Happy Birthday to my friend, colleague and the fellow who does his best to keep me young.

Happy 33rd Justin Witt.

At right is a photo from a couple of weeks ago - Justin wading across the Corcovado River just above Llao Llao in anticipation of the afternoon bite.
Every day I get to spend with Justin is special - this one was no exception.

After 9+ days, I'm finally stone-free (knock on calcium oxalate). As a tribute to the demon stone, here is David Milch's take on ureterolithiasis. If you are offended by Milch's honest portrayal of western language, you might want to avoid this.

She: (in front of mirror) I look ugly and fat today. I really need a compliment.

He: Well, you have perfect eye sight.

Angling Trade has asked to notify all fly shops to be on the lookout for a group of well-orchestrated thieves.

So far they have made off with several thousand dollars in merchandise. The group is stealing high end product. Among the shops hit thus far: Laughing Grizzly, Angler’s All, Charlie’s Fly Box, Trout’s Fly Shop, Orvis Cherry Creek, and Rocky Mountain Anglers. Thefts occurred February 2-3.

Suspects are two couples, Middle Eastern or Latin in appearance, well groomed and dressed fashionably. One couple distracts the store staff while the other steals merchandise. Suspects have called ahead and verified that you are indeed a specialty fly shop. Cell phone area codes that have been used are (402) and (815).

The gang is driving a maroon van with Illinois plates.

Join me in wishing my mother-in-law, Jean Waddy a happy 94th birthday.
Just think all that Jean has experienced since 1917! On her birthday, President Woodrow Wilson called for the end of the search for Pancho Villa. Affairs were heating up in Europe and Wilson declared war on Germany marking the US's entry into WWI. Ernest Borgnine, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Desi Arnaz, Harry Caray, Ella Fitzgerald, IM Pei, Raymond Burr, John F. Kennedy, Dean Martin, Lash La Rue (my childhood hero), Leno Horne, Phyllis Diller, Don Herbert, Mel Ferrer, Isabel Sanford, Ferdinand Marcos, June Allyson, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Joan Fontaine, Indira Gandhi and John Lee Hooker share her birth year.

There's more to do in Patagonia than just fly fishing.

If you feel like taking a jump - drop me a line.

Royal Marshall, 43, collapsed at his Atlanta home this morning and was pronounced dead at Grady Hospital. For the past 15 years, Royal was the engineer and side-kick of the best radio talk show host in the country, Neal Boortz.
Royal is survived by his wife, Annette and daughters, Ava, 2, and Amira, 4.

At right, Royal, Belinda Skelton, producer of the Neal Boortz Show, and Neal.

Update
The Fulton County ME has determined that Royal's death was caused by a heart attack resulting from hypertensive cardiovascular disease. Services will be at Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur on Saturday at 11 am.

After two days of continual road clearing, this morning I found that an additional 1/2" of overnight snow and ice had blanketed the roads here at Blackberry Mountain. A couple of passes with the bobcat removed much of the ice. But with the low temperatures, it looks like the mountain roads in and around Ellijay will be icy for a few more days.

At 2 pm, 21 degrees, still snowing.

Recent mass animal deaths are being reported from throughtout the world.

Click on the map for exact locations and details.

Arkansas's Game & Fish is no doubt puzzled by last week's two mysterious wildlife events.

FISH
An estimated 100,000 drum were washed ashore a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near the Ozark Dam. A pollutant would have effected other species as well, so investigators think a disease may be the cause. Arkansas Game & Fish has not closed the area and is encouraging fishing.

BIRDS
Thousands of red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky over a half-square mile area near Beebe. While no definitive cause has not been determined, one Arkansas Game & Fish ornithologist says the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail or startled by fireworks.

After 75 years, the darkroom door has closed for good on Kodachrome, the legendary color slide film that was the mainstay of many 35mm SLR photographers in the 60s and 70s - not to mention, the chosen format for endless hours of vacation slideshows. This afternoon, the last processing lab in the world stopped accepting rolls to be developed.

Back in June 2009, Kodak announced that it was halting production of the slide and super 8mm movie film famous for its vivid colors. Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas was the final shop to sell and process the film, which at its demise accounted for less than 1% of Kodak's film sales.

Kodachrome distinguished itself from other color transparency films because of the complex (and expensive) developing processing, which, combined with the shift to digital, helped write its obituary.

