Speaking of Tradition...

Happy Christmakaunakwanzaakah, folks...We're pretty sure that we forgot to wish y'all a happy festivus season in 2008, so this is the make-up year for that.

As with most pre-packaged and rampantly consumerized holidays, we're already WAY over this one for the year. We're looking forward to a little us-time with the Wife, who has a similarly (but not equally, thank gjod...someone has to be nice to the dinner guests) Grinch-esque take on the seasonal goings-on this year. We have a small bash planned with some of the peeps, and our pre-, mid-, and post-holiday peregrinations should get us in front of and around most of the fine folks we call friends.

On other traditional notes, the itineraries for RoadTrip '11 v1.0, v1.1, and v2.0 are now in place. With this show cycle encompassing pretty much the entire (and now vastly diminished, dammit) endemic range of the Eastern Pacific Steelhead, we are squeezing in little, tiny windows of opportunity here and there along our hectic schedule. 6 hours here, a day there, mebbe a midnight drive somewhere along the line...Business before pleasure, but as long as the job gets done and all bases are covered, the home office lets us get away with a half-day of release every now and then.

With the RoadTrip season comes the usual and clandestine hatching of plans and making of calls. This year, these include random emails back and forth from the home office, a little bit of seat-of-the-pants flyin' when it comes to arrangements that (by now) should be solid, what to do if 300lbs of wild Bristol Bay sockeye filets arrive a few days early, figuring out the run timing of the myriad rivers along this years trail...and, of course, some time in the Tying Wing of the Neil Creek Museum for the Piscatorial Arts.



Speaking of other traditions...is it just us, or should the Intruder be considered a "traditional pattern" now?



They sure are fun to tie, and just in case you have been living under a rock since the '90's, they have been known to entice the odd fish every now and then.



RoadTrip '11 v1.0 commences in 26 days, folks. Between now and then, we gotta get a squirrel roundup organized, drink a gallon or so of 'nog, make some resolutions, and keep fillin' the flybox...Happy Christmahaunakwanzaakah to all, and to all a good night.