Editor's Log
August 28, 2009
Greetings from Yamamoto Central!
Summer is winding down. It’s still hotter than the devil out west and there are enough European tourists around town to choke a rented mule, but the kids have started back to school so there’s an end to it. Back in the day, we started school in early September, right before Labor Day. The first week of school followed by a three-day weekend, a kid’s dream come true. I was even luckier; we always went camping Labor Day weekend which meant we’d take off Friday around noon. It seems outright crazy to me that this year the kids went back to school August 11th. That’s barely two months of summer. Less play, more work – I’m not such a fan.
Lately I feel I’m barely keeping my head above water in a giant sea of constantly streaming, never-ending, often updated information. Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink comes to mind. There’s no shortage of newsfeeds, twitter updates and iphone applications keeping me in the loop (do I really need this much help?). I’ve become a multi-tasker and trust me, I’m no good at it. So I’m making it a point to finish reading an article in full before I click on outside links that will take me away from it. I’m making it a point of listening to the entire news story before I switch to another channel. I’m making it a point of starting a task and actually finishing it before I start another. I’m making it a point to stop simply scratching the surface. I guess that means I’m looking for substance.
We’ve got some pretty meaty “go-to” pieces on the site (check out the How to Fish features at the bottom of the home page). These technical features remind me over and over how beneficial and satisfying it is to hone a skill, to master a move, to know the ins and outs of it. In addition, Mike Whitten recently posted an excellent piece on researching and picking out baitcaster reels. There is an advantage to advancing technology – but you’ve still got to put some time into educating yourself on how to use these bad boys.
I recently tried the sea urchin (uni) at our local sushi joint (we’re land-locked but we have an airport). In my own small way, I like to think of myself as an adventurer. I try to branch out occasionally. My uni lounged seductively on it’s bed of sushi rice like a long, orange-ish tongue. It smelled like the ocean and it tasted a bit briny, like an oyster. The taste was fantastic but it was kind of hard to get down. There were textural issues at play. Two nigiri was plenty for me and I was proud that I’d tried something new in addition to my old standby, tuna (maguro and toro). My sea urchin experience, if nothing else, made me appreciate even more why I love tuna; it’s comforting texture.
Speaking with one of our northeastern pro-staffers recently, I happened to ask him how the fishing was up in his neck of the woods. He informed me that fishing was “way off” this summer in comparison to past summers and that he’d had to change things up a bit. Places that had produced in the past weren’t so hot this summer and he’d been forced to research some new locations. Patterns and techniques he’d relied on in the past weren’t proving so productive this year and so he’d been forced to revert to techniques he hadn’t 
implemented for some time. No worries, he let me know, they just needed a bit of dusting off. It was good to be reminded that being versatile can lead to all sorts of new adventures with “old standbys”. Way to mix things up, Kyle!
One of my favorite reads is Bassmaster.com’s “20 Questions”. Who doesn’t want to know what makes an Elite pro tick? I find it especially interesting that a large majority of the pros list “versatility” as their strength. It’s not easy to lay down a past-producing lure or technique, even when it’s not working. These guys simply can’t be afraid of trying something new. They tweak and making alterations – on tournament days! Stan Fagerstrom recently reminded us that sometimes, even slightly changing the way we fish a favorite lure can be the key to success. In his latest Pick of the Products review he encourages, “Never -- repeat never -- get so set in fishing a given lure in one certain way that you fail to try something different with the same bait if the fish aren’t responding.”
As I geared up to write this latest Editor’s Log, I stopped by my Facebook page this morning to check out what some of my fishing buddies were up to. A bunch of crazy Italians had just posted pics of their latest fishing adventures and while I couldn’t understand a single photo caption it was clear as the water out here at Powell that they enjoyed every single second on the water, much like my crazy fishing buddies here in the grand old USA. Maybe we can stretch summer out just a little bit longer.