The Global War On Cyprinids (GWOC)

Joint Resolution

To authorize the use of Imperial Roughfish Armed Forces against those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the Roughfish Empire.

Whereas, on January 24, 2013, acts of political dissent, treason, and terrorism, were committed against the Roughfish Empire and its citizens; and

Whereas, such acts render it both necessary and appropriate that the Roughfish Empire exercise its rights to self-defense and to protect Roughfish citizens both at home and abroad; and

Whereas, in light of the threat to the national security and foreign policy of the Roughfish Empire posed by these grave acts of treason and terrorism; and

Whereas, such acts continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the Roughfish Empire; and

Whereas, the Emperor has authority to take action to deter and prevent acts of treason and terrorism against the Roughfish Empire: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Security Council of the Roughfish Empire assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This joint resolution may be cited as the `Global War On Cyprinids'.

SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF IMPERIAL ROUGHFISH ARMED FORCES.
(a) IN GENERAL- That the Emperor is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those cyprinids he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the acts of treason and dissent that occurred on January 24, 2013, or harbored such cyprinids, in order to prevent any future acts of of treason or terrorism against the Roughfish Empire by such cyprinids.
(b) That the Emperor is authorized to establish the creation of a Special Warfare Unit, assigned to the task of infiltration, suppression, and termination of Cyprinid command, with extreme prejudice.


Admiral of the Imperial Roughfish Armed Forces.
Secretary-General of the Security Council and

Emperor of the Roughfish Empire

Ride of the Valkyries

Everything you need for Beaver Island and then some. Mustache Rides and Landing Strips.


Carp beware! Charlie don't surf.

home on the range

My XD45 just got a little brother, the Springfield Armory XD9SC, a sub compact chambered in 9mm. The 9mm round is not my ideal cartridge for a service weapon, as I would favor the .40 S&W instead as it is a ballisticly superior round. Cost, however, is a main concern these days, and with many law enforcement agencies switching back from .40 S&W to the 9mm, ammunition for my XD9SC has just become a lot more affordable than for the XD40 I used to own. Add to the fact that my XD9SC is going to be primarily used as a conceal carry weapon, it's small frame and high capacity magazine will prove to be more effective than the XD40. A little carnage at the range, 350 rounds of cheap russian steel and some american brass. Besides, if I ever need to pack some big heat, I'll just carry my .45.

eXtreme Duty

Say hello to my little friend...



What do you do when the rivers are STILL blown high and wide? You hit the gun range and brush up on your tactical shooting skills, that's what. My home river has been in flood stage since runoff began in late March, and even still, it was near record flows before then throughout the previous summer, fall, and winter. Rendering the river near unfishable for the fly guy, and extremely difficult for even the bait tosser, I haven't spent a ton of time on the water this summer. With no relief in sight, the only thing I can do is grin and bear it, and focus on another pastime of mine, shooting. The firearm du jour is a Springfield Armory XD 45, chambered in .45 ACP. This badboy has got the knock down power to subdue even the brashest of criminals, and will serve duty as a back up firearm while out in the field and woods should any bears, cats, 'yotes, or rogue wolves threaten my well being.


That's gonna leave a mark... 230 grains of hurt.


It's a bit of jump moving from the XD 40 chambered in .40 S&W to the .45, but after a few hundred rounds under my belt, I'm already becoming accustomed to the extra oomph as the XD 45 fires as smooth as buttah. Looks like I found a trusty new companion.

Grand Traverse Bay - The Pre Party

The plan was to roll into Traverse City early to do a little pre-fishing with Brother Matt Dunn. Beaver Island was the main objective of the trip, but Grand Traverse Bay is no slouch either. After a quick lunch and license purchase, we rolled up to the tip of Old Mission Point. First mistake of the trip, I left my polarized glasses in the truck back at the hotel. Oops. Luckily in crystal clear water, it is fairly easy to locate fish under bright sunny conditions. I somehow spot a shadow in the water and tell Matt to cast to it. He successfully hooks up with a beautiful golden bone and we think the day is getting off to a great start. We proceed to find hundreds of fish cruising around the flats. Cast after cast, some of them so on the money that you can't write up a finer presentation in a text book, but no takers. Every single one of these fish had a case of the lockjaw. No worries, though, I grab a Hurricane High Gravity on the way back to the hotel and settle in for the evening.


