusions of competency next to his Steelhead gifts we were long overdue to fish the home water as a team.


The Steelhead nerd team.

Useless at the Stick from Gene Norland on Vimeo.

It was a great great day with a ridiculous amount of fish being caught but more importantly it was a great chance to get caught up and shoot the shit with a good friend.


The fish are just an excuse for being there...well it is a little more than that...quite hard to nail down actually.. but it is a special thing to share these moments with someone who can really appreciate it on the same level ...an unabashed love for this river and its fish....

That is a bit of a gush.... rife with melodrama but I am drunk... and feeling a little emotional.
Poor little Ella had to go to the hospital today to have her broken finger reset.
They put her out for it luckily but she has come around now and is in agony.
I feel terrible that I was on the river having one of the greatest days of my life while my family was home dealing with this.
She is my special little girl and I hate seeing her like this.
The bone doc called us today with an opening and decided to take another run at this break and I had no way of knowing.

Obviously I would've stayed home and will tomorrow as well...but I needed a day on the river and I am glad that we were able to squeeze this one in...oblivious to this shit..
Life...holy fuck..some days it really gets you down...
These are my days of rest and all my kids are sick and my holiday plans are completely fucked...
Status Quo...
Except it is not funny anymore...
Oh well..numb nuts will be out there I am sure and I hope he drills them.


Big moment today on the water when Morin nailed a beauty with a Jig that I had tied for him!!!
Ella and I will have to gt back to the fly bench and tie up some more.

She got a real kick out of that news and out of the picture.


Oh well...back to reality...and the numbness of an alcoholic haze...

Unreal

Well the river has shut me down lately with "high" water...?
The rains that we have all prayed for have finally come ...now if I can only be patient...and get rid of this fucking chest cold.

I am in for OT 4 to Midnight tonight ...going on very little sleep.

Poor Ella had a sleepover at grandmas house last night but in the middle of night fell out of bed and broke her finger!

Jesus....honestly?!!!

Kimi made the Emerg' run but in the process Avery woke up and now we are all running on empty today.

Ah joy...and these are my scheduled "Days of Rest"...?????....REALLY????

Oh well...there are people in the world with real problems and Morin and I are fishing Monday Tuesday...on dare I say it ...prime water!!!!!

Sigh....

Anyways...

Dig this...



And this...



This is the State of the Art.....and it pains me to know that I will never get close....
But wow what music.

Day # 1

Ironic...

Just the other day dipshit and I were musing via email about what we considered our greatest days on the water.
Today was my greatest day.


After an intolerably long dry spell the skys finally opened up and dropped some wetness.

Good?

..except for the fact that it looked like I was going to miss out.
I am back in this weekend Friday Saturday Sunday and by the look of the weather those days were going to be dynamite.

I watched the graph...which has become useless...unless you like knowing what you should've done...
But on a whim I decided to try today...


By all accounts I would be a day early.

So much for prognostication.

Today has left me speachless...I feel like it was a dream...




I wish Morin could've been there....as gay as that sounds.


Long story short ..the water was mint and I caught so many fish I lost count...10+ out of the swamp water above Thompsons which is kind of cool because I feel like I discovered that water and it is dead sexy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The beaver seems to have improved it...even though I hate those fucking rodents I suppose I owe him.


His little dam has 'held up' the water enough to widen the pools and create more pronounced seams.

Every run gave up a few fish except for the eagle run.

It had this weird chaulky colour to it from the clay.

If I had hit it on the way out I may have turned something ...who knows ....but after a while enough is enough...and I ended on a great fish.

There was one black mark to my otherwise perfect day.



One of the Steelies I hooked had to be harvested...which really bummed me out.

I tried to release her even though she was bleeding out of boths sides but the poor thing ended up bellie up 5 mins later.
I thought about leaving her for the eagle but the last thing we need is to encourage that thing...
Heaven forbide he develops a taste for them.


Besides...I enjoy these fish on the table and it couldn't be helped.


Perfect conditions ..perfect bait (thx to Morin!!)..and I was THE ONLY MFER ON THE RIVER!!!!
Where do I go from here?

Music...in the place of rain

I just finished 11 days out of 12 off.

I should've been fishing like a lunatic but here we are again with almost no rain.

I have instead been playing (and listening to) a ton of guitar and that has been cool.

