Freshly Baked!
Enter the 2012 FR&R’s Angling Adventures Sweepstakes and you could win a trip for two to Boca Paila Lodge on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. You’ll enjoy all the comforts of this world-class fishing lodge in the heart of one of the most likely places to land a saltwater grand slam on the fly (that is, a bonefish, tarpon and permit on the same day).This western Caribbean jewel boasts expansive white-sand beaches, warm breezes, waving palm trees… your classic tropical postcard. Boca Paila sits on a narrow spit of land with the Caribbean on one side and nearly endless fishable lagoon and flats on the other. And besides the bonefish, tarpon and permit, there are plenty of snook, jacks, barracuda and more.
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Shannon Skelton, CFI Global Fisheries Management
Literally. E-mail from my boy Shannon Skelton, Senior Fisheries & Aquatic Biologist / President of CFI Global Fisheries. Shannon was shocking a stretch of one of CFI’s recent rehabilitations last week.
T, here are pics of a couple of the fish that decided to move into the newly enhanced habitat that we built on a 1.5 mile stretch of river last fall. This reach of river harbored just under 6 total lbs. of fish per acre before we conducted the habitat enhancement. Upon compiling the data after last week’s electrofishing studies, this same reach totaled 31.6 lbs. per acre. This is completely due to natural recruitment, for we’ve never stocked fish in this project reach. Pictures may not be the best, but it shows you how happy these fish are in their rehabilitated environment
This is EXACTLYwhy in late June I am headed down to Ft. Collins, CO to hang with Shannon and check out a spring creek restoration project his team is working on.
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Mr. Brown and Mr. Skelton
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Glass Power
Cameron Mortenson of The Fiberglass Manifesto fame spotted the trailer to “Thai One On” when it came out a month or two ago. Cameron promplty noticed one specific shot was lacking a little something. The shot? It was a POV shot of my Pelican camera case covered in fly fishing stickers as a I trapsed through my local airport intransit to Thailand. Mortenson the savant that he is, noticed one decal missing from said Pelican case, a Fiberglass Manifesto sticker. So Cameron promptly contacted me and sent a TFM schwag bag of goodies. So I’m rockin the tee at work today. The decal? Well that’s already on the Pelican. Cameron is a confessed “glass geek”, ( I thought that was slang for meth head?) Mortenson’s website TFM, is a salute to the builders and companies that produce fiberglass fly rods. Over time the Cameron has broadened TFM’s horizons to include to reel makers, artists, photographers, writers, fly tiers, gear makers, filmmakers and really anything else that he felt noteworthy within the fly fishing industry. I figure now I can qualify for the TFM Photo Spotting Contest. Too bad I didn’t have the shirt in Bangkok, I could have taken pics in all kinds of crazy places with. Take a look at Cameron’s blog, a great read even if like me you believe glass is dead and have vowed to NEVER take up Tenkara ever. So while Ted Kacynski may have had a place in Montana and his own MANIFESTO , he never had his own T-shirt. Eat your heart out there Theodore.
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Pink Striped Spring Rainbow
Had a chance today to get out and spend a couple hours on my home waters. Total bluebird day, while all the plankers were up on the mountain, I was down in the valley shooting these photos with my Iphone. The Iphone 4 camera is not too bad. I didn’t bring my cameras, as it was just a day to fish, However while I was out there, I found myself wishing I had. Managed a few nice fish to hand and enjoyed a beautiful day on the river. Even caught a bit of a sunburn. It may not be Thailand and there’s no 20lb Mahseer, but the rainbows are still beautiful, wild trout.
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More Pink Stripes
Thailand was on fire while we were shooting “Thai One On”
Burning season is worse than jock itch after an eight day steelhead trip without a shower and driving home on heated leather seats. Not that you would know anything about that, would you Kris Keller?
Music by Mickey Avalon and Dyslexic Speedreaders
Somebody stuck an MFC sticker in Soi Cowboy.... WTF?
Big thanks to the Thailand crew of Montana Fly Company without whom this film never would have happened. Adam Trina, Greg Cunningham and Kris Keller. And of course Nareena and Patrick for support.
