Don’t they look tasty? 

Click the link to find out.

photo from: chicagobreakingnews.com

I received the email below from Tom Buhr today. Tom is the president of a grass roots organization that focuses on the Au Sable river in MI. He is the man we all wish we could be when it comes to having the balls and energy to fight the good fights and get motivated on the conservation front. I’m sure he made Rusty Gates proud on many an occasion. His group, which we are big fans and supporters of, can be found here.

Here is the email:

Subject: Newsletter: Attorney General Mike Cox’s StopAsianCarp.com

Please let me know.
…
Department of Attorney General

Yes. Its a big deal. Check out the site. Sign the petition. Send a letter. Whatever it takes.

Why another boot review? Because I love these fucking boots and they deserve it. That’s why.

I’m fairly certain that I bought these last year and they were closeouts from 2007. If someone knows differently, I stand corrected. Patagonia is, as most of us know, expensive gear that is worth what you pay for it. Most every piece of gear I own that wears the Patagonia label has been purchased direct from their website via the “web specials” section or inherited. Whichever the case, I will always stand by the label. “Patagucci” or whatever, I believe in the product and I like what they stand for.

These boots were on the “web specials” page and I think I paid about $75 for them. The sticky soled versions were there too for a whopping $5 more but for whatever reason I went with felt. Do I regret that decision? Maybe. But certainly not by any fault of the boot. The basics are pretty simple. They are light as hell well they are dry so a long walk to your favorite spot is a piece of cake. On the flip side, they remain light as hell for the walk back even after they get wet. As for the walk, they’re pretty much like walking in hiking boots. Super comfy even after a mile or two. What about durability? Well, the felt has worn well and hasn’t started to de-lam yet and the rest of the boot looks about like they did when I bought them. (I wish I could remember when that was. As I write this I’m starting to think that they may be in to their second season.) And getting in and out of them is easy enough thanks to a wide opening. What more can I say? Overall, these are well designed boots and I will absolutely buy another pair when these wear out.

Clean up crew at MDOT launch. Mio, MI

This is a report from the “newbie” we took along with us for the  ASBWPA Clean Up. To be fair, this was not Scott’s first fly fishing trip so he really isn’t a true “newbie” but it was his first weekend on the Au Sable. We asked him to put together a little trip story for the Hatchless blog. He was kind enough to leave out some stuff that we may or may not remember happening. Friday night was kind of a blur. I’m blaming it on the scotch Scott brought. I am told that someone may have punched someone in the face. PBBFFFFTT, whatever, I’m sure the guy had it coming. (After all, he didn’t catch any fish on Friday, he was too busy wader shopping for the dumbass that left his waders at home.) I think some other demonstrations of stupidity also occured that night but like I said, blur…

Here’s Scott’s story.

Fly Fishing the Ausable
9/11/09
4:00pm. I’m sitting in my driveway, running through my head everything I packed and worrying about what important detail I missed. Other anxieties crop up as well. I’ve never really fished for trout before. Would I make a fool of myself on the water or what? Plus these guys, Mike, Greg, and Bill. We’ve tied a few flies, drank a few beers, and waded a stream once together, but what would they be like in close quarters?

4:10pm. Bill arrives and we load up. I know I’m missing something but I can’t think of what.

4:30pm. Loaded Mike and we are officially off!

5:30pm. Obligatory side trip to Cabelas where I purchased a 2 day Michigan license and tried not to drool over all the cool stuff.

6pm. Leave Cabellas (Almost- We had to return to buy waders for Greg)

10:30pm. Arrive at the Loop, a. primitive camp site on the Au Sable. Mike handed me a head lamp. Inside I was laughing at the need for light. I figured once my eyes adjusted I’d be okay. Wrong! The darkness greeted us and it was overwhelming. I noticed right away that looking at  the sky without any light polution lets you see the stars so clearly. After a  few minutes of marveling at that I set up my tent and unpacked the truck. Greg who had arrived ahead of us had a raging camp fire going. It was chilly so I went to the campfire and realized then that I had forgotten my chair.

