Time

i guess it's been a solid month since i composed anything. time has passed. things have happened, like they always do. hello!

so i moved into an apartment in Portland. and whad'ya know, it's on good 'ol Emery st. so that makes the 3rd apartment on one street. 73, 85 and now 91 Emery. more on that later. but for now, a poem by a good friend, written on the banks of the Rio Grande.

He said his watch was too big for his wrist,
Kept sliding back and forth and back.
Every time he raised a hand to wave hello,
cast a line while he was fishing-
Even just flipping over a pillow at night,
that watch was always moving
And chafing across his skin.

Once he tole me that it bothered him,
All that back and forth of the watch,
So I said, Well why don't you just make it
Tighter, then you won't even notice it there.

But I knew he'd keep it loose
Cuz really it's about feeling those moments
On his skin.
That watch, always moving, always reminding
Him that time is just slightly big
So really, he should always feel it passing.

fishing along the way...

10/14 - 10/17: Western North Carolina





10/18 - 10/20: Charleston, South Carolina
10/21 - 10/24: Atlantic Beach, North Carolina


10/28 - 10/31: Pulaski, New York


11/2 - 11/4: Southern Maine

the coming home of the son and brother

after four weeks exactly on the road, the son arrived at home. a solid trip, to say the least. the final tour: ranch - austin - shreveport - atlanta - anderson, sc - cashiers, nc - charleston, sc - atlantic beach, nc - anderson - brooklyn - pulaski - arlington - lincoln - portland - home.
above, thoreau's jam.
my roadmate, Southern Steele, captain of Southern Justice, and i parted ways at logan int'l last week. it had been a good run for us. shame on me for not keeping a journal this summer, but if Boone and i weren't on the water 7 days a week, it was 6. if there was ever a common thread to make a friendship, i think the water is it. triumphs and failures bring people together, as do fish in the net. see ya soon, boy.
rolled north and west out of the big city and in a cozy cabin in upstate new york, the reunion i had been waiting for for months awaited. the steele brothers in full were there, not to mention my brother from down under. 7 of us in total took the the Salmon River early every day. in those waters, we would find large trout. in the cabin we would find stories and laughs. a fishing trip of the finest kind.
arrived in Portland early this week, gathered a few friends and made our way to Ruski's, my local watering hole for three years when i lived there. waitress arrived and asked for drink orders. beers, please. "i need id's from you three, but i know you," she said, looking at me. i hadn't been in this bar but one time in the last year and she still recognized me. if that's not a home bar, i'm not sure i know what one is. that was nice. i was able to get reacquainted with a couple waters around Portland while i was there and that was nice as well. Mousamus giveth and while the Presumpscot didn't allow for any "catching," i ran into a few guys on the stream that i knew and had a little reunion with those fellers too.

so. now what. i will make a half-year home in Portland. i will work. apparently this is easier said than done, as craigslist is being a little fickle for me. ol' craig has been real good to me over the past year, so i guess i'm due for some frustration. alas, it will work out. seems like it always does. "something will happen," that's for sure. looking forward to a home base though. it's nice to have the same bed for more than 2 or 3 nights at once. it's nice not to sometimes, but it's nice to sometimes as well. so i made it, back to the motherland. glad to be back. i hope everyone's well. holler at me and let's hang the hell out! see ya soon!

rollin

White Lightning rides!

arrived in Brooklyn last night, right to the sports bar for the C's game. friendly, familiar faces awaited me there. Boone had been having reunions while we were in the South, so now it's my turn. now that i'm in the northeast, there should be a fair number of them in the days to come.

been doing some fishing lately. with a lot of driving in between. 4 hours here, 6 here, 5 here, 8 there, and a solid 12 yesterday.
here are a couple fish. one lives in fresh, one lives in the salt.
in the city for one more night then rollin north and west to the fine town of Pulaski. going to be a real good reunion up there. more to come on that.

i hope everyone's well. boston sunday, portland monday. see ya there.

i guess it was time for a new pair

th'east

after leaving austin, i found myself in a traffic jam outside of Shreveport, the first i'd seen since i drove out west, i guess. this turned out to be a pretty bad one and i found myself sitting on i-20 east for three and a half hours. i got out of my car and walked up and down the highway for a little bit, trying to assess the scene. i gathered a little information about the jam and as i walked back toward my car, several people asked me if i knew anything about what was going on. i passed on what i had learned and heard a number of mixed responses and phrases, not many of which i had heard before. one trucker, as i walked by said, "i'd be walkin' home too!" i said that i would then be walking to Maine and he laughed loudly. at a gas station in Jackson, i came back to my car after paying for the gas and a man was staring at the back of my car, presumably looking at the license plate the bumper stickers. "what d'ya think?" i asked. he chuckled and asked me what i was doing down there and then asked how any miles i had on the Subaru. when i told him, he smiled and said, "i hope my wife's gets that many!" ha.

made it to Atlanta on tuesday and made some new friends. made it to Anderson, SC on wednesday and was welcomed by the best homecooked meal i've had in a while. yesterday Boone and i drove to Cashiers, NC and we've been fishing since.

