Illustrator - David Walker

It's sort of fishing related! A great illustrator - David Walker His work make viewers smile...great skill, great sense of humors... just like fishing with friends... remind me we all had great times with friends... : )

Children's book has a special soft spot in my heart. I was grown up in a magical mountain village. Almost every morning, the village will broadcast some beautiful children's song to wake you up and followed with the announcement and reminders from our respected tribal leader. And the first thing people do in the morning were start to clean up the leaves from the street. In the summer time, we like to jump in the icy cold creek... birds, wildflowers and fresh mountain air. It's like a classic story in children's book. If I was not playing and fishing, I spend my time in the small village library (it's mandatory every morning...), but I did enjoyed all the children books.

flavor in the air (2)

photo by Yuhina's Mom

Nature, Life style, Photographer

Just saw this event in Ken's blog, it remind me a lot of things that I like. Photography definitely is one of the important elements. I love documentary film and photography. I always curious about how people in the images live, think etc... I saw this image this morning, and it start make my mind turning and wondering... what is Ken's life looks like? A professional photographer in fishing industry. It sounds like a dream job! Is he busy? Is he have to deal with a lot of thing other than photography and fishing? How he slect his targets? what is his photo philosophy? Is he got to fish a lot? What is his favorite fish and fishing style? Is he like to eat fish? all sorts of things...I guess I admire and fascinate with this kind of lifestyle... : ). His image is good because he capture the feel that fisherman feels... not just capture the beauty of the fish or scenery. I see his images more of documentary style (instead of a glamor in fashion industry). Now a day, because of the easy access and production of digital images,... (Strong opinion below) I saw a lot of "copying" in photo shooting and composing. It's kind of "scary" to see those things get amplified almost everywhere. Well, that's fine! Speak of learning all sort of photography techniques, "copying" is the essential building block to master some techniques. Like a art school student copying master pieces in the practice. But there are something special about the charm of original ideas and the documentary photography. Without understanding our subjects... we are just a glamor fashion photographer. Without the skills... documentary film could be a boring laundry list. I think Ken's photo have a little bit different than most of the fishing photographers in the game. He feel his subjects, the fish, the surrounding and fisherman and put them together as a whole package. He is actually documenting this whole experience. (To be continued later...)
Wish I could attend this Photo Expo! Shake hand with him!

Mr. Kawatsura

Mr. Kawatsura strikes again! Check out his fine rod and website!

it's bugger time..baby..

Whatever they said about buggers...they works! It's bugger time! Baby... : )

flavor in the air

...it's about time to hunt at night..

Photo by Yuhina's Mom

salmon fishing

a little dose of spey casting and traditional reel screaming for Atlantic salmon.

Monic Mania

You simply have to read this... if you think the fly line is a important weapon. Monic line test.

I have heard about the Monic line for a while, but never got a chance to try it. I think this field test really get me excited... I am a line freak... kind of... the more I learn about the cast, the more I feel the importance of the line. So important that they actually improve your cast a lot, and definitely will increase your fishing ability. I am a big fan of clear line, not because I fish for spooky species... but I fish nymph and stramer a lot... at night... To me, casting is all about the feel of the rod load, and the imagination of the fly line travel through in the air. When casting at night, you lost your visual tracking of the line travel... the feel become more important without visual tracking. I think the night casting practice really help me to improve my casting skill. I become more sensitive about the rod load and the accurate timing.
I sight fishing for bass too, the clear line definitely get some advantage when targeting spooky fish. I will need to get one of those line soon!

stranded sturgeons

News: From the link

This news really got me attention, I saw this from Female Angel's Blog. I never see or heard anything like this before! It is so weird. Those fish are evolve to survive in those kind of mud flat for million years... how could they get stranded because of the big appetites? It seems the environment are changing and doing weird thing to them... I checked some quick online material about dolphin stranded information...still have no clue or connecting why those fish are doing those weird behavior... some interesting read.
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nearly 1,500 white sturgeon found themselves stranded last week within Port Susan Bay's shallow channels near Stanwood. Almost all survived by swimming back into the depths of Puget Sound after the tide came in several hours later.

Some fish biologists speculate that the sturgeon, some reaching 10 feet long, were hungry for critters found in shallow mud flats. When the tide dropped, the fish were trapped in the estuary's shallow channels, unable to move across the exposed, muddy ground to deeper water.

Colder water temperatures that day, March 12, also could have made the fish lethargic, biologists said.

"I think these were just fish that were poking around, looking for food," said Brett Barkdull, a fish biologist with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife who lives near the stranding area. "These fish have been out here for quite a while now, but I've personally never seen anything quite like this."

He said he spoke with local residents who also had never seen a similar stranding.

Barkdull first visited the site early this week and found about a dozen sturgeon that perished in the stranding. Most of the dead fish were large — 5 to 10 feet long, he said.

Still, white sturgeon are known to be tough and resilient, said Jason Griffith, a fish biologist with the Stillaguamish Tribe. The bottom-dwelling species has been around for more than 100 million years and originate in several West Coast rivers. Most of the white sturgeon in Puget Sound were born in the Fraser and Columbia rivers and migrate to find food.

The colossal, prehistoric-looking fish can live well over 100 years and tip the scales at 400 pounds or more. They grow bony, armorlike plates for protection and feed on shellfish, small fish and worms.

It's not unusual to find many sturgeon congregating in Port Susan, an area with plenty to eat. Though most of the stranded fish initially survived, some of the larger ones could be affected later because of stress, said Brad James, a Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist.

