Things of Three II

The second edition of three items/subjects/places/people worth checking out to make life as an angler and global citizen far more enjoyable.

1. Marie Sharp's Habanero Sauce
I can barely put into words how awesome this hot sauce is.

Marie Sharp's is the hot sauce of angels.

There's heat, but the heat compliments the flavour of the sauce's carrot base without overpowering it. The Belizean Heat (smaller bottle) is considerably hotter, but still extremely flavourful; moreso than most hot sauces that I've tried previously.

About seventeen minutes after coming ashore, still wobbly with sea-legs, I sauntered into a Belizean grocer to buy some to bring back to Canada (the $1.04CDN = $1US = $2BZ exchange rate is highly favourable if anyone is interested in becoming a habanero sauce smuggler with me).

It's completely possible I've discussed Marie Sharp's more than I have the fishing since I returned. And it even makes turkey bacon tolerable.

Related note #1: Once we arrived at the airport, I accessed email for the first time in 8 days, where I saw the following passage in an email from my buddy Will: "Marie Sharp's habanero pepper sauce. Just sayin. Fill your boots and then cover your eggs." Done and done, William. Done. And. Done.

Web: www.mariesharps-bz.com

2. Columbia Airgill Chill shirt
I was looking to buy this shirt when I sent the following tweet:

I never expected Columbia to tell me to DM my address and size to get one to demo for free. That was pretty damn cool, although never the original intention. So thanks, Columbia!

Related note #2: Ironically, I've been telling people for the past month or so how I'm limiting the number of gear reviews I do on this site. I'd rather mention gear I've used & abused after purchasing it on my own dime. You might not have noticed, but I've been using this forum to (attempt to) expand my writing abilities, albeit slowly and one syllable at a time, as well as focusing on travel tips to help my fellow anglers (anyone? Bueller? Bueller?). Oh well. Who am I to turn down free swag?

In four words: I love this shirt.

In more than four words: I wore & abused the hell out of this shirt. Five of seven fishing days I wore it, with no washes in between. It was soaked in saltwater and sweat, smeared with fish slime, and drizzled with coffee, Marie Sharp's, Coca Cola, Belikan and very nearly tears. The Airgill Chill held up to all of it.

It's sturdily built but lightweight and quick-drying, with the right number, size and location of pockets to hold your camera and a small fly box. Size large was slightly baggy on me, but I didn't mind the loose fit in the billion and eight degree heat.

Two additional considerations: 1) it was surface-of-the-sun hot a few days there; and 2) I'm a Canadian who spent the majority of summer in far Northern latitudes. I was a pasty-white cracker in Belize, and the shirt's Omni-Shade® UPF 30 sun protection kept my upper body pasty-white throughout the week.

This is a premium fishing shirt. It will travel with me to any hot climate from here on in.

And yes, I would have gladly dropped my own coin on it with zero regrets. But I didn't have to, so big win for me.

Web: Columbia Performance Fishing Gear front page here; www.columbia.com

3. Coyote
No, not the cuddly animal. Coyote is the new album from Matt Mays. It's good. Like, really, really good. This may be blasphemous, but I like it better than Jack White's album Blunderbuss, and I thought that was the primo album of 2012...until I heard Coyote.

Check it out on the iTunes store here.

Here's the first track on the album; it's definitely one of my early favourites.