The Greenbacks present Low & Clear

Break open your day planner that you keep in your Trapper Keeper. What are you doing on Thursday, November 29th? If you are Denver, I would strongly consider joining the Greenbacks for a night of visual revelry at The Oriental. Come watch the Colorado premiere of Low & Clear by Finback Films. Be entertained by an exlusive Hank Patterson short. Have the chance at winning some gear from Redington, Nomad nets, fishpond, Umpqua, and Filson.

Personally, I have been waiting to see Low & Clear since the 2011 F3T. I have only heard great things about it including Tim Romano's very high praise.

  LOW & CLEAR Official Trailer from Finback Films on Vimeo.
Doors open at 6pm. Tickets are $16.50 and can be purchased online. All the proceeds will go towards the conservation of native fish and their habitat. Do it.

Jungle Fish - A YGF Review

Jungle Fish from Costa Films takes place in the depths of Guyana’s rain forest. It stars Oliver White, Nathan Webber, and friend of YGF Matt Breuer as they attempt to prove that arapaima (the largest freshwater fish in the world) can be caught with a fly rod with the hopes that angling success will lead to a hopefully profitable sport fishing/eco-tourism industry in poverty stricken Guyana.



The 29 minute long film is engaging, entertaining and eventually very rewarding. It is more nature documentary than fish porn and it is a very refreshing change from the norm. No pulsing, high energy soundtrack. Instead, sounds of the rain forest, casting of the fly rods, rowing of boats, arapaima breaching the surface to breath, and ultimately explosive thrashing of extremely large fish. The full-on rain forest experience with a medley of species of fish (arawana, peacock bass, and piranha), river otter, and caiman.

The anglers stay at Rewa Lodge, an eco-tourism lodge in Guyana’s rainforest that employs an entire village. Arapaima, which are endangered, hadn’t previously been caught on the fly. The three anglers go through their fair share of failure prior to catching a beast or four. But, the payoff is huge. Arapaima are powerful, unique, air-breathing, brightly colored, 300 hundred plus pound monsters. The sequence of the first arapaima being landed on a doubled over 12 weight is worth the price of admission alone. Matt Breuer proudly boasted to me in person that he was the first to land one. All in all, the film is well-worth a half hour of your time and is a bargain at $14.95.

Costa Film’s Jungle Fish is available here and comes with the imaginary YGF seal of approval. It’s like being on Oprah’s Book Club...except more distinguished.

What Can Browns Do For You?

For those of you that aren't fans of YGF on facebook, the following may be news to you: (1) I caught a nice brown trout on the Big Hole and (2) I have left Montana and moved down to Colorado. The week before I left for Colorado I visited my favorite river in Montana for a farewell tour. The Big Hole treated me well. The streamer fishing was "lights out"(as some cool people say) and the big browns had their feed bags on (as other cool people say). I was lucky enough to catch a beautiful specimen of a brown trout which measured 24" in length and looked to be untouched.

Check out the video in HD. Enjoy.

Smoke blankets Missoula

For the better part of two months, Missoula has had a blanket of smoke from several fires west of the valley including Idaho's Mustang, Powell SBW, McGuire, and the Sheep wildlife complexes. Sometimes the blanket of smoke is more of a sheet. Other times, it is a down comforter. With the recent presence of the Sawtooth fire located down the Bitterroot valley, the end of last week was a smokey one in the Missoula valley.

I flew out of Missoula for the weekend and have been able to escape the smoke...albeit temporarily. I took some pictures with the GoPro on the flight out.

The Missoula valley - filled with smoke

Cruising altitude. Never made a transition between smoke and clouds. Almost positive this is a blanket of smoke.

Somewhere over Wyoming. Smoke still fills the valleys.

Somewhat clearer skies. The smoke is behind us at this point.

Old Habits Die Hard

There is a sect of fly fishers who love them some trucker hats. Emblazoned with fly fishing company's and fly shop's logos, you'll see mesh backed trucker hats on a seemingly growing population of fisher people. I am not a fan. In a moment of weakness, I tried to fit in a few years back and wore a navy and white trucker hat. I didn't like it. I hate the harshly curved bill, breathability, and lack of Phillies logo offered by the trucker hat. Sure, it works for other people. I am not one to judge other people's fly fishing fashion choices.

But, I have a fitted baseball hat problem. I can't get away from them. I love baseball. I love the Philadelphia Phillies. I love fitted Phillies hats. Most of all, I love lamp. For whatever life occasion presents itself, I wear fitted Philadelphia Phillies hats. While I was back home for a friend's wedding, I came across these pictures from my "uwe-ff." Old habits die hard.

  

Then

Now