I had another mower stolen off my work truck today. Fuckers.

Hi all. Not many entries lately, just some pictures of dead fish. I spent all day up on the river yesterday and today I need to get some other things done. The river is low and clear which makes the steelhead shy to bite. I guess the rising rain waters wake them up, preparing them to spawn. Part of that process is that they get aggressive, biting at things that enter their area. This is where the jigs come in. The trick is in the color combinations and presentation. I've landed four so far. One was wild so it had to be released and the other one I let go wasn't quite the size I've been used to. I don't think I'll be fishing today, what with the contusions on my legs from falling all over the rocks and with me losing gear in the river and not catching anything. I need to nail down the upcoming BCC course, get some stuff mailed out, get some domestic stuff done and then maybe run with the group tonight. Later.

Here is today's keeper. It is a 30" female chrome steelhead.

This is a better picture by far. The other pic came from my cameraphone. I like that I can send it directly from the river, but the quality is lacking. I lost the jig and float I got it on after I left that hole. I'm meeting Bob and Eric up there tomorrow and I'm very tempted to go swimming for it. This fish kind of surprised me because up until now all that I had gotten had been snags. This snag moved. And then I was thinking, holy shit - it worked. It had always been the other guy who would pull one out of there. As I was walking out of there I was still a little surprised to have it in tow. Very cool.

It is very good too. Half of it is cooked. I marinated it with basil, garlic, lemon juice, salt & pepper and some store brand red wine vinaigrette. Oh yeah, there is olive oil in there too. Cous cous and some stir fry vegetables rounded out my meal. I could eat like this every day. I guess all that cooking I did stuck some. I need to learn the art if filleting better though. Y'all have a great week.

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I got one! It is a nice 26" steelhead. Finally.

I took this picture of the New York skyline about 20 years ago I think. Being September 11th I thought I would add my 2 cents on this anniversary. At about the same time I used to hang out some with Buddhist monks and nuns at the Nipponzan Myohoji Peace Pagoda and Temple in Leverett, Massachusetts.




Here is the Peace Pagoda,



This order of Buddhism is dedicated to peace. I was idealistic, yes, but I still think that working for peace with peace is a much more rational way to approach that realization rather than the fearmongering and senseless war we find ourselves in right now. 'make sense? Here is a quote I particularly like from Seth and Jane Roberts, in Susan Watkins' "Conversations with Seth, Book one" pp230-232:

"But when all the young men refuse to kill for the sake of peace, and when all the women forbid their men to kill for the sake of peace, and when you realize that no peace will come through killing, and that the end does not justify the means, and when you grow full and light with thoughts of peace, then there will be an end to war! But as long as any men go to war for the sake of peace, there will be war. And as long as any woman teaches her sons how to go to war because of love of peace, there will be war.

"You make your world. When you populate your world with ideas of peace, then peace will grow. When you think thoughts of aggression, you attract aggression and you draw it out from others in daily contact, and on the part of nations.

"When you do not understand yourselves, you project what you do not understand upon others - upon your friends and associates - and then you become afraid of what you do not understand, not understanding that it is your own fear. And you do the same thing as a nation with other nations. There is no way to ensure peace but for every man, every man, to lay down his arms."

...

"And there is no other way to have peace but to believe in peace"

Peace.

I haven't been updating much, but in my stead, read the article about post 9/11, which includes this:

"I remember thinking that one might easily write a book with two very different versions of how the world would respond to this attack on the West.

"One version would describe people coming to their senses about the ravages of war and the need to see the world as an interconnected whole. In this scenario, the endless photos of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center towers would propel Irish Catholics and Protestants and Central African Hutus and Tutsis and other historical enemies to realize they could live together and resolve their conflicts without slaughtering each other."