On the Water TV, Fishing TV, and You Tube

    As you can imagine, having back pain and managing my newfound diabetes I have done very little the last few moths. As you all know, I am very active. Days off from work usually meant leaving home to go birding or fishing before the sun came up. Evenings after work usually resulted in me finally eating supper after dark. That all changed late June 2022.

   For much of the past few months, I would only be vertical for a few hours before I'd have to lay down. Trying to read was impossible and so was being comfortable enough to watch tv. Many nights involved me going to bed between 6-7 pm. The highlight of my week would be my physical therapy sessions with my PT Ryan.

   Fortunately, my back is feeling somewhat better. I'm nowhere near healed and hiking will be in the far distant future. During the long winter hours I have found some interesting tv that has not only gotten me through but I learned something also.

    On the Water TV

   If you are a fisherman in New England, chances are have a subscription to On the Water Magazine. It is a great magazine. The writers are fisherman. If you have a good idea for an article, you can write a query to the editor. If he likes the idea he will give you the go ahead. The editor will read your submitted article and if it is well written, you will be published. You don't need to be a nationally famous writer to be in the magazine. I've written multiple articles for OTW before I fell in love with birding.

   On the Water has also been doing a tv show for almost twenty years. It is broadcast on Comcast New England. I had watched a few shows when I'd be home. I discovered this winter that their shows are available to watch on their website. Obviously they have been for a while, maybe years, but still, it was a nice discovery.

   I've watched all of the episodes that interest me. Some of the shows I've skipped over but from many I learned s lot. I'm probably not going to watch an episode about striper fishing with mackerel in Boston Harbor for two reasons. One, I don't own a boat so I won't be in Boston Harbor any time soon. Secondly, I've caught thousands of stripers so a show about them really doesn't interest me.

  That said, I have wanted to catch King Salmon from the Salmon River in New York for years. There are multiple episodes about the Salmon River and other Lake Ontario tributaries. You can bet I soaked them up. 

  There were many other episodes I enjoyed from party boat fishing in the canyons for Bluefin Tuna to Landlocked Salmon fishing in Maine. All in all, I have enjoyed watching and learning about fish that I've dreamed about for years.

   Fishing TV

   For months I've been getting adds on Facebook for Fishing TV. I finally checked it out. There is a seven day free trial followed by $6/ month streaming fee. The amount of content is very extensive and I've barely scratched the surface. Basically, you can watch shows or movies about fishing. There are many series. One that I just watched was called "Fishing Trip USA". It is hosted by an older Scottish gent. He started in the Keys and worked his way up the East Coast to Maine. He fished for everything from Snook in Florida, Stripers in NJ and Maine, and trout in Georgia. There are about twelve episodes.

  There is a search bar on Fishing TV. So if I type in Massachusetts, I can see anything that involves Mass fishing such as the famous Deerfield River. There are also categories such as Fly Fishing, Predator Fishing, and even Carp. I typed in Peacock Bass and watched multiple shows on them in the canals in Florida. I took notes on where they were caught and strategies to catch them. Not every show was up my ally, I want to catch them on lures so I skipped the episode catching them with shiners.

    Fishing TV is going to keep me busy learning and watching programs for the next couple of months. If my back is better in March, I'll cancel my subscription for the warm weather as I usually do with all streaming services because I'd rather be fishing for trout than watching a show about them.  You may want to check it out though. For six dollars/month it is a hell of a deal.

You Tube

   Okay, I did not just discover You Tube. I've been watching things on it for years. You Tube is great because you can watch anything on it. If I need to know how to set up new a tv I can find a video of someone demonstrating how.  Also, I've watched plenty of fishing on You Tube. The latest was watching a guy catch Flathead Catfish on the Susquehanna. Caching a huge catfish is on my bucket list.

   However, the main thing I've watched on You Tube the last few months has been music. You Tube is a godsend for the content it has of my radio heroes. At least one or two nights a week Laurie and I will just surf the tube watching videos and live performances mostly be singers that are now dead.

   I love classic country music. You Tube allows me to "see" the songs from musicians that may have died twenty years before I was born. Just last night we watched Hank Williams Sr sing  "I saw the light" and Conway Twitty sing "Lay You Down". We watched videos for hours so I won't bore you with every song. But we covered everyone from Waylon to Steve Earl. What an honor it is to see a young George Jones sing "He Stopped Loving her Today"

   Along with the classic country there is a ton of content from oldies and classic rock. Some of it brought back memories. When I was in 7th grade our fundraiser was music in the for of record albums. My mom bought a record to support the school by Elvis called GI Blues. This was the soundtrack for a movie he did after he got out of the service. Now, I have no idea where that old 33 is, but I can watch the King sing GI Blues and Frankfort Special.