With reports from friends throughout Gilmer County about 8-12 hour power outages, we're lucky to have had only one that lasted no more than 3 hours. Most of the primary and some of the secondary county roads are clear. It's still snowing off and on, and 26 degrees.

Spring Lake Drive - not much traffic today.

Four inches of heavy, wet snow are blanketing Blackberry Mountain this afternoon. The backyard pond is frozen, and the temperature should drop into the low 20s tonight. We're just staying warm and waiting for the inevitable power outage.

The Ellijay Round-About on Christmas Day

Mark Madoff, who with his brother Anthony, own Abel Reels and NYC's Urban Angler, was found hanged this morning. Perhaps not so coincidentally, today is the second anniversary of his father Bernie's arrest for his notorious ponzi scheme.
Mark was found by his father-in-law hanging from his Labradoodle's leash attached to an overhead pipe in his Manhattan SoHo apartment. He had emailed his wife, in Florida with their 4 year old, to have someone check on their two year old. The child was found asleep and unharmed.
Mark's wife had petitioned the court to have her and her sons' last names changed. Also, Mark, the head trader for the Madoff firm, was sued this week by court-appointed trustees in an attempt to recover assets for the victims swindled by his father - assets which may have been used to invest in Abel and Urban Angler.

When I was at the Denver fly fishing trade show, I learned from Brian Jill that he and Chris Owens, Angler Exploration Group Media founders, have teamed with Thad Robison and Jay Johnson for a new fly fishing adventure series called GEOFISH. Their first adventure involves an 8,000 mile overland trek across Mexico in a diesel truck converted to run on vegetable oil.
When you're not following this blog, or Justin Witt's Patagonia journal, click over to the Motiv Fishing Journal and check out their adventure.
You'll also see why I never design webpages in reverse type - oh, my achin' eyes!

Last Monday, Spencer Thrift was selected to compete in NBC's Late Night Karate Kick Rotating Pinata Competition. I know, how did you miss it? Check out the two links (sorry about the commercials - NBC has to pay their piper) and watch Spencer kick-ass.
When not making national TV appearances Spencer attends Florida's Winter Park High - and competes on the track team.
By the way, Spencer donated his winnings to City Harvest - just in time for Thanksgiving.
I'm proud of you Spencer.

In addition to this and a bunch of other websites, I maintain the Just Another Day in Patagonia site. For the months that I'm not in Argentina it allows me and its readers to follow the day to day life of Justin Witt.
Once in a while I'm still able to get out on the water up here in the mountains of north Georgia. Last week Scott McBride and I hit the Toccoa tailwater for the first time in several months. The trout are there!
So this is how it is, Justin's out landing huge brook trout enjoying the Argentine spring time, and I'm here tolerating the autumn rain and cold fishing for somewhat smaller prey.
If you'd like to join Justin and/or me for some fishing in Patagonia or north Georgia, all you got to do is click.

Scott McBride, Joanne and I hosted a lunch at Crawford's Crossing to thank the volunteers and vendors who made the Coosawattee River Canoe Launch a reality.
Jesslyn Shields of the Georgia River Network (whose grant helped to fund the project) was able to make the drive to Ellijay from Athens to enjoy the vittles and some puppy kisses from Bella Adams-McBride.

Justin Witt and Zach Otte have just returned from a few days at Argentina's Estancia Laguna Verde on Lago Strobel, also known as Jurassic Lake. If you'd like to read about this recent experience and Justin's day to day life in Patagonia, check out his blog - Just Another Day in Patagonia - original name, huh?

If you would like to experience this incredible place and the opportunity to fish for these incredible trout, we still have a few open dates in 2011 for Jurassic Lake.

Email me today for details.

Right Click on screen and choose Play

For 8 weeks, nutrition professor, Mark Haub's diet consisted of Hostess and Little Debbie cakes, Doritos, sugary cereals and Oreos - eating every three hours as opposed to three meals daily.
He lost 27 pounds, reduced his body mass index from 28.8 to 24.9 and improved his cholesterol by 20%.
The key - he reduced his daily calorie intake from 2600 toi 1800 - indicating that it's not what you eat, it's how much.

Could all of the marketing hype about Argentina's Jurassic Lake (Lago Strobel) be on the up and up?

Judge for yourself - this photo was taken today.

That's what I call a double!

