more brazen indifference than ninja tactics

bass fruit

The suburban camouflage of collared shirts, buttons and khaki could only conceal our position for so long, and the level of contempt in the HOA woman’s eyes could have drowned a rat. She didn’t give a shit about the fish, only that we weren’t one of them. Even her dog looked mad. But it’s fine, she was three hours late to the party and our buggers and streamers had already yanked a few specimens of forbidden fruit out of her chemically treated pond.

“Do you live here?”

“No, but I got permission from, uhhh, Sandy... Sandy Johnson? Maybe you know her?”

“The homeowner has to be with you if you are going to fish. You are trespassing. Please leave.”

Aaron the trespasser.

It’s okay, I’m no anarchist and I don’t generally get off on breaking the rules, but I will when I feel it's necessary for the keeping of sanity. She wasn’t telling us anything that we don’t already know but sometimes you just have to go catch some pond slobs to prove that there is more to fly fishing behavior in Tucson on a weekday afternoon than organizing gear, hanging out at the fly shop or sitting at the vise on the couch watching TV... even if I have to endure Miss I-walk-my-dog-around-the-lakes-every-day-to-drive-out-leaching-scum-like-you and her judging eyes.

It’s okay, she looked divorced.

Friday Deal: Carp Flies from The Carolina Bonefisher

Our own resident brown water fly fisher, Captain Paul Rose just did a major re-launch of his website, CarolinaBonefishing.com and in the process has unveiled an online store where you can pick up some of his favorite patterns for carp on the fly. Check it out. Prices range from $1.95 to $2.75 each.

While you are there be sure to read about our time on the water chasing carp with Captain Paul.

Blackwater

From location X New Jersey. I wouldn't call it urban but I have heard a siren or two while fishing here.




I caught this Chain Pickerel (or South Jersey Muskie as Capt. Gordon dubbed it) on the second pass. The first time he came three feet out of the water and missed my fly.

Good thing I remembered to put the Econo Lipper in the boat bag. (This is Pickerel #2)

Because these guys would chew your leg off if they could get hold of it.

Another another preview of things to come...

Enough never is, and if I die under a smothering pile of too much I will die a happy man. This weekend I will be back in CO covering the Carp Slam, doing my damnedest to bring you the real story--the dirty brown filth that will inevitably have to be foul-hooked and dragged backwards and upside-down till close enough to be beaten into submission.

I know a large fish will sooner break a man than be turned into a trophy, and with cash and prizes and fame on the line, I cannot imagine and am excited to be able to witness first hand the last acts of these soon-to-be desperate men.

May carp have mercy on your souls.

-Alex who knows that this weekend, in some form of another, asses will get kicked on the Platte.

This month's Things We Caught That Weren't Fish feature

Over here in the AZ we may not have The Underwear, but we do have our own something-something:

I'm not a hosieologist, but I believe Aaron's young Parker Canyon Lake Sock is of the anklea genus.

-Alex

Illinois Brownliner Sighting

This week finds me about an hour from the windy city, near Yorkville, Illinois working the finance gig. So as I am leaving our offices here I look to my right and spy an angler wearing a fishing vest fishing the retention pond. I didn't get to stop but I couldn't help but wonder who this angler might be. If you were fishing on Wheaton Ave Tuesday night give us a shout and tell us what they are biting.

Urban Fly Fishing: Atomic Style

I popped some potassium iodide pills and did a little Atomic Urban Fly Fishing this weekend. No catches but I did manage to sight cast to a good sized long nose gar and almost hooked a massive turtle. Any idea what color "lining" (ala brownlining) this would be? Radioactivelining?

Brownlining: Ever hear "fore" on your backcast?

FlyfishMagazine.com hereby officially advises bicycle helmets and Epinephrine syringes as additions to your fishing kit.

Letter to the Editor
An Open Letter to the Citizens of Mason and Visitors, from the Board of Directors, Ft. Mason Golf Association...

2) Citizens and visitors to the area are using the irrigation pond on the golf course for family recreation, including fishing. The water in the pond is not potable and could very well be dangerous to the health of anyone who consumes it or the fish that they may catch in it. Additionally, it is in the middle of an active golf course, so the danger from being struck by flying golf balls is very real. We encourage people to use the park for family recreation, and the Llano River, San Saba River, or Brady Lake for fishing.

