Zach Matthews
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Guys we’re going to bump Ryan Harrison up a week. Had a great interview with him on Monday evening. I’m still planning on speaking with Rob.
Zach
The Scaddens which I recommended have a very high build quality, but are commensurately expensive. They also feature a somewhat low pontoon – not a deal breaker in my mind since they also have a lot of standing options and the low toons can provide a more stable base when standing.
Another option would be the Outcast line, although they mostly feature more standard 9′ models. Scadden is more experimental.
Especially considering shipping issues, I’d look at an aluminum versus steel frame. Aluminum does oxidize and the paint can chip off – especially in saltwater – but this is a cosmetic rather than structural issue. Steel rusts. That’s structural and eventually can cost you your frame.
If you keep your pontoon inflated and indoors (I have mine in my garage), they can easily last more than a decade. I bought my JW Outfitters Renegade way back in about 2001 and it is still going very strong. In fact I am taking it on its 5th trip to the beach in about six weeks.
Zach
That’s cool Mike. How would you say fishing in the park has changed in those years? Do you feel like the fish are smarter?
One of my pet theories is that the reason rainbows and cutties are easier to catch than browns is because of their respective lengths of time in the presence of anglers fishing with line and lure.
To my mind the relative difficulty of catching trout from hardest to easiest is:
browns > rainbows > brookies > cutthroat
This would be the chart of the amount of time humans have spent pursuing a given species with line and lure:
browns > brookies > rainbows > cutthroat
Brookies are abnormally aggressive because their reproductive strategy differs from that of the brown and the rainbow; they are more prone to fill their environment to capacity and hit a Malthusian crisis. Therefore they have to be more aggressive in the hopes of rising to the top of the more competitive food chain. (Incidentally this is probably because brook trout have the most northerly native range of any of the fish we call trout).
Browns evolved being angled for since at least the Alexandrian period in Macedonia – i.e. at least 2500 years. Rainbows have been around anglers less (though they’ve probably been netted for just as long). I believe the constant need to upgrade our flies over the years–especially in pressured water–is evidence of an arms race going on with the fish. Catch-and-release should slow that process but we’ve probably already selected for a much pickier strain of rainbow trout just since we started propagating them in hatcheries in the 1930s.
Zach
I sent David an email, but for the benefit of others, my main concern with this model was its lack of raised oarlocks to get the centerpoint of the oars out and away from you. This necessarily results in a shorter oarstroke than is desirable, and for whatever reason Outcast has included two of the shortest oars I have ever seen on a personal watercraft. Thus getting around in this boat is likely to be a chore and on moving water could pose some serious concerns.
Zach
I am slowly dialing this place in, guys. We’re on track to have the most customized version of this software anywhere on the web. 🙂
I’ve added a facebook-style Like feature, which will give you the chance to ‘Like’ posts just as you would on Facebook. The only effect will be to increase the counter on a given post–it won’t post back to Facebook or anything.
There is a component I could install which would link this board more tightly to Facebook and allow cross-posting, etc., but I get the sense that it would be disfavored. Most of us work and don’t need our spouses or bosses asking us about our forum time.
I’ve also added back in the ability to upload attachments, a quote feature for earlier posts, a Views counter for each post, and I’ve done a lot of subtle tweaking on the layout to try to make this place more contrasty and easier to use.
Let me know if you have continuing suggestions or issues. I am still working on re-enabling private messaging, expanded forum profiles, forum roles which change with post count, and fixing non-Facebook log ins for some people whose accounts were damaged in the import.
Oh, and I am also working on setting up a mobile site theme that would strip the site down to the basics.
Thanks for your patience.
Zach
Hey Mike –
Speaking as someone who read basically every Fly Fisherman magazine (and all its competitors) from the late-90s on, I would say Slough Creek is the primo, but that’s why I wrote “arguable.”
By the way I really appreciate you guys reading the articles and bringing the discussion here to the board. That was the idea behind the new integrated site.
Personally, speaking I guess as a member of my generation, when I think of the Madison I think of the 30-mile-riffle outside the park. When I think of the Firehole I think “probably closed due to heat,” which has been its condition every time I’ve been to Yellowstone (I’ve spent well over a month in the Park now but it’s always been in late August/early September of different years).
The other thing about Slough that I think sets it apart is the alpine meadow configuration, which just makes it such a pleasure to fish. I fished it with Ian Crabtree last fall after this article came out (it ran in American Angler). I stuck to the high banks and fished hoppers. Ian got down in the creek and fished tricos. Ian is a spectacular dry fly fisherman (he is designing rods for Scott now), and he outfished me probably 1.5 or 2:1, but we both pretty much raked. That’s what I love about it; provided you are competent, you can have a banner day at Slough, sight fishing the whole time and never tying on a nymph.
Thanks again guys,
ZachHey Ralph –
Thanks man. I’m presently trying to re-enable private messaging, and working on some integration things. I’m also re-hosting new graphics from the sponsors, since we changed sizes, and dialing in little things you might not even notice like the layout on the search page. However we’re mostly done at this point.
One thing y’all may not be aware of: you now carry your board registration with you around the site. So if you go comment on a podcast or an article, that’ll be directly from your board profile with no awkward additional log ins.
Hopefully people are using the Facebook log in feature.
That’s awesome Jack. I wasn’t actually sure that email even went out!
What are you going to be targeting in Iceland? Got any pictures from your Irish fishing you might share?
Zach
Ralph –
Yes, that’s goofy. I’ve been looking at trying to fix that for a couple days, but it’s part of the core bbPress installation and it’s going to take some coding. I am going to remove it. You can tell this entire thing was designed by nerds…
Thanks for the feedback Ralph. I really appreciate it and it is helpful.
Zach
Ok Ralph I believe I have fixed it. Again, edit your profile from the left-hand side. There is now a slot at the bottom for you to upload your avatar. I recommend making sure this image is SQUARE before uploading or it will likely get cut off. It will resize automatically, however, so you just need to be sure it’s the right shape.
Zach
Guys –
If you’ve got problems with your registrations, please come to me by email and I’ll see if I can get them fixed.
Ralph, the new posts marker isn’t something that comes with bbPress by default, but I’ll look and see if I can find a plug in to add it. This board is very modular and I don’t have everything set up yet.
The comment about the header is well taken and I’m probably going to shrink it eventually for this section of the site. But it’s going to take a little time.
Now as for you guys not having enough permissions to edit your profile, I think I can fix that. I’ll work on it and get back to you.
I am new to this software too, and I am learning as I go. Remember, the reason we had to leave the old forum behind was that it had become unstable and was getting shut down by my web host due to having gone more than two years without an update and therefore being vulnerable to various attacks. WordPress doesn’t seem nearly as likely to just go away down the road.
So, Jay, it associated you with your old posts through Facebook? That seems to be the case. That’s definitely what I was hoping would happen.
Y’all be sure to upload your user pics. I’m sorry those didn’t make the transition. I think a lot of them were links to other sites anyway.
Zach