Compared to salmon, not a lot is known about white sturgeon, James said, and scientists occasionally are baffled by their behavior and habits. For instance, last year biologists found thousands of living sturgeon clumped together at the bottom of the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam, possibly to stay warm.

As for the Puget Sound stranding, scientists may never know for sure why the sturgeon got caught, other than the pursuit of a meal.

"It looks like they chose to overextend their visit on the mud flats," James said. "The feeding must have been pretty good."

cheech boy is back...

Cheech boy is back! And getting stronger! Check out our magical tier who is notorious of his "no match" patterns. Link

Barrett - the man

for sunfish...

my go to sunfish pattern. I love sunfish, there is no lie. They are easy to find, easy to catch and they fight stubborn. Catch a sunfish on a 3wt figerglass rod is a great way to spend hot summer afternoon. This is my first choice sunfish pattern- olive wooly buggers, some similar variates (crayfish imitation) are also good for bass. I like to tie in long traditional rooster hackles. This special hackle was from my friends' chicken farm - Americana spp.

Sat. Bass Dance

be honest with you, I really don't care if I catch a big fish or a small fish... but sometime ,if the condition is right, I don't mind the surprise! Yesterday I was finally out and do my offical "Saturday bass" thing. Yeap, I always go out check the river on Sat. morning... short or long. But in order to remedy my intense schedule and officially celebrate the incoming summer. I decided to do a short visit..."at least a quick look" I told myself. The river was still murky, but I really don't care... because "catching" is just a tiny friction of the whole joyable fishing experience. The preparation of the hunt usually get me into higher excitement mode. The tie, the planning, the hot coffee in the dark, the drive and the birds in the early morning... all counts!
I dead drift the good ol' leech pattern, I use my sage XP 5wt because I want to practice my distance casting. I feel the bump of the gravel bar, the rock and the shape of the river bottom. I had a lot of bird singing with this peaceful rhythm. I felt great!
Then after a tiny bump, I hook into some creature... I felt heavy... really heavy. I though I hook into a turtle. (Yes, I did hook into a turtle before). The 5wt definitely try to bend all over (and bunce back) and do it best job not to break off the fish. she never jumped... but I am surprised how big and how fat she is. probably 5 lb spotted bass full of eggs. That really was a good surprise...see... I don't mind catch a good fish...

single handed

Untitled from ESOX LUCIUS on Vimeo.
single handed rod get the job done.

olive action

loop magazine

"If this did not get your adrenaline rush, you don't have any" Lani Waller said. That's right, that is my response when I saw loop army's photos. Very refreshing in it's own creative way! Tim Pask from Scanout has been shooting FF professionally and his image is truly free style. "A special eye". For photography, it's all about capturing the refreshing moment.

Little Olive - Children's Book

One of my good friend - Kirk a.k.a Itchy Dog is a professional illustrator. He made a series of children's book. It's about an adventure of the little olive - wooly bugger. Very impressive with the great art work and exciting story! I found this is not just good for kids, good for adults that willing to dream. It become one of my favorite coffee-table book now...see Link Little Olive is not only good for trout, it's my go to pattern for bass and sunfish.

Stress Releaser

To me, painting is the form of express my appreciation of the beauty I experienced. A bird singing in a beautiful morning, a fish with stunning color in my landing net. I like to work on those "beautiful experience" carefully, dedicated, and breath every sense of the art form. BUT, sometime I just want to paint... just want to get involved in something that not really relevant to my daily work. It could be a careful sketches, it could be a bold stroke with some pigments or just doodlings on recycle paper... I call them "stress releaser"... here is the one... A bull trout. Am I get stressed? not really... but I need some "stress releaser"...

Jazz & Fly Fishing

Jazz and Fly Fishing trailer from Jazz and Fly Fishing on Vimeo.
"small glimpse of the magic" so true...

Guinomi

Guinomi something I would love to try with my friends!

Terry's flies

Terry's flies are so inspiring... my hands are getting itchy... Terry's FF Bar LINK

candy bars

tied by John Hicks

SUMMER is HERE!

Ryan showed me how to get it done! Superb Oliver! Summer is here! 74F!

more about Robert Bateman...

Robert Bateman Canadian environmental artist. I first noticed his art from a awesome book: the birds of heaven. Very talented with environmental justice man.

fragile environment BC

the buggers are ready...

sunny and bassie~ be prepared~!

need some salmon fix?

check out oncorhynchus addict's gallery... sea run cherry salmon. beautiful!

Salmon Crisis

The news, just saw this from Midcurrent...
"Extinction is not an abstract thing," said Peter Moyle, speaking before hundreds of researchers at this week's Salmonid Restoration Conference, held at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium.

The warning, which Moyle sounded for most of the state's 31 salmon, steelhead and trout species, comes as regulators consider closing the fishing season yet another year for the California chinook -- the state's foremost salmon fishery and a standard catch for local anglers and restaurants alike.

"This is a crisis," said Moyle, a UC Davis professor who led the research behind last year's grim California Trout report.

I just had a conversation with friends last night. The migratory animals, either birds of fish. Because they used multiple habitats to complete their life cycles, they have higher chance to conflict with human activities. For salmon and trout, their need of clean, cold water from pristine forest is also our need,unfortunately. Conservation issue is just as simple as our population issue...

Slow Fishing _Yun's Flies

Slow Fishing just posted those sexy flies for white_spotted Char! Thumbs up!

Ryan Peterson's Video

Poyekhali! from ryan peterson on Vimeo.
I enjoy watching this video a lot!

dinning with friends! yummy

seafood curry, steaming egg mushroom, Japanese home style beef stew... potato pork mesh cake... it's just fabulous!

BC Buck