I’m relieved that our Indigenous Summer was short lived, giving way to crisp autumn air, fresh pressed apple cider and that last hustle to any water high enough to keep trout on the pre-winter feedbag. Things have been busy on the fishing front this trout season, with a lot of firsts.

Tied my first flies. Caught the first fish with one of them flies. Landed my first brown since picking up fly fishing in earnest. The first group fishing trip organized by yours truly came off well. (My strategy counted on keeping everyone stuffed with good food in the event fishing was poor. Got lucky. It wasn’t.)

And I made a first attempt at mentoring a gentleman considering joining the sport. The downside is that he’ll now have to unlearn the bad habits I taught him.

In a month I’ll inaugurate the first of hopefully many end-of-season visits to the cabin to do the last bit of trout fishing before the mid November close. I’m trying my level best to balance the need desire to remove myself from the world via fly fishing with daily commitments and responsibilities, but dates in my mind increasingly are filtered by the opening days of various rivers or Sierra Nevada passes. The wife already knows that any suggestion of travel prompts my immediate inquiry about the inclusion of a fishing day.

Leaving tomorrow for the Seattle area will mean visiting family, gazing slack-jawed at spawning salmon and probably tip toeing between raindrops. And like fly fishing, planning and anticipation is half the fun.

According to General Motors E-Flex spokesman Rob Peterson, the automaker has reached an agreement with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) that would see the 2011 Chevy Volt get a unique classification different from other current hybrids. This new classification takes into account the fact that the Volt’s 40-mile battery range allows it to complete the bulk of the emissions and economy test procedure without ever running the engine, which would likely give it a mpg rating of 100 mpg or better. [On AutoBog.com]

FYI, the EPA hybrid testing cycle currently requires that dual-power vehicles “…complete the test cycle with a charged battery.” This dooms the Volt to an overall 48 mpg rating — Prius and Civic hybrid territory.

According to GM, the Volt doesn’t use any fuel for the first 40 miles of driving, but having to end the cycle with a full battery will require the use of gasoline for recharging. So, based on GM’s argument, which implies thinking that the Volt shouldn’t have to end the testing cycle with a full battery, drivers shouldn’t be concerned with the second 40 miles, during which the Volt’s mpg will fall.

Assuming the Volt gets 50 mpg with the gasoline engine running to charge the battery, its actual mpg rating should require a sliding scale. 

Taking into account that the car can go 40 miles using no gas, if one where to drive 50 miles, during the last 10 miles it would use about 0.2 gallons, equaling 250 mpg.

While the average commute for U.S. workers nears 50 miles a day, add any additional miles — pick up the kids, groceries and that coffee iced double tall soy latte — and the rule of diminishing returns comes into play. Add another 30 miles for a total of 80 miles (40 on battery/40 with the engine running) and the total fuel economy falls to about 100 mpg.

Visit the relatives 300 miles away, and the Volt’s mpg dips to 62.5.

This is without including the cost of the electricity to charge the Volt when plugged in. And assuming 50 mpg with the engine running. And assuming driving only on flat ground. (I know from experience that the Prius mpg drops significantly going up hills.)

Does this mean an electric-only vehicle, which doesn’t have a gasoline tank, get ∞ miles per gallon?

Perhaps the EPA should determine mileage over a testing regime that runs for the equivalent of a tank of gasoline, say 400 miles?  Sort of like us consumers do?

The truth is somewhere in between, to be sure.

Leonard held a fishing rod outfitted with 15-pound line, which the gar could easily have snapped if the angler rushed things. So Leonard fought the fish for about an hour, letting it dive, reeling it in, then letting the fish run some more.

Finally, he dragged the fish to shore. “I was whooped,” said Leonard. “My arms were sore.”

But not too sore to pick up a .380 handgun. Bang! Bang! The gar lay still.

Read more here by clicking here.

Herbert Hoover fishing the Klamath River at Brown's Camp, Calif.

While that hard-hitting bastion of political commentary, Field & Stream, didn’t dig up much news when it comes to presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, an underlying current hints at a convert, nearly imperceptible effort to divide and conquer the fly fishing world.

On the Field & Stream Web site and in the current issue, interviews with both candidates hit the usual high points: the environmental and energy, gun control, the Clean Water Act, etc.

Meanwhile, the more important truths come out in the details.

In response to Deputy Editor Anthony Licata’s question, “Do you fish?” McCain responds:

Oh, I fish all the time. I fish for catfish. I fish for bass. I fish for bluegill that all are on our property [in a small pond] and in Oak Creek, which is our property up in northern Arizona. It’s on Oak Creek. Also, there is a fish hatchery that’s down from us — not on the property — obviously the state fish hatchery, trout, but I have to admit to you I’ve never caught one of their trout. Maybe they’ve never put them into the creek near our home.

Roughfishermen¹, and by default that includes brownliners², McCain may be your man.

But contrast grows, albeit not to the levels of black and white, when Obama answers the question, “What do you like to do outside?”

…one of the pleasures of being a presidential candidate has been traveling all across the country, and we spent quite a bit of time in Montana recently. And I’ve got to say that I am absolutely certain that one way or another, after this presidential process is over, whether — because I lose or because I win — and I’ve got a little vacation time coming, I’m going to learn how to fly fish, because that land is spectacular.

Obama: the hope of the blueliners³?

Admittedly and sadly, I probably disdain the divisiveness of politics more than any rabid and fanatical supporter of the Democratic party or GOP⁴. But I can’t help but wonder if we’d all be better off if any sitting president spent more time fishing⁵.

² From “brownliners”: Those fishermen who dare to chase water fish is to be found in the aforementioned warmer, urban waters and irrigation ditches.

