The Hope of a New Bird Dog...

A good friend recently said to me, "There's nothing better than the hope of a new bird dog"

A more true statement there isnt.

The puppy breath and teeth, grabbing ahold of everything and anything in it's wake

The crazy enthusiasm of first retrieves and smelling a pheasant wing for the first time

All new, all exciting, all holding hope for the future of great times afield

I feel like a new father again, complete with the 2am bathroom breaks and eventual playtime at 5am.

Annie will be my children's first experience with puppyhood.  Their first chance to see a puppy grow into a member of the family and accompaniment in the field.

The hope for the future is overflowing.  How exciting it all is.

Steelhead Time Capsules

Every once and a while, you can really strike gold on the interwebz.

For pennies, I was delivered a treasure trove of angling history, with 6 issues of the massive Wild Steelhead and Atlantic Salmon Journal.

Historic names and dignitaries of the sport.  Anadromous fish before social media. 

There's so much to relearn from magazines 25 years old.  Such a short time ago but lifetimes different in the way things are today with respect to tackle, lines, gear and the like...

The most interesting thing, the conflict of scarcity is the same then as it is now.  We're fighting the same battles decades later.

You'd think we'd learn our lesson...

Crustaceans On Ice...

Shrimp. 

What turns out to be a major food source in the ocean for steelhead is so much fun to tie.

Stemming from the General Practitioner and others, the variations on the prawn are a blast to create on the vice.

Hopefully I'll see flies like this one stuck in the corner of a sea liced hen or colored up buck who forgot it that they weren't in the ocean anymore and shrimp dont live in rivers.

Photo credit--Corbin Brands