In Japan, the word otaku refers to people who have obsessive, minute interests—especially stuff like anime or videogames. It comes from a term for “someone else’s house”—otaku live in their own, enclosed worlds. Or, at least, their lives follow patterns that are well outside the norm. - Patton Oswalt, “Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die” Wired Magazine, December 2010 

Might as well start with the obvious: 

Fly Fishing Bloggers

=

In the spirit of the $100 nipper:
http://www.jessejamesreels.com/
It’s yours in the comments

Personally, I’m waiting for the matching necktie.

New for sale at Buster’s Swagge Shoppe, it’s Ike! On a shirt! If it looks sketchy and amateurish, well spotted! Nothing gets by you!

Background: 

Yellowstone cutthroat are in serious decline in Yellowstone Lake largely thanks to predation from an exploding population of invasive, non-native lake trout. Numbers of the cutthroats in the Yellowstone Lake ecosystem have dropped to less than five percent of the historic population. 25 years ago, spawning returns in the Clear Creek tributary were 50,000 fish per year. Current returns in the same tributary are now less than 500 fish.

In a 1994 study conducted by the National Park Service, an economic loss of $36 million in revenues per year was anticipated with a 50 percent population decline within the Yellowstone Lake system. Based on current population surveys more than 95 percent of the YCT population has since been lost.

The population of Yellowstone cutthroats inhabiting Yellowstone Lake system is one of the only remaining genetically pure populations found in the native range of this subspecies, which includes parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Yellowstone cutthroats are a keystone species of the park’s ecosystem . More than 40 species, including include eagles, grizzly bears, ospreys and river otters depend on the fish as a food source.

Update:

Yellowstone National Park has recently released its Native Fish Conservation Plan Environmental Assessment (NFCPEA) detailing plans for restoring the park’s native coldwater fisheries during the next 20 years. The public comment period on the plan and environmental assessment runs through Jan. 31.

Trout Unlimited strongly supports the plan’s proposal to make lake trout suppression the highest priority of the park’s native fish management program.  TU agrees this means significantly increasing netting and trapping of the invasive fish, while identifying – as the plan does – measurable objectives for lake trout mortality as well as a corresponding rebound in the cutthroat population.

TU is urging the park to reinforce its plan by adopting and implementing the recommendations of the 2008 Scientific Review Panel that the Park Service convened to evaluate lake suppression and other efforts aimed at restoring the lake population of cutthroats. 

Among the recommendations the panel made to the park are:

1.) identify the size and demographic details of the lake trout population.
2.)  study the movement of lake trout so that removal efforts can be better targeted
3.) institute a rigorous monitoring plan that can provide reliable information on the effectiveness of netting and trapping, as well as the response of the cutthroat population
4.) create a scientific committee of non-park personnel to review Park activities
5.) support development of alternative suppression technologies (such as those that can interfere with lake trout reproduction and recruitment).

The plan and EA also identify measurable targets and potential projects for restoring Yellowstone cutthroat populations in streams outside the lake system, as well as measures and objectives for significantly improving populations of the park’s other native salmonids, westslope cutthroats and fluvial arctic grayling. Trout Unlimited supports these as important secondary objectives.

DO IT:

To comment on the Yellowstone National Park Native Fish Conservation Plan Environmental Assessment before Jan. 31, here’s the link to both the plan and the entry point for comment: http://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?parkID=111&projectID=30504&documentID=37967

Or write to: Native Fish Conservation Plan, Yellowstone National Park, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190.

Gotta admit, when I see flood footage of the local river like the stuff below, I can’t avoid wondering whether this is the douching that magically scours out and uncovers the old legends. The greatest hits. After-work, stand-by runs revered for consistency and still talked about some 4 and 5 years after they evaporated like the use of long-belly flylines in the Northwest.

All hail the legendary bounce of Last Chance. Pour one out for that one, sonofabitch rock in the Buffet Line that either kicked out a buck or stole your fly. 9.5 Rock’s soft seam above the old Picket Fence. And Dyack’s. The sweet, sweet poonanny of Dyack’s tailout.

Those of you who know the names knew the soft water that held the reasons.

May next week’s riverine explorations bode you well stains, and all eyes on the sweepers. She’s gonna be a new river. Again.

The Sandy River from alexandra erickson on Vimeo.

It’s another pink year in Pugetropolis. They’re soft of mouth, slimy of skin and only good for the smoker, but they return in the millions and readily take the fly. Woot Woot!

I got a few days of shooting birdies in before Christmas. We all started to get agitated at Trigg this one morning when he wouldn’t get out the watering tub. Turns out he was on point. Soon the other two joined in on the action.

Thee’s Picks
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists — Brutalist Bricks
Seems like every other Ted Leo record is a flat out classic. This is that record. Straight ahead, literate, spikey punk n’ pop with lotsa charm.

