The Trout Also Rises

"A blog upon my estutcheon" A weblog about fishing, hunting, hiking, cycling, books, beer, and other random musings. Any humor contained in this site is entirely unintentional and has not been tested on animals. e mail aaaaargh at msndotcom

Name:
Location: California

A hunter and fisherman, fascinated with books and history.

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Success

Sorry this post is late, but the much-anticipated fishing trip to the San Joaquin River near Mammoth over the weekend of July 17-18 was a qualified success.

Our party had a great time camping, hiking, and fishing. Except for a minor collision with a tree, my friend Mike was a happy camper. The river is no longer stocked with trout, due to California's budget problems, so all the fishing was for wild fish. The trip was a qualified success because it took us a day or two to figure out how to catch the native trout. These are mostly brown trout, with a smattering of rainbows and golden trout hybrids. The Sierra Bright Dot fly seemed to work best. I'll be tying up some of these for an upcoming backpacking trip out of the Sabrina Lake trailhead near Bishop.

The Troutson was very happy to hook a number of fish on a fly, and his casting improved considerably over the weekend.

The fuel of choice for this trip was Amstel Light, a low carbohydrate beer which actually has loads of flavor. Aaaaargh!! It be a fine beer, that.

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

One hopes its not true

News reports about the future of the historic Scottish infantry regiments are disturbing. It seems Britain's Labor government may scrap some or all of them.

I've always tried to see the regimental pipe bands as they visit southern California. Over the years I've had the pleasure of hearing the Black Watch, the Cameron Highlanders, the Highlanders, the KOSB, and the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards pipe bands. Pipe Majors, pipers, drummers, and Colonels have all been friendly and have humored my fascination with their units. It would be a shame to let such obvious warlike skills, tradition, and history disappear.

Perhaps Britain could adapt Canada's reserve system to preserve these historic units.

Get your apple a day

Whilst tying flies for the upcoming trout expedition to the San Joaquin River, I've been drinking Blackthorn cider. This dry cider from Taunton, England seems to be a tradition in the Bristol area. I rate it a solid 90 out of 100.