9/12/09
7:00am. I haven’t slept a wink. My air matress had a hole in it and I ache from exhaustion. Opening the tent flap, I step into a still dawn morning airbrushed with fog. Dead silence. Dead still. It almost seems a shame to wake my friends, but after all, there is a river to clean and then fish to catch. I go from tent to tent trying to wake them up and it feels too much like my morning efforts to get my kids up for school.

8:10am. We park by the river and exit the truck. I see the river for the first time in the daylight. Walking toward the river I am reminded my love for water. I watch as the crystal clear water moves quickly under the blanket of fog. I ache to grab my 7 weight and start fishing and say the hell with the clean up. But I don’t let the allure of the water act as a siren call and take me away from the task at hand.

8:30am. Jazzed on coffee and donuts, handful of day glo orange bags in hand, and two pointy sticks safely stowed away, we begin our float. Lots of garbage to collect from what I hear.

1:30pm. We land at Comin’s Flats and Tom from ASWBPA greets us at the landing and says that the “Boys from Toledo” cleaned up on the raffle. We dump the trash and get fed courtesy of the ASWBPA. Turns out we won two gear bags, a fly rod, and a fly line. Cool return for our efforts. The “Big Waters Group” runs a great clean up. They greet you in the morning with coffee and donuts and send you off after the clean up with a belly full of burgers and dogs. Not a bad gig for a few hours of work and good fish Karma. After lunch we head to the drift boats and gear up. I prep my 7 weight and switch from a floating line to a sinking line. But I’m way too eager. While my friends continue their efforts to get ready, I wade in and fish.

2:00pm Let the drift begin! Now we’re fishing! As you might guess with the Hatchless crew it’s streamer fishing all the way. About fifteen minutes in I have the first hookup on a crystal minnow with an olive tail. I caught two more on an olive wooly bugger with a lot of crystal flash worked into it.

7:30pm. Tired, we anchor mid river and take a break, awaiting the dusk. These white bugs started drifting in and I saw a few rising trout. I couldn’t resist. I switched to my 5 weight with the floating line and tied on a white dry fly. I blew several strikes before finally landing one as the sun finally disappeared. When the sun was gone, we started the drift again. I kept working the dry fly in the dark, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how I would know if I got a strike because I could see nothing at all. Then BAM! A trout struck hard and had to be fought into the boat. After that we started mousing. This consisted of a big mouse fly being hurdled to the banks and retrieved slowly. Tricky when you can’t see in the dark. I had a trout slap at it once but that was it.

9:30pm. Our big sky moment, we dropped anchor and just enjoyed the night. The river, maybe 60 feet wide, had the banks covered in these huge towering trees. And above that a night filled with stars so bright you could practically read by them.

10:30pm. The drift over, we grabbed some food and supplies and headed back to camp.

9/13
7:30am. Up and at em! This morning we had to break camp. No fog today and noticeably warmer.

9:30am. Got my coffee and breakfast from McDonald’s while the trucks were moved around. These guys had been living off oatmeal and peanut butter for days! I don’t know how they do it, but I was grateful for something hot.

10:00am.  I only caught two today, though the others had a much more productive day. I lost a couple of flies to wear and tear and the brush in the water.

3pm. By the time we hit the landing I was ready to call it a day. I could tell I was getting tired because my casting rhythm kept turning to crap.

3:30pm. The boats are loaded and we head home.

8:30pm. Bill and I arrive at my house. As we are emptying my gear from his truck, I look up at the sky. I spot a few persistent stars but nothing like the night before. I point this out to Bill and say my goodbyes.
I am finishing off writing this article a week after we left. All I can think of is that big sky and going back. I have a nice weekend planned with the family, but it’s hard to compare to a weekend drifting the Ausable. The trip has forever changed me. I now know what fly fishing for trout is like. I now know I can hold my own out on the water. I also know that a weekend with Bill, Mike, Greg is a weekend of fun to be treasured. Thanks guys!

