If anyone has peed in the wind more than Prince Mostapha Zaher this week, it will surely have drowned them:
“Afghanistan will become again the tourist destination for Central Asia, for Americans, Europeans, for people of all the world. You can hold me to that. In five years. You can grab me by the tie and hold me to it.”
Midcurrent weighs up this breathtaking optimism from a flyfishing viewpoint and let me say that should His Highness ultimately be vindicated, I shall, for once, be happy to eat humble pie.
I was going to run a jokey Taliban photo with this post but then I saw the picture of Lake Band-e-Amir. Click on it to see the Afghan Grand Canyon in all its glory.
I cannot share the Prince’s confidence. I do, however, see where his hope springs from.
[photo courtesy of Carl Montgomery]
Raina Kelley is one devious piece of work. Having hit upon the brainwave of wowing her soulmate with Orvis gear for Father’s Day in order to earn some serious concessions on the domestic admin front in return, she then brazenly revealed her plan to the nation in advance, via her Newsweek column – A Hustler’s Guide to Father’s Day (”I’ll just tell him I wrote about shoes and he’ll never read it”)…
“I don’t need him to be around at 6 in the morning, when the trout are jumping and my son is sleeping…What I need from that rod and reel is for Cory to feel guilty about all the fishing. So, on a Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., when Gabriel is acting like a drunken old man, crying and laughing at the same time, waving his bottle crookedly and banging his head on the pillow, Cory will feel compelled to step in and I can read a magazine. The guilt from one morning of fishing should also allow me at least a facial and a few minutes on Facebook after work, maybe even the occasional mani-pedi“
I don’t know about you but I’m shocked at such cold calculation in the mother of a young child.
But at least everyone bar Raina’s other half is now forewarned. If there’s a Hardy Marksman propped up against your side of the bed one morning next June, you know you’re designated driver on Junior’s social circuit for the next six months. At least.
Following on from Tuesday’s post, it seems X-Box users at least will have a measure of additional credibility, care of The Strike fishing pole accessory, which I can also see proving rather popular among totalitarian regime riot police.
Am I really that much of a loony Leftie to be slightly uncomfortable about this?
“A mining company was given the go-ahead by the Supreme Court on Monday to dump waste from an Alaskan gold mine into a nearby 23-acre lake, although the material will kill all of the lake’s fish“
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, whose name may ring a bell, hailed the decision as “a green light for responsible resource development”. What a Sarah Palin ’scorched earth’ policy would look like, I shudder to think.
For those against the decision, however, there is at least a new battlefront on which to pitch their tents.
“The court ruling “confirms that this thoroughly studied permit and plan is the best environmental choice” for disposal of the mine’s waste, said Tony Ebersole, the company’s director of corporate communications. Company lawyers said in court arguments that after mining activities are halted the lake will be restocked.
“The lake will be as good or better as a fishery than it is today,” Ebersole said”
A promise for which Mr Ebersole and his boardroom colleagues should be hounded to the ends of the Earth until they have delivered on it to the letter.
And I won’t pretend I’m holding my breath.
Good to see Great Wild Outdoors isn’t too proud to get all excited about Wii’s Hooked! Real Motion Fishing.
Video game simulation is an easy target for the innate sniffiness of some anglers but if you’ve thirty minutes to kill and a gift for suspending belief, they can be great fun. Looking at some videos of the game in action, I was struck by one critic complaining at the lack of realism in a game that takes you from casting to a fish-eye-view of your lure being retrieved, in the blink of any eye.
Hell, if I could make just one alteration to real fishing generally, the option of watching a follow and take from underwater at the flick of a switch would be precisely it. Do any of these detractors ever stop to think how unappealing an actual reality fishing game might be? Rain running down your neck, numb from the waist downwards and standing in a river for three hours while precisely nothing happens. As Trout Underground might put it, see you at the refund desk.
