How' yer Summers?

[midger]

I've been gone for a while--daughter had knee surgery a month and a half ago and just got released today to walk again and drive her car again. Grandmother passed away up here also during the same time period, but she had a good long run--over 102 years old, so her funeral was more a celebration of her life rather than a grieving of the passing. She was a good fisherman and I can remember many trips with her for salmon and trout in many of Idaho's rivers.

Fishing has been good up here, although due to circumstances I didn't fish nearly as much as I'd hoped for. Hope the rest of you got to fish a lot this summer.

Any backpacking trips planned in September or October? PM me. I'm up for something as I need a vacation from my "vacation".

[stanbery]

Mike

Sorry to hear about you Grandmother.

Jon

[NorcalBob]

Prayers for Grammy. Had one also that kept me from the GTW Opener. Bummer for sure but that's life.
My "summer" (fishing season) is just starting. First, two trips to AK, then a bunch of stripers, and then a bunch of metalheads. Buy stock in Advil cause I'm gonna be needing tons of it!!!!!!

[Sasha]

Sorry to hear about your Grandmother.

[beachbum]

God bless your grandmother, Mike. It sounds like she lead a good life!

Lots of surf fishing this summer, but I did not do as much trout fishing as usual. I must admit the surf fishing with a fly rod has been tons of fun! Next week I fish Quebec for Atlantic Salmon, which is usually the highlight of my summer. Hope you get out for some good fishing soon!

Bill

[midger]

Thanks. My Grandmother had a grand life.


I'm not back in Cali yet, still in Idaho but will drive back Monday or Tuesday. Went fishing with the daughter today. Quite a few samller fish and it was very hot--air temp at around 95+ but the hoppers were everywhere and fish were looking up. I spent most of the day working with Kim on casting and hooking fish. She had a scazillion takes, but her sets were S L O W and the fish weren't. Best moment of the day was when she was trying to get one of the hook and it slipped from here hands and in its attempt to B slap her with its tail, she stepped backwards, went down, and sat in water up to her neck. Pretty funny actually. Fortunately with the heat, she claimed it felt good. Wet wading at its best.

[Papasequoia]

Too bad about grandmother, but that was a long life. As for the fishing, I am having a slow year in general. With cooler temps coming (hopefully) and the kids back in school, I'm hoping that will change soon! Cya when you get back. Jon

[rayfound]

Good to hear from you Mike. So Far, summer's good. Leaving in about an hour for my 2nd backpacking 3-dayer of the year, hopefully will get one more in the end of sept/early oct.

See you soon, have a safe journey home.

[Eric]

Mike sorry to hear about your Grandmother but sure sounds like she had a long life. Fishing been good heading out in the morning to do some surf fishing.
Eric

[fflutterffly]

What a wonderful gift to have had your grandma for so very long. Hope your daughter is making a great recovery. Looking forward to more of your reports once you get back on the water.

[briansII]

Sorry for your loss Mike. 102.....WOW! A celebration sounds like a * way to send grandma off. Great story about your daughter. Nice to hear your spending the summer with your family.

briansII

[tomsakai]

Mike, sorry about your grandmother. But, as an aunt (now 88) once said, "I don't want to live forever." It shocked me at the time but now I understand, it's all about living a quality life. Tom.

[anacrime]

beeeeeeer

[meb]

Hello Mike,

Wow, 102!!! God bless her. I've had a busy summer. Fished locally early on a few times and had some fun catching our beautiful local fish. We spooked up one rattlesnake while getting out the of the water, but that was it.

I spent four days camping on the Yuba fishing for shad. Unbearably hot, but lots of fish. I broke my old Sage RP which Sage replaced with a new RPL, leaving me pretty happy. I also broke a guide off another rod, so it was a tough trip on my equipment.

Then my wife and I headed down to Loreto, Mexico for a week of goofing off. I saw a few guys from The Spot on our plane headed down for the dorado I would imagine. I didn't fish, but did watch some locals throwing hand lines and scoring dorado after dorado. I think I'll bring a rod next year.

The rest of my fishing has been for largemouth bass. I've never really put much energy into them, but my buddy Rich got all fired up about catching them on poppers. He lives in San Diego and I think all the local lakes motivated him. So I tied up a half dozen poppers which are fun to tie and really fun to fish. We fished Barrett and Miramar about five times and caught fish on poppers each time. It's pretty exciting. In keeping with my equipment failures, my slow leaking float tube (I never could find the leak) became a fast leaking float tube and kind of collapsed around me. I sent it back to Outcast for repairs.

And finally, yesterday I returned from ten days of visiting my wife's family and our daughter (who just finished school) in Boston. It wasn't really a fishing trip, but I did convince everyone to "take a drive", and we went up to southern Vermont. I wanted to check out some of the famous rivers and was able to stop and recon the Connecticut River which is huge, the Deerfield, and the Battenkill. I think I'll bring a rod next year.

I missed some of my usual summer fishing, but I'm looking forward to fishing Crowley and the Sierras soon. Let's go fishing.

Take care,

Mark

[209er]

Hello Midger,
You've been busy! I've fished Montana three different times this summer and been to the East Cape twice. Local fishing really doesn't interest me but the Eastern Sierra does. Haven't been there yet but soon, maybe September. 209er