Oasis

The National Arboretum in Washington D.C., an oasis within the city for plants, trees, and BIG fish.

Happy Birthday Kelley!

May you catch a fish today Darlin'. (ya little punkin.....)

Top Ten Things Kelley excels at....
1. making me bust my buttons
2. embracing the bull
3. drawing ridiculous pictures quickly that frighten you
4. reversing in the fog at darktime
5. hating on Juno
6. getting Zen Piscator to look less silly salsa dancing
7. causing Grayson to think twice about his nasty habits (maybe)
8. not saying "Suck It"
9. getting Pedro to dress up as Prince for birthdays
10. having only the coolest celebrities at her party, i.e. JT, Elvis impersonators, The Petting Zoo's handsome hunk, Candygrams, steelhead, and the Twilight cast.

Christmas Steel

Rogue Angel Kim, first steelie, originally uploaded by k8 www.rogueangels.net.

Rogue Angel Kim grabs a sweet steelhead and some holiday cheer.
photo courtesy of Kim

Happy Holidays!

christmas 2009, originally uploaded by k8 www.rogueangels.net.

"Fishing Like a Girl"

"...If girls really looked at fly fishing the same way that guys do, I wouldn’t be fly fishing." -Emily Neily writes. Her article in Blood Knot magazine reminds us that there are no 'easy victories' in fly fishing. Read the whole article HERE
and be sure to check out Rogue Angel Morgan's article The Competitive Tablescaper, guaranteed to make you laugh at the hilarity of her first day guiding many seasons ago. I never even heard of tablescapers, much less competitions. Nice work Morgan, thanks for the morning laughs!

The Salmon Meat Market

The first, best, and last smoked salmon I have ever eaten originates from that charred outhouse looking structure standing in the backyard of Stam's farm in rural Washington state.
So with almost forty pounds of wild Alaskan sockeye salmon that The Crumpster and I brought home from Alaska (please don't buy farmed salmon ) we set out to spend a day smoking fish with our comrade, Stam. Here is the photo essay:

A crock of salmon in brine, night before smoking day

Placing the Brined Salmon on the racks to smoke, early morning of

Placing the racks inside the smokehouse, that's Stam's gray head

Smoking All Day! Stam chainsawed up a bunch of alder wood.

Filling in the Gaps between checking the smoking fish with some elk hunting. Stam bearing rifle, The Crumpster hiking in Crocs.

Cooling Down the Salmon, nighttime

Vacumn Packing Up the Smoked Salmon, next morning. Stams hands.

The pile of smoked salmon!