Christmahaunakwanzaakah

'Tis the season, fella.

Once again, we got no excuse for not keepin' y'all up to date with the machinations of the Neil Creek Conglomerate, but you knew that. We're just lazy, and we pretty much forgot about this end of things all fall. The old blog was lettin' the Edust settle pretty hard, so we figured we would haul it out and dust it off for the holidays.

Fall brought about a couple of fun excursions into places that actually have fish around more than 6 months out of the year, so once we get around to seeing if any of the pretty pitchers we took while on out on vacation actually have anything worth seeing, we'll let you know.

In the meantime, here's one from the last good day on the home field.

In other news, we seem to have developed a fetish for old reels of the clickyclicky persuasion. Some of you may recall our stance on those to be rather brutish and uncouth, but we gotta admit that they are fun as hell, the main reason being that they are so damn annoying to a fellas fishin' partners.

We just adopted this one.

Sure, it might look like the previous owner used it to feed his dog from, but for the price of one wading boot, we'll take it. It has the 3 5/16" foot, which is a pain in the ass, but nothin' a fella can't take care of with a hacksaw and a little gumption.

Happy Christmahaunakwanzaakah, kids. We'll try to be around a little more after the holidays, but as usual we can't promise nothin' - after all, RoadTrip '12v5.1 commences in a little under 36 hours.

See you in Barbecueland.

Another year, another 365 days older.

In case you forgot, tomorrow is our birthday.

Send all gifts and cash donations to the Neil Creek Center for Anadromous Salmonid Research, c/o G_Smolt.

As for us, we're probably gonna be too busy to get our party on, and at any rate, gettin' our party on at this age means staying up late enough to see that Conan kid do his crazy talk show.

Another year closer...to what, we don't know.

But the trip is sure fun as hell.

Center, Left.

We would trot out the "We've been busy..." excuse to explain away a lack of communication on our part, but we've used it so many times that it's worn pretty thin.

We don't really have an excuse this time. Laziness, poor manners, procrastination...we covered them all, and we're pretty sure it is one of them, but which one we don't know.

At any rate, life is good. We have been spending a lot of time in the Center Left seat of a few aircraft and have been thoroughly enjoying the hell out of it.

Here's a few pics from the last 6 weeks. More to follow, whenever we get around to it next.

The Tongass 77

History is a beautiful thing.

Besides being an impartial record of time, it provides us a looking-glass with which to examine our actions within the context of present day consequences.

It's a damn shame that most folks don't ever use it.

Time to face the facts...west coast salmon stocks have been in serious decline for over a century now, and while poor management practices can be implicated in many run collapses, it would be hard to argue that irresponsible development and unsustainable industrial logging haven't played a big part in the decline of Pacific salmon.

Alaska has learned from history that commercial fish management must be done in real time, must be escapement-based, and has to be done with future fish stocks in mind, not short-term profits.

So why is it so damn hard to get decent habitat protection measures in place? What sense does it make to spend time and effort managing the ocean return when there isn't a conservation schedule set up for the riparian ecosystem?

This may be changing soon.

A small but growing coalition of folks (including the AK office of Trout Unlimited) is introducing an apparently radical idea - to preemptively conserve high-quality spawning an rearing habitat for trout and salmon in Southeast Alaska's Tongass National Forest.

Seeing as how we spend a good chunk of time all up in the flows of the Tongass, we're figuring this is a good idea. The Tongass might have a lot of trees, but the true standing crop is wild salmon and trout. The sooner the USDA figures that out, the better.

For more information, check out www.americansalmonforest.org. If you like what you see and can get behind such an effort, make sure to Sign On.

Fish need all the help they can get these days.

Nose, Meet Grindstone.

RoadTrips '12 v1, v1.1 have been over for about 10 days now, but the aftershocks are still settling. Besides the usual RoadTrip accoutrements of good times, good folks, and badly bruised livers, these two had the added excitement of snowbound airports, hurricane-force winds ripping coconut palms out of the ground, torrential rains, and crazy people.

Gotta love Cali. We're glad to be home in one un-tattoo'd, barely pierced piece.

Much fishy vibes to the SacTown posse, the Truckee Society for Recklessness, and the IBL League for yet another productive work trip occasionally marred by random acts of alcoholic revelry, usually interspersed with good food. We knew it was coming, we couldn't get out of the way, and we wouldn't want it to be any other way.

In other news, the 11th Annual Sushi Party has come and gone, and an epic (and far less crowded) time was had by all. If you didn't get invited and feel the need to be part of such an epic celebration of awesomenality, please write your invite request on a large-denomination bill (legibly, people) and send to the Neil Creek Estate for further consideration. BTW - don't call us, we'll call you.

Pics from the last few weeks.

                2/3 of the SacTown Posse, gettin' after some jerky.

                                                    Have a little snow.

        Still the coolest laptop in the Conservation / Preservation biz

                                              Before the Stampede

                                                            Rollin' 

Back to work, fisha...spring is right around the corner, but we got work to do if we're gonna get any enjoyment out of our time off.

2011 - in the RearView.

Another year, another 13,624 fish. A few more stamps in the ol' passport, a few more lines on our face, a few more gray hairs among the few remaining hairs on our head.

There were some pretty big changes in the way things roll around the Neil Creek Estate this year, and most of them were net-positive.

For starters, we are no longer trading our long-term joint health and general physical well-being for money anymore. On the upside, this whole "work with your brain" thingy is pretty nifty, and although the initial transition was a little bumpy, we are nestling into the role nicely, thank you. As for the downside, well...let's just say that there is more of us lately, and part of the new year's resolution is to dust off the old college weight-set and play a little more hockey than, oh, 3 games a year.

We celebrated our 10th anniversary with the wife this year, and are still secretly amazed that she has stuck around this long. Must be our amazingly awesome multiple personalities, or the copious amounts of cash that the Neil Creek Empire generates on a second-by-second basis...or maybe it's just that we remember to do the dishes every now and then and tell her that she smells nice.

We are also fully vested in what used to be a serious hobby - for richer (not) and for poorer, in sickness and in health, and for better and for worse...We are now full-time in the industry and we will try not to hate the briar patch too much, br'er Fox.

At any rate, 2011 is what it was, and if we can't change it, then at least we can remember the good and learn from the bad.

46 reasons that 2011 didn't suck.










The Cap'n, showing some deep respect for the cinematic flyfishing oeuvre








The Afro in Modern Fly Angling: A Triptych.




Got to make some TeeVee with this fella last fall.


Nice enough guy, but he needs to shoot the puck more.






It may be disrespectful, but if you spent hours dialing in a custom setup only to lose it on some sunken piece of detritus, you'd be pissed off too.


















The children at rest.






More food tourism.


















Go ahead. Fish for them.


















Just enough time to catch our breath...RoadTrip '12 v1 and v1.1 commence in 15 days.

Can't wait, Fisha.