Montana Fly Company Focus Group

Last month I was asked to participate in a focus group for Montana Fly Company. The focus group was organized by those clever Outside Media folks who ran it on Facebook. It was a very entertaining way for those of us in the group to look at pictures, answer questions and make comments. Our moderator, Sammi, did a great job of keeping us on task while offering some very amusing commentary.

The chance to look behind the curtain a bit at some future offerings from Montana Fly Company and have some fun with Sammi was a treat in and of itself, but the deal got a whole lot better when MFC sent us some really nice tools as a reward for our participation. The gift box that arrived at The Middle River Group world HQ included a set of gold end nippers and a zinger (already attached to my Fly Vines lanyard); a stonefly/nymph box and a large waterproof fly box.

 

Some great swag from Montana Fly Company

While I can’t tell you what we worked on, you just might want to keep an eye on MFC to see what the fruits of our labors produced.

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Disclosure: Neither MFC nor Outside Media asked me to write this post.

 

Happy Birthday Liza

Readers of this blog and my good friend Chris Hunt’s blog Eat More Brook Trout know Chris’s wife Liza is a pretty awesome lady!

She is famous for telling Craig Mathews to “suck it“, getting tazer for fun and trying to convince the world that her husband didn’t really want a Stromy Kromer but would really rather have a “5 carat princess cut emerald.”

It is Liza’s birthday today so pop over to the Eat More Brook Trout blog and wish her a happy birthday in the comment section of her guest post “Best Day Ever?”

Because this is the closet thing she is going to get in the way of a emerald…

Happy Birthday Liza!

 

 

Keeper

If you have no idea who Martin ”Donny” Donovan is I won’t be surprised. I had know idea who he was either.

Donovan has written a book called KEEPER. And unless you have Departure Publishing or Tosh Brown in you Facebook universe you may not have heard of KEEPER either.

Well as it happens Brown is a friend on Facebook. He posted  a status update the other day:”Watch the Departure Publishing page at 10:30AM and snag a free copy of our new book release, KEEPER, by Martin Donovan.”

So I checked it out and the the contest question was: “Only one golfer from ENGLAND has ever won the Masters. What is his name? What year(s) did he win and what were his scores? (enter the +/- stroke totals for the entire tourney, not the daily rounds).”

Any guesses? No? Really?

FInd out how this turns out after the jump> [Read more...]

Llama kissing avoided!

For those of you following the Stormy Kromer cap saga, the good news is the llama has been spared.

Just another reason we love our SK caps.

More details as they become available. Stay tuned!

In the meantime check out this episode of Under the Radar Michigan. The Stormy Kromer caps story starts at about the 11 minute mark

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Speechless

I was stunned. She wasn’t really going to do it was she? I mean why? Why subject your self to the agony.

Some things just need to be seen to be believed.

Eat More Brook Trout guest blogger Liza Raley, in her position as a Classy 97 radio DJ here in Idaho Falls, attended the Idaho Falls Police presentation at the Idaho Falls Rotary Club today, where she volunteered to help the police demonstrate the effectiveness of the taser.

About 50,000 volts later, Liza could be hear muttering, “I’d rather be fishing Warm River with my Tenkara rod…”

It is a stunning performance that you just have to see to believe it. Jump over to Guest Blogger Gets Tazed for a Good Cause and see for yourself.

Glass is not dead!

To paraphrase my hero, the immortal Doc Holliday, my vanity knows no bounds….

Cameron Mortensen runs some fun contests over on The Fiberglass Manifesto. Because I am the proud owner of a T.F.M tee shirt I slung an entry into the pile for last month’s T. F. M. Spotting Photo Contest.

hard at work...

I thought Cameron’s write up was kinda clever. What do you think?

Oh by the way did I mention the prize was an awesome Scott F2 fiberglass rod.

Yeah that is a Scott hat I am wearing. I love the Scott Fly Rod Company folks and their rods outstanding. When I don’t fish tenkara, I fish a Scott.

Well the votes were tallied and guess what?!?

Looks like I have a shot at getting that F2!

Hey Cam you asked “How is that kitchen remodel coming along?”

Check it out!

the road to completion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guess the time on the remodeling job had a special reward!

Fear no plaid

The jesters over at Moldy Chum are goading Tom Rosenbauer in their blog, Thurston! be a good man and fetch my kilt.

Since I know Mr. R is a good sport in every sense of the word I thought I would give him some support and encouragement by showing some tartan solidarity.

Any guesses where the tee shirt is from?

Yup, drinking a tilted kilt...

And as soon as it warms up I am going to add a photo of the latest fashion in tenkara fishing… stay tuned!

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A blog by any other name…

MAHOGANY RIDGE – The fun folks at the Outdoor Blogger Network posed an interesting challenge. “So lets read about how you came up with your blog name.”

If you look at the list of blogs on the network there are some pretty interesting names for sure.

So here is my story of how Dispatches from the Middle River came to get its name.

A Navy PAO with visions of exotic places

My days as a Naval Reserve officer had something to do with it. My exposure to correspondents gave rise to a fantsy of becoming a ink-stained-wretch filing dispatches from some front line hot-spot. Didn’t happen but that is another story.

But the training and the itch to chronicle my adventures stuck. It sort of evolved (devolved) along a more Hunter S. Thompson path. Think The Rum Diary meets Trout Bum.

Mahogany Ridge becomes Middle River

I saw my dateline as MAHOGANY RIDGE. Where is Mahogany Ridge you ask? It is your favorite new found dive bar or watering hole. I had a notebook of Dispatches from Mahogany Ridge. A chronicle of observation from behind a beer or a whiskey. Never saw the light of day…

When I moved to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and started writing an outdoor column for the News Virginian (Waynesboro) I realized I had some pretty good blog fodder. Since I lived on the Middle River the evolution was complete.

This has prompted me to now dateline my posts from the road (including this one) with MAHOGANY RIDGE from now on.

Best Venn diagram ever!

Brilliant. Just brilliant!

Hookers, Doctors and TSA agents have at least one thing in common.

TOUCH-JUNK-VENN.jpg 560×554 pixels.

Cigars for Soldiers

If you are a cigar smoker and want to help the troops here is a great idea!

http://www.cigarsforsoldiers.org/
tip of the old hat to James Taranto at the WSJ online.