Here’s a few pics from the weekend.

Had a good turn out for boats this year. Here's 3 of the 7 from this year's event.

Sign in and get your raffle tickets!

Tom Buhr. ASBWPA President, 2009 Riverkeeper award winner, general bad ass of conservation.

A man and his trash poker.

We’ll be hitting the ASBWPA Clean up gig on Sept. 12th. Click the link for details and contacts on that one. The Trophy water gets a solid pounding from sloppy canoe folks all summer long and it needs your help! (Fisher folks too but its easier to blame the canoes for the obvious reasons)  ASBWPA makes it worth your while with prizes and a BBQ afterwards.

The upstream clean up is also well worth it for the same reasons. Rusty Gates from Gates Lodge and Anglers of the Au Sable has been running this one for many years. It covers three rivers, the Au Sable main, South, and North branches and is also followed up by a BBQ. Rusty gets a load of  folks up there. We’re hoping to see some of them make the jump and help us out downstream this year to level the field a bit but either way, the river will love you for it no matter which section you choose. Check the Anglers site for details on Rusty’s clean up.

Again, BOTH gigs are on Sept. 12th. Hope to see you there!

Photo courtesy of Fishbeer.com. Too many to choose from but Fat Tire in cans (its boat friendly!), acid reducer,  and a 10″ pepperoni log had to be it.

Thanks to “Little Timmy” for asking “which blog is for him”?. I say that knowing that his question could have been in jest which I will attempt to qualify later… or not.

I would also like to thank Alex from 40 Rivers for including us in his 20 blogs to read. I like Alex’s blog. Its kind of right in line with what/why we started Hatchless. He seems like a regular guy with a regular life that takes time to do the thing that he loves to do when he can and writes about it when he can. Fortunately he writes often and we get to share his experiences. I guess that makes him lucky but that’s what the whole blog thing is about isn’t it? Sort of…

There are a shit ton of fly fishing related blogs and a lot of them are a really good read. Some have become a way to advertise and you can travel the world of fly fishing through them if that’s what you’re after. If you want to find a hip guide you can probably find it through a blog. If you want to read a story about a lifestyle you wish you had, you can read it in a blog. If you’re looking for a quick story from an amateur writer that just wants to talk about a special time they had in a special place, you can probably find it through a blog. Its all there if you want to take the time to read it and the big bonus is that its free and the people that write them are human too and if you want to contact them, you probably can.

Where do you start? Looking for options, just go to Buster’s site and look at the side bar. Tons o’ blogs and stuff there. Or go to the infamous “Chum” and look at the links. Tons again. (Be sure to check back every friday on the Chum for the Friday Pin Up. Even though this week is sub-par, its usauly pretty good.) Most of the blogs you’ll find will link you to another one. The bottom line is that the shit is out there. You just gotta go find what’s right for you.

For me its a mood thing, If I”m feeling a little “fuck the man” I might read Buster.  If I need a quick fix I usually go to the Chum because you just never know what you’ll find. Could be some killer photos linked to a post there that I may not have found otherwise or art or a conservation topic or… etc. The Chum is all over the place. Call it what you want. I know that some of us here at Hatchlss have opinions on it but we still wear the stickers on our trucks and boats regardless. Midcurrent… its the CNN of fly fishing. What more can you say. They say it and its not a bad thing. Its just their thing and its what they do and they do it well.

So what about the rest of us? Already mentioned 40 Rivers. Enough said about Alex. Anything more might breach the line into ass kissing. What about Fish Beer? He is probably a whole hell of a lot better writer than I’ll ever be. Just read his latest post: “She looked absent mindedly at the concrete wall and exhaled cigarette smoke like a thick streaming liquid into continental August humidity and it slowly expanded to fill the truck’s cab despite the open windows.” Its probably a run-on sentence but who fucking cares? None of the other fly fishing blogs are writing stuff like that! What about Josh Greenberg from Gates Lodge? Granted, this week’s report is not up to snuff and it might not even be a “blog” but who cares? Josh is a good writer and I look forward to every one of his new reports. Again, its there. There are so many more. Just read the stuff and find your favorites.  When you do find something you love or hate, leave a comment. We appreciate it either way.

