Trout Fishing... ?!?!

Did some. It has it merits. Some being: (1) beautiful little fish, (2) cool streams, (3) stinging nettles as epidermal toughening agent, (4) link to stream by way of consumption of fish flesh.

I wanted to bring home five Salmo trutta, but ended up with only three... okay with me. The fish were all small... okay with me. This little brookie sports some cool coloring.

The most interesting thing about this little trip was the weather... The skies were black, and the clouds were just rumbling-bumbling around - very loud. I had just spotted the best trout of the day, and I was hiding behing the veg casting to him... carp-style in a way I guess. Then somebody hit a switch, and the rain came like a tsunami - instant drenching. It'd been so hot, the downpour was very welcome. One second dry, the next soaked through - excellent. I walked the streamside in the rain thinking "can't get any wetter, so might as well stay out."

Downtown Rochester Sighting

Rochesterfest was attended... Too many people, but some really cool sights: (1) The Mayo brothers in their bronzed glory, (2) a whole lotta feeding carp right downtown - I kept pointing them out to my family but without polarized glasses and with generally little to no interest they just couldn't pick them out... hehe, (3) this mammal, which I believe is a MINK - pretty cool to see prancing along the river in the urban jungle.

It's amazing to me how animals deal with our transformations of the landscape - from natural landscape to pavement world... you'll see smallies pulled out of channelized rivers with no vegetation for miles... deer all over the place in the city limits... turtles laying eggs in dirt parking lots... hawks and other raptors everywhere... all kinds of passerine birds... and sometimes even a mink downtown. It's a sad deal in a way, but also promising to see that they can endure and adjust.

Carp Fishing Vid Stills


JB and I took a bunch of video of one another for our upcoming feature film. Here are some stills I yanked just now to share.

Here's a hook up. You can see the silt ruckus this fish raised when it was pricked. Understandable.

Here poking rod through trees to dap fly on fish's head... love that technique and it is deadly.

Casting to a fish that had been putting on a ridiculous feeding display - bubbles and silt everywhere... you can see the fish moving to the left as JB places his next cast.

He called this carp break dancing... not sure why he does it - must be west coast deal.

This is JB being a SNLF (Sneakly Little Fugger). You often have to be a SNLF to catch carp on the fly.

Man, did we have a good time!

Jimmy

Here are some recent photos of a boy who is growing rapidly. First, some pre-move pics:

This neighbor cat was one of JD's compadres. He really liked the feline, and she loved him back to the point of seeking him out and purring when she'd find him.

Here's JD dragging my carp net through one of NFLD's finest parks. We took auntie carping for just a short time during her visit to MN.

JD playing baseball with one of his best buds in NFLD. Quite a stance he's got.

Riding the trike that our friend passed on... he can't reach the peddles, but he's a fanatic anyway.

His last ice cream cone in Hogan Bros as a true local... we'll miss that place!

Here's our first true mail box.

Jimmy in his new room...

Jimmy in our first ever guest bedroom... we even have a bed in there now, thanks to generosity of friends.

Jimmy in his folks' new room...

The previous owners left a Kent Hrbek action figure in the basement... what a bonus! Note how Kent is held in perfect posture even as holder sleeps.

SE MN Tour 2007
[will edit and add more detail later - also check JB's blog]

Kind of ironic that after moving to the Zumbro just a week prior, we headed to the Cannon for the first day of our annual SE MN Tour. JB drove south from the metro, and I headed north from Roch... met in NFLD. We had a fantastic day of sight fishing: not many fish landed, but we literally saw fish everywhere we looked for them, and we had many great opps. We did land some great carp. This pesky smallie stole the fly from the plate of a willing carp that JB had in the bag... I had a 12-13 lb carp run so fast on me that he literally burned my finger as he took up slack line.



The second half of the day we gave in and blind nymphed a dam... caught all kinds of fish - all sizes and species... even some great buffalo fish, including this biggie landed by John (actually this was end of the day sight fishing I guess - we didn't stop until 930 PM - total of 14 straight hours).




For day two, we had to wait a while - it wasn't planned. We were okay with one day (down from our normal four) given our current family situations. Heck, we were overjoyed to get a day on the water together... that we were able to manage a second and remain in good standing at home was just icing on the carp cake. For this day we were back in the Zumbro. The carp were still spawning though, and despite seeing dozens to hundreds, we caught only a limited number (snagged quite a few too). We did have decent sight fishing and nymphing... including wading amongst these black pigs that were beached on a cement apron - trying to get up a waterfall (kind of sad really). I was actually able to sneak up on these fish and net them - got three that way.

All in all, it was positively a great time.... even though JB snapped two 7 wts in two! Hehehe... It's great to be on the water with that guy. He is the master of carp on the fly and I hope we can continue to fish together until we both need walking canes and spectacles. I see a lot of adventures coming in the future - most of which will include our kids soon... they are almost ready!