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Love & Water

Enter Contest Below

Supported by Patagonia, 10 Barrel Brewing and Yakima

Win a Patagonia Stormfront Pack – $149 Value – Enter Below

To celebrate the release of “Love and Water,” Patagonia has teamed up with The FlyFish Journal to give away Stormfront Roll Top 45L pack.

A classic roll-top dry bag with just enough space to haul your gear in any environment. A 100% waterproof, nonsubmersible pack with low-profile shoulder harness that’s supercomfortable no matter what you’re packing.

All you need to do is sign up below to enter.

*Extra Entry – Share and like the Facebook post*

*2x Extra Entry – Share, Tag 2 friends and like the Facebook post*

Rules and Regulations:

-Presented by The Flyfish Journal, PO Box 2806, Bellingham, WA, 98227.
-Contest entry signs you up for The Flyfish Journal email Newsletter and, The Ski Journal, The Snowboarder’s Journal email Newsletter if you ski or snowboard.
-Odds are determined by the number of entries.
-Prize includes one Patagonia Stormfront 45L Pack – $149 Value.
-One entry per person.
-No purchase necessary.
-Winner will be announced December 21, 2018.
-Prize is non transferable.


A birthright will forever shape us. Our origins from a wee seedling to blooming souls as humans have so much to do with where we awaken each day. What if I had been born in New York City instead of here in my cherished Texas, without these mesmerizing waters and sugar sweet winds of the south? Who would I be? I can’t imagine─nor would I ever want to. Sense of place has found me ever desirous for endless days running wild at home.

above Nathaniel Riverhorse Nakadate at his window on a stormy morning, daydreaming about bass, water and the roads to get to them. Photo: Copi Vojta

Oh, Lone Star terra firma, such an incomparable and beautiful gift you are. You know every part of me, as you’ve seen this soul from bewildered and buckled-at-the knees, to unbridled on-top-of-the-world joyous. Sometimes I think every beat of this heart is driven by your marsh tides. What have I learned from you in this southern life, with your old-growth pine and oak forested lakes, spring-fed emerald canyon rivers, your hundreds of miles of empty coastal marshes with wild fish flowing from your hips into these hands? You’ve shown me that love is all that matters in this ride, and it is the sole reason we are here. 

ABOVE left to right An early morning alone on one of Riverhorse’s favorite bass lakes. If you’re nice, he might show you. Photo: Liam Gallagher

Standing tall on the porch of his pad, a 100-year-old bungalow in the heart of Houston. Photo: Liam Gallagher

Riverhorse hoists another largemouth bass, one of many that were kind enough to eat a topwater frog in the low light of a shaded cove. Photo: Liam Gallagher

AWOL with the skiff on the back roads of coastal Texas. This is Riverhorse. Ask him where his push pole is, I dare you. Photo: Liam Gallagher

ABOVE Riverhorse and his trusty Kingfisher cruise the calm morning of an east Texas bass pond. Photo: Copi Vojta


ABOVE clockwise from top left
(click to enlarge) 
A small redfish from the Rockport, TX, marsh peeks above the water prior to release. While we didn’t find a lot of them, the ones we did were special. Photo: Copi Vojta

The forecast for the following day was grim; as it was our last, we hustled out for one last session during the tough afternoon light looking for tailing fish and pushes of water with Captain Jarid Malone. Photo: Copi Vojta

A Texas largemouth douses the boat with a splash, quite welcome and refreshing during muggy afternoons. Photo: Copi Vojta

Riverhorse in his happy seat: falling light, a lake full of bass, a flyrod at his side and a paddle in his hand, hard to top during a hot Texas afternoon. Photo: Copi Vojta

ABOVE In an empty cove of an east Texas bass lake, Riverhorse is en route to sticking a watermelon-sized bass. Photo: Liam Gallagher

Looking up at the stars from a canoe as I pen a few bedtime words in this weathered journal, I get a sense of awe and wonder at the miracle of it all. There is a small fire going on the sandbar with a kettle of water for coffee; some pork chops drizzled with olive oil and rosemary, wrapped in foil, cooking in the embers and almost ready for the supper plate; and, of course, two slices of peach pie still in the cooler. No matter what happens on the path from here, I know everything will be just fine, and then some.

Is there any chance you and I will share a few more decades together, Texas? I am forever all in.

ABOVE LEFT TO RIGHT One day graced us with a misty morning, and bass hungry for frogs swimming erratically near the lily pads. 

A live bait buffet of colorful aquatics somewhere on the Texas coast; we’d brought flies, but the artwork and friendly folks kindly welcomed us. Photo: Liam Gallagher

That proud and revered lone star flag, a common sight on the back roads and highways of Texas.  Photo: Liam Gallagher

We discovered surreal lakes around each corner, full of hungry largemouth and not-so-friendly steers. Photo: Liam Gallagher

above Riverhorse shoulders one of his most cherished possessions, and looks out over the bassy morning fog of an east Texas lake, prime time for topwater largemouth. Photo: Copi Vojta


ABOVE clockwise from top LEFT
(click to enlarge) 
Mom and pop barbecue shacks are everywhere in Texas. Pick one, say hello and get ready to fill your belly. Photo: Copi Vojta

Nearing downtown Houston, TX, was quite the environmental contrast from the nearby coastal marshes and bass lakes where we spent most of our time, largely devoid of people and concrete. Photo: Copi Vojta

Our last day in Rockport, TX, was a blow out. Stormy skies and a constant 20-mph wind kept us off of the water, but not far from it. We headed to a park near the beach and set up our chill shop. Photo: Copi Vojta

A cool pause during a hot afternoon session often meant beers in the shade, waiting for the sunlight to turn to shadows on the water, and for the evening bite to turn on. Photo: Copi Vojta

above A pelicans-eye view of Riverhorse running wild in the endless mangrove fingers of the Texan marsh. Photo: Liam Gallagher

 

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