When we started Hatchless we had intentions of reaching out to the masses. We still have intentions of reaching out to the masses. If you had a good time with a fly rod in your hand and want to write about it but don’t have a place to do it, share it with us and we’ll probably post it. Its part of why we’re here.

I’ll keep the boat story short but remember I said it has been four long years. Most everyone I know has been tired of hearing about it for at least 3.5 of those years or less so I’ll try to keep it short. Basically, my mother-in-law married a guy (a fly fisher) about 5 years ago with a real knack for buying all the gear he could get his hands on and enough of it so that he would always have someone to fish with even if it meant loaning gear. Well, he passed away about 4 years ago and one of his f(r)iends was storing a few boats for him. That “storage” quickly turned into hiding them from their rightful owners/conversion after the funeral. The boat in the post below was one of the boats. There are two more. After four years of chasing this slippery douchebag I got that one back. Thanks to those of you that helped with that. We’ll see what happens with the others. They could require time in court and I don’t know if that’s worth it.

So anyway, on to the trip. It was a good time despite the fact that the fish were being dickheads. Two of us managed to get up there early enough on Friday to get a quick float in. Mio to Comins in about 3.5 hrs. I said quick didn’t I? Probably a good thing since my dumb ass fell in pretty early in the float. Thank you Mr. Down coat for keeping me warm!

Mental note, when the water is high and a little off color, its better to pee off the boat rather than hop off and go to shore.

Mike moved a bunch of fish that day but only one was of any size. The rest were the standard stockers that never fully committed to the fly.

It was a beautiful evening for a float and when we got off the water we were looking at this. Looks like a potential storm but its just a normal Northern MI sky in May.

I would have suggested we hang around at anchor just before the ramp and have a few more beers but my toes were feeling the 50 deg water temp and with air temps dipping in to the 40’s we shored up and headed to camp.

Shortly after we got to camp and got set up, the others arrived. We quickly lost one to the warm comfort of his tent and after several beers and some of Kentucky and Iowa’s finest we all hit the sack. We had big plans for the morning that were fortunately not coming until 9 a.m.

Huron Pines and ASBWPA sponsored stream banks restoration project at USFS 4841. This type of project was a first for me. I have been to numerous clean ups but never a project like this so I was looking forward to getting started as it seemed at first like it would consume a better part of the day. I was amazed at how fast we got it done. We split up into two groups and banged out two erosion walls including the demo of an old one in about two hours.

No, its not through his finger, just his glove but he did it twice so I thought I’d put two pics of it up.

Here is the completed project. Big thanks to all that were involved. I look forward to the next one!

We managed to get on the water by about 1 p.m. Put in at Mio again and had trucks spotted to Mckinley. Figured/hoped we’d get off the water after dark but with the help of a big breeze and the flow being up we made it to Mckinley before sunset. Thankfully the breeze let up in the afternoon. I was starting to get tired of fighting it and teaching someone to row in that shit just isn’t fair. We did actually land a few fish even if they were just stockers and most of which were caught near the stocking points. I think I got the only brown of the weekend. A whopping 8″ fish that ate a 4″ fly that he hit twice. I love it when that happens. Makes you realize that in most cases, going big on streamers is the right decision. The fly was a 2/0 olive version of the SHF. I’m pretty sure that fly should go in to a museum somewhere if it isn’t already. Thank you Mr. McCune. I’m pretty sure that someone put on his stripe for Saturday but I won’t mention who.

Check out this photo from the Seattle Weekly.

Its Toyota’s latest effort in being green. Its a new approach to an  in-stream habitat project I assume.

Yup. That is a Prius sitting in a river somewhere near Vail.  This is America’s new “Green Baby” car company. Again, you can read more about it here.

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fuckn haxxor