Four years. I can hardly believe it! The same length of time between the Olympics, Presidential elections, leap years. Four years is the amount of time I spent in college. (Before you pat me on the back for getting out on time, I will confess I entered Carolina with 30 hours, technically a sophomore, and barely squeaked out my diploma in four years. Go Heels and God Bless Chapel Hill.)

During the four years of this blog we have talked trout, bonefish, bass, redfish and tarpon. I have made innumerable friends, both in person and virtually although I feel the same about both. I’ve managed to embarrass family every so often with some outlandish blogpost titles (anyone remember the raccoon penis story?) I started dating the Professor, met a publisher, raced in the Texas Water Safari, got married, wrote a book, published a book.

Oh, and Little Chick started middle school.

I’d like to thank each and every one of your for tuning in through the years, it sounds trite, but I literally wouldn’t be doing all this without your feedback, emails, comments. Hey, I’d even like to thank the Russians who are madly comment spamming me right now.

Years ago someone I knew who plays in a blues band once said to me, “You know the worst fate for a band is when they turn into a cover band for their own music.”

I knew precisely what he meant, but nevertheless, I am about to do just that. To celebrate four years, I thought we could take a look at some old posts that make me smile. Not a greatest hits album, just a mini flashback…

Lone Star Trout — my very first post about trout fishing in TX

Momma Told Me There’d Be Days Like This – bonefishing Bahamas with video montage

Is That A Bonefish In Your Pocket or Are You Just Happy To See Me – quick post from the Bahamas. The Professor and I had barely started dating and he found the title a tad inappropriate. Hee hee.

Candy, Don’t Take it From a Stranger – This just makes me laugh out loud. The posts we dream up in the off season when there is zero fishing…

Beef or Pork? – generated one of the most vivacious discussions on FFC. Was fun coordinating with the Flytalk blog over from Field and Stream

River Bank Robbers – video montage of my favorite fishing spot in the world, the Missouri River in MT

Lache pas la Patate – my ridiculously difficult quest for a Louisiana redfish

Brown Is The New Black – a look at the gorgeous brown trout we racked up in MT and ID last summer

THANK YOU ALL again and again for letting me talk fishing, food, music, and wandering off course for the past four years. More to come…XXOO

Yall know that the Professor is an avid angler, but what you may not know is that he is also a passionate duck hunter. When we married,  I inherited a vast collection of winged wall art. Which is fine, I have no problem with mounted ducks on the wall.

That is, until I need the space for some bonefish.

You see Professor and I are fans of an artist in Idaho, Smitty, who is a trout fishing guide on the Henry’s Fork. We’ve browsed the website and his collections at Mike Lawson’s flyshop as well as the Henry’s Fork Lodge. We’ve seen his art hanging everywhere from the Trouthunter restaurant in Idaho, to a motel in the Keys. So we’ve been keeping an eye out for the past couple of years, hoping to claim a piece of Smitty’s work for our own.

In a delicious windfall, my parents gave us a hand-me-down Smitty over the holidays…

It was a real estate issue plain and simple, we needed the duck spot for the bonesfish. As the mounts came down the Professor sighed, “It’s the end of an era.”

Luckily he is in love with our new piece of art and agrees wholeheartedly it is at home in the ducks’ former space.

Well, I went for the first time today and loved it. Inherently my taste buds lean French but I did some homework on Vietnamese fare and have to say I am a big fan of the noodle soups, called Pho, and baguette sandwiches, Banh Mi.

My Vietnamese-themed day has me wondering: Can you fly fish in Vietnam?

I am not sure I have the answer for you, but in my perfunctory sweep of Google I found a kickass, new-to-me fly fishing blog called Lo Fi Fly. Would you believe their most recent post titled THE LAND OF DONGS brings up this very same question: where/how to fly fish in Vietnam?!

The writer is en route to Vietnam as we speak for work, but is prepared to peel away and find some fly fishing opportunities. He couldn’t find much info on the web, so I pushed on for the both of us.

I found a website called Executive Adventures that claims to have the only fly fishing operation in the country, including a real “Scottish Highland Fisherman” who, presumably, is the guide. I have the visual of a washed up, ruddy-skinned, red-nosed expat Scot sucking on a bottle of Scotch, serving stale shortbread for guide lunches and peeing from the driftboat right from under his ratty old kilt. But who knows, he could be great.

Before all you Americans of Scottish-descent start sending me hate mail and angry comments, just save it. I got Scot in me. My people have a tartan, I can poke fun.