Here is a clip I found from Youtube of John Scofield playing the way I like him too....if only he would.

LOL

Fishing The Trickle

The river is not much to speak of right now.

There are quite a few fish in it but they have been left high and dry by mother nature.

Oh well...

Today was my day to fish and I knew it was going to be tough. I almost didn't go...but I am glad that I did.
I would prefer to fish the river at its best but the nice thing about the present conditions is that all the knuckleheads stay home....all but me that is.


I did alright considering.
I went from run to run and managed a fish at each one that was fishable but the commotion would send the rest of the fish scattering and after that they couldn't be coaxed.


I was up late last night and the weekend was a bit of a blur.

I played a jazz gig Saturday night with my friend Torrie...which was horrible...
The night before Owen woke up sick and I had him into Emergency in the early hours and most of the morning.

He is still not quite right..so we may have to switch his medicine around tomorrow..
Kids stress me out.
If I'd had any idea how much I was going to love them I never would've had them..if that makes sense....
It doesn't ...but nothing really does.


We had some friends over last night that we hadn't seen in years.
This guy stood up at my wedding and yet somehow I had allowed the friendship to become one where we barely spoke anymore.

It was nice to get caught up and I am hoping that we can do it again soon.

The alarm came awfully early with the time change and hangover from the entire weird weekend but off I went.


I didn't see a soul.

But I did see a lot of wildlife.


Very peaceful day.

Now if we can only get Owen on the mend.

Boo

After the great day I had on Friday I could'nt wait to get out again.

My Wife...god bless her suggested that I take a run up on Sunday...Halloween Sunday.

She assured me that I wouldn't be needed until around 5 -6ish and that it would be good for me because I obviously enjoyed Friday so much.

I can only believe that she is cheating on me....


...but hey whatever...if thats what it takes!

LOL

Truth be told Sunday at 5 am saw me in no shape to fish.


Saturday Kimi and I went to a Halloween party. Aunt Tracy had the kids and the party was walking distance.
I was nothing short of a Bag of Milk when I got home...I didn't even know who I was...
We had a ton of fun BTW.
I had to be talked...in fact begged into going but it was a good time and I loved seeing Kim get a chance to let go.

I had to hit snooze but at 6am I fired up the rice burner and headed north.

After hiking in for more than an hour I stopped to take a leak...reaching down to unbuckle my fanny pack....


:o/

Ooops...left in the car.


Nice..

No bait,...no terminal tackle....no floats....no leader line...

Fucking hangover...


So back to the car I go.

I hiked like mad to get to the water I had planned on fishing and barely saw a soul.
I think JFL was right when he said that Sunday is the new Wednesday...or something like that.

I think the midweekers are outsmarting oursselves half of the time.

I did bump into one older dude who was in the middle of slicing up his wild Steelhead....I thought about pushing his fillet knife into his ear but I am not quite there yet....

Close,.. but not quite.


At 9am I am standing over the water that I was forced to walk away from on Friday...

Long story short...it wasn't quite as hot but it was pretty friggin cool!!!!!

October Chrome indeed.

Round One Goes To The Fish

These fish are incredible.

The boys can keep their Bass, Tarpon. Bonefish, Permit..etc...

There is nothing on this earth that can whoop ass like an October Steelhead.

On the walk out yesterday I was amused by the irony that the fish are at their sporting best in October on the first push,... right when my game is covered in rust.

...And my 'A' game is really not that good anyway.

LOL


This was the first trip out and after hearing gaudy reports from my closest Steelhead cronies I was all a-jitter with images of leaping chrome and primed with hope of a creel number that only a good water October day could provide.

Not quite...


At least at first.

I have got to stop bitching about people...
But there were a lot of them....some of them were actually camped out in there.
Infuriating..but I have to admit ..that would be awesome!!
LOL

I fished nothing but what I expect was first ,second and probably third water all morning...
Very frustrating.

Just when I thought that I would out hike them I would turn the corner and there would be another group of knuckleheads.
Lots of pressure but to be fair everybody I ran into went out of their way to make the river a civilized place to fish.
I didn't see a fish on a stringer all day....dare I hope?....have we turned a corner collectively???
..doubtful..

Even with all the people I didn't see anybody hook anything...except me...
;o)
Heres hoping that Morin's previous days education saved a few lives from some clumsy efforts...

