Through a bit of luck and timing, I got my first COVID-19 vaccine shot (Moderna) yesterday (January 23rd). It only took a drive of 20 miles to Lakewood to get to the facility, but it was a quick and easy trip. On Friday, a family friend informed us that CHI…

When the news has been grim, as it has been for the last year, humor is desperately needed. And thanks to Bernie Sanders, some of that humor has been found. Bernie’s wore mittens, and his only warm jacket, at Biden’s inauguration, and this has become a thing – specifically, a…

I have long admired 1% for the Planet. Founded by Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia) and Craig Matthews (Blue Ribbon Flies) in 2002, its goal was to help protect the planet by giving 1% of each of their annual sales – whether or not profitable – tp the work of environmental protection…

For a civil society to exist, there has to be agreement on some facts. There can be no democracy without a civil society. So here are a number of facts. Joe Biden was elected as President on November 3rd, 2020 – there was no steal. Without the government and other…

Robert Traver, whose real name was John D. Voelker, was a lawyer, author, and fly fisherman from Upper Michigan. He is best known for the novel, Anatomy of a Murder, that was turned into a critically praised and popularly successful movie that starred Jimmy Stewart – it is considered one…

For some people, tying flies has become an end in itself. They spend hours year-round, developing and tying new flies – some without actually fishing them. As I’ve related in the past, the best fly tyers are artists, tying flies of incredible beauty and complexity. I’m more of an ad…

Every year I pick a book to read that I put off earlier in life due to length or that I had considered otherwise intimidating. Last year I read War and Peace. The previous year I started  Les Misérables – interrupted by my 2019 medical adventure; I’ll have to come back…

Fly casting is a good deal like golfing.  Well, at least in the sense of the importance of the strokes (single unbroken movement) each sport uses.  And for each, anyone observing the fly caster or golfer judges their competence by the way they make those strokes. For fly casting, there…

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is one of the most feared of diseases that affect North American wildlife; in particular, the species most at risk are caribou, deer, elk, and moose. It is a prion disease that is similar to Mad Cow disease in cows and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.  And…

One of the most iconic of Northwest fish is the steelhead.  While commonly thought of as a salmon, the fish is actually an anadromous rainbow trout that is prized for its beauty and tenacity. For fishers, both fly and gear, it is the fish of dreams. I’ve known people who…