And if it’s Wii bastardising your sport that worries you, take heart: you could be a boxing fan. Keep your eye on the guy in the white shirt, about 55 seconds in. If you’d told me I’d live to see the day when the Sweet Science went ‘camp’, I’d never have believed you…
From Gray’s Sporting Journal – here’s just a taster:
“Why, sure then, little feller,” Rusty said, his voice dripping with poisoned honey. “Since you promised, there’s some diesel fuel in the yellow jug back there in our boat. Splash a bunch of that on the wood and light it with this.” He tossed the Weasel his lighter.
“I get to light the fire! I get to light the fire!” the Weasel yelled to everyone, and they all gathered around to watch.
“Hey!” Rusty screamed. “Not that jug! Don’t—!”
WHOOOOSH!
The explosion of boat gas sent them all to the ground as a column of flame leaped 60 feet. There was a chilling silence.
“Cool!” they screamed as they ran up to us with singed hair, no eyebrows, and no eyelashes. “Can we do it again? Can we?”
[pic courtesy of aquanada jewelry]
I bow to no man in my admiration for the work of John Gierach, so when someone sticks his neck out to suggest that ‘if you like Gierach, you’ll like this’, I take notice.
Sadly, I can only find the Amazon review page for Don Knaus’ Of Woods and Wild Things but there’s an extract available for Joe Parry’s Of a Predatory Heart.
You decide…
* Win £3,000 of tackle
* Save £100 on Cortland cassette reel, lines and backing
* Hywel Morgan DVD special offer
* Catching wild browns in hot weather
* Moffitt ‘hookless fly’ fishing system examined
* Teams of flies and casting without tangles
* Tactics for reservoir dries
* The greatest fluorocarbon knots
* Target carp with sinking flies
* Troutmasters Final report
* Fisheries visited – Arnfield, Derbyshire; Geddes, Nairn
Any problems getting a hold of the magazine in your neck of the woods, please let me know (no tongue-in-cheek emails from Idaho, thank you very much)
For a minute, I assumed Blow to African weed was about a drugs bust.
Instead, it’s a pleasing tale of how Ireland has successfully tackled an unwelcome floral visitor to one of its iconic western loughs, Lough Corrib.
News- Does angling damage fish stocks? - guardian.co.uk
- Fraser on fishing: Women endure Lein times but emerge with credit - Edinburgh Evening News
- TROUT FISHING: By Simon Green - Rugby Today
- Anglers overcome industrial past - BBC News
- Angling round-up: Difficult fishing in reservoirs - This is Wiltshire.co.uk
- Twitter Taunts
- TauntedbyWaters: Watching: HD large format fishing video theatre - good job 'Hatches' and 'Canadian Fly Fisher' ( http://bit.ly/q4XMq )
- TauntedbyWaters: Reading: "Gear Review: Fly Fishing Hip Chest Packs - MidCurrent" ( http://bit.ly/eDAXy )
- TauntedbyWaters: Reading: "Biologists help rare fish flee New Mexico fire" ( http://bit.ly/2FDD6I )
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“Best fishing book ever…”
We all have one. I'm taking names...
Ninety-two in the Shade, by Thomas McGuane. "the finest fishing novel ever written, with the possible exception of Moby-Dick" - Paul Quarrington, Toronto Globe & Mail
The Joys of Trout, by Arnold Gingrich. "What a great book to read." - Pastor Caster, FlyAnglers.org
The Habit of Rivers: Reflections on Trout Streams and Fly Fishing, by Ted Leeson. "I find myself coming back to...'Habit of Rivers' quite a bit...Extremely well written book." - sculpin1, Fly Fisherman forum
Curtis Creek Manifesto, by Sheridan Anderson. "...hands-down the best book I’ve found to learn about the basics of fishing." - Kim Jackson, Albany Democrat-Herald
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About Me
Taunted By Waters is what Trout Fisherman features editor Jeffrey Prest gets up to between salary negotiations.
Much as he'd like the credit for this play on the famous last words in A River Runs Through It, the real hero is Hannah Nordhaus, who coined the phrase in an article on her first try at flyfishing, for Rocky Mountain News. This blog is dedicated to her. The good bits, anyway.
E-mail Jeff at: jeffrey DOT prest AT bauermedia DOT co DOT uk [no spaces]
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