    A few days ago, I watched almost the whole concert by Simon and Garfunkel's concert in Central Park from 1981. The Momma's and Pappa's did California Dreamin on the Ed Sullivan show and were told they had to lip sync it. While the others played along, Michelle Phillips ate a banana while performing. There's just thousands of  performances that I will never get to however, the nights we watch these videos are some of my fondest memories of this winter.

   Right now as I finish this up, I'm listening to Clapton at Live Aid in 1985. I'll never waste my time watching a cat do tricks or some twelve year old with his own channel, but  I feel we are lucky to watch our radio heroes sing songs that beats the hell out of the crap produced today.

   Streaming TV Shows

   I won't bore you with why I liked certain shows but here is a short list of shows I've watched this winter that I really enjoyed

    Wednesday (Netflix) aa good as advertised!

    Jack Ryan (Amazon Prime)

   Emily in Paris (Netflix) girly but fun

   National Treasure (Disney +)

   Andor (Disney +)

    All oft he Marvel stuff on Disney + is awesome

    Obi One (Disney+)

    George and Tammy (Hulu)

    OF COURSE Yellowstone!!! 

The Best Fishing Show in New England, The Fly Fishing Show in Marlboro

  Friday thru Sunday the Fly Fishing Show in Marlboro will be going on ( Jan 20-22). In my opinion, it is by far the best and most run well outdoors show in New England.  The show has everything for a fly fisherman. There are booths to buy everything from premier rods to dry flies. 

   All day long there are casting demonstrations in a casting pool. There is a large triple booth selling a library of fly fishing books. There are charter captain's and river guides advertising their expertise. You can talk to them at their table and pick up a flier, pamphlet or card. The nice thing about walking up and down these aisles is everything is fishing related. More and more, many outdoor shows are selling crap like garage doors, curtains, and tractors. I understand the marketing teams want to rent out all of the space so they'd rather rent space to a garage door company than leave it empty, but it does diminish the quality of the show. At the Fly Fishing Show, there is no such worry.

   The main reason I go to the Fly Fishing Show are the seminars. Each hour there are SIX seminars. Two of the seminars are in the Catch and Release rooms. These seminars are usually "how to". How to fish a nymph more effectively and fishing dry flies on still waters would be two examples. The other four seminars each hour are in Destination Theater. The seminar rooms are in a different building either a five minute walk up the parking lot or you can take a quick free shuttle.

   These seminars at Destination Theater are run by guides, charters, lodge owners, and authors. I live for these seminars and I can tell you I take a ton of notes. You would think that these guides would give you a general overview of an area, but they can give a lot of specific information. For example, the former owners of Lobstick Lodge in Pittsburg, NH talks about fishing the headwaters of the Connecticut River. The owner explains what fly patterns work best throughout the year. He goes right down the river with slides explaining the depth of each pool, what hatches you might encounter and the best riffle to cast for a salmon. Yes they really do get that specific. 

    Pretty much every presenter I have seen in a seminar has been top notch. You can find destinations as far away as Patagonia and Belize but also closer world class bucket list places such as the Upper Delaware (NY), Salmon River (NY) and Grand Lake Stream in Maine.  Just like Lopstick Outfitters, most guides will explain the water, the flies and seasons. Of course, if a lodge operator is doing the seminar they will go over accommodations. Some of these places like the Alaskan bush require a float plane ride and the only lodging for a hundred miles might be those cabins.

   On top of the How to seminars and Destination Theater there other ways to keep your interest up all day. Each hour there are fly tiers giving a talk on how to make specific flies. They make their fly in front of you with a magnifying glass attached to a tv screen so you can see how the flies are made without squinting.

   Also each hour, there will be either one or two authors in the Authors Booth. As I mentioned there is a bookstore selling a lot of different books. You can get many of them signed by the author during the show. I'm a sucker for where to books (such as Best Tailwaters in the Eastern United States). I got my copy signed while I was there.

   Lastly, besides all of the free seminars you can take half day classes with experts. These will cost you a few bucks, but the classes are small and you will learn from a true expert. Examples of these classes would be learning to cast further, Euro Nyphing, and Shoreline Night Fishing. I can not speak to how well done they are because I have never paid for one of these Featured Classes. However, I'd have to assume you'd learn a lot being taught by true celebrities in the fly fishing world. 

    If you go to the show on Friday and you don't want to leave when it is over, after the show is the International Fly Fishing Film Festival or IF4 for short. For an additional $15 (ten if you buy in advance) you can watch a film festival. The shows/movies are fairly short. I went to the IF4 a few years ago. They movies are made by fly fishermen. Some are just showing off the beauty of an area and the great fishing. Others are actually really funny and could rightly be called comedies.  The downside is it starts at 6:30 and continues a very long day. Still, if you have Saturday off, it might be worth staying for the IF4. 

