Yuba-Ku 12-26-2014

Along the edge, We,

searching, fish watch hidden.

Luna and I.

Wind, skittered surface,

Along soft edges, they gather.

Tiny gray sails.

High ride the riffle,

my Baetis dry drift, mend.

Moon over Pisces.

Follow the green,

you'll find chrome.

Laughing river flow.

Yuba Begin Again 12-1-2014

No dataclysm here,

Only in the raw.

Either your catching or not.

No magic rectangle held in your hand

can tell you the code.

Only an observant eye can have

a chance to crack it.

It is nature,

adjusting to its moment.

Only ego must observe and adjust

to become ever present in its flow.

Nature has no ego.

Openning day on the Yuba proved to be spectacular, the day was perfect. 30 fish to hand 10 of which were on BWO drys between 11am-2pm. The rest were on beads and red copper john's, a number of times two at a time. Todd and I both found and hooked twice the 28 inch stellie the biologist had reported being in the river, However our 3x tippets and 4wt split cane rods had no traction on her. In the late afternoon Todd and I hiked back upstream to the fiffle we located her in, but this time she was busy cutting her red. We just sat on shore and watched letting her be, just enjoying the sight of such a beutiful fish.

Farewell MF and some homebrew. 11-14-2014

Frosty moon apogee,

wanning like my feet.

The long hike,

to Spring Gap.

Returning, casting to rises,

The Pleiades guides us

above quaking leaves,

Maple and Ash.

fish,

colored like fall trees,

sipping baetis,

in the drift.

final day,

we retreate by lamp light.

until April my friend.

On sunday I started to make my first west coast style IPA, I started with a vague intuitive recipe, 7 1/2 lbs of lt.amber malt extract, and 1 lb of crystal malt and decided to burst hop with 2 onces of Fuggle and 2 onces of Citra at 15min and then 5 minutes at the end of the boil. After it cooled Todd and I transfered the wort to the primary and added the giga yeast. So far so good, I think i'll get another 1 once of citra and 2 onces of casscade for the dry hopping when i transfer it in a week or so...

Halloween, Upper Sac 10-31-2014

Into the flow
dogwood and maple turn and churn.
Even the moon quakes tonight.

Rumbling thunder behind me.
From my zen march I awake!
The engineer's horn.

Behind the veil,
Casting caddis adrift in current,
to no avail.

Between the corduroy,
rising to the caddis beat.
I cast.
Fish rise.
Cane bent.
Released in solitude's wholeness.

Fall Color, Headwaters of the Stani 2014

Harvest moon rise,
color in the trees quake.
The creek's hidden leopard strikes.

Camouflaged golden,
fallen leaves conceal, speckled salmonid.
Baetis spinner dance.

Through canyons
into valley
My guide, a hawk,
beckons me onward.

Skinny water,
fishy water,
where brown trout lie
waiting for opportunity,
like me, stealthily stalk.

Quadra-Ku 8-16-2014

Between the corduroy
fur and feathers float.
High elevation, head dizzy.

Four strips of cane,
sudden rise in the bucket,
full of authority,

him, hooked and run.
Me, rock hop, balanced,
from the Gap back.

Yuba-Ku 8-2-2014 Dawn Patrol

Walking cobbles twilight
dog days of Sirius spinner fall.
Pink Alberts dominate.

No waxing Grain moon.
Along rivers edge, cast, land,
on Dawn Patrol.