Notre Dame Bass Fishes Better Than You Too...

I'm gonna let you all in on a little secret. Just across the state line from Michigan in South Bend, Indiana lies not only the finest university in all of the land, Notre Dame. But also there lies a myriad of fly fishing options that are so commonly overlooked it's criminal. I've already opined on the great fall smallmouth action on the St Joseph river here. Today I am going to let you in on a little 140 acre secret called Cranberry Lake. This is a place, where according to Josh Lantz (one of the two guides on the lake, along with Jay Anglin), "You can reasonably catch 20 to 50 bass a day," he insisted. "And some will weigh up to eight pounds." 

Normally, that type of bass fishing is reserved for lakes in Texas, Florida or even Mexico. But Northern Indiana is home to one of these prized lakes. Being a private lake, it sees little pressure and pretty much all methods work here. Lucky for us fly dudes/dudettes, Jay and Josh are both fly fishing guides that target them specifically with poppers, streamers and crayfish patterns. 

Next time you are in South Bend for a game or in Chicago for business, look up Jay or Josh for a day of unreal bass fishing. You can reach them at:www.thecranberrylake.com

oh yeah.... GO IRISH!

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Another Win For The Good Guys

Notch another mark on the belt for the good guys. Rusty Gates started this fight with the Oil & Gas industry regarding drilling under the Au Sable River in Michigan, but passed away before he could see it come to an end. I'm sure Rusty is smiling down on us today. Here is is the press release from the USFS. 

"The U.S.D.A. Forest Service and the U.S.D.I. Bureau of Land Management have terminated the environmental evaluation of an Application for Permit to Drill (APD) a natural gas well in southeast Crawford County, near the South Branch of the Au Sable River.

            Savoy Energy L.P., of Traverse City sent a letter on September 6, 2012 to the Bureau of Land Management indicating that the company is no longer interested in pursuing the APD.

            The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management began work on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed project in 2009.

            Once completed, the EIS would have guided the decision on whether to allow Savoy Energy to drill a natural gas well within the Huron-Manistee National Forests to access minerals leased from the federal government and the State of Michigan."

Bottom Photo Compliments to Beattie Outdoor Productions. 

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Missed Opportunities

These are some of the shots of the trip I had planned on going on for 10 months only to have my life-blood ripped from me by the corporate vampires in the final moments. 

I weep now... deep in Ohio...

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The Devil Must Have Erectile Disfunction...

Well... that was quick. The Boulder FlyCasters have canceled the event with Keystone. Here was their apology on MoldyChum.

"Just an update to all of you who have commented on this post. Boulder Flycasters has decided to cancel the event.

And to clear up one misconception seen in a number of these comments, Colorado TU was never part of this event.

Thank you for your opinions and participation. The dialogue is probably as important as the subject. (Well, ok, maybe not, but just roll with it.)"

Heartfelt and sincere...

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Sleeping With The Devil

So I was astonished when I recently read that the Boulder Fly Casters chapter of TU was hosting Todd Bryan of the Keystone Center later this month as a featured speaker. I first read this on MoldyChum, and for the sake of being "balanced", here is a link to response of the President of the BFC chapter to those at MoldyChum regarding their reasoning for hosting a Pro Pebble Mine Speaker.

That being said, I don't believe that this is an issue about "listening to all sides". We know the facts about this fight. We aren't going to learn anything more about the facts of this atrocity by listing to the rhetoric of a Pro Pebble Mine speaker at a TU sponsored event. If anything, they could even use this as more evidence of positive public view of the project. On BFC's own announcement (linked above) they refer to Todd Bryan as a "facilitator and mediator".... what a crock of shit. Todd is a nothing but a rhetoric spewing spin-meister for the Keystone Group, who I may add... IS A PRO PEBBLE MINE GROUP.

I have been a proud member of TU for over a decade. If my local chapter of TU held this, I would leave them and never give them another cent. They can twist this any way they want to, but there is zero reason to have a Pro Pebble Mine speaker at any TU meeting.

This is a battle friends. This is the most important issue facing the fly fishing community and one that will have massive impacts to the crown jewel of our sport. I have no interest in sharing tea with the enemy. I encourage those of you that may be due paying members of this chapter to tell your President to immediately cancel this event. Those of you that are TU members that are outraged like me, please send your thoughts to: boulderflycasters@gmail.com.

"THIS AGGRESSION WILL NOT STAND, MAN"

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Making Lemonade

So this past week has been brutal... ok, it wasn't that bad, but it started brutal. I spent the week prior at a lakeside cottage to celebrate my wife's 30th birthday. It was most excellent... until I lost my wallet doing a cannonball off of the pontoon boat.

I proceeded to drive back to Colorado from Michigan without my wallet knowing that I would spend the next morning at the two worst places to go to in a hurry, the DMV and the Airport. See, I needed a license to get my rental car once I landed in Indianapolis for my business trip. So I proceeded to wake up the next morning and somehow manage to get a new license and still make a 10am flight out of DIA.

I originally planned on bringing my gear and fishing over the weekend, but alas... I didn't have time to check luggage. So I took my laptop and a carry on full of work clothes. I was degected to say the least. The week was quite an uneventful stay of meeting clients and spending my nights drinking whiskey/diets in my hotel room. But this is fall, and more importantly, the first week of college football!

So on Friday afternoon I white-knuckle drove up to South Bend, Indiana to watch a 9am kickoff of Notre Dame vs Navy in Dublin, Ireland with my brother and sisters. It was a great Saturday morning that started with coffee/bailey's and went well into the night until the campfire dimmed and my fingers hurt from playing tunes on my brother's daughter's guitar. I already felt like things were as good as could be after how the week started. To top it off, I found an old 4wt sitting at my mom's house in Niles, Michigan (about 15 minutes from South Bend) and went down the local fishing store to find some flies. The old dude working had no idea what I was talking about, but he was a swell fella and he offered me a cup of coffee. We talked briefly about local politics, the grape harvest and finally flies. He said that he had a small box of flies, but didn't know much about fly fishing. His store was focused more on the glitter-boat and bait dunker crowd. I took a look and you could tell that they were a ragged pile of poorly tied flies. I grabbed a few of the foam beetles and something that resembled a Royal Wulff and headed down to my hometown creek to salvage what I believed to be a "non-fishing weekend". The trout were willing and I caught a few small browns before heading back to Indy. I didn't have my camera, so I snapped the pick above before I left of the creek with my phone.

Overall, a great Notre Dame victory and a wonderful morning of browns sipping dries... I think I salvaged this one nicely...

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