With a morning that began with a bit more than a dusting of snow, temperatures below freezing and a nasty wind, the 2010 Gold Rush Cup Fly Fishing Challenge - Qualifier Divsion caught off to a slow, cold start.

But with absolutely no assistance from me, the Patagonia Unlimited team, Steven and Ben of the Etowah Anglers took second place. First place winners, Team Hooch, will join the pro teams in tomorrow's competition.

Come out to Frog Hollow on the Chestatee River Sunday between 7:30am and 5:30pm and participate in this annual fundraiser event for Dahlonega's Gold Rush Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

Attendance and parking is open to the public and free, lots of related activities and great food and drink for nominal prices.

Click here for directions. Come see us.

Judge Kimberly M. Esmond Adams ordered 24-year old Aimee Michael to serve 36 years of the 50-year sentence in prison, and the remainder on probation. Michael is also permanently banned from ever obtaining a driver’s license in Georgia.
Michael was convicted by a jury on Monday of causing the crash that sent a Mercedes into oncoming traffic, head-on into a Volkswagen Beetle. An entire family was killed in the Mercedes, and a young girl was killed in the Volkswagen.
After the accident, Aimee Michael fled the scene and hid her vehicle in the garage of her Walden Park home in South Fulton County. In the days that followed, Aimee Michael and her mother Sheila Michael conspired to have the damaged vehicle repaired to conceal evidence of the crash. Despite repeated public pleas for the hit and run driver to come forward, Aimee Michael failed to do so. She was arrested two weeks after the crash on April 23, 2009 after neighbors reported seeing the suspected gold BMW involved in the crash outside of the Michael’s family home.
On Oct. 15, Sheila Michael pled guilty to helping cover up her daughter’s part in the accident. Adams sentenced her to the maximum of eight years for failing to turn her in to the police for the crime, stating, "As a mother, Mrs. Michael, you are required to do the right thing. When she needed you to be her mother, you failed her."

Carolyn Sewell sent me this video with the caption, "We all need a dog like this." My response was - I have a wife that does all of those things.

Which poses the question, "am I getting brave or just more stupid in my old age?"

In October 2009, masses of the insect Megacopita cribraria, commonly known as the kudzu bug, bean plataspid, lablab bug or glolular stink bug, were discovered in nine northeast Georgia counties (blue counties on map). By last month the insect was confirmed in more than 60 north and central Georgia counties (light blue counties on map). Before discovery in Georgia, M. cribraria was not known to occur in the Western Hemisphere.

I just received the following message from fellow Ol'Fart and OFWLC charter member Jerry Stepenson -

First day walking out to hunt...beautiful weather; looked like lots of birds around; stepped into a badger hole; lost my balance and fell. The train wreck followed:

Shattered tibia, broken fibia and twisted out foot. Surgery to place pins and a bolt. No weight for 6-8 weeks said the surgeon, but I will see a local ortho here in Decatur on Tuesday...currently just a half cast.

A study conducted by UCLA's Department of Psychiatry has revealed that the kind of face a woman finds attractive on a man can differ depending on where she is in her menstrual cycle.

For example: if she is ovulating, she is attracted to men with rugged and masculine features.

However, if she is menstruating or menopausal, she tends to be more attracted to a man with duct tape over his mouth, a spear lodged in his chest and a burning torch up his ass.

Good to know.

It's either another sign of the end of times or the second coming of A River Runs Through It. While camping in Yosemite, Oprah and her not-so-secret lover Gayle King spent part of their girls-only vacation fly fishing.
It appears that both were outfitted in full Simms attire including what they referred to as their "wading jeans". Hopefully, the folks at Simms will realize the marketing potential this provides - "stretched to the limits and still not leaking - Simms Goretex waders".
I'm betting those seams will have to be resealed.

From time to time I worry that the state of my youth might not have the necessary leadership to see it through these hard times. Thanks to Basil Marceaux, I'm not longer concerned. Even though Basil lost the Republican Primary to my former West Knoxville neighbor, Bill Haslam, I understand there is a strong write-in campaign for Basil, and he will no doubt win the November race to Nashville.
Go Basil!

When Oakley Eyeware was contacted by the Chilean private health insurer (ACHS), it donated 35 pairs of their $120 Radar sunglasses for the miners to wear to the surface after their 69 days underground.

Marketing researchers estimate that the exposure of their product and brand on worldwide TV is equivalent to $41 million in advertisig time.

Kudos to Chile and Oakley.