from Dan F

Buster-ites,

A while back we reported on the landmark legislation, S. 22, the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, which passed the Senate on Jan. 15th, 2009 with a vote of  73 to to 21 (4 not voting). The vote on this bill, the 2nd largest Wild and Scenic protection bill in our nation’s history, goes to the House of Representatives later this week, and possibly as early as tomorrow. If it passes the House, it will then go to the President to be signed in to law.

Word on the street is that the bill may be a much closer vote in the House than it was in the Senate. So please, please take a minute out of your day to contact your Representative and ask them to support S. 22, The Omnibus Public Lands Management Act. You can also take action here.

This is huge, people. Thanks.

From Andrew S in Missoula MT

send yours to salty@busterwantstofish.com

The forecast last night said 20% chance – it wasn’t supposed to rain this hard, all day. A couple miles below the put-in, the day that began with a buzz of optimism is now beatdown by the steady trickle of icy water down your spine. You like to think of yourself as the “hardy outdoor type,” but this evil seep of ice needles between your shoulder blades affects you on such a fundamental level you can’t think about anything else. You flash back to all the exorbitant claims of total invulnerability to nuclear winter the manufacturer claimed on the hang tag of this got-dam jacket. It worked. And then it didn’t.

It’s your turn to row. You agreed at the ramp that you’d switch with every fish. How this amicable plan actually pans out is that you’ve been rowing for over two hours now. The icy slurry works its way down below your belt causing you to spill half your beer on a poorly-timed stroke. Putting your head down to get the stinging needles of horizontal rain out of your face you notice the lame-ass glue job you did on your boot last week was just that, and now half your felt soul is flapping like a mad cow’s tongue. It starts to occur to you that you might not really be that smart. In fact, you might just be kind of a loser. You keep this thought to yourself for you know the agreement, stem to stern, would be unanimous.

Please catch a fish, any fish, dammit. Something please bite this guy’s fly. I’m sick of rowing…..Time to finish off that soggy ham snadwich you paid $6.50 for at the market because you can never seem to plan ahead and make one, and besides you were hungover and late anyway.  I’m already living on credit and it’s only January…Am I still going to have a job this season?

A muffled, “got one” emanates from inside the hooded head of your former friend, now annointed Representative of Everything That’s Wrong in the World. Sure enough, his rod is bent over. Whitey. Of course. Now get the hell out of the bow, bitch.

As you switch places, the briefest of grins are exchanged…

Buster’s Winter Weekend WTFilm Festival Feature

“What’s That Smell?” – a short film starring:
Geddy Lee as Harry Satchel
Alex Lifeson as Bucktoof Cop and German Chicken Pusher
Ken Doll as Neil Peart, a.k.a. Bongo Boy
Heidi as himself

From Josh M in Spokane, WA

By now, you should be well aware that I’ll post pretty much anything you send in to salty@busterwantstofish.com

A hot buttered plate of steaming fish porn, coming soon. Check out the site for more info (and more dates TBA):

http://www.flyfishingfilmtour.com/

Attention Stains and Sundry Lurkers -

The Feltsoul gang has a new short vid with Yvon Chouinard (owner of Patagonia) and Craig Matthews (owner of Blue Ribbon Flies) talking about their project, 1% For The Planet, and conservation efforts on the Three Dollar bridge section of the Madison. Check it:

http://vimeo.com/3064727

Seriously, what’s better than this? And don’t blame the mutt for the spinning rod.

Photo from Danny F in Louisiana

So we have this “friend”…..and by “friend” we mean someone who happily performs the equivalent of ramming white hot steel needles into our collective retinas  by occasionally sending pictures like these, in the dead of winter, from that  place they call N Zed. Nasty hobbitses. We hates him. And we’re trying to figure out how the hell to get over there and join him.

The latest:

Aw, who are we kidding? Glad someone’s gettin’ some. Bastard.

Or more aptly titled, a FREE Red Gold and Equilibrium screening in Portland, Orygun, with even free-er beer and free lap dances from my friend Mitchell.

