411#3

31 July 2011

Sunday Country Drive (A non-fishing post)

Time/Date: 1755 AST, 31-Jul-11
Location: A good chunk of western NB

Being a long weekend, I intentionally avoided the water (& associated crowds) for the past couple days save for a nocturnal predator patrol for muskie & stripers on Friday night.

To kill some time today, my lovely gf & I took a leisurely country drive to some of the roadside touristy things one might stumble upon while driving New Brunswick's secondary highways.

Here are some pics; try not to all rush here at once. There's plenty of room for everyone.

That's exciting...

Every year or two, some yokel gets looped up & tries to burn this down

Yup. Somebody answered the call & built an Ark. Brilliant.

It's fairly large...

And, of course, as every Ark needs, it has satellite TV.

They've started collecting the animals, two by two; with bunnies...

...and alpacas...

...and goats...

...who really enjoy carrots.

We also stopped by the Miramichi Headwaters Salmon Federation's trout & salmon rearing station, where my gf adopted/sponsored a trout.

All in all, a fun day (for not fishing).

Here's some music.

30 July 2011

Cool, Old-Timey Ted Williams-Atlantic Salmon Video

It's a wet afternoon.

If you're not fishing, you can kill 28 or so minutes watching this video.

Ted Williams and the Atlantic Salmon from Martin Pitts on Vimeo.

29 July 2011

Brookies...

Time/Date: 1005 AST, 29-Jul-11
Location: The Shop

James, AKA The Phenom, he of the mad skilz in deerhair popper-awesomeness, also has some mad skilz in the fine art of video shooting & editing.

Definitely worth a few minutes of your day to check out.

For all you folks heading to Moncton for the U2 concert, here's a tune for y'all. And it's not U2.

26 July 2011

City Limits Smallie, S01E02

Time/Date: 1815 AST, 26-Jul-11
Location: Back home in ol' Freddy Beach

Dear Redington, Rio Products, and Chris Buckingham,

A quick note to say your fly rod, fly line, and bead-head wooly bugger all work splendidly. Much appreciated.

Sincerely,

Mat

********
Below are 3 of the 8 smallies caught & released in probably the most epic 75 minutes of fishing I've ever experienced. I probably had close to two dozen takes. Gettin' all book-smart on bass fishin' paid off. Now just to improve my hook-sets :-/

ALSO: these were all caught within a 3 minute drive of the fly shop, in (what I proclaim to be) the best angling city EVER!!

22 July 2011

Graduate-level Packing

Time/Date: 0825 PST, 22-Jul-11
Location: Smithers...en route to Vancouver

17 days in the field, a day of fly fishing + 36 hours of (semi-) civilized fun in Vancouver.

It equals a lot of stuff: waders, fly rods & misc fishing gear; field gear/safety equipment, clothes for work & play...plus a sleeping bag liner & a fly tying kit and books...

This is honestly the most I've packed for any trip anywhere...except moving to & from Vancouver, but even that was close to this.

Fortunately I have some mad skilz:

I'm off to spend a day's wages on lattes & sushi.

See you all on the east (a.k.a., right) coast.

Mat

Chinook-ing

Time/Date: 0640, 22-Jul-11
Location: Smithers, BC

Awesomeness.

That's all I can say about my day chasing Chinook salmon on the fly rod with Derek Botchford of Frontier Farwest (Twitter: @epicflyfishing; Facebook page here).

Conditions were tough: water was high, fast & cloudy, but Derek raced us up & down the river in the jetboat to various pools & holes, pointing out locally famous fall steelhead runs along the way.

It paid off.

There is an asterisk on this catch, however.

I had handed the rod to Derek so I could have a sip of coffee & take a leak. As I was standing on shore, coffee in hand (not the other thing in hand), I saw a fish roll to Derek's right.

Mustering up my best guide voice, I calmly spoke (squealed?): "Three o'clock, 30 feet."

Derek cast, hooked up & offered me the rod. I hesitated; not wanting to be 'that guy,' but...

It was a good fight.

