The World's Best?

I came across this link to a 1974 Russell Chatham Sports Illustrated story on the legendary Bill Schaadt via a forum post response on Washington Fly Fishing by someone associated with River of a Lost Coast.

LINK (Via: Sports Illustrated)

The intial forum poster, who gave a shout out to the film, but who had never heard of Schaadt, could not get their head around the fact that a Californian is considered by many to be the world's greatest steelheader. What followed was six pages of forum responses including many from some other well known names in steelhead angling.

The forum thread. Greatest steelheader ever a Californian?

Vintage Fish - April Fool's Edition

The most popular theory about the origin of April Fool’s Day involves the French calendar reform of the sixteenth century.

The theory goes like this: In 1564 France reformed its calendar, moving the start of the year from the end of March to January 1. Those who failed to keep up with the change, who stubbornly clung to the old calendar system and continued to celebrate the New Year during the week that fell between March 25th and April 1st, had jokes played on them. Pranksters would surreptitiously stick paper fish to their backs. The victims of this prank were thus called Poisson d’Avril, or April Fish—which, to this day, remains the French term for April Fools—and so the tradition was born.

There is another theory that traces the origin of the custom back to the abundance of fish to be found in French streams and rivers during early April when the young fish had just hatched. These young fish were easy to fool with a hook and lure. Therefore, the French called them "Poisson d'Avril" or "April Fish." It became customary (according to this theory of its origin) to fool people on April 1st as a way of celebrating the abundance of foolish fish.

It's interesting to point out that Napoleon earned the Poisson d'Avril monicker when he married Marie-Louise of Austria on April 1, 1810.

Some homegrown vintage April Fool's imagery.

Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post cover from March 31st 1945.

Federal agency won't defend Bush's bull trout cuts

The Obama administration won't defend the Bush administration's cuts to habitat protections for the threatened bull trout, whose need for cold, clean water can stand in the way of logging and mining on national forests.

LINK (Via: The Seattle PI)

Ward Lockwood's Fly Fishing

Fly fishing meets Cubism.

John Ward Lockwood's works are in the permanent collections of 17 museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Denver Art Museum, the McNay Museum of Art in San Antonio, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  LINK

Scanout Magazine - The Silver King, Miami Beach Style

Tim Pask has launched, Off the Road, an on-line magazine chronicling his travels and photography.

Check out his first issue.

March Slab of the Month: Extra Brown Trout

Brown Wisconsin Trout.