The next day was a complete 180 from the day prior. The wind shifted direction, picked up in gusts, and brought clouds and rain with it. As we scouted the flats, we could not find a single fish where we had found hundreds the day before. We regrouped and headed back to the hotel where the mouth of the Boardman entered the lake. I rigged up a new pattern I whipped up the night before, the Mustache Ride, and proceed to swing my flies along the bottom at the mouth of the river. I was surprised as I managed to dredge up a few smallies off the bottom in relative short order. Now, I was in my element. Matt and I hooked up several decent smallmouth, a white sucker, and one corpulent lake run brown who looked like it was about to pop. The day was salvaged.




Some new blood arrived and joined up with us in Traverse City; Caleb Reinhold and Bill Konway were joining us on Beaver Island. We grabbed dinner and headed to an Irish pub for some local flavor. Third Coast was responsible for the entertainment that evening, half price stouts courtesy of "Guy's Night" (I didn't know there was such a thing), foosball, and a late night run to the border, involving more burritos than you could load a ferry with. Good times...



Coming up next: getting to Beaver Island.

Gonzo

And I am outta here.


Catch the latest reports from Beaver Island at the roughfisher.com Facebook Fan Page. I'll be back in June.

New Blood

Fresh on the heels of reports that the US Navy Seals vanquished that bastard bin Laden, I finished my AR-22 build. Complete with Magpul furniture, big brother now has a little brother to kick around.



Just be careful son, little brother may be smaller, but he still packs quite a punch.

The Chimes of Freedom

It has come to my understanding that there is a small faction of my viewership, or should I say former viewership, that is unhappy with my recent posts on firearms. To all you folks out there who don't believe in our right to bear arms, well, you can all go and fuck yourselves. That's right, I said it; I don't really care if you don't follow the blog anymore. The Second Amendment is a core of the foundation of our great nation, whether you choose to believe it or not. I'm not going to go into a rant on here on why the Second Amendment is a necessary component of our freedom, or of the merits of gun ownership, but I will give you a virtual bitch slap for comparing my responsible ownership of a firearm to a violent crime committed by some dipshit who disrespects life.

This is not an issue of Left or Right. Gun crimes and deaths unfortunately occur across the country every year, but so do malpractice deaths, vehicular accidents, lung cancer deaths, poisonings, falls, etc. Yet, if you look at the actual numbers, gun deaths are one of the lowest causes of death. Don't believe me, then take a look at the facts. So how can some "hippie fly fisherman who listens to the Dead", support guns and gun ownership? Because I am an American first and foremost, and transcend above labels and stereotypical ideology.

For those who may ask why a fly angler needs guns, the answer is simple, I like to harvest my own fly tying materials as well as provide the occasional meal to my family. While I don't feel obligated to justify the needs nor defend my rights to gun ownership, I will say that a game animal taken in the humane manner of hunting suffers far less in providing its flesh and hide than any livestock slaughtered from a feed lot. For those fly anglers or tyers who think that they are above the need for guns or weapons of any form in order to participate in this sport, think again. Hand over those flies. Hell, handover those gotdamned $50 Abel nippers hanging from your vest, as the TSA likely classifies that as a weapon too.

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

I don't tolerate violence of any form, but in the course of preserving freedom, understand that sometimes it is a necessary evil to bear arms in order to defend the rights that made this great nation what it is today. The very fact that we are able to voice opinion in an open forum without fear of persecution or even death (unlike the folks in Libya, Egypt, Turkey, the list goes on and on) is a very testament to the rights many have served and died to protect. For all those servicemen and women and members of the law enforcement community, I want to thank you for your service. To all of the men and women who have died while in the line of duty, there is nothing that I can do or say other than to proudly honor your memory for sacrificing your lives defending the freedoms of our great nation. You will not be forgotten.

Range Report

Dialed In.

3" stick on Shoot-N-C target at 25 yards. Group is just a bit high, but considering the reticle on my red dot sight is 3 MOA, it's really not a bad group at all.

Liberty And Justice For All

the peacemaker

Awake the iron!

Desperta Ferro!

Don't Tread On Me

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Goddamn, well I declare

Have you seen the like?

Their walls are built of cannonballs,

their motto is Don't Tread on Me

Build It

If you're looking to waste a few minutes online (or an hour) and you like guns, I've got the perfect site for you. Developed for airsoft no doubt, Dr. Noob provides the ultimate fantasy for most any gun build. They even have a full assortment of Magpul furniture, Troy hand guards, battle sights, and most other popular AR accessories to play mock up with.


It's actually a pretty nice tool to see a virtual build of your gun with various accessories before you lay down the cash for a new set of rails or optics. That way you can verify that your new set up will be tacticool before you even install it. The above image is a snapshot of my future build.

Tacticool

I want, no NEED one of these. Smith and Wesson M&P 15-22 MOE Edition Rifle, for the mall ninja in all of us.

