OK, Here It Is

The Good:

This is the 1000^th post that I’ve made on Northern California Trout. It’s hard to believe that when I started this blog in January 2009 it was only to let locals know what, where, and with what I was catching a whole bunch of fish. 

These darn things have a life of their own and seem to just drag you, as the owner of the blog, along for the ride. In the past year I’ve related a lot of information about fishing, our escapades with the destruction of our kitchen in the new house, and the medical tests I’ve endured. 

I would also like to thank each and every one who has stopped by (all 426,000 times). Kind of goes along with the 1000 posts. 

The Bad:

From October 2010 to March 2016 I wrote articles for the local newspaper. I finally stopped because it became more of a chore than a pleasure. Basically I had to go fishing so I had something to write each week as an ongoing column requires. I was burnt out. 

Some have probably noticed that I no longer have the icon for Amador Fly Fishers on the left side of the blog. This too, I’ve backed away from because one, I’ve never been a joiner.  Two, I don’t feel that just paying the dues does the club justice if you don’t participate and I haven’t. I’ve not been to a meeting this year so I’ve basically “resigned” as of the end of this year. I don’t want to be in a position where I HAVE to go to meetings or participate in outings.  

 

The Ugly:

I think my age is catching up with me. If you read Mel’s blog or Howard’s blog you’ll see that they’ve slowed down a lot. We’re known as the three Geezers and once you hit 65 or so, it seems your body just doesn’t have it anymore. I think I’ve been pushing it too much. 

Here’s couple of examples I’ve experienced in the past couple months. You remember the post (Big River, Big Fish) about fishing on the Mokelumne River. A long hike down to the area we fished and after walking up and down the river over mostly river rock from pebbles to ones the size of a football, and then a long hike out. That little trip took me almost 3 days to recover. The post on Monday November 14^th, took me the better part of Tuesday to recover. All the walking around over “river rock” and the slippery clay on the shore of Lake Camanche is what did it. Again in the post SLDD took me a day to recover. I have to face the fact I just don’t have it anymore. My wife has even commented that I look like I’m having trouble walking. 

That said, am I going to stop fishing? Absolutely not, BUT I am going to tone it down a lot. Will I still be fly fishing? Maybe, but not hiking up and down a river bed. I might still float around in the Float Tube Cumberland occasionally. I’ll have to see how that goes. 

How about other lake fishing? Sure, but not someplace I have to walk a long way to get to. Drive to a spot, set up a chair and let the fish come to me. That is what needs to happen.  

Am I still going to post on this blog, you bet, but not at the pace I’ve done so in the past. Ten to twelve posts a month is what the pace has been in the past. Again, I feel I must fish to have something to post. The future will be considerably less, but I will keep everyone apprised of my adventures. 

I’ve still got a lot to do on the house that takes a hell of a lot energy. Currently I’m putting up gutters on the part of the roof that there never was any. To do this, I also have to replace all the fascia board (primed and painted) first. What’s up there is bent, warped, and lacking any kind of a decent paint. The other current project is finishing the, once demolished kitchen. It all takes time and energy that I don’t have much of lately. 

Since neither my doctor nor my Cardiologist can find anything wrong with me, I guess my age is just catching up with me. Although I have to admit that my brain has almost caught up with my age. My brain used to think I was still 35, but now it thinks I’m 60, could be 70. 

Getting old sucks. 

Stay tuned.