My personal musical tastes seem to meander, and I’ll profess that I haven’t listened to a lot of Bon Iver or S. Carey in my life… but what I do know is that this brook trout t-shirt is freakin’ cool. And it’s available on pre-order now. To make it better, the product page says “Preorder yours now and 10% of proceeds will benefit Trout Unlimited’s Wisconsin chapter, whose prime objective is to provide generations the opportunity to enjoy coldwater resources.” That’s impressive! And it doesn’t hurt that besides all the music, Sean Carey is an angler who knows what a Pink Squirrel is and fly fis ..read more

So the internet is doing weird stuff. Or Umpqua is spending a shit-ton of money on marketing. Or maybe both, I’m not sure… Something like a month ago, I received an email from a retailer, I think it was TCO Fly Shop, advertising the new Northfork packs from Umpqua. They’re a line of minimalistic fly fishing packs that appear to have just the right amount of features and seem to be priced fairly. They piqued my interest as I’ve been awkwardly looking for a good waist/hip pack solution for a while. I clicked through the email to learn more, but didn’t proceed much beyond that. Anyway, fast forw ..read more

Daydreaming is fun. It allows you to step outside of your normal and go on mini mental adventures. Being firmly rooted in mid-life, my current state of crisis often sends me on a daydream as a way of escape. Wondering what if? Where to? Or what’s next? As a family, we moved to Florida in 2013. I was offered a great opportunity at a growing company and we took it. It’s impossible to regret the decision. We live in a nice neighborhood, my daughter has had a stable environment from elementary school through high school, and the weather in Florida in December and January isn’t bad at all. Not much ..read more

I’m not going to lie, when Land of Little Rivers, a 2019 movie first popped up in my YouTube feed, I had some preconceived notions. Perhaps it was the subject being the Catskills, or maybe the somewhat non-inspiring thumbnail image. I just envisioned a bunch of gray haired guys talking on and on about the “good old days” and expected something slow, boring, and stereotypically “fly fishing.” You know what I mean, the kind of content that loves to feature those angling quotes you see over and over… “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” You ..read more

Piggy-backing off my last post, I was pretty delighted to see more than a dozen video presentations appear on Trout Unlimited’s YouTube channel from the 2024 Driftless Symposium this week. What is the Driftless Symposium? Well this article will explain it a lot better than I can, but let’s just say it’s a gathering of many that are involved in the conservation and preservation of this unique resource. They inform, update, and exchange ideas on their work. Jason Freund’s presentation on Driftless Area brook trout It’s an incredible amount of information to consume, far too much to absorb in o ..read more

The Driftless Area is awesome. It’s literally a sportsman’s paradise. Some people visit for the whitetail or turkey hunting, but for me it’s the endless spring creeks loaded with trout. That place, especially the corner of Wisconsin I tend to visit, is aces. Come for the abundant browns (like the one in this blog’s header image), stay for the freckled brookies. And don’t forget a handful of Pink Squirrels. In the late Spring and early Summer, it’s so lush and green, it’s like you’re in the Shire, only replacing the Hobbits with the Amish. I’ve written about it here before, and am now official ..read more

I made the run up to Georgia last weekend. Taking Friday off from work, the extra day provided the perfect circumstance. Just some overdue time to escape and chill out in the mountains, and of course, the first opportunity to fish for trout this year. Helen is certainly a quirky town. Nestled in the hills with the Chattahoochee flowing through, it’s a little Bavaria. Touristy, sure. But fun. And quite the fishing hub. The rain initially took me off the streams, but a warm bowl of Brunswick stew and a grilled cheese sandwich kept me content. Eventually the rains would subside and I ..read more

There’s been a recent wave of updating technology going on around the house. It started with replacing all of the hard-wired smoke & carbon monoxide detectors (which may have sucked worse than the incessant chirping)… and recently concluded with upgrades to a few of our smartphones. In the shuffle, I made it a point to see what abandoned electronics were scattered about. From old Android tablets to outdated Amazon Kindles, I was curious to discover what actually still worked and could be reclaimed (or even donated) given we had the appropriate cord to re-charge it. What I  found was t ..read more

Last Wednesday or Thursday I was doing a death scroll thru one of my social media apps when the 7 Creeks Fest popped up as something taking place this weekend. Organized by Timucuan Parks Foundation and supported by a bunch of other local organizations, agencies and non-profits, the 7 Creeks Fest is a family-friendly event that celebrates all the outdoor recreational opportunities that the Jacksonville area provides, particularly those centered around the expansive 7 Creeks Recreational area. The event ran until 3 PM on Saturday, and rolling in around 11:30 AM I was kind of surprised by all th ..read more

It’s March already! While I’ve been writing a bit more about fishing in 2024, I hadn’t actually done any fishing to this point, which might be the longest drought I’ve ever had to start a new year. So, I gathered up the 4-weight fiberglass rod, a clicker reel, and a clutch full of flies and headed out to the pond over at the ball fields near my house. After a rainy morning the sun started peeking out from behind the clouds, and it was turning into a pretty nice afternoon. It made for a fun hour or two of sight fishing for the local micro bass, as well as the bluegill by-catch. Technically, my ..read more