These things are friggin' strong. They're not big leapers, and this one didn't run too much. It just said, "F**K you. Try to move me."

And it didn't budge. For a while.

After 10-15 minutes, the above picture was the end result, and we happily sent the Chinook back on its way upriver.

Awesomeness.

I also caught a bull trout, which was totally cool!

On a 5- or 6-weight, the bull trout would have been a battle and a half.

Awesomeness.

On the way back to Smithers, Derek invited me to stop in to see the new lodge Frontier Farwest is building on the Bulkley River.

It's spectacular.

I instantly offered my services as a bartender, logistics manager, guide, dishwasher or resident half-wit to Derek.

Unfortunately for me (and the lodge, too...mark my words!!), Derek politely declined my services.

But...

I will be back someday soon, for I also have steelhead dreams.

Interested in fishing with Derek and the gang at Frontier Farwest? Click here for their contact information. Trust me, it's worth the price of admission. And then some.

New music. I dig it. Some might not.

But that's the beauty of music; there's something for everyone.

Enjoy!

Project Site Tying Bench

I got a little creative one night during some downtime on the drill rig.

Definitely one of the more random places I had ever tied a fly. Quite...rustic...?

'Twas productive, though; it was the first time I had ever sat down & tied 5 flies in a row without interruption.

Enjoy the tune...

20 July 2011

Random BC Post v4.0

Time/Date: 0820 PST, 20-Jul-11
Location: BC

Another project is just about in the books. Some last-minute laundry & packing remains.

My reputation (career?) as a semi-retired country gentleman (that said semi-retired, not semi-retarded, btw) is can definitely be challenged; I've spent almost 16 weeks on project sites so far in 2011.

Oh well, student loans don't pay themselves (unless you finished university after I did; then the government seemingly throws money at you with all their looney 'Come/Stay the F**K Home' grants).

NBD*, however.

It all plays into the master plan...

Looks easy enough...

********
Fishing note:
Derek from Frontier FarWest emailed me to say river conditions were probably going to be tough for my trip for Chinook tomorrow.

Another NBD...

I'm well-versed in The Skunkening.

I've had many. Probably will have many more (especially if I keep chasing muskie).

As the saying goes, a bad day of fishin' is better than the best day of workin'.

We'll see how it all plays out tomorrow.

'*' - No Big Deal

16 July 2011

Random BC Post v3.0 (More pics)

(Note: This post may end up looking rough due to this whole Google-account-transition thing; I lost all of my previous settings & text templates. As I have very limited (& poor quality) internet access, this might not get fixed until I return home, so bear with me)

Time/Date: 0735 PST, 16-Jul-11
Location: still in BC

Four more nights.

That's it.

Four more nights of work before 3-4 weeks off.

Note: After this I'm working 3 weeks on, 3 weeks off for a couple months. Then I can resume my semi-retired country gentleman lifestyle.

And, to top it off, I have a day fishing booked with Frontier FarWest (Twitter: @epicflyfishing) on the way outta here. Chinook salmon on the fly (guess I didn't need to bring that 5-weight with me...).

Then it's on to Vancouver to see some friends. I'm not sure if I include Akira Sushi, The Noodle Box and Fatburger as friends, but I'm visiting them as well.

And, of course, Caffè Artigiano. The place that started my full-on (mental & physical) addiction to good coffee (& subsequent coffee snobbery, mainly directed towards that shit they serve at Tim Horton's).

I can guarantee I'll be in Artigiano seven times in 34 hours. At least.

How's that for a latte factor?

*******
A nice little internet gold nugget I recently came across is Smallmouth Fly Box. Some great fly patterns & some gear reviews on there. Definitely worth a visit if you're into chasing smallies on the long stick.

*******
Here are a few pics from the project site, with a great (early) Pearl Jam tune.

The last pic is for Tommy (Twitter: @ghost1066). It's not the close-up of the glacier I promised (yet), but considering it was taken through the window as I was zipping by in the A-Star, I like how it came out.

Tommy has some mad skill making hand-crafted lures, check them out here.