How it goes: Local badass steelheader, Hunter/Angler Organizer for the Sierra Club and part-time stud service, Jeff Hickman and Alaska Sportsmans’ Alliance pretty face, the ubiqitous G_Smolt invite you to join them and a whole buncha good folks for a screening of FeltSoul’s Red Gold and Castaway’s Equilibruim.

And there’s gonna be free beer.

We’d go on about how badass the two films are and how important of a statement they make, but unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last year, we’re gonna assume you already know the schnittle about them.

Free beer, Red Gold, Equilibrium and Mitch throwing down on your girl, people. Need we say more? Best pack an ass-flask of brown liquor.

Details:

Friday, February 13th. 8 p.m. (the evening before the PDX Fly Show)

1821 SE Ankeny St.

Portland, Oregon

More info: Oregon.SierraClub.Org

Winter 09 Triploid

Dear [Name]:

We have received your letter/e-mail expressing concern that The American Museum of Fly Fishing has extended an invitation to Vice President Dick Cheney to be the guest speaker at a Museum-sponsored dinner in 2009. While we appreciate your opinion regarding our selection of the Vice President, and your evident interest in the activities that this Museum undertakes, we are excited to hold this dinner and the Board and staff are honored that the Vice President has agreed to attend. We hope that you continue to support the Museum and its mission.

The Museum’s Articles of Association identify its purpose to include the preservation of fly fishing “memorabilia for education of the general public on the history of fly fishing …” The back cover of our award-winning journal, The American Fly Fisher, confirms this purpose by noting in each issue that the Museum serves as a repository for rods, reels, flies, tackle, art, books, and artifacts relating to the rich heritage of fly fishing.

Among the Museum’s prized collections is one that contains the fishing equipment used by past presidents of the United States, regardless of their performance in office, their political leanings, or their current or past reputations. Our premier traveling exhibition, Anglers All, highlights the fly fishing paraphernalia of former presidents Carter, Coolidge, Hoover, Eisenhower, F. D. Roosevelt, and George .H.W. Bush. Controversy attended the administrations of each of these men. Fly fishing rods, reels, and flies of internationally acclaimed entertainers, writers, and industrialists, among other well-known people, grace our collections. We did not vet any of these contributions using a standard of political popularity nor could we serve the Museum’s overarching purpose had we done so. The Museum’s commitment to the total history of fly fishing is inclusive.

Vice President Dick Cheney is a significant historical figure in this country and the world and an avid, lifelong fly fisherman. The Museum is a nonpolitical institution that seeks to enhance its collections and richly preserve fly fishing artifacts, including those used by major figures in our own country’s history, as we have done for decades.

We hope that this letter assists in expressing our reasons for honoring the Vice President and accepting his fly fishing artifacts into the Museum as a part of its permanent collection.

Very truly yours,

Cathi Comar
Executive Director

Note: Ted Williams releases the hounds on the AMFF in a column in High Country news. A great, firebreathing read. Strong werk, Ted.

“Now wolves had come to follow them, great pale lobos with yellow eyes that trotted neat of foot or squatted in the shimmering heat to watch them where made their noon halt.” pg. 45

Six artists endeavor to illustrate every page of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, Or The Evening Redness In The West.

“Since September it’s just gotten colder and colder. There’s less daylight now, I’ve noticed too. This can mean only one thing – the sun is going out. In a few more months the Earth will be a dark and lifeless ball of ice. Dad says the sun isn’t going out. He says it’s colder because the Earth’s orbit is taking us farther from the sun. He says winter will be here soon. Isn’t it sad how some people’s grip on their lives is so precarious that they’ll embrace any preposterous delusion rather than face an occasional bleak truth?”

- Calvin, via Watterson

Insert musings on hope, faith and/or Polarfleece here. Also seeking good recipes/fly patterns requiring freshly-murdered groundhog.

IT PUTS THE LOTION ON ITS SKIN

sent in by Ramcatt

send yours to salty@busterwantstofish.com