A return client called last nite to book a trip later this month. He said this website was down. Wondered if i was done guiding. Or dead.

No to both queries. Still here. Still guiding, with plans to do so as long as I can take folks out on the Immortal River safely.

There is no fog in the valley this morning. Doppler radar says we’ll see some rain about 8 a.m. I know the fish are already wet BUT i don’t need an immersion experience in their environment to get in touch with fish lips since i’m not on the clock today.

The website was down because i let the goDaddy account lapse. Too busy fishin’ to bow at the shiny object throne. Getting back on-line was an experience. Catch-22, pretty much of my own making.

Common sense and human communication not allowed. Kinda like dealing with USCG credential renewal. Reminds me of an ordeal when I was a rookie on the Beloit Fire Dept. about 1980. As a young paramedic i was assigned to the ambo. No EVOC training prior to getting behind the wheel. Driving an ambulance is not like driving a pickup truck. I was involved in two fender benders in as many weeks, called into the chief’s office.

The chief gave me a memorandum of Understanding which stated “firefighter Peck is not allowed to drive until he can prove he can drive”. When asked how I could achieve this goal he told me to get the hell out of his office.

I was extra cautious for the next few months. This self taught lesson was needed before the MOU was issued. The result was requiring EVOC training (Emergency Vehicle Operation Course) before getting behind the wheel.

This was the 1st of three incidents I was responsible for that forced change in BFD operations. Maybe the most significant was changing BFD Standard Operating Procedures to Standard operating GUIDELINES.

Fire seldom behaves by the numbers. Calling an audible at the line is often necessary to save lives and property.

Working on the mighty Mississippi as a fishing guide is a lot like that. It takes me an hour to find a fish catching pattern every single day–even though i’m out there about 5 days per week.

Maybe the most important dynamic in fish catching success is the fact that the fish get a vote too. A myriad of dynamics from bug hatches to water clarity, barometric pressure, wind & water temperature changes and other factors come into play.

Sometimes you can catch fish all day long. Other times all the stars only line up for a couple hours, most often at dawn & dusk.

We start coming out of this pattern–pretty much–in August. Temps tend to cool off overnite, causing profound fog conditions most mornings until about 8 a.m. Sometimes 10 a.m.

Weeds start dying off and moving downstream about mid-month. Weeds were a factor already a couple days last week. Weed die-of is a mixed blessing. Weeds make lure presentation tougher, but dying weeds also mean forage has fewer places to hide.

by this point in summer young of year baitfish populations are at their highest. More competition for something that looks like food with hooks, but swimming in a food buffet tends to cause a lack of discretion in the finny critters you are chasing.

Bottom line: you can’t catch any fish if your line is out of the water. That’s why I’ll be heading there when the rain let’s up.

tight lines!