The Last Frontier

Yep, escaping Florida's heat for a week or so and headed to the "Land of the Midnight Sun" with the family. If you're reading this on Wednesday, we're likely on a flight somewhere over the US headed to Seattle (with a side trip to Mount Rainier), before we hop on the cruise ship to Alaska.

Photo: AlaskaTrain.com

Now, I don't love cruise vacations as much as K.C. & Lilly do, but I'll do this one as a first timer to AK... do all the touristy stuff... likely not fish at all... in the interest of spending quality time with the family (and let's not lie, get the lay of the land for future visits, rod in hand).

I'm going to try and crank out a few blog posts here and there, but if by chance you want to see random photos, I'll probably be hitting up Instagram often - @troutrageous1

Pretty psyched, I've been watching Alaska videos on Vimeo all night. This was one of my favorites, but definitely not for the "fish porn":

Wanderlust - Anywhere But Jacksonville

Back to the work week...

Got that wanderlust feeling again. Guess that's usually what happens when you get back from one little getaway, you're already looking forward to the next one! Plus, it's pretty much been raining in the greater Jacksonville area non-stop for the last week. The grass sure looks green, but cabin fever is pretty fierce!

Luckily, I do have two "escapes" planned for the summer. They might even involve a little fishing, we'll see...

Middle of June the whole extended family (on my wife's side) is descending on the Outer Banks. There is going to be like two beach houses full of "in-laws" from all up and down the east coast. I've never been there, so I don't know what to expect. But from the number of "OBX" oval stickers stuck to the back window of people's SUVs, I'd guess a pretty tourist-heavy beach area, at least if you venture into whatever towns they have there. No big deal, I'm more or less just along for the ride on this one. I don't even remember the town we're staying at...

It's cool though, I figure I'll bring the fly rod, get up early each day to do some fishing... or at least flailing in the surf on the beach... and then sleep it off in the afternoon. I really don't know what's swimming in the waters there. There are some pretty good anglers in our family, but I don't think any of them fly fish...at least not what I've heard... they're more the go out in the ocean in big boat types. They crush it though. I don't talk about tenkara around them... :)


Guess I have a month to figure it out. Probably can't go wrong with my 6 or 8 weight and some Clouser minnows, they'll catch anything...

The end of July is really what I'm looking forward to. K.C., Lilly, & I am headed to Alaska on a cruise (via Seattle)! To say I'm excited is an understatement, and not only to get out of the hot Florida summer. The itinerary looks pretty solid and I'm sure I'll wear out my camera taking pictures. I really want to go on this train through the Yukon. Like this is a thing... are you kidding me?


Now fishing isn't necessarily on the agenda yet, but the cruise ship does offer some guided fly fishing excursions where you hop on a float plane for the day, fish for salmon and whatnot, and then head back to the ship. I need to look more into that. K.C. booked the vacation, so I'm really not certain of all the details or the specific port of call.

Anyway, until then, daydreaming from my cube at work...

Any cool summer plans this year, fishing or otherwise? Heck, if you have any intel on OBX or AK, I'd take that too. If so, hit me up in the comments, would love to hear what you're up to!

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Fishing Fitness Footnotes:

• Date: 5/21/2018
• Current weight: 213.5 lbs
• Current waist size: 38
• Today: DDP Yoga, Walk after dinner (weather pending)
• Yesterday: DDP Yoga, Bicycle in light rain, a lot of great suggestions from friends

Guided Getaway

Wow, can finally exhale. The last month or two has been a total blur. When you're employed in sports, major events like "The Big Game," create a lot of extra work in the weeks that lead up - in other words, working day and night rather than enjoying life and writing silly blog posts. But with an epic 25 point comeback in the rearview, let's talk fishing...

I know I could sure use an escape right about now. How about North to Alaska? That certainly sounds fun. Fortunately, friend-of-the-blog Paul Vertrees is hosting the FIRST EVER professionally guided tenkara trip to Alaska! According to Paul, here's the skinny:

Sunday, June 11, 2017 through Saturday, June 17, 2017

"Our guide service, Royal Gorge Anglers in Cañon City, has partnered with Intricate Bay Lodge on Lake Iliamna, Alaska, to offer a six-day, six-night lodge-based tenkara experience in the Lake Iliamna area.  This region is famous for its trophy arctic grayling and rainbow trout during June each year.  I could write pages about this area and how beautiful it is, how perfect it is for targeting bigger fish with tenkara, and how great the fishing is, but instead I’ll refer you to Intricate Bay Lodge’s website (see the "Combo Trip") so you can see for yourself and so you can get an idea of what the accommodations are like.  All I can say is that there is NO OTHER guided tenkara trip like this anywhere on Planet Earth!  Of course, you’re more than welcome to pick up a 6-wt western fly rod and have at it if you like!"

