Adam Yauch known as MCA one of the founding members of the band The Beastie Boys died today at the age of 47.

From the time my son was born we listened to Beastie Boys together.  At 3 I would drive him to his 2-days-a-week daycare.   He would demand that the Beastie Boys were played the entire trip.  I was required to  follow a play list he had decided on in his head not just put on any random album or song.  His favorite song was Sabotage.   Things escalated and I saw not  harm turning  him onto some of the B-Boys music videos.  After watching Sabotage we watched many of the others vid.(Intergalactic another favorite of his).

One innocent day he accompanied my wife to Starbucks.  With their drinks they proceed outside (mocha for my wife chocolate milk for Little Blair) and sat down on the edge of a square flower bed as it was a nice day.  Little Blair drinks his milk and climbs up into the flower bed.  My wife consumed with reading the local paper notices Little Blair out of the corner of her eye.  What she sees is a 3 1/2 year old boy jumping up and down stomping on every single plant and flower in the bed.

Of course my wife is horrified.  She stops the carnage then proceeds to ask Little Blair what was he thinking with that behavior?  He innocently looks up at her and said, “I was just pretending to be a Beastie Boy!”

Thanks for getting me in trouble Adam!

Its open but you got to find fishable water

The California Department of fish game marks every year the last Saturday in April as the “opener of general trout season”.   Non-tailwater trout rivers of the sierras and foothills open to fishing should not be confused with conditions are condusive to fishing. Like most things in nature you can’t just put a day on the calendar and declare it so.  It is like the first day of summer being around the end of June every year. Things in nature gradually take place on their own schedule far removed from a human calendar.  Summer begins slowly and by all means has usually arrived by late June. Slowly pants are replaced by shorts.  My flip flop tan turns from a burn to a legitimate discoloration of my feet.  Heavy beers and brown water are replaced with light beer and lime juice and tequila.  Oh and I stop wearing shirts around the house cause it is dam hot. So goes the beginning of trout season.

Opening day means a few things in my world none of which are drive to a trout river…here is how my opening day goes.

I start by studying the flows on various rivers I fish or guide on; The North Fork of the Yuba River, North Fork of the Feather River, Deer Creek, Upper Sacramento River, and various other creeks. Checking flows means I get an idea of how long it is going to be before these rivers/creeks will drop to what I consider fish-able level.  Fishable levels are acheived when chucking lead, with heavy stoneflies or pulling streamers an angler can expect to maybe catch a fish or two.  In my experience this usually occurs 2-5 weeks after the “official” trout opening is declared.

I'm up to date on shad flies now

It also means I need to get my shad rods ready and a fresh batch of shad flies tied.  My boat is inspected to make  sure everything is working as shad season is about 3 weeks away. Also part of the ritual is to make sure to tie a good batch of clousers for the stripers, make sure my 9wtsare set up properly with lead core line.

Expect run off to be in full effect on the Lower Yuba.  By keeping your eye on the levels you can sneak in some days when the snow melt slows down and the river comes into shape for a day or two before it resumes.  When in shape stoneflies, san juan worms and big attractors are consistent producers for me.  These windows of fishing remind me that just around the corner it will be PMD, PED, Golden Stones, and Caddis time.

The Opener also signals a farewell. The Lower Feather River is a big part of our guiding here in Nor Cal.  Fall is long gone, winter is done and the spring run of steelhead is thinning out. For me this signals after 8 months I can pull my bead box out of the boad and drive through Oroville without stopping

Trout opener is a signal that my raft needs to be pulled out of storage and set up.  uhhhh!

Lower Sac trout fishing tends to slow a bit as the March/April caddis hatches slow and the PMD hatches start to get going strong. The fish in various stretches are spawning or in post spawn and fishing can get kind of funky at this time. That said the Lower Sac is still a pretty consistent trout fishery even with its up and downs.

Is that beer or coffee?

If I do get all the above mentioned work done in a timely fashion my reward is to head to a local bass pond, lake, or river.  Lets be real bass fishing is going OFF at the end of April!  Bottom line…the trout opener is all about getting ready for the fishing that has not quite arrived.

