Just sittin up howlin.

I’d say 88.3% of the time we leave the dogs at the house, mine especially. He’s known to crash a pool or ruin a choice run. In fact, he’s famous for it. But when fishing is slow….

I’ll be there; Watch out for those bats though

Back to the crazy stuff!

Bonaventure Dawn – Tied by Glista – Photographed by Ginseng Sullivan

Just a quick link to an anti-Pebble Mine blog that just got going. Check out http://puckfebble.blogspot.com/

$507 million, or roughly $15,515.50 per person.

Guess that’s all it’ll cost you to put a drunk motherfucker of a Captain behind the wheel of an oil tanker and run that tanker into the rocks of Prince William Sound, spilling more than 11 million gallons of oil, severely damaging estuary and open ocean ecosystems, local economies and the hope of countless people both indigenous and alien, and a shitload more stuff we at Buster won’t depress you by going into.

Hell, it’s just money, right?

In today’s news from up north, the US Supreme Court reduces Exxon’s punitive damages for spilling 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound to a paltry $507 million, down from $2.5 billion, which was down from the original number of 5 billion requested by Alaskans whose real lives were affected by the spill.

Money Quote: “Business groups such as the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had hoped that the Supreme Court would use the Exxon Valdez case as a way to curb what they believe are large punitive damages against corporations.”

A drunk motherfucker drove an oil ship into the rocks, people. Own up, Exxon.

As a note for perspective’s sake, Exxon posted a 2007 net income of $40.61 billion in 2007, beating its own record of $39.5 billion set in 2006.

Home of the brave, land of the free and united we stand.

Full story here.

Spent a couple of days up in the mountains escaping the Alabama heat. It’s amazing how much a 25 degree difference in temps can make you feel. Got a chance to fish new water each day we were there. We went after Specks in small streams, ignoring the bigger more popular flows. I just don’t get into catching 10-12″ hatchery bows these days. Don’t care for them. I’d rather go after Smallies or any bass for that matter. Big wild browns……any day of the week. Specks…..yep. Big fat bows…..sure, but not private water where the bows are fed with Kibble. 

There’s something to catching native, wild fish….makes you feel all tingly inside.   

The Cretins M.C. Philosophy:We strive to interact with motorcyclists who focus on vintage, cafe, and “streetfighter” bikes. A club of misfits of the motorcycle world, the Cretins MC brings these elements together providing a unified entity for this overlooked/underappreciated segment of motorcycling. The Cretin aesthetic loosely resembles the bygone days of the British Rocker clubs. We are by no means an “Outlaw Club”…just a motorcycle lovin’ bunch with a pint of Pabst and a 10mm wrench if you need it.
The Bikes:The lineup of Cretin bikes is quite diverse. On any given Thursday we may have a CB450 Black Bombers, an old Guzzi, various ’60′s & 70′s Honda Twins & Fours, BMW /5′s, tricked out Yamahas, and a few newer bikes (Ducatis, Buells, & Triumphs) to round out the herd. The Cretins are dedicated to keeping old bikes on the road and helping others do the same!

If you missed it on the tube the other night, here it is:

The Fuss Over Fish

Money quote: “This is actually a very, very good system,” says biologist Doug Arndt of the Army Corps of Engineers.

I vote that Mr. Arndt be stripped of his biology degree on the basis of this statement alone. Can I get a second?

From the always truthful rolling clownshow of the Pebble Partnership comes a conveniently embedding disabled youtube propaganda clip. The specifics of their claims have been disproved elsewhere but here is the top lie from the commercial:

 ”The Pebble Partnership will listen before it acts”

Absolute, unadulterated, 100% guaranteed horseshit.

Hat tip to The Chum

eating, reliable sleep patterns and general logic have ceased.

there is only tying, packing and repacking, aquasealing sinktips made from old saltwater lines (T-18.7!), then more tying.

intruder count: hovering just over 5 dozen.

reports,: strong for chinook and a few early steelhead.

dean river kings: 96 hours ’till down and across their eyes.

kid: within feet of the candy store door.