Pantha Du Prince –  Black Noise
Super chilled, blissed out kinda barely there electro squibs n’ blips. It’s hard to find an electronic record that won’t bug the shit out of you after two listens. Black Noise has never bugged me. Not even once.

Scout Niblett — The  Calcination of Scout Niblett
Scout Niblett kicks so much ass it’s not even funny.

Alasdair Roberts and Friends — Too Long In This Condition
Another trip the middle ages where plauge abounds, there’s nothing to eat and the king wants to put your head on a pike. Good times.

Grinderman — II
Makes me yearn for the Birthday Party, but I’ll take a spasmodic Warren Ellis and a yowling Nick Cave over Arcade Fire any goddam day.

Otis Gibbs — Joe Hill’s Ashes
Good pissed off political folk punk. Imagine if Billy Bragg was born a shit-kickin’ good old boy.

Will Oldham and the Cairo Gang–I don’t care what anyone says,Will Oldham is not turning into the Eagles.

Bacon’s apparently still stuck in 2009 Picks

Pelican — What We All Come to Need
Chill metal and no lyrics. Badass for solo fly swinging sessions on the iPod and way better than listening to jetboats ferry Dudes around all day.

Bill Callahan — Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle
Skeena 2010 soundtrack, powerdrive north to see some old friends, eighteen cups of Tim Horton’s rotgut coffee eating holes in my ulcer and no-hands pissing in a Houston park and ride’s gravel. Sun was rising over the Bulkely Valley and I was feeling the only kinda religion that matters. The tune ‘Faith/Void’ kills it: ‘It’s time/to put God away.’

Atmosphere — Blood Makes the Blade Holy
Sluggo proves he can still rock the wordwork and bring it back to the Lucy Ford days.

The Moth Podcasts Dunno if this qualifies as a record, but the stories are hilarious, often tough or uncomfortable and real. I do a lot of driving to rivers. I can’t stand pundit radio, right or left. And if I gotta hear NPR’s Click and Clack EVER again…NOTE: Sadly, The Drive-By Truckers’ The Big To-Do didn’t make this and a podcast did. A fucking podcast. Pretty much because The Big To-Do was weak-ass and proved Patterson Hood’s ego never shoulda fired Jason Isbell. We suffered through Brighter Than Creation’s Dark in the hopes TBTD would show promise, but well, I’m calling it: R.I.P DBT.

Creek’s Softer Side of 2010 Pick

Cotton Jones
Tall Hours in the Glowstream has been getting all kinds of attention from me the last few months and is clearly my pick of 2010. Call it Cosmic Country. Call it indie folk. I just call it good. The album is based on the river that flows through the band’s hometown. River music, indeed.

Wook’s Picks

The New Mastersounds – Ten Years On
More badass Brit funk and soul. Reworked Grace Potter’s already great “Nothing But the Water,” got Grace to sing it, and made it even better. Catch them if you can, but wear your greezy pants.

OK Go – Of the Blue Colour of the Sky
Geek pop was never so much fun. Well, since TMBG. Whatever. Highlight: “WTF?”

John Butler Trio – April Uprising
Pissed off legions of neo-hippie fans by producing 15 tightly-written songs, mostly under 5 minutes long, while still showcasing some tasty guitar stuffis. “One Way Road” is one damn well-crafted tune.

Jimi Hendrix – Valleys of Neptune
I hesitated, having been repeatedly bummed by the flood of Weekend At Jimi’s-style posthumous releases, but this ain’t them. This includes the final throes of the Experience, following Electric Ladyland. It’s nothing shiny and new, but it’s got the voodoo stank, and I don’t imagine there’s much of that left lying around.

Cee Lo Green – The Lady Killer
Gnarls Barkling Cee Lo gets a nod just for “Fuck You,” which rightly got a lot of attention. Way beyond a novelty song, it’s HQ Motown with about the best hook ever, and good luck getting it out of your head. Huge props for the video production too. I need me some backup singers.

Now aint that some shit?

Salty’s Picks

I’m feeling pretty pedestrian after reading the above picks. I’ll easily  second Wook’s OK Go and Cee Lo selections. Other stand outs for me this year were Vampire Weekend’s Contra (best tracks IMHO are Giving Up the Gun, Diplomat’s Son and Giant).

California, or at least a certain idealization of California,  seems to loom large in my picks this year. Neo-surf rock from Wavves went into heavy rotation and Best Coast sounds a bit like Neko Case moved to Hermosa Beach and got a tan.

Albums not released in 2010 but that I discovered this year include Richard Hawley’s Lady’s Bridge, found via the trailer for Exit Through the Gift Shop, and Canadian roots music from Stan Rogers and The Beaton Family of Mabou.

Speaking of retro soul, hard to miss JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound’s cover of Wilco’s “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart”

Then again, I’m probably just losing my edge.