³ Those fishermen who chase the wily trout in snow-fed, crystal clear waters, such as alpine streams, spring creeks and wild rivers.

⁴ Ironically, southern Democrats first used the “grand old party” nickname and the Democratic party is, in fact, the older of the two political factions. The term was allowed to slip from the hands of the democrats    co-opted by the republicans used by the press in reference to Republicans in 1884 with the election of Ulysses S. Grant. (In the early days of the automobile, the “GOP” nickname gained another popular, although fleeting, translation: “Get Out and Push.”)

⁵ Fishing presidents, good and bad, include Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Grover Cleveland, Jimmy Carter, Dwight D. Eisenhower and George Washington. FDR had a special chair built into his boats to allow him to fish. Eisenhower tried to teach vice-presidential running mate Richard Nixon to fly fish. (“It was a disaster,” Nixon admitted. “After hooking a limb the first three times, I caught my shirt on the fourth try. The lessons ended abruptly.”) Jimmy Carter loved fishing but admitted to being “piscatorially retarded.” And George Washington was, for a time, a commercial fisherman.

On day two of the Fly Fishing Retailer Show, Simms Fishing Products announced that it would stop using felt soles on its wading boots by 2010. While other boot makers offer rubber-soled wading boots, I think Simms is the first to ban felt from their entire line. The press release on Specialty News Web site sums it up:

[Simms President K.C.] Walsh said Simms’ decision to do away with felt is a result of the material being implicated in the spread of aquatic nuisance species and fish-killing disease. Walsh noted that anglers have always been among the nation’s first wave of conservationists, and with options to felt now on the market, anglers had a responsibility to both the resource and the tradition of angling to cease their use of felt.

Granted, the decision wasn’t made in a vacuum:

Late last week, national conservation leader Trout Unlimited asked at its annual meeting that wading boot manufacturers phase out felt by 2011.

While anglers are noted for an environmental consciousness and Simms professes to be “…eager to lead the charge” in leaving felt soles behind, it didn’t have to do so. The fact is it did.

Wonder if American auto makers might have benefited from adopting this approach a few years ago? Scary to think that because of a lack of forward thinking or opting to build what consumers might need — instead of selling them on bigger and faster — that we can no longer apply the idea of “too big to fail” to the big American auto makers, or, for that matter, any industry. Just ask AIG or Lehman Brothers.

Credit: Eric Gay, Associated Press

Read more: “(Hurricane) Ike: A Fish Story“

While the ASVAB would point me towards logistics in the U.S. Army and local community college’s career assessment would suggest fish and game warden or interior designer carpenter, not once was it revealed that scratching out a living in a rock and roll or funk or reggae band might nicely dovetail with fly fishing.

A story in The Destin Log tells of how Justin Powell’s four-piece Fly Brothers Band arose from “…this silly idea of forming a band so we could go around and fish all these hotspots.”

There’s an elegant simplicity to it — get paid to play all night then wake up and play on the water during the day. Sure, a few morning hatches might be missed thanks to the occasional and probable hangovers that come with the job.

It seems, however, that the monkey’s thrown the wrench into Mr. Powell’s plans…success may poison his plans. With real work comes dusty fly rods.

The following All Points Bulletin was issue on September 12, 2008
CURRENT STATUS: Alarming

INFORMATION REGARDING RELEASE OF NEW (PROBATIONARY)
DRIVER ON THE PUBLIC ROADS OF THE UNITED STATES

ADAM K.

AGE: 15½ | HT: 5’9” (175.3 CM) | WT: 157 LBS. (79.3 KG)
HAIR: BROWN | EYES: BROWN

ADAM IS A SOPHOMORE STUDENT AT ST. PATRICK-ST. VINCENT HIGH SCHOOL IN VALLEJO, CALIFORNIA, WHO REFUSES TO STOP GROWING AND AS A CONSEQUENCE HAS BEEN GRANTED A PROVISIONAL DRIVING PERMIT. HE WAS LAST SEEN FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2008 AT APPROXIMATELY 1845 HOURS LEAVING HOME IN THE TOWN OF BENICIA IN THE COMPANY OF A SWEET SISTERS DRIVING INSTRUCTOR IN A LATE-MODEL BURGUNDY FORD MUSTANG. FOUL PLAY IS NOT SUSPECTED THOUGH HIS PROVISIONAL DRIVING PERMIT WAS DISCOVERED TO BE MISSING AND MAY BE IN HIS POSSESSION. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT HE MAY BE ATTEMPTING TO CONTROL THE VEHICLE.

If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Adam and when he might be driving on public roads please alert family members and friends and give him a wide birth.

Wear a mask, go to prison.

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There’s no doubt that Bill’s accounts of his and his wife’s wanderings down to and in the lower 48 from the “confined space” unabashed luxury of a thirty nine foot and eleven inch Itasca motor home will give rise to a bit of envy among we-who-still-must-earn-a-living.

Then, in only his second post, Bill shamelessly drives the stake a bit deeper…

For those of you that are wondering where we’re ultimately moving to, or whether we’re returning to Alaska, we’ve finally reached the point where we’re OK with saying that we just don’t know. Over the years, we’ve changed our minds so many times (I believe the official estimate was 463 at last count) that I think we’ve given friends and family mental whiplash, so we’re finally just saying that as soon as we know, you will too.

Wish we all could be that “OK.”

Thankfully, Bill’s blog will be countered with more truthful accounts complemented with alternative tales of their aimless trek across the North American continent by his wife’s four-month-old blog: Birding and Other Chatter.

See you in the blogsphere.