Anyway, I’m not precisely sure what we’re fishing for in Vietnam, but I read something about jungle perch and snakeheads and a stocked pond. I don’t even know if we’re talking saltwater or fresh but they do say their rigs are 9-12 weights. So could be big fish, which piques my interest. And I love the diversity of the patterns they use, according to the website:

The Mazy Frog of Japan:

The Sea Sprite of Australia:

or…The “Traditional” from Scotland:

Hell, it’s like the UN of fly boxes. I would love a float on a Montana river where I could catch trout on all three of these patterns in one given day.

My keen detective skills (aka sheer panic that SOPA is going to kill the Internet and these are my final days to browse aimlessly) urged me a step further and I searched youtube for “fly fishing Vietnam”. This is the best I could come up with:

While I realize this doesn’t have the high-testosterone action we’re all used to from FFFT clips, I really love this little video for a number of reasons. First of all, it smacks of striper fishing in the Northeast which makes the Globe feel like a cozy intimate neighborhood we’re all sharing. Plus I can’t get over the Lillith-fair, last night of camp sorta tune, which I like — but is a head scratcher. And (spoiler alert) I REALLY love that I patiently watched all three and a half minutes of this guy casting and finally got to see his smile at the very end for that teeny fish. Hey, I’ve been there buddy.

Suffice to say, I am no more an expert on Vietnamese fly fishing than I was when this day began, but I did have some pretty good food at Elizabeth Street Cafe.

My friend Elizabeth (no relation to the restaurant) and I split the house specialty Banh Mi which has Chicken Liver Mousse, Pork Pâté, and Roasted Pork:

And the Pho with Flank Steak:

So will I plan a fly fishing trip to Vietnam any time soon? Probably not, I’m holding out hope for a bonefish in 2012. But will I venture over to Elizabeth St Cafe again? Pho sho, suckas! Loved it. I am dying to try their breakfast menu.

Until my next post…Tam Biet!

(Just go ahead and Google it before SOPA and PIPA kill the web.)

GRTU (Guadalupe River Trout Unlimited) is madly planning for 2012 Troutfest, a fly-fishing exposition that will be held on the Guadalupe River this February 24-26. Troutfest supports coldwater conservation and promotes flyfishing for Texas anglers and families.

This year we are hosting a writing contest for kids and all the prizes are GRAND! All your kids have to do is write an essay about a great day of fishing. Details…

Participants:
All boys and girls from the state of Texas who have an interest in fishing and the outdoors. Entrants will compete in one of three ages classes:
Age 6-9
Age 10-13
Age 14-17

Writing Topic: A Great Day On The Water
Tell us a story about a memorable day that you’ve had on a Texas lake, river, pond—or even the coast. Tell us about a fish that you caught, or the one that got away. Tell us why this day was special. Was it the company: your dad, mom, sibling, or friends? Or maybe the weather was especially nice and you had a great nature sighting?
Minimum length: 200 words
Maximum length: 800 words

Please submit entrants by email to mail@departurepublishing.com

Judging:
Each entrant will be read by a panel of judges who will select three finalists from each age group. The winners (1st, 2nd, 3rd place in each age group) will be announced on Friday evening February 24, 2012 at the GRTU Troutfest banquet in New Braunfels, Texas.
Please note: correct grammar and punctuation will be considered, but the finalists will be selected primarily on the quality of the story. This contest is for the kids, and we hope to read their story in their own voice.

Prizes:
Prizes will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners in each age class.
1st Prize: Fly Fishing Starter Kit from Temple Fork Outfitters
• Bug Launcher fly rod (5/6 weight)
• NXT 1 fly reel
• Floating fly line and leader
• Ready to fish!
2nd Prize: Beginner’s Fly Tying Kit
• Hackle
• Hooks
• Materials
• Tools
• Instructions
3rd Prize: $50 Gift Certificate

Schedule and Deadlines:
Deadline for entries: February 5, 2012
Finalists announced: February 15, 2012
Winners announced: February 24, 2012

Please spread the word with families and kids who might be interested. As you might imagine, this contest is close to my heart. I love to fish, I love to fish with my daughter, and I love to write. Let’s not forget it was a writing contest in the 4th grade in 1980 that kickstarted my lifelong goal to become a writer!

So who knows where this could go for the next generation of young writers and flyfishers? Let’s give them a shot!

So get those pencils on the paper and show us what you’ve got.

Salt deficiency? Oh yeah, I’ve got it, got it real bad. You see, I have absolutely zero saltwater trips on the calendar.

