Sunday

against all odds

A cold front hit our area pretty hard this weekend. Forecasted to go down to 17 degree in Adirondack so I went up to our cabin to winterize the cabin.

There were already ankle deep of snow everywhere. Upon arrival at the cabin I've started to winterize the house. While working, I began to calculate the odd of fishing condition.

Temperture: Really cold (sudden drop of 30 degree)
Snow melt: is pouring into streams making it colder than usual and running high in volume
Weather: a storm is brewing (barometric pressure is buillding)

Everything I've learned about the fishing condition told me it is not a optimal (at all) fishing condition.




Howerver, I found myself at a creek staring down at my fly and hoping to see a trout or two with it but the result was ovbious.

Personally and professionally, I consider myself as a pretty good odd calculator but when it comes to fishing, I never go by what my odds are. I guess either I'm still a beginner or the fishing brings out the stupid in me.

Saturday

I miss Chicago!

One year ago today I caught my last lake run brown......
Everybody deserves to get at least one.....

Coke from Mexico:

I can't remember I had this before, but when I was in Yosemite with a guide he bought me a coke bottled in Mexico made with natural cane sugar. After hours of hot sun beating on my body, it was so refreshing.

Wednesday

Yosemite Trip:

I've been thinking about for a long time and finally made a trip to Yosemite area for fishing past weekend. After a hard trip (No fish) to Truckee in July, I decided to hire a guide this time who is specialized in Yosemite area. My guide and I communicated for a week and made a decision to go to Merced River which runs right through Yosemite. I left the house at 4:00 AM and arrived in the area around 8:00 AM. We meet at 10:00 AM at meeting spot and started the day of fishing right away. The guide seemed knows a lot about the area and took me around different spots as accurately as possible relative to time of the day. It was a slow start, but as day goes by I was able to meet number of large rainbows and unfortunately missed a few good size browns. We folded our rods and walked out of the water around 5:45 PM. In the morning, I left the house assuming that I will sleep over in the area and return home next day; but with the good day of fishing, I had much energy left over to return home same day safely. It was one great trip to remember.

Tuesday

I should be there...

Kings & steelheads are in the tributary waters. Damn it, I hope I don't miss the entire party... 어쩌다 보니까, 낚시를 많이 못하는 가을이 되어 버렸네... 그립다, 고기잡는 그 느낌.

Monday

John Gierach - a thank you from Shenzhen

My work takes me to many different cities in the world, and I spend a good amount of time in China. My trips to China are usually a mix of lot of meetings, a lot of meeting people, and even a fair amount of drinking (with more people). While there are a lot of things I love about China, access to nature isn't one of them (lack of). I am usually okay with this, as metropolitan city & access to nature isn't usually a set, and sometimes I find that this even enhances my appreciation, when I'm standing in a quiet creek. My current trip to China is no different, except this is the fall season, and I can't help but think about the cool water running in the mountain creeks, the hungry trout eagerly checking out the flies floating by ... my ears hunger for the kind of sounds a fall creek makes.

Fortunately, on this trip, I brought along John Gierach's book, Fly Fishing Small Streams. I've been reading it slowly, carefully timing the chapters, so that the book will last throughout the entire trip (it's a short book). I read it in the car from one factory to another, I read it as I wait for samples, and I read it sitting in a small coffee shop, filled with too many people & too much noise. I find that it takes intense concentration to read the words and to tune out the environment around me...

Perhaps "adjust" is a better word because as I read, I use my imagination to translate the sight & sounds to something else... something a little closer to what I'm reading about in the book. I am imagining the people & traffic as the cool running current and the city block/ buildings as boulders and rocks. I still haven't determined what I will select as the trout in this stream, but even without having decided that, the picture in front of me looks a little better. I start to see how this current is flowing, the eddies, and where riffles are formed as people rush past stationary things. The city is a living thing (not only the people but the city itself) and it's wonderful to observe the change throughout the different times of the day. I hope that with training I will be able to see this anytime at call. I described all of this to my friend here, and he looked at me a long while and said - "have you been drinking during the day?". Maybe I am going out of my mind, but if I am going to go out of my mind, this might not be a bad way to go.

John Gierach was quoted in an article in MidCurrent ... “I don’t travel or fish to ‘get away', because my life at home isn’t something I need to escape from.” Right now, I need a little escape and this book is providing me that space. So, thank you Mr. John Gierach, your book is helping one stressed out designer to keep it together at this moment.

Saturday

2011' fall in korea

2011' fall and lenok in korea.




















Korea is very beautiful in the fall.

In Korea, the fall foliage peaks in late October.

Thursday

fishing in pajamas...

Couple of weeks ago, I took the family north to a rented lake house in Upper Peninsula, Michigan. Waking up late, rowing around without any destination in particular, and "build campfire" as the only planned activity for the day was nice. Sometimes, not fishing myself allows me to see clearly the things I cherish most in my life. Should've kept myself from eating so many s'mores...






The golden light of Autumn

Fall is the "Golden Time" for fishing. Warm cloudless afternoons that melt into cool nights. The last two weeks of September were spent visiting old haunts and soaking it in with new friends. Something about Fall just makes you slow down a bit and take in the sunshine before it disappears for the winter.
Late afternnon BBQ on the Colorado river...


Standing on the old bridge, drinking beer, and watching for a rise....

Colorado River Bow.....

With Danimal on the boardwalk...


Fishing the still afternoon pond..



"Boiling" at dusk.......


Deep in Eldorado canyon looking for Gold..


Found some....

Enjoying the evening from another view..

Wednesday

Catskills Flood

I haven't visited Catskills creeks recently as the entire region had been flooded due to all the rains we've had. Patty and I had a chance to witness the davastation this weekend as we visited our favorite Catskills creek.

This is a glimpse of what is going on in Catskills. The most of road we were on had some sort of damage which will require extensive effort to fix.






Luckily, our creek suffered but with minimum damage and seems like our little friends were able to survive the ordeal.