He's everywhere.

Back covers of recent issues of The Drake, Fly Rod and Reel and Flyfish Journal..

Heroic nymphing master Yvon Chouinard graces the back covers of all the current fly fishing rags.  Seems a bit silly really.  I just traded in an SST jacket of the same vintage as the one Chouinard is wearing in the photo. I can pretty much guarantee that, like mine, the one in the photo is not waterproof anymore.  On the other hand, Patagonia gave me $240 for a 20 year old jacket towards a new one in the trade so I certainly can't complain.  These ads are selling the new Patagonia river crampons and rock grip wading boots. Having spent a lot of time walking around in the mountains wearing crampons (with points on them) I am sure that these new river crampons will work great - if only they weren't so pricey.  I do wonder what effect these new boots and crampons may eventually have on the river bottoms of heavily fished destinations like the North Platte, the Green, the San Juan and the Bighorn.  Hundreds of fishermen a month, thousands in a year, scuffling around in these things may tend to polish things up a bit. You can see the effects hobnail boots had if you climb a classic old route in the Alps. These are aluminum, not steel, but still a far cry from felt.

Cold day on the Platte

A nice rainbow that took the green leach pattern.

Spent a good day on the Platte yesterday with Jeff.  New license, patched waders, new wading jacket, first day out this new year.    For some reason, my feet were damn cold almost all day though the patched waders did not leak! Maybe I needed a warmer hat! Temps may have reached 40F but it felt cold to me all day. It was windy off and on with the occasional welcome calms but at other times there were serious gusts - strong enough that most non-Westerners anglers would sensibly call it a day. With a flow of 500 CFS the water was as low as I believe I have ever seen it. The Gray Reef holding reservoir is essentially empty. It was easy to cross the river below the dam at a number of spots going no deeper than mid-thigh.

A nice rainbow in Jeff took with the leech.

While the midges were actively hatching mid-afternoon a bead head midge pattern was a good bet.  Mid-morning when the fishing was slower I thought that perhaps something bigger than a size 22 midge might stir them to take.  I tied on a green leech pattern which Garrett had used so successfully on a similar day a few years ago.  As soon as I tied it on (with a midge dropper for good luck) I started hooking up regularly - with a slow drift though the deeper holes.  About 2/3 of the takes were on the leech though some fish still preferred the midge.   Sometimes it is hard to believe how the right patter at the right time can make such a difference.  I gave Jeff one and he did very well with it all day.

This was one that was working best.

Pheasant Rillettes

Found a couple of freezer burned pheasants in the bottom of the freezer when I cleared it to make some space for the elk this year.  I know - how could I let this happen.  I thawed them out and trimmed until I was left with a handful of good looking meat.  I mashed some thyme, salt and black pepper, rubbed it on the meat and confited it in duck fat.  Slow cooked them all day in the oven at 225F.  Put it in the fridge and left for Portland.  When I got back - I chopped it fine, put in a bit more salt - a lot more pepper - a sprinkle of cayenne - and a bit more thyme and put it in a jar in the fridge.  Had some last night - not bad at all for two year old pheasant.

Eating Around / Olympic Provisions

Olympic Provisions SE on SE Washington St. in Portland

Portland is a food town, local food is akin to a religious phenomena there.  A few years ago, when the the travelling pig extravaganza Cochon 555 visited Portland, a local chef got into a fist-fight with the organizer of the cook-off because some of the pigs used in the cook-off were not locally sourced.  There was a broken leg, a concussion and the police had to use pepper spray and a taser to break up the fight.  Portland people are very serious about local food.

For a city of its size there are uncommonly many cutting edge restaurants.  In addition to the restaurants, there are excellent specialty food shops, high end grocery stores and innovative food carts everywhere.  Safeway in Laramie is only a poor second cousin to those same stores in Portland. Whenever we travel there we try to find the time and money to eat a meal cooked by someone else, someone who is hopefully more skilled at the stove than we.  This time we went to Olympic Provisions SE on SE Washington Street in Portland.  The chef at OPSE is Alex Yoder. According to their web-page, they were Portland's first salumeria - specializing in charcuterie and cured meats with a menu inspired by rustic Spanish and Mediterranean cooking.  In Portland, if you want excellent European style charcuterie you don't import it (you might get beat up) you make your own, and that's just what they do at OPSE.  You can see the meats hanging in a cure room behind the main counter.

Note window into the meat curing room.

The restaurant itself is a modern loft space in a old renovated building.  Having spent part of my youth in NYC renovating lofts in SoHo when it was still the art district, I am a sucker for these industrial spaces. With the high ceilings the space initially feels large, but it's not really. The dining area is narrow giving it an intimacy that feels just about right for sharing a meal.

Olympic Provisions menu - 22 December 2012

The dinner menu was perhaps not quite as interesting as I might have liked but the wine menu was exceptionally so. There were five adults and two children in our party.  Among the five of us we shared two bottles of wine. One was a nice Chardonnay from Jura: Domaine Labet “Fleurs” Côtes du Jura, 2010. We also shared a very special red from Provence, a bottle of Domaine Tempier, Bandol, 2008.  This is the wine made by the Peyraud family.  Lulu's Kitchen at Domaine Tempier has been extensively written about by food writer Richard Olney, wine importer Kermit Lynch, American chef and doyenne of the local food movement Alice Waters, iconoclastic food writer John Thorne and writer/poet gourmand Jim Harrison.  Lulu is an instinctive cook, never measuring ingredients but working by taste and feel; Richard Olney recorded her recipes and introduced her to America.