The lovely PDX-based chanteuse Scout Niblett in a Bristol Black Cab session

Here’s another Black Cab session — a creepy n’ sad rambler by Phosphorescent. It could very well be about wolves…

Glen and Dot:

The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.
–from the Chomsky/Herman theory of propaganda

“There was a period in the early seventies when one might fish for tarpon on three hits of windowpane acid backed up by a megaphone bomber of Colombian buds that required nine papers and an hour to roll.”

-Jim Harrison

My copy of Tarpon arrived in Rancho Merde today. Fuckin A is about all I can say. Definitely not of the AEG “fish porn” school as there are plenty of scenes with Conchs, hippies, bums and treasure hunters, but instead of being filler, it adds to the overall feel of the flick, which is definitely grounded in 1970′s Key West. One develops a definite “I wish I was there then” temptation while watching it, but that moment passed a long time ago and dwelling on it ain’t gonna get you there.  Here’s just a few of my impressions from it

Rod and Reel Makers’ Cold Sweat Nightmare- footage of the guides and Guy de la Valdene landing tarpon with ultra-whippy fiberglass 12wts and Pflueger reels

Huh? Moment- Watching Guy tie on a wire tippet, something you never see now for poon fishing.

Best Contrasting Scenes- The transition from party boat rampant blood thirsty voyeurism (permit getting tossed in rubber trash cans for later advertising impalement on the dock) to the guides and later Richard Brautigan talking about the importance of C&R.

Comedy Gold Moment- Hearing Jim Harrison being heckled by a carney while throwing balls at the dunk tank- “Come on fat boy!!!”

You know they were into some heavy shit quote- Richard Brautigan declaring ”[Tarpon] are so extra-ordinary as to create immediate unreality upon contact with the fish”

 Go buy it

lifted from friends at the Native Fish Society:

This coming Sunday evening, June 22, 60 MINUTES will
feature an expose on the severely depressed salmon populations
in the Columbia & Snake Rivers. The story will spotlight the
tremendous amount of taxpayer dollars our federal government
continues to spend on ineffective programs that are failing to
restore an endangered national treasure – wild salmon of the
Columbia and Snake Rivers.

The story will raise serious questions about the billions of
taxpayer dollars the government has spent – and wants to keep
spending into the future – on salmon programs that aren’t
working, and scientists tell us are extremely unlikely ever to
work.

Please tune in, as this story shines a bright light to a
national audience on the federal government’s taxpayer-financed
failure to protect and restore wild salmon and steelhead to the
rivers of America’s Pacific Northwest.

CBS NEWS – 60 MINUTES
SUNDAY EVENING, JUNE 22, 2008
CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR TIME

Everyone needs a skiff.

Le Frog

Le Frog Noir

Me and the fools have been spending quality time looking for the wily salmons as of late, and tho time’s not paid off nearly as much as we’d have liked, we did learn the local dairy farmers don’t much care for it when you’re two or three of the 8 people who know what pool in which the early springers are holding. Seems like it goes this way each year; not many fish, but 70% of the run tends to park in one pool long enough to call it a pattern. Never the same pool, mind you, but once you get it dialed, the hurt can be dealt onto the lowly fin-clipped.

Now for most folks, salmon are the show around here, with steelhead a minor diversion to pass the time before the big fish show up again. Few days ago, these fish liked our junk some, least more than said farmer and when “yer not from ’round here,” and getting fish when the locals aren’t, a knife tends to meet your tire’s sidewall. Not all your tires, just the one that’s most hidden from the view of the road. Classy vandalism, I guess. Whatever.

Odd part was, you’da think getting my tire knocked would have pissed me off more, but it honestly made me proud in a weird way. (then again, fishing was damn good, and not much can get to me when there’s 40 collective pounds of graaaavy in the bottom of the boat).

Yeah it’s super lame a fisherman went and took some shit out on another fisherman, but on the other hand, it’s still sorta refreshing to see redneck localism alive and well. In an bizarre way, I gotta respect that. Seems a lot more real and throwback and old timey than running home to some internet message board and crying puss while wrapped in a robe of passive aggression.