I realize how good I had it with those annual spring bonefishing trips to the Bahamas. And even when that didn’t pan out last year, I managed to wheedle in two days of bonefishing on my girls trip to Belize.

But I don’t have anything on the books, not even redfishing, and it’s leaving me feeling woozy and unsettled. My electrolytes are out of balance. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of Hyponatremia include fatigue, irritability, restlessness and confusion.

Check, check, check and check. I have them all. I fear no amount of Gatorade can fix what ails me. I need some time on the salt! Get me to a flat stat.

We’ve had a lot of laughs at the company I’ve been keeping in the press:

Well the event on Friday was a smashing success – Thank You Fairhope for coming out to support Paddlefish! Some of my nearest & dearest chick-friends stormed the scene about midway through and adorned me in all sorts of Texas regalia, then commandeered the sign from Condi’s signing the day before:

You know, just in case a wild mob of FFC fans decided to bumrush the signing table all at once. One can’t be too careful, especially since my chief muscle/security (The Professor) opted out of the bookstore gig to go redfishing in the MS marsh — with my heartfelt permission of course. So the sign really was most helpful. I think the part of the sign that had us totally reeling in laughter after NO HANDSHAKES was the fine print, BUT YOU CAN BLOW A KISS.

I think that just about sums it all up. Pucker up friends, I’ll blow you one back!

XO

We fished the Big Hole with our friend Eric, co-owner of Sunrise Flyshop in Melrose. I’ve said it before, Eric is seriously one of the hardest working guides on the planet.

The air temp was 17 when we woke up that morning and the water temp was hovering somewhere around 33 degrees when we started our day. Fish were sluggish so we had to go BIG to get their attention. As in big, big streamers.

We caught a number of browns early but the real fun started when the sun came out after lunch and the fish came to life. We had a blast! All of the fish were in the 15-19” range but we each caught several and had some super fun chases toward the end of the float. Nothing cooler than watching these trout hot on the trail of these massive streamers.

Did I mention we were throwing BIG streamers? I threw one fly all day long. Eric had tied it as a prototype so it was the only one in existence. Which was touch and go each of the two dozen or so times I caught it on rocks and in trees and on bushes. I was hung up a lot. But hey, I was trying to get tight to the bank to get these troutcicle fish interested!

 A massive articulated streamers with two giant hooks is simply going to get caught a few thousand times…or so. Right? (Yikes. Sorry for the extra backrowing, Eric.) Luckily we were catching enough fish to mask any potential frustration over my multiple snags.

I cast that colossal fly so many times over the course of seven hours that it actually started to hurt. I swear I think I developed tendonitis in my right arm. The Professor has recently suffered serious tendonitis in both elbows, resulting in two cortisone shots, so he wasn’t particularly sympathetic and maintains I was just “a little sore”. But I am telling you, I was one cast away from a steroid shot myself. Pitiful that just last summer I paddled 260-miles in 73 hours and was AOK, yet somehow I contracted a “sports” injury after a guided day of streamer fishing.

But it was damn worth it.

We celebrated a great day on the water and the official close of the Sunrise Flyshop season (we were the last clients for Sunrise in 2011) with Eric and his business partner Ryan. We watched Game 7 and TCU-BYU at the Melrose Bar and warmed up with homemade onion rings and other bar fare.

Ryan, Eric (of Sunrise Flyshop) and myself. Have I mentioned we are big fans of these guys? Not only have they become good friends of ours, the Professor and I are both keen to tell anyone and everyone about their operation in Melrose. If you need a guide in SW Montana, run don’t walk.

The Professor’s philly cheese steak and onion rings.

The next day we were planning to fish the Jefferson but some juicy intel advised us it wasn’t worth it right now. Which was probably for the best given I was suffering with my inflamed streameritis elbow. I wasn’t up for chucking another 5-pound fly and rowing all day – this time in gusting wind. So instead we opted for something new, a roadtrip over to Willow Creek.

That’s right. After a killer day on the Big Hole with big streamers and big fish, we decided to go dainty on their ass. We wade fished the Willow Creek spring creeks. Smaller water, smaller flies, smaller fish.

I think this little guy was actually smaller than the streamer I’d been throwing the day before. That said, he was lots of fun to catch. I had a few other bumps on the teeny nymph and one good take on an ant, even though the fished missed it. The Professor switched to an ant pattern and outfished me with this beast:

The spring creeks provided nice lite fishing and the scenery on this last-minute audible daytrip was to die for.