Money Shot

Photo used by permission from Michael Gracie © 2010

A big thanks to Michael Gracie for not leaving me out to die after a severe bout with "altitude sickness".


Stay tuned for the full recap on the DSP.

The Seven Year Itch

Got crabs clams? My boy MG is finally taking a cue from the roughfisher and getting his tippet wet with some bearded clams. Seems he's been spotted peepin' on a bunch of caprs hoovering up clams like they were going out of style. He's nasty! Being the master voyeur that I am, I handed over a few top tips to Señor Chrome Dome on how to lead the donkey through the barn door. Ol' Gracie prefers his clams Brazilian style: nicely shorn and sparkly. Wait until you see them wet.


Here's a refresher in case your bitch ass forgot how bitchin' my Darth Clam And Zebra mussel patterns are. Photo courtesy of my foot in your ass.


The Darth Clam 2.0, specially modified for the DSP. Putrid piss green shell and an arsenic tan colored siphon. Radioactive sparkle courtesy of glitter flavored Hard as Nails. Optional foot played out by olive glimmer flash chenille. All on a nasty strong curved carp hook. Included are a few variations to keep them caprs on their fins.


Y'all ain't got nuttin' on me.

How about a clam sandwich?

Gung Ho

Brothers John Montana and Wendy Berrell tore it up last weekend on the Mighty Columbia. Pictured is Wendy holding an impressive twenty pound mirror carp. Looks like they bitch slapped the competition. Check out their exploits over at Carp on the Fly.

Note: No fish were disrespected during this massacre.

Crack Kills

The Global War On Carp is steadfast, upheld by our staunchest defenders of the Republic. The latest drug to hit the streams, Carp Crack, is an underhanded effort by the Republic to undermine the lines of the Rebel forces and cause decay from within. The Republic will utilize all means necessary, chemical or biological, to achieve our objectives.


We will stand strong and not relinquish our guard. We will endure the campaign through victory. We are the brave, the proud, the awesome, Brownliners.

Pirates of the Columbia: Part 4

Epilogue:


I arrived in PDX on a redeye and we headed East after a short nap. The weather was gonna be a big factor this trip. The winds were howling from the west, hard, right down the gorge. It was utter madness, as we watched swells rolling upstream in the three to four foot range. This was not gonna be good.



The problem with a west wind is that you can not find good cover on a lee side, protected from the wind. A few of the big fish haunts were completely off the table because of this. We tried anyway and insufferably failed; the water was murky and the waves rolled high. They were completely unfishable. Time for plan B.


After much discussion and deliberation we concluded that we needed to move off the big fish water and take the risk of possible lower winds but also smaller fish. You always wonder in the back of your mind if you made the right decision, but with a solid week of steady winds in the 20 to 30 mph range and higher gusts, it was gonna take a good long time before the sediment settled out at those spots. To rub salt in our wounds, the water level in the pool we were fishing was being raised by the ACOE for smolt migration. Plans C and D quickly fell apart and before we knew it, we were on to plan Z: completely winging it with our balls slapping in the breeze.



At least the one thing we could rely on was fly selection, the San Juan Worm and the Montana Carrot. It didn't really matter which fly they were hitting on for a particular day since we fished a dropper rig. If they weren't eating the worm, they were eating the carrot. I tell you what, if you don't normally fish a dropper rig, and you don't typically use overhead casts, it can be quite the challenge sight casting to fish in a 30 mph head wind. Let me just say that in that wind, there was a fair amount of time spent untangling leaders that got wrapped around my rod.




There were a lot of flubbed casts. I stuck my fingers a few too many times with those vintage Mustad hooks we were sporting, drawing blood. I cautiously traversed the rocks and the mud flats. There were a lot of "oh shit" moments as I would slip on the slimy rocks near shore, nearly going in for a dunk. I watched waves crash against our chests out on the flats. The wind relentlessly threatened to take our hats for a ride out into the main channel. I kept licking my lips to taste the crust of salt. If you would have dropped me out of a plane blind folded, I would have swore we were fishing salt.



I learned a few things on this trip. First and foremost is that John Montana is a fucking ninja when it comes to hooking up with fish on the flats. If he can put a fly in a carp's face, it will take it, case closed. This guy can outfish you four to one; he did it to me. Also, if you really want to clean up on the fish, you need to put that fly to the left or right of their nose by about six inches, no more, no less. Third, that dropper rig is fucking money. There is a reason that John Montana is the Carpfather. He is the king of the flats.

Dude, teach me.


I got a fifteen, but I'm still hunting for that twenty, that thirty. I'll be back. You watch....


Fin