(Related aside: Paul is also a regular contributor to Tenkara Angler magazine, having written a great article about tenkara in Alaska in last Fall's issue).

Now as much as I'd like to go to Alaska with Paul and a bunch of tenkara rods in hand, I know I won't be able to this year due to other commitments in early June, however, this sounds incredible. My loss is your gain, I hear spots are limited, so if you're interested, you may want to look into it.

As for me, maybe Owl Jones will have me back up in North Georgia to go chase some trout in the not too distant future. We'll see...

Video Drop - TENKARALASKA

Wow, two weeks since my last post.
Where have I been? Where haven't I been? Work, play, it's all a blur.

While I'll need a few more days to begin to collect myself and begin to unleash a flurry of posts, thought this video that dropped yesterday would be cool to share.

TENKARALASKA is a good watch. Pretty much all of the tenkara-related videos out there have some sort of Japanese nod to them, be it the anglers, location, or even soundtrack. This is decidedly different, a "vide-bro" of sorts with quick edits, decidedly not zen music, a Big Lebowski-esque narrator, and lots of facial hair. Oh, and did I mention they're all catching salmon and giant rainbows with their tenkara rods?


Just watch it, even if you're not a tenkara person, you'll still probably like it for the fish porn alone. Nice change of pace from Spencer Turley & Tenkara Rod Co. Sure, the traditional Japanese stuff is great, but would be great to seem more like this in the future.

5 Reasons To Put the T! in Tongass...

Tongass…besides fiberglass fly rods & bacon, it’s what bloggers are writing about these days. Like the trout we fancy that lie in wait silently until presented with a easy meal, us bloggers usually only jump to action when something free is waved in our face…so in this instance, our hellgrammite is a trip to Alaska.

As such, I’m asked to write a post about why “conserving its prime but threatened salmon and trout habitat is vital to the regional economy, local culture and the nation’s sporting heritage.”

And just like in college, I chose to watch a movie rather than read the book, so after viewing this, the “why” seems pretty self-evident to me…


Take away the habitat you lose the fish. Take away the fish and the economy and culture that relies on them suffer. Suffering is no good for the Tongass, the people of Alaska, and of course America. And anything bad for America sucks. Am I missing something?

With that out of the way, here are 5 reasons why I should be one of the bloggers rescued from the smothering heat & humidity that is July in Florida and shipped to the Salmon Forest of the Last Frontier...

1) It’s called the Salmon Forest. And I have no idea what that means
I went to the website that was recommended for research, but I’m still confused. I didn’t see trees made of fish, or trees that grow fish, or anything like that. I was mildly disappointed by this fact since half of the flies I cast typically end up snagged in overhanging branches.  Figured by going to the Tongass, I'd just be cutting out the liquid middleman...

2) Tenkara, baby
Who doesn't want to hear the drag scream as line hastily peels off after hooking into a salmon on a brand new tenkara rod...

Huh?

Oh, I knew that...

3) I’m gonna find me an Ewok and bring it home for Lilly
Although I guess if it’s a National Forest, the law probably wouldn't be in favor of that. I mean c'mon!  I looked at the pictures of the Tongass, this is prime Ewok habitat. It’s gotta be crawling with those little buggers.

4) When Trout Unlimited puts their mind (& minions) on something, they go BIG or go home.
I see successful reports of TU chapters restoring & conserving all the time. Plus, how many letters do we all get in the mail each month looking for monetary support for this, a donation match for that, or become a “Lifetime Member” of the clan? Now that Dwight’s in charge of the Scranton branch, he should really look into scoring the “whale” that is the TU paper account.

5) Finally, you read this list
Yeah, let’s be honest, if you've been following some of the other Tongass contest-inspired posts, you perhaps read one or two from start to finish, but likely skimmed the majority. I mean if you've read one “copy and paste of facts people only researched for the sole purpose of entering this contest” post you've read them all.

However, I know you read this...Google Analytics ratted you out.

No, seriously, I know you read this because Americans are suckers for lists of any sort.

So TU, Fishpond, Tenkara USA, RIO, and the OBN, send me to Alaska…or at least lodge me and show me around after I pay my own airfare to Juneau…because when I get back, in addition to showing off my newly obtained dog sledding skills...and placing my full blogging energy toward the Tongass, I’m going to insert just enough snarky pop culture references in my follow up post(s) to make what might otherwise be considered a boring or tired subject amusing enough for people to actually read.

And I figure that’s the end game here.  Spreading the word & creating awareness.  But I could be wrong.

Guess there’s only one way to find out…

This is my submission to the Trout Unlimited 2013 Blogger Tour sponsored by Fishpond, 

Tenkara USA and RIO, and hosted by the Outdoor Blogger Network.