Wat Phra Kaew
Another EPIC adventure, has come to an end. I have finished filming for “Thai One On” a short film destined for next year’s F3T tour. Along the Thai crew of Montana Fly Company, I spent 4 weeks in the jungle of Northern Thailand. I also spent 5 days in the urban jungle of Bangkok, probably the world’s craziest city. A metropolis of over 13 million people and sex trade worth almost as much. But what I took away from my time there, is that Thailand is country of contrast. And like the anglers I focused my lenses on, Thailand has got its hooks in me. Bangkok may have held me under and nearly didn’t give me up… but Thailand has left an indelible impression on me. I will return again and again. Now only 9 months of post production work to finish the film!
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YOU MUST APPEAR IN COURT! LOL!
James Anderson is a featured angler in my Spring Creek film. James and I have also worked together on Canvasfish, my recent documentary on artist Derek DeYoung. Our latest collaboration is the sound track for my new film “Thai One On”. My boy James recently e-mailed me an update on his steelhead trip and it went a little something like this:
Yeah, the cop was REALLY upset. Apparently some jack ass I passed called me in so he was looking for me. ”Is there a reason you were going ONE HUNDRED AND SIX mph?!?!?”
“Ah, I was trying to get to the coast tonight to go steelheading…”
”Is it worth GOING TO JAIL!?”
“No sir…”
After the license and registration…
”slow it DOWN, that is RIDICULOUS. You have to go to court for this much, you’re lucky I don’t write you up for a wreckless. Do you have any other questions?”
”No sir, just wanted to say I’m sorry again and I will slow it down…”
I had a lady judge who turned out to be very cool – she goes salmon fishing in Alaska every year and said one day she was so excited she didn’t eat for 10 hours. I still got the maximum fine – $100, which I felt a heck of a lot better than going to the clink… Still that’s 5 days of shuttle money down the drain…
Be the Judge yourself, was it worth it? JA is MONEY!
OP Steelie
Deep in the pristine jungle of northern Thailand lies the River of Reflection. Named for it’s crystal clear water, the river is home to the legendary Mahseer. A species first prized by British anglers in the days of the Raj for its phenomenal fight. Filmmaker Travis Lowe follows three anglers as they work with local Karen villagers to protect the entire 60km length of the river. Hoping to open up the River of Reflection as a world class destination fishery. And in the process, help bring desperately needed money to the cash starved Karen villagers. A feat that may require a witch doctor, a spirit curse and quite possibly the introduction of mahseer fish aquaculture. But every Thai odyssey begins and ends in Bangkok, the City of Life. And like Adam Trina says “the ‘Kok’s a cruel mistress and if you don’t treat her right, you’re in for a big surprise when you lift up that skirt”.
Currently in production, Thai One On is coming in 2013 to F3T. Provided we make it out of Bangkok alive. A Cinema Digital Production and a Travis Lowe film.
In between shooting for my documentary film Spring Creek: Rancher’s Anglers, Water and Trout, I have taken to shooting numerous side projects or short films. Canvasfish is one of them.
It’s hard to tell what came first for Derek DeYoung angling or art? At the age of 6, Derek was declaring to friends and family that he wanted to be a famous artist. Enamoured with angling from an early young age DeYoung’s favourite subject has always been fish. But by the time he left art school at the age of 23, DeYoung realized he needed to push his artwork in a new direction. In order to achieve his goal, he began to experiment with composition, taking the fish’s form away and removing the actually shape of the fish. By zooming in extremely close on his subject, DeYoung’s objective was to portray trout in colour and pattern only. The result was the “Abstract Trout Face” series paintings. Derek’s contemporary vision and vibrant use of colour challenged the traditional, classic style of angling artwork and eventually received critical acclaim and success. That success would lead to corporate collaborations with Abel and Simms that would make the DeYoung name into a brand. A consequence that he struggles with as he attempts to build a life around his love of painting and his passion for fly fishing. Canvasfish is intimate portrait of an artist and his work. It celebrates a small part of the culture of fly fishing while not attempting to document the pursuit of it. Filmed at DeYoung’s Livingston, Montana studio, Canvasfish chronicles DeYoung’s career as he paints his way through life, a fly rod in one hand and paint brush in the other.