Looking back I realized that I started this blog eleven years ago this month.
Continue readingoregon
Oregon 2018 Part 3: How to Catch a Sturgeon on the Fly
The demise of our inflatable boat changed my fishing strategy. I had planned on using the boat to fish for carp on a number of backwaters and lakes connected to the Columbia River. Instead, I had to focus on places with shoreline access. Despite this turn of events, the fishing only got better and the fish only got bigger. I landed a couple of chunks and just missed one beast that was probably over thirty pounds.
Oregon 2018 Part 2: Listing to Starboard
The view from Oregon to Washington
Ever since we started visiting the Columbia Gorge, Tara has wanted to paddle across the river from Oregon to Washington (visiting different states is a bit of an obsession for people from Hawaii). Last spring we packed up our Sea Eagle inflatable kayak and brought it to our cottage on the Columbia River. I was excited to be able to take it out on the water this summer but the boat was going on ten years old and it had not been inflated in over a year so I decided to start small and work up to an interstate adventure. Continue reading
Oregon 2018 Part 1: Mount Hood Country
Good beer with good friends
Mount Hood National Forest
SUP on the Columbia
Swimming in the John Day River
We are back to our regular lives in Honolulu. Back to our cat, our garden, our jobs, and back to the salt – the waves, the tides and trade winds, bonefish and papio. A month away is a long time. Significant things happen in a month, and mundane things too, like old water heaters and broken gutters. Things are lost and gained, friends met or missed, places changed or discovered.
July was a pretty big adventure. A lot happened. I will try to put the best of it into words, especially the fishing, but the memories are already blurring a bit. I can’t help but be reminded of the timeless words of Norman Maclean: “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.” Or, perhaps, I am just getting older. Continue reading
Pilgrimage
I have gone papio fishing a few times this Summer, but mostly I have been fly fishing. It’s not that I prefer fly fishing, rather it is that I have an ulterior motive. Continue reading
Standing Ovation
One beautiful summer evening after a dinner of tacos and beer at the Trillium Cafe, Tara and I took a walk. We followed Hood River from downtown, stopping to eat a few fat blackberries before making our way onto The Spit, a narrow park extending into the Columbia River. Continue reading
Urban Legend
I grew up next to an old cemetery on a hill. The founder of the city, Eugene Skinner was buried there in 1864. Back then the city of Eugene was also known as “Skinner’s Mudhole” due to the seasonal flooding in that part of the Willamette Valley. Continue reading
Carps and Yurts
We spent July in Oregon. I got my trout fishing fix for the year and was also able to sneak away to the Columbia Gorge for a few days of carp fishing. Continue reading
Tenkara Plus
Tara and I took a trip to Oregon in the end of June, our first visit since moving back to Honolulu three years ago. It was wonderful to visit with all of my brothers, to catch up with some dear friends and to reconnect with some old friends too.
Of course I brought along my tenkara rod and managed to fit in some quality trout fishing too. After returning home I put together a short article which Daniel Galhardo, the founder of Tenkara USA, was generous enough to post on the Tenkara USA website. You can read the article here.
The Fishing Dojo 