Happy Birthday Northern California Trout

I did my first post on Northern California Trout on January 6, 2009. That would make this it's 5th birthday.

A lot of things have happened in the last five years. I've almost learned how to catch fish. You can't count all those limits on Power Bait caught right after the lake was stocked. That's like shooting fish in a barrel, but I need to keep Bob stocked so I get my driveway plowed when it snows. More so the natives I've caught and released on a fly rod. Those are the ones with the biggest learning curve.

I've made a lot of good friends. Some I've met, others I haven't, yet. I think that I'm fortunate that all those good friends are still out there fishing now and then.

I've become what I would call a "Freelance" writer. Besides Northern California Trout, there's my book, published last year. You can still get it in paperback (from me) or e-book from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble.com. I wrote articles for Sport Fishing Weekly until they disappeared. The original owners sold it and the new owners have never showed. And then there is the local newspaper. I've written 123 articles for them along with a couple of summer and winter specials.

All this because I wanted to help local people catch fish. I'm not one to follow the "mum's the word" when it comes to fishing. I'll tell you what, where, and how. That's how my friend Glenn caught all the Steelhead and I've not caught one yet.

I joined the Amador Fly Fishers Club and did a presentation on fishing small streams at last Junes meeting. They found me from the articles in the newspaper.  

At this point, let me throw a few statistics at you and I promise to leave out the fish count.

• Starting year six. 
• This is post number 704. 
• Just over 135,000 hits. 
• Most of the hits are from the US, but I also want to thank those in China, Poland, Ukraine, and all the other countries who continue to stop by. 
• Here's a little statistic I think you'll find funny. Once I started this blog on 1/7/2009, the next eleven times I went fishing, I got skunked. 

OK, I lied, but I have to say this to make a point. I've caught 1029 trout in the last five years. I've mentioned over the past year the "fish to extinction" crowd. Their leader boasted on one of the local forums that he caught over 1000 trout this year. It's hard to keep up with those kind of numbers when they are using dry hands to hold them (and eventually killing them) and probably catching the same trout 5 or 6 times in the same day. How do you do that you ask? Follow the stock truck and fish as it dumps. Hopefully the DFW will do something this year.

I think that's all. Thanks to all that read what I write and I hope you'll all be along for the next five years.

ps, still sick. Maybe a couple more days.