One of the many outtakes of my experimentation with the self timer.

After our breezy angling afternoon on the creeks, we sought out the Willow Creek Cafe and Saloon which we heard serves up the best ribs in Montana.

The barkeep was kind enough to switch the TV over to the Carolina-Wake Forest game for me. Go Heels.

In keeping with that juicy Tarheel victory, the North Carolina style mustard-base sauce on these ribs won us over as well.

Another fabulous October Montana trip punctuated by this big sky view for the ride home last evening. Replete with a little picturesque sliver of a moon…

Adios Montana. Catch you on the flipside…in 2012.

Ancillary perks included dreamy weather, a delightfully mellow scene which was mandatory since Little Chick is recovering from a concussion (she’s going to be fine but had quite a scare that started our Friday in the ER), learning about all sorts of books from fascinating authors, and getting up close and personal with the gorgeous Texas Capitol building.

We hustled into our seats just in time to hear Lisa Fain start her presentation. Lisa is a food blogger and I have been following her stories since I started blogging myself in 2007. A transplanted Texan living in NYC (I’ve been there, sister! Having my mom ship boxes of canned Ro-Tel to me in Boston) and she blogs about the unique Texas recipes she grew up on. Which are apparently the same ones I grew up on! Now she has published a cook book with the same name as her super successful blog, The Homesick Texan.

She took every picture in the book herself and the stories that introduce the recipes offer the same comfort and kick that her food does. I knew I loved this bird years ago when she explained on her blog in bold detail how to prepare REAL Texas nachos. Each one individually, not in a junkyard pile with dripping toppings seeping off the edges like an elementary school paper mache volcano project. (My words, not hers.) I’ve been her loyal follower ever since.

I was delighted to see she put the nachos, as well as our mutually firm nacho-stance, in the book.

Little Chick had to get back into bed to convalesce so I spent the afternoon with my nose in this cookbook, nostalgic for the Texas classics I’ve loved since I was a kid. I tore myself away only because we had one more goal for the book festival.

Alamo Drafthouse showed one of my all time fav flicks Smokey and the Bandit on the big screen and hosted stuntman, director, now-author Hal Needham who directed ‘Smokey’. At 80, let me just say Hal Needham is about one of the most charming men on the planet. I mean, he is coooool.

Of course, not quite as cool as the Bandit. Yowie. Hubba hubba.

After the movie, the Professor waited in line to purchase a signed copy of Hal Needham’s new book ‘Stuntman’. Mr. Needham was gracious and funny and we are now big time Hal Needham fans.

And because I know you are probably now humming along to the Smokey and the Bandit theme song (which we sang out loud in the theater at the end of the movie) I thought I would share one of the all-time greatest Jackie Gleason scenes of all time. Enjoy….

I’m headed to Montana on Wednesday for a little fall fishing so in the words of the Bandit….I’ll catch you on the flipside.

The more reserved woman politely made conversation, “The Florabama…is that where you lost your voice?”

The Shaky Vestry Member replied, “No it’s where I lost my shirt.”

Apparently she spent much of the evening dancing on tables and stripping in the street.

I would like to personally thank these ladies for keeping me thoroughly entertained during my six hour airport delay.

 You see, unfortunately a couple of weeks ago, the motor was stolen off our boat. It’s been the cause of endless ire and frustration, especially since they no longer make these two stroke motors. The Professor has been living on Ebay and Craigslist trying to find a replacement (not to mention looking for someone trying to sell his stolen motor.)

So with a bittersweet sense of ceremony we launched the boat with the new-to-us motor and launched a new era for our little v-john flats boat.

Fishing was tough, we only saw a few fish and they were quite skittish. But the weather was sublime and it felt great to be out on the water.

Besides, take out “A” for Angling and Launch quickly turns to Lunch –which we found just down the road from the boat launch.

So if you happen to come across a two stroke Yamaha motor anywhere on the I-10 corridor along the Gulf Coast, give us a shout. We’re still hot to find our hot motor. But the good news is we have plenty to keep us busy and grateful. A great day on the water. Killer hotdogs. And the launch of Paddlefish, which made for a wildly entertaining week last week.

Thanks to each and everyone of you who have already purchased the book! I can’t tell you how much I am enjoying your feedback. If you haven’t had a chance to buy it yet, don’t be shy…I am happy to take your order and ship your copy!

I hope Monday morning is treating everyone well and launching you into a good week.

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”-Henry David Thoreau