New Product Report – who has not drank out of a plastic red cup…(if you are reading this out loud in a group, Look around then make fun of the guy that raised his hand as he had no friends in college or just moved out of his moms basement). If you have ever been in a college town or attended a party with a keg,  plastic cups make a lot of trash…lots and lots of trash. Now my boys at Klean Kanteen in an effort to abolish single use plastic products and clean up the front yards of Chico.  They have invented the Stainless Steel Pint. They are sold in single or 4 packs with cool rubber handles and carabiner  for stop loss protection. They are great to replace the red cup for mixing margaritas in (my preferred use), coffee around the house, or just having an iced drink. Personally I am pushing for a beer pong kit. We’ll see.

New Music – I personally have not bought any new CDS but I did burn a copy of the new Jack White solo album and that thing rocks!!! A real diverse album with amazing great classic guitar sounds and grooves. I did buy the documentary video “Talihina Sky: the story of Kings of Leon”. Good documentary and really interesting story about the band and the weird southern bible baptist world they came from. That said I am a sucker for any music documentary.

Booze News – So I have officially made the transition to fall/winter drink into late spring/summer drink. Finished my last bottle of scotch and it was not replaced with scotch. I bought a handle of Jose Quervo instead for margaritas. Now everyone has their own margarita recipe or concocktion. Personally I have tried many…and when I say many I mean anyone I can get my hands on…I like margaritas. Loving scotch and margaritas is perfect, there is no off season. I finally settled on one last summer that I feel is the tops. I can’t take any credit for it as I picked it up from fellow guide and over all cool mellow dude Gino Bernero whom I use to guide with at Clearwater lodge…I still guide there, Gino does not.  Any tequila will work but instead of margarita mix you use Newmans lime juice…I add a shot of triple sec and a splash of orange juice, obviously shake vigorously over ice, and it is amazing!!!! I also bought my first 12 pack of Bud Light Lime, loving known to the chico crew and BLL’s. These go down way to easy on a hot afternoon and I am convinced have little to no alcohol in them as I can drink them hand over fist and not even get a buzz. Perfect summer beer.

hogan brown
www.hgbflyfishing.com
www.hgbflyfishing.blogspot.com

Owning a fly company I chose to spend most of my time on the river with people not affiliated with the fly fishing industry.  I can unwind and not be concerned about what kind of impression I am making with my casting, rowing, water choice etc…  Dependable fishing buddies are hard to come by and would just like to appreciate a couple of mine.

The Jeweler (he’s a jeweler):  As you can see comes prepared with Wonder Bread sandwich holder, girl scout cookies, beers and Gatorade (don’t forget about hydration, its a killer in the winter).  That right there tells you this dude does not need any extra attention on the river.  One of the most resourceful guys I know he has taught me a thing or two.

The Artist (was an artist now a developer) Another consistent river companion of mine is the Artist.  Attention to detail and ability to enjoy the moment is how I would describe the artist.  Notice the cutting board brought along specifically for the salami.  Most would be lucky to remember the knife.  It’s not all about fishing  and catching for the Artist.  If it is a sunny beautiful day and the fishing  is slow he has been known to reach into is bag pull out a book, stretch out in a comfortable position and read until he falls asleep.  I don’t know if you can find a fishing partner that appreciates the day on the river and is less focused on  fishing results.

Took Little Blair on his first turkey hunt.  No turkeys were harmed due to a mistake made by dad.  We ate an early dinner and were out for the evening roosting.  Got to the spot I wanted to check out.  A turkey gobbled as I opened my door. It was close!  We gear up as fast as possible when working with a 5 year old.  I make a hen call and he gobbles right back.  He is still just as close and is hot.  The proper move would have to sit down next to the pine tree we were leaning on.  Call once more and wait for him to come in and kill him.

Why would I do that.   I wanted/needed to get over a little hump to a better place to set up.  Busted!  Over that little hump was a bad choice. (This was the 3rd time I made the mistake of trying to get past this particular hump to get a better set up.  All previous attempts were failures.)  I felt terrible and immediately apologized to Little Blair saying,  “Sorry buddy that was completely my fault.  I knew better than to try to get over that hump and closer to the bird but didn’t listen to my gut” (and ignored my two previous lessons)

Little Blair looks up at me and says, “It wasn’t all your fault.  I knew you were making a mistake trying to get too close and I forgot to tell you to stop.”

Trip Made

Old school camo