- Welcome to Pretentious Snobby Bastard Fly Fishing!.
News:
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon Link
Recent posts
#1
The Gravel Bar / Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Last post by Woolly Bugger - December 12, 2025, 18:57:19 PMAmerica Lost Its One Perfect Tree
Lumber, shelter, delicious nuts—there was nothing the American chestnut couldn't provide.
Across the Northeast, forests are haunted by the ghosts of American giants. A little more than a century ago, these woods brimmed with American chestnuts—stately Goliaths that could grow as high as 130 feet tall and more than 10 feet wide. Nicknamed "the redwoods of the East," some 4 billion American chestnuts dotted the United States' eastern flank, stretching from the misty coasts of Maine down into the thick humidity of Appalachia.
The American chestnut was, as the writer Susan Freinkel noted in her 2009 book, "a perfect tree." Its wood housed birds and mammals; its leaves infused the soil with minerals; its flowers sated honeybees that would ferry pollen out to nearby trees. In the autumn, its branches would bend under the weight of nubby grape-size nuts. When they dropped to the forest floor, they'd nourish raccoons, bears, turkey, and deer. For generations, Indigenous people feasted on the nuts, split the wood for kindling, and laced the leaves into their medicine. Later on, European settlers, too, introduced the nuts into their recipes and orchards, and eventually learned to incorporate the trees' sturdy, rot-resistant wood into fence posts, telephone poles, and railroad ties. The chestnut became a tree that could shepherd people "from cradle to grave," Patrícia Fernandes, the assistant director of the American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, told me. It made up the cribs that newborn babies were placed into; it shored up the coffins that bodies were laid to rest inside.
But in modern American life, chestnuts are almost entirely absent. In the first half of the 20th century, a fungal disease called blight, inadvertently imported from Asia on trade ships, wiped out nearly all of the trees. Chestnut wood disappeared from newly made furniture; people forgot the taste of the fruits, save those imported from abroad. Subsistence farmers lost their entire livelihoods. After reigning over forests for millennia, the species went functionally extinct—a loss that a biologist once declared "the greatest ecological disaster in North America since the Ice Age."
https://archive.ph/9i9ZR#selection-669.0-695.71
Lumber, shelter, delicious nuts—there was nothing the American chestnut couldn't provide.
Across the Northeast, forests are haunted by the ghosts of American giants. A little more than a century ago, these woods brimmed with American chestnuts—stately Goliaths that could grow as high as 130 feet tall and more than 10 feet wide. Nicknamed "the redwoods of the East," some 4 billion American chestnuts dotted the United States' eastern flank, stretching from the misty coasts of Maine down into the thick humidity of Appalachia.
The American chestnut was, as the writer Susan Freinkel noted in her 2009 book, "a perfect tree." Its wood housed birds and mammals; its leaves infused the soil with minerals; its flowers sated honeybees that would ferry pollen out to nearby trees. In the autumn, its branches would bend under the weight of nubby grape-size nuts. When they dropped to the forest floor, they'd nourish raccoons, bears, turkey, and deer. For generations, Indigenous people feasted on the nuts, split the wood for kindling, and laced the leaves into their medicine. Later on, European settlers, too, introduced the nuts into their recipes and orchards, and eventually learned to incorporate the trees' sturdy, rot-resistant wood into fence posts, telephone poles, and railroad ties. The chestnut became a tree that could shepherd people "from cradle to grave," Patrícia Fernandes, the assistant director of the American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, told me. It made up the cribs that newborn babies were placed into; it shored up the coffins that bodies were laid to rest inside.
But in modern American life, chestnuts are almost entirely absent. In the first half of the 20th century, a fungal disease called blight, inadvertently imported from Asia on trade ships, wiped out nearly all of the trees. Chestnut wood disappeared from newly made furniture; people forgot the taste of the fruits, save those imported from abroad. Subsistence farmers lost their entire livelihoods. After reigning over forests for millennia, the species went functionally extinct—a loss that a biologist once declared "the greatest ecological disaster in North America since the Ice Age."
https://archive.ph/9i9ZR#selection-669.0-695.71
#2
The Gravel Bar / Is This Proof That the Preside...
Last post by Woolly Bugger - December 12, 2025, 09:59:42 AMIs This Proof That the President Is Going Senile?
Some of the geniuses in the White House communications office decided to give Trump a busy week of public appearances. The results were not great.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a69690859/trump-senile-speeches/
Some of the geniuses in the White House communications office decided to give Trump a busy week of public appearances. The results were not great.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a69690859/trump-senile-speeches/
#3
The Gravel Bar / Re: Unlimited bear news
Last post by Woolly Bugger - December 12, 2025, 09:18:13 AM #4
The Gravel Bar / Re: Beetle's Book and Word Thr...
