Out west some folks still fish with guns. I know I did as a lad. My brothers and I fished with spear guns, fondue forks, snagging hooks, and when given the opportunity, a 12-gauge pump. Zane Mirfin tried to get his father to appreciate the fly rod on the waters around Nelson, New Zealand, but as far as I know he still prefers the 12-gauge. It’s still sight fishing which counts for something. We’re mostly in the business of harvesting whitefish out of the Crystal, but I’m not above killing trout. I grew up eating trout because they were free and as far as meat was concerned that was more or less it. Last week Santini, Kevin Hurley, and I went up to Harvey Gap to fish for big pike. Kevin landed a 35-pounder, but he is dedicated. We tired of hucking big fur bugs on an eight-weight Redington fairly quickly, even though we boiled a couple of big fish and I started cranking a barracuda tube while Santini stood at the ready with the bug. After an hour of so of that, he switched to a giant Rapala, which produced a scrappy stocker rainbow. I haven’t kept a trout in this valley in a number of years, but the usual rules of engagement were quickly thrown aside. My 98 year-old step dad deserves a few more before he stuffs it. We caught several nice crappie, but Kevin being younger and without fish killing roots, kept intentionally losing them to keep them off the stringer. I like to eat crappie a lot. Anyway, late in the day a big orange midge came off which made for good dry fly fishing and we released most of them to help the pike and muskie. The great Santini and I went up to Dinkel Lake today and posted up at the inlet and smacked a number of nice fish on Tim Heng’s fly “The Splendor. ” We held the local population at bay as long as we could, then called it a day. There is nothing quite as good as springtime in the Rockies. P.S. SEND SWAG!

Live from the World Headquarters
Kea C. Hause esq.