To date no golfers have been injured

Alt View: Snakehead Eradication in Arkansas

Bryan Hendricks of the Northwest Arkansas News takes a tongue in cheek look at the recent eradication of a colony of invasive northern snakehead from the pro-snakehead point of view.

Those who knew them say the snakeheads were some of the most industrious, hardest-working fish they ever met. Some also say they were delicious, much more so than their distant cousins, the bowfins, which, coincidentally, endure their own indignities in the form of slurs such as "cypress trout" and the spiteful and demeaning "choupique."

It is true that leaders of the snakehead community expressed a desire to someday migrate into the White River watershed, where the full promise and potential of the American Dream awaited. That proved too much for the AGFC, which quickly deployed its armed forces to squash this exodus before it mobilized.

The rest of the article is certainly worth reading with our favorite qoute being:

Sadly, the snakehead seems to have gone the way of the ivorybill woodpecker, just as Brinkley was on the eve of launching a marketing campaign proclaiming itself "Snakehead Capital of the South."

Get the Potato Pancakes Ready

Photo Courtesy TNSturgeon.org

We just found a whole new "brownline" opportunity for our Tennessee Editor, Jay Moore, Cumberland River Lake Sturgeon.

Watchable Wildlife
Tuesday April 14, 2009

Lake sturgeon scheduled for release into cumberland river near downtown Nashville
NASHVILLE --- The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will have its second release of lake sturgeon in the Cumberland River which will be held Friday, April 17 at Shelby Park near downtown Nashville. The event is open to the public and is set to begin at 11 a.m. at the Shelby Bottoms Nature Center with a welcome, introductions, a brief history of lake sturgeon and comments from members of the organizations that are helping with the project. At 11:30, those in attendance will move to the Shelby Park Boat Ramp and the release will begin at 11:35 and is expected to take about 25 minutes to complete. The second major release follows the inaugural release of almost 1,100 lake sturgeon that were reintroduced to the Cumberland River in 2006 as part of a plan to duplicate the successful reintroduction of lake sturgeon into the upper Tennessee River near Knoxville.

Just be careful if you hook one. They are considered endangered and have some special guidelines:

Lake sturgeon are endangered in Tennessee and must be released. If you catch a lake sturgeon:
- Be as careful as possible not to harm the fish.
- Avoid holding lake sturgeon by their tails
- Remember that fish cannot breathe while they are out of the water.
- After release, please contact TWRA (your regional office or the Fish Management Division at 615-781-6575) to report your catch.

You will be asked to provide your name, address, and phone number and the following information about your catch:
-When and where you caught the lake sturgeon.
- The approximate length of the fish.
- What you were using for bait.

If you can take a picture without harming the fish, these are helpful also. In appreciation of your report, TWRA will issue a numbered Lake Sturgeon Certificate that features a color reproduction of a lake sturgeon drawn by renowned wildlife artist Joseph R. Tomelleri.
---TWRA---

Finding Nemo.... in your toilet.

In celebration of the birth of the Brownline Nation, Aaron and I went to a urban pond in search of roughfish. Aaron found this little guy, then we went to a bar where I got cheese-drunk on chili fries.

There are big grass carp and catfish in that lake, but I have been unsuccessful in hooking one so don't give me no lip if you see me spraying liquid ass on my nymphs in the future.

Breaking News: Brownliners Now Part of The Establishment

It had to happen sooner or later - some of our favorite "Brownliners" have been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. In our book that moves them square from the fringe right into the realm of "The Establishment."

Mr. Barton helped coin the name for his sport two summers ago. He recalls that a fly-fishing friend, Tom Chandler, called him to talk about "bluelining" -- scanning a wilderness map for the squiggly blue lines that represent remote streams and hiking into those valleys with a fly rod. Mr. Chandler had spent the day fishing in a cold, clear trout stream fed by Mount Shasta glaciers.

Mr. Barton had spent the same day casting his line into a slough littered with sofas, old cars and goat carcasses. "I told him what I'd just wiped off my shoes," recalls Mr. Barton. During that conversation, he says, the men first talked about the term to describe Mr. Barton's fishing.

Mr. Chandler began talking about brownlining on his blog, troutunderground.com. Mr. Barton soon started his own blog, Singlebarbed.com.

Congrats on the press guys. However, when we start seeing crowds of anglers with new boots standing around our favorite retention pond, our plan is to balme you. What is next, the International Brownline Fishing Association?

Also involved in the hotspotting: Fat Guy Fly Fishing , Michael Gracie, Tom Teasdale and John-Paul Lipton.