Caddis Chronicles

If you've been following the news, you've been bombarded with tons of political manure and sports.......

The first idiot we need to address is Al Davis. The guy should pack it in and let someone else who lives in the 21st century run the team. The Raiders are a losing team now and will be as long as he runs them from his ivory throne. Not that you care, and not that I'm a Raiders fan, but when some one acts as disgracefully as he does it draws my attention. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Google the moron and see for yourself.

What does football have to do with this? I love football, always have. Fly fishing and bullshitting is what you do when you are too old to play football.

And how about Obama-lama-ding-dong and McCain. Do they really think they are going to save the world? I will tell you this: It really doesn't matter which one of them wins the election. Unless the winner can bring our selfish, egotistical members of congress together, things are not going to change. Everyone of them has to be right at any and all cost.

How about not being right and instead doing what's right? Now that's a concept, huh? A government by the people, for the people.

And what about the candidates? I guess I'm cynical, but in my mind, neither of them have yet to elucidate on how they intend to "change" things in this country. Oh, sure, Obama has ideas and can articulate what the problems are and where we need to go, but he has yet to give us a road map or an actual plan of how we are going to get there.

And McCain? He's about as articulate as a drunk on a binge after getting stopped by state troopers. Lots of experience, but still lost in his past.

Yup, I'm still undecided. Like you care? I'm just a fisherman, what do I know? I know that I am like most Americans that are worried that my children will inherit a world that is very different than the one I came into after a college. I know, our parents were born into a world vastly different than ours, too, but then the contrast was a different shade of gray. Now it's more like black and white....................

And now I think its time to talk fishing.

The rivers are cool and clear. A little low, but not so much they aren't ripe for a well presented fly. Today there were some little blue-winged olives on the water. Tiny ones, the size of a freckle on an Irishman's nose. A few trout sipped them, but most drifted unmolested before taking to flight. With the shortened days, I wasn't on the water soon enough to fish, but I managed a good day dream while watching the water.........I even landed a few in the depths of my mind.

That's the great thing about fly fishing; you can fish in your mind, casting as smooth as the best day on the water. The trout rising silently to take your fly. You lift your rod, tighten the line, and then imagine the life on the end of the line as it reacts to the tension of your grip. Is it a brightly colored rainbow with pink flanks, or a buttery colored brown digging for the depths? Or maybe a wild brookie with pale blue halos highlighting randomly placed red spots on a background of deep olive? In your mind, it can be whatever you want it to be. And when you land it, you quickly take a picture in your mind before releasing it back into its watery world. You smile, just like you do when astream.

Life is good. Thank goodness I can fish in my head when the water is not at my feet.