All the obvious spots had been smashed and by 11:00 I had only managed to go 4 for 4...
I was happy to be out and finally doing it but sickened with the thought that I was once again a day late and a dollar short.

More Irony...
I guilted Morin into trying to get the previous day off work only to have my own leave denied by the Philistines at work.

At the next round of bargaining I am going to fight for special non discretionary steelhead leave based on river graph numbers.

Picking up scraps...

I was happy for those cocksuckers but my vanity would make it unbearable if I returned with anything but an exceptional day under my belt.

Thank Christ that at 11:00 I stood over water that almost nobody fishes and that could possibly be the best holding water on the river right now.

It is amazing how the river changes from year to year and this 30 ft stretch has improved greatly from last year.


I don't think it had been fished that day by anyone because I couldn't get a drift through there without my float being scuttled by a lightening finned beast...

For an hour and a half I fought the best that river or arguably this world has to offer sportfish wise and for the most part had my ass handed to me....
I lost a couple of huge fish...real heartbreakers....but I also put some beauties on the bank.


I had made a promise to my family that I would be home by 2:30 pm and I had what I estimated to be a 1 hour plus brutal hike out so at 12:30 I broke the rod down and walked away from the hottest steelhead water I have ever stood over....

OUCH!

OUCH I SAY!!!

Great day ..Now I am lovin Life..

In the immaculate words of Harv the shitstain....GAME ON!

Roaring Start.

Well, it has been a while.
I am not sure what the reason is for lack of BLOG entries.

It is not that my life hasn't been full and I believe I am reasonably happy...but I don't believe in forcing things and I have had no real desire.

In my last post I spoke of my Mid Life crisis.

Still there...still haunting me. It is a real drag actually. I liked things better when I was sure I was going to live forever.
It sure made going into work a lot easier.

Oh well
Fuck it...

Morin threw out the offer for a fishing trip this weekend...one which I couldn't accept.
:o/


Owen had a city wide Cross Country Track Meet on Saturday. Which was yesterday.
I wouldn't miss that for anything.
He has really developed into a fine athlete and I have to be careful not to turn into maniac Dad.
He loves to run ...and he is gifted.

THAT IS MY KID WAY OUT IN FRONT

I approached a Division 1 scholarship runner that I work with and asked him for advice.
Owen is 9.
His advice was to just leave the kid alone at this age and let him find the love for it naturally.
That sounded beautiful.
But I think I may have let him down.
Owen was heavily favoured to win this event, but as per the Norland curse woke Saturday morning sick as a dog.
Interesting though...as recent as two years ago he would've begged to stay home but Saturday my boy begged to compete swearing that it wouldn't stop him.
Tough.

...Even tougher when he came in 2nd...out of about 120 kids from across the city.
He led the whole way and lost by inches to some kid who out kicked him in the last 100 metres.
I found out the day before that this kids dad trains his son with a stop watch 2 - 3 times a week.
Hmmmmm..........guilt...guilt.....
No excuses but Owen would've won going away if he'd been 100%.
Like I say... I don't want to be psycho Dad but next year I think we'll crank it up a notch beauty be damned.
The kid was heartbroken....and he was so smashed at the end that he couldn't stand. He has been on the couch ever since with fever sore throat and cough.
I have never been more proud but I can't shake the feeling that I should've helped him be a little more prepared.

Man I love that kid.
When he rounded the corner in first place I could hardly see.
Fuck.

Another reason why I didn't fish was that today is my 12 yr Anniversary. Had to be home for that.

These have been the best years of my life...by far.


I may take a run at the old lady tonight.

:o)

I drove up to Bayfield on Friday.
There had been a smattering of rain and the graph hadn't given me enough reason not too.
It was a waste of time and roe. A dry river full of suckers and Salmon Kelts.

Beautiful though....and a walk through the woods was BIG medicine.


It is right on the edge...

A few more blasts of rain and she should be ready to go but there is very little in the forecast.
That is PAR...and I fucking hate par....

Running water...there have been so many greater than I that have waxed poetic about the wonders of it...good for the soul...
I need rivers...
Fuck coughing and fuck work....

I have another GIG coming up in a few weeks...
For the life of me I cannot get excited about it. I am no good at multitasking and right now all I can think about is fishing.
RAIN......

Untitled from Gene Norland on Vimeo.