    So there you have it, between all the gear and charters at the tables, how to seminars, destination theater, authors and fly tiers I can easily spend a day at the Fly Fishing Show. My plan this year if my back holds up is to go Friday and Sunday. There are so many seminars I want to see I need to go both days to see them all. Having Six Seminars and hour, there are multiple hours where there are more than one I want to see. If I go back on Sunday I can see everything. Again, here's to hoping my back makes it through two days of a lot of sitting. Below is the link to the show

https://flyfishingshow.com/marlborough-ma/

End of the Year Review

 

Cottonmouth, 
Alligator River NWR, 
June 2022

    Obviously I haven't blogged as much as I usually do. I'm still nursing a bad back and learning what I can and can not eat with diabetes. I do an End of the Year review each year. Normally each year has a "theme". These themes usually happen organically. One year I decided to trout fish all summer in New Hampshire. Another year All I did was surf cast for stripers and blues. Usually these themes just work themselves out and I usually don't plan them in January.

   This year was no different. I went on two vacations the first half of the year. One to DC to see cherry blossoms and Civil War battlefields. The second was to North Carolina where I saw a whole bunch of wildlife. Besides my vacations, my theme was going to be "herping". I spent much of the spring and early summer looking for snakes, frogs, turtles, and toads. I got very lucky and saw cottonmouths in North Carolina and three Black Racers in MA/RI. I had multiple lifers.

   Then reality hit me like an eighteen wheeler. Late June I hurt my back and have been basically laid up since. The second half of 2022 I did very little. As each month of pain went by, I was hopeful I'd be better the next month. Then by Christmas. None of this happened. As of now, I'm scheduled for two more MRIs and an Ultra Sound on my kidneys. I've been going to physical therapy for over three months. While my core and back have grown strong, the pain persists. So without question, the theme for 2022 was pain and trying to take care of my health.

Sometime in August I decided to write down my favorite memories from the first half of the year. They were only quick notes. Usually when I do an end of the year review I write about the birding, fishing, and wildlife I've seen. This year I just kept track of my favorite memories. So below, this probably isn't great reading material for you, but at least I will have a written copy of the things that made me happy.

  I do believe I got seven lifers this year ( Common Gull, Northern Fulmar, King Rail, Brown Booby, Red Cockaded Woodpecker, Yellow Bellied Flycatcher, Monk Parakeet). I left a lot of birds on the table because I was not willing to do the three hour round trip to Westerly, RI because my back kills while in a car. 

  If you read down the list, any fun that I had after North Carolina probably involved a pain killer or two so I could enjoy myself and also allow Laurie to enjoy herself without having to watch me in pain. 

Painted Bunting

Spring Peepers (actually seeing them)

RISD Museum

Blue Winged Teal /Muskrat/ Wilson's Snipe

Common Gull

Washington DC

    Cherry Blossoms

    Blackwater NWR (Sika Deer, Delmarva Fox Squirrel, King Rail, Carolina Chickadee, BH Nuthatch)

    VA Battlefields- Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness

Great Horned Owl and Pileated at Wollomonopaug

Plum Island May 12/13 Camping 

    May 20 Fallout Great photos of Wilson's Warbler, Blackburnian

 Yellow Throated Vireo, and Canada Warbler at Mia

Sue's King Rail

RI Pelagic - Northern Fulmar

Baltimore Checkerspot

North Carolina

   Monk Parakeets, Jamestown, Yorktown, Dolphin Cruise, NC Aquarium Camping at Hattaras Light (Chuck Wills, Common Nighthawk, Fireflies) Alligator River (Gators, Bears, Cottonmouth, Two Rat Snakes, Bobwhite, Barred Owls, Blue Grosbeak upgrade, Ash Throated Flycatcher, Spotted Turtle, Mud Turtle, Box Turtle)

   Red Cockaded Woodpecker, Brown Booby, Monk Parakeet  lifers

   Assateague Island Horses, Bombay Hook Black Necked Stilts

Northern Red Bellied Cooters at Myles Standish

Pickerel Frogs and baby Fowler's Toads at West Hill Dam and Northern Water Snake at River Bend Farm

 Black Racer at West Hill Dam jumping out of the net at me

Red Pharalope at Second Beach

Cape Ann Whale Watch

Buddy Holly Story North Shore Music Circus

Brown Booby from Cape Cronin

Dirty Deeds and One Night of Queen at Bold Point

Quashnet Wild Brook Trout

Jesse Liam concerts

Boothbay Harbor overnight

Yellow Bellied Flycatcher

Central MA camping trip Eastern Newt/ Bald Eagles

The Nutcracker

Was told on Christmas "I love you' by the person I have loved for over twenty years