Domaine Tempier 2008

The wait-staff was knowledgeable, friendly and efficient. The children happily supped on frankfurters and fries (not on the menu).  Among the adults, we shared a charcuterie French Board which I insisted we order, mainly for the rillettes.  Rillettes are a kind of potted meat - usually pork but also made with other meats as well: duck, hare, salmon. If you've not had them, think of a home-made version of deviled ham.  The rillettes were fine and the salamis and other items on the board were very good.  I have tried my own hand at making cured sausages and the result, while not bad, was nothing like this. We shared a lot of the food - I tried the Baby Octopus that Tom ordered - it had an rich chickpea and aioli sauce that smelled and tasted of the sea  - a discordant note to the other flavors I was enjoying. I ate most of a Belgian endive salad which was light, sweet and refreshing and not something I would have made myself - I might try to duplicate it at home soon.  Others at our table enjoyed the braised cardoons but I did not taste them.  I also ate the braised short rib, a favorite of mine. It was delicious with a rich thick slightly sweet gravy but was no better than I make at home.

All-in-all we had a very good meal with exceptional wines.  With so many interesting places to eat in Portland I'm not thinking I'll be heading right back - though on our next visit we might just buy a selection of Olympic Provisions charcuterie as a prelude to a home cooked meal.  Mainly, when I go out to a restaurant like this I hope to eat something astounding, something I'd never though of or that I can not easily reproduce at home. Though the food was very good - I did not really find that at Olympic Provisions. I enjoyed a very good meal with family in nearly perfect space served by a competent wait staff.

A Pleasant Surprise

"... it was doubtless made for an opinionated older man past his greatest strength but still enthusiastic, with good taste and a limited budget."   John Hill 

The January/February issue of Shoorting Sportsman magazine arrived the other day and after dinner I sat down to page through the new issue.  Imagine my surprise when, turning the page, I saw the word "Sidley".  "Ha!" I thought.  "Someone else has a Sidley."  And then I looked at the photo and realized it was MY Sidley!  Of course the author was Steve Bodio - and I knew the rest.  What a pleasant surprise.

Shooting Sportsman, Jan/Feb 2013, pp. 102

As readers of this blog know, the Sidley came to me from Steve Bodio in a "trade" earlier this year. I  subsequently had good success with it in my local grouse and snipe coverts.  Since then I've had no luck finding any reference to then name "Sidley" anywhere.  It is probably the name of a English ironmonger who decided to market some shotguns under his own name.  The name engraved on the action and barrels of my boxlock remains a mystery.

New (old) truck

2004 Tacoma Double Cab 4X4 TRD Off Road

Bought this truck in Denver yesterday to replace my old faithful Tacoma. On the way down we test drove a couple of new ones - damn they are big.  This one has 77,000 fewer miles than my old one and, overall, the condition on this one is much better than the one we lost.  It's silver, not white like the old one, but really it's more gray than silver. Things could be much worse.

Truck woes.

Damn!

A bad week last week. We lost the Tacoma in a rollover accident in an ice storm.  Thankfully, the driver (who shall remain unnamed) only sustained a minor concussion and was otherwise unhurt.  The roads were icy and, even going 20 MPH under the speed limit, an ice patch resulted in a sideways skid off the road and a 450° roll.

It was a 2004 Toyota Tacoma 4WD Double Cab with the TRD Off Road package.  I bought it new in 2004 and eight years later it had 187,900 miles on it.  We used it hard. It had virtually new new pair of Goodyear Wangler LT 235/85R16 tires on it.  Perhaps worst of all was that less than week before I paid $700 to have the door fixed and a bumper fixed. The door got away from me in a 60 MPH wind and blew open bending the hinges. We had it remounted on the hinges.  The bumper had been damaged for years after I hit an antelope. The deductible was $500, just about what a new bumper cost so I kept putting it off; until two weeks ago. That truck took me many places only 4-Wheelers dare to tread.

My truck in better days - sighting in.

This means I need a new truck, and the need for a new truck has put the brakes on a gun trade I was working on.   Can't really say there is any truck I'd rather have than the one I lost - so I've been looking at used ones like it. They are hard to find classics and they go for top dollar and tend to have a few more miles than I'd like for the money.  Toyota started changing the body style of the Tacoma in 2005 and since then they mostly look to me like they've been pumped up on steroids. The white color was great for the dog - the truck stays cool even on hot days in the summer - but I'm not sure I'll get another white one.  Somehow the later model white ones are not as appealing. Probably the big white bumpers on them.

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Lifted 2009 Tacoma Access Cap in Pyrite Mica with a Softtopper.

I do like this one (not for sale) but I need to find something quickly and they're somewhat rare in this brown color - which will not be as good for the dog.  I liked the double cab for all the room inside (locked space).  I think the extended cab (Toyota calls it an Access Cab) probably has enough room in the back.