Last post by trout-r-us - December 10, 2025, 17:24:04 PMFrom the December issue of The Atlantic
"THOMAS MCGUANE IS THE LAST OF HIS KIND"
What will we lose when we lose the "literary outdoorsman"?
By Tyler Austin Harper
Photographs by Pat Martin
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/12/thomas-mcguane-writing/684617/?gift=YdftEy1YdnueJb6GKr06gtSeHoFTTzAW2rF_5eBu194
"THOMAS MCGUANE IS THE LAST OF HIS KIND"
What will we lose when we lose the "literary outdoorsman"?
By Tyler Austin Harper
Photographs by Pat Martin
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/12/thomas-mcguane-writing/684617/?gift=YdftEy1YdnueJb6GKr06gtSeHoFTTzAW2rF_5eBu194
#5
The Gravel Bar / Re: Unlimited Dead People; R.I...
Last post by Woolly Bugger - December 09, 2025, 13:45:03 PMThe Mavericks lead singer Raul Malo dead at 60 after cancer battle
Raul Malo, whose operatic, lush lead vocals led the eclectic musical group The Mavericks, died Monday (Dec.
at age 60 following a battle with cancer.
"At 8:52 pm on December 8th, 2025, my love... our boys' father... a devoted son and brother... and a friend to so many, gained his angel wings," Betty Malo, the musician's wife, wrote in a statement posted on Malo's official Facebook page Tuesday (Dec. 9). "He was called to do another gig - this time in the sky - and he's flying high like an eagle. No one embodied life and love, joy and passion, family, friends, music, and adventure the way our beloved Raul did. Now he will look down on us with all that heaven will allow, lighting the way and reminding us to savor every moment. Dino, Victor, Max and I - along with our entire family - thank all of you for your love and support through all of this. We felt every bit of it.In Raul's own words: 'Muchísimas gracias.'"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/the-mavericks-lead-singer-raul-malo-dead-at-60-after-cancer-battle/ar-AA1S1bXF?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Raul Malo, whose operatic, lush lead vocals led the eclectic musical group The Mavericks, died Monday (Dec.
at age 60 following a battle with cancer."At 8:52 pm on December 8th, 2025, my love... our boys' father... a devoted son and brother... and a friend to so many, gained his angel wings," Betty Malo, the musician's wife, wrote in a statement posted on Malo's official Facebook page Tuesday (Dec. 9). "He was called to do another gig - this time in the sky - and he's flying high like an eagle. No one embodied life and love, joy and passion, family, friends, music, and adventure the way our beloved Raul did. Now he will look down on us with all that heaven will allow, lighting the way and reminding us to savor every moment. Dino, Victor, Max and I - along with our entire family - thank all of you for your love and support through all of this. We felt every bit of it.In Raul's own words: 'Muchísimas gracias.'"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/the-mavericks-lead-singer-raul-malo-dead-at-60-after-cancer-battle/ar-AA1S1bXF?ocid=BingNewsSerp
#6
The Gravel Bar / Re: Unlimited bear news
Last post by bmadd - December 09, 2025, 10:13:13 AMhttps://www.wvlt.tv/2025/12/09/help-us-keep-bears-wild-twra-sounds-alarm-after-bear-shows-no-fear-people-during-gatlinburg-christmas-parade/
The bears are getting pretty comfortable on the Gatlinburg strip
The bears are getting pretty comfortable on the Gatlinburg strip
#7
The Gravel Bar / Be Safe Out There -- Hikers Re...
Last post by Woolly Bugger - December 08, 2025, 21:41:51 PM #8
The Gravel Bar / Re: Unlimited bear news
Last post by Woolly Bugger - December 07, 2025, 12:21:51 PM #9
The Gravel Bar / Re: Quebec on the Brain
Last post by driver - December 07, 2025, 09:26:39 AM #10
The Gravel Bar / Re: Quebec on the Brain
Last post by driver - December 07, 2025, 09:19:51 AMThe problem with Quebec, is that there is sooooo much water. And not all of that water is productive, and there won't be any info on that water. Guides are your best bet until you learn the lay of the land. Getting around is tough was well as the are not many roads once you head north. Float planes are the norm. There are several rail lines that will drop you off in the absolute middle of no where.
I fished a river near Lac Edouard in July one year. Beautiful stretch of river between two lakes, plunges, runs, pools. Didn't catch a thing. Spoke with the guide at the lodge, and he said the brookies move out of the rapids and into the lakes in the summer and the only way to catch them is trolling spinners.
I fished a river near Lac Edouard in July one year. Beautiful stretch of river between two lakes, plunges, runs, pools. Didn't catch a thing. Spoke with the guide at the lodge, and he said the brookies move out of the rapids and into the lakes in the summer and the only way to catch them is trolling spinners.