Welcome 2012 & Unreported Fall 2011 Happenings

Well, here's hoping everyone had pleasant memories of 2011. I'm looking forward to 2012.

...Christmas ice-skating, some played hockey, on an unnamed lake with family in northern California, to be specific Weed CA.  This actually is a video wishing everyone Merry Christmas & Happy New Year..but I'm so techno-challenged I can't get it to download & play via the blog.

Fall of 2012 awarded us with great fly fishing...thanks to the previous year's tremendous snowfall. There were other non-ffing events I didn't report. Here are some...

Truckee River Day*, Ocober 16...the Little Truckee's Meadow section; one of the day's varied volunteer water-related projects throughout the Truckee area that day....

Planting willows for bank stabilization at the tail-out of Papa's Pool

The 3rd annual Gilligan's Rib BBQ competition; October 15. This year's winner was from Texas! In 2012 it will probably go international...good-time had by all.

    The first annual "give us back our rivers" Tahoe-Truckee Fly Fishers' FISH-IN...mid-November

Early November....pursuing Steelhead on the Trinity.

....and visiting friends in Redding

          Splitting Firewood for the winter...which hasn't arrived yet!!

*A personal gauge to see who helps out with "hands-on" projects on the local waters One of the three (3) prerequistes for being a fully commited GIVER...as opposed to being a total TAKER

ThanksGiving...on the Wrong Coast?

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Virginia with "extended family" at their second home on the shores of the Rappahannock river in the "Northern Neck" of Chesapeake Bay. Suffice it to says we ate lots of food, read books & magazines, hiked, watched lots of football, both college and the pros...overwhelmingly, did a lot of nothing......it was a perfect holiday.

Since we were surprise visitors for our friends' children, I did not have an option to check-out fly fishing opportunities available. I wanted to surprise my fly-fishng-fool "adopted" nephew with a guided trip on local waters...hoping we had a chance at in-shore Stripers.For sure, next year I'll bring some gear. This Large Mouth Bass was caught and released by Morgan Wells, a neighbor, it was encountered in a 10-12 acre pond a mile from where we stayed. The next day he got another one a bit smaller.

Here's a view from the back-deck, here we BBQ'd, had cocktails, read, relaxed and witnessed beautiful sunsets. The weather was perfect, in the 70's with mild breezes. We roasted hot-dogs and ate "smores" by the fire-pit in the evenings.

...of course we had to sample the local bounty; fresh oysters purchased from the local "waterman".

The "connection"; Karen and her long-time good buddy, Alston.

Our nephew (Alston's son), Ryan Johnson, Ally and their two children, Sage and Drake. The enclave  is called "Little Florida" because of similarities to the more southerly state.