Reconnecting With The Past; a Trip Report of Sorts

2010-10-16pic008(edited)(resized)This weekend I was supposed to be down on the White River, with Brent McClane and Evan Muskopf; but a basement remodel, a crazy work week, and generally needing to be responsible kept me at home this weekend (and Evan was running in to many of the same issues as I was), so the trip was rescheduled.  Sensing that I still needed to get out, even if just for a few hours, Brent got me to skip going into the office this Saturday and run down to Trout & Sons Marine in St. James to look at a new jet boat, check out the put-in and take-out on the Meramac, and maybe if time allowed pick up a few fish for the smoker at the trout park.  And with that, the plan was solid.

We met at Cracker Barrel for breakfast and caught up on personal stuff and hit the road by 7am.  By 9am we were done at the boat place and on our way over to the trout park for some fishing.  Man was that place packed.  We almost just took off for the river, but no one was fishing the skinny water up near the cable so we fished for a bit, I picked up 3 or 4 fish pretty quickly and Brent soon followed with 3 or 4 of his own.  Mine were not big enough to keep, but I swear that I caught one with par marks and white tips, but Brent caught one that would go about 15″ or so and the others were standard trout park slime rockets; nothing exciting to write home about.

It was a good day to get back to our roots and do some people watching and the sort; and definitely reminded us both of why we like the solitude of the rivers and the winter; people are just plain crazy during the Catch & Keep season.  For me, the most enjoyable part was playing with a new piece of photography equipment that I got and hadn’t put to the test yet.  I had purchased an underwater bag for my digital slr, but was pretty hesitant in using up to this point; but something was different today and I threw my backup camera in it (Nikon D70 w/ 18-70), sealed it properly and started to snap a few frames.  It will take some getting used to, and definitely need to modify a few things with it; but I was pleased with the results for a first effort.  You can see the results in the gallery below.  Hope everyone else got out this weekend, even if only for an hour or two like I did, it is good for the soul.

Catch Magazine — Issue # 10 is Out

CatchMagazine-March2010 The March 2010 issue of Catch Magazine was unveiled today.  This is issue # 10 for those of you counting , and I am glad it keeps going strong.  The cover shot this issue is by Brian O’ Keefe and it is this kind of shot that had me out buying an underwater housing for my camera a few weeks ago (Now I just need a pig of a fish to test it out on).  Combine the cover shot with the pictorial of Tim Pask’s underwater captures and well that is what separates the fly-fishing photographer from the hobbyists like myself.  Tim has captured some great shots underwater and some of them are shown in this issue.

Todd Moen’s video ad for Circle 3 Ranch in Montana is a really well shot clip that gives the background of the ranch, and features some pretty good fishing as well.  I would watch a commercial like that any day of the week.  His short on fishing “The Early Season” of Argentina was stellar as well.  In between, there is stellar photography that I have come accustomed to in Catch.

The issue closes out with the guys at Finback Films showing of their short “Northwoods”, which they claim was shot while testing out a new camera for a feature they are working on.  If this is something they went out and just captured, I can’t wait to see stuff they are planning out.  All in all, O’Keefe and Moen do it again with this issue, and you can check it out for free here.