Wednesday, January 15, 2014

the breath of life

a stupid pike photo to make it look like a fishing report

In 2014 I have decided to breath new life back into my fishing blog. I have no regrets for taking a step back from writing and posting a quarter way through last year. It's been almost four years to the day that this site was created and that amount of time is something I don't take lightly. I never have tried to use this site for profit, nor is it for ego. It also hasn't made me famous to smatter my meager catches on the World Wide Web for everyone to see. So as I reflected on this at the end of 2013 I came to only one conclusion; this was done out of love. Not the sappy queer stuff but rather for the love of the chase. Research, planning, and execution on chasing fins in new water.

Matt Pedersen had discontinued writing "Rambling Reports" (my inspiration) long before I had ever thought of blogging, but his site is still relevant. And that right there is all I aspire to, relevancy, be it now or years from now.

 My best wishes would be for this blog to be the type site for an outsider to find, and be able to learn something about fishing locally. Chicago, Milwaukee, and Madison are all serious Midwestern hubs that warrant coming equipped with at least one fishing rod. I think this site has accomplished that on many levels. So even if I don't earn back regular readers so quick, at least I will have a opportunity to grow this site in content and also have my fishing journal back.

To the two real fishing friends I met through this site, sorry for the lag in my communication and to the rest of you, I owe you some updates. I'll recap the entire fall tributary trips in the next post and catch you up 100% on ice fishing so far in the post after that. I have also been collecting some vintage fly gear to use as soon as the winter breaks and I'm super excited about that.

I have thought about writing this post 100 times in the last few months and thanks for enduring the drippy ramblings of a New Years resolution. As you can see, this post has been all about fishing but yet has nothing to do with fishing.

Later...

18 comments:

  1. Man thanks for the kind words. Back when I keep the Rambling Reports up to date we had no such thing as Wordpress - man makes life so much easier now. I've toyed with the idea of giving the RR a complete facelift and perhaps even reloading all old content and ALL the missing years worth of outings into a Wordpress version, but to be fair, now being married to Renee with TWO kids, and the life of a freelancer, really means that until I start setting my sights on doing more proactive guiding again, it'll probably just sit there. Best chance for an update? the RR Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rambling-Reports/194353357370685

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    1. This comment is awesome on so many levels!

      I'll be sure to follow along on FB

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    2. MP! Long time no chat. I love my MP built 4 and 7 wt fly rods... even if you have no time to bring back a website or blog... I am happy to hear you are on FB. Will try to catch up with you there.

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    3. I've never read the Rambling Reports. So much information. I will keep tabs on it for now on.

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  2. Hey Blake!

    Welcome back!! Sounds like you are coming back for right reasons, too. Definitely looking forward to getting some new reports up by you. I am kind of burnt on Indiana steelies and have my sites set on WI instead. Would definitely be nice to get some good reports from that way.

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    1. We have actually had a few exchanges on NAFFF, though you may have not known it was me but thanks for that. Im hopeful for steelhead as well though the numbers are nowhere to what they were even 5 years ago. My fishing buddies talk spring runs as thick as the salmon runs of fall.

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    1. thanks PB, just cleaned out my email box too

      february is a good time for whites, check out this guy

      http://www.ice-fishing-adventures.com/

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  4. We all need to walk away from time to time and just concentrate on family, friends, and the simple joy of fishing. Looking forward to reading what you've been up to.

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    1. Well put John, warm wishes and warm wishes for you in 2014

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  5. I guess we are kindred spirits... I vanished from my blog mid-2013 and will be trying to revitalize myself and my blog for 2014. Glad to see you back, I always enjoy reading your posts and find something relevant or entertaining each time I visit. "Rambling Reports" was an inspiration for me as well, thank you for helping me locate Matt on FB and I sure hope we can convince him to resurrect his site. He not only inspired me to try to create a decent website, but also motivated me to take up fly fishing. I am the proud owner of two MP built fly rods, that remain prized fishing possessions.

    Once again, welcome back and I look forward to reading your posts in 2014 & beyond!

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    1. Thanks for that. I'm super excited that MP turned up here also!

      I see you moved over to a WP site, I rebuilt this in a beautiful WP format as well and almost moved forward on that, but the traffic from google this site gets would take years to rebuild.

      I'll be following CoolWaterFish on Wp from now on.

      wishin us plenty of fins for 2014

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  6. Glad to see you back in the blogospere Blake.

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    1. Thanks Daniel, i feel the drive to go for a long while

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  7. Good to see you back. one of these times we'll run into each other out there, i'm sure of it.

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    1. I spend a good amount of the year in your backyard. I am sure you right Nate.

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  8. Yay, Blakes not dead! Glad to see you're starting fresh and are recharged. I look forward to more posts. Maybe I'll see you on the water.

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    1. indeed, im sure our paths will cross when the rivers open up

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