yesterday was my first day on the water in a little over a week. i was excited and confident. we stepped into the Tuck River with hopes and spirits high. water was low and Boone landed a chub within minutes after arrival. i did the same a few minutes later and we continued upstream. Boone picked up a few here and there and i was still yet to land a trout. i lost one, spooked some others as we continued upstream. we decided to change spots after a couple hours and drove upstream. Boone landed a three pound rainbow after a few minutes and we were happy. a little while later and i was frustrated. i smelled of skunk and it had been a long time since i smelled that bad of it.

i was fishing a run that i just felt there were fish in. if there wasn't a fish in this run, then i wouldn't have known where else to look. and then, finally, the indicator went down and i set the hook on a fish i instantly knew was big. big head shakes came and it went across the stream in front of me, 15 feet to the right and then 30 feet to the left. and then it was over. hook popped out. i crouched in the river, my hands scratching my head. i'm assuming some expletive(s) exited my mouth. that was the last fish i hooked that day and i got skunked. ooooh, did it hurt. it's been a while since i wanted a fish back so badly. how big was it? who knows. big. big enough to not want to lose. add that to the stench of a skunk that had been brewing since spring and there you have it.

today i did some catching. caught some trout! nice ones! so did Boone. maybe we'll catch some more tomorrow! what's next? redfish, albies, steelhead and landlockeds! see ya there!

ACL

seven of us left the ranch around 6 p.m. on wednesday, texas bound. through the great list of craig, we had secured tickets to the austin city limits music festival as well as an apartment on austin's 6th street. here. we. go.

a caravan of 4 cars, White Lightning, Southern Justice, The Little Green Shitbox and another, explicitly named vehicle, cruised south and east out of Colorado, through northeastern tip of New Mexico and into Texas. texas is big. our plan was to drive through the night, as google listed our journey around 16 hours. energy drinks and stops later, we all crashed in the parking lot of a mcdonald's somewhere in west texas. the 16 hour drive ended after 21 hours of travel, but we had made it to austin safe and sound.
zilker park, where the festival is, was a 20 minute walk from our apartment. for the next 3 days we spent midday to 10 p.m. at the park, watching music. awesome music.
here's the full lineup: http://2010.aclfestival.com/

the black keys killed:
this guy was this guy:

So long and thanks for all the fish

well. been a while since i wrote and now i am about to say goodbye to the 4UR. maybe more like a 'see you later' i guess.

the end of the season was very busy. we had a group of 14 anglers in who all fished with guides all day. great group of fellers. fishing was pretty good then. ended that group with a bang, putting about a dozen in the net for one guy in the afternoon of the last day.

then we had a wedding here. the ranch was full for the first time since labor day. and in the wedding party we found the group of anglers we'd been looking for all season. a group of 10 Cornell grads fished real hard. awesome guys, very good anglers. and the fishing was nuts. they were ecstatic just to be here and their enthusiasm was rewarded by the mighty Goose Creek with 4 days of epic fishing. my very last guided trip of the summer was the best. hit the water very early with three guys, marko, jeff and matt, before the sun had hit the water. between the three of them i netted close to 15 before 11:30. after a pow-wow, we elected to hit the big river and marko and matt and i drove fast to the Rio. in 45 minutes on the Rio, i netted 13 more. ended that with a double hookup. awesome. high fives. just awesome. i love fishing. not just the very act of it, but the idea, the concept, the thing. everything about it.

Boone and i hit the creek yesterday. in two hours we landed close to thirty. so, thanks Goose Creek, thanks Rio Grande, thanks Walton Pond, Pumphouse Pond, Walton Creek, Soda Creek Pond, thanks for all the fish. so long, and thanks for all the fish. bonus points for anyone who can identify the book/movie that that song comes from.

so what next? after thinking long and hard about it, i think, that i, jesse lance robbins, will go fishing. stay tuned for the next leg, as we Seek the Freed.

things, that have happened and, otherwise

well, i have been guiding a lot. the fishing has gotten tougher, fish pickier, water lower and clearer. but we're still catching fish. our big hatches have been gone for a while, the only dry flies that fish will come up to with some sort of consistency are hopper patterns. which is fun. the fish are slowly transitioning to eating midges (very small flies). these are a pain to tie on, and easily tangled by beginners. seen quite a few rookies lately which can be frustrating, but also pretty sweet when you can net a nice fish for them.
a while back, i had some guests. this was fun. my top bunk was occupied by a familiar (and bearded) roommate's face. that was nice. Liz and Ben came down from denver and Matty G cruised through on his own american road trip. we hiked, we fished, we swam, we laughed, we did.

i saw a bull moose:
i had the idea to take pictures of holes in each of our 15 stations on goose creek. here is a real sweet hole on station 14. that rock wall goes up probably 30 feet. i think the deepest part of this pool is 5 or 6 feet. sizely (is that a word?) wild rainbows hang out in this pool:
here is a sweet run on 13. the creek splits about 300 yards above this and then comes back together to make this run. mostly browns in this stretch, but there are a few bows in there too. two weeks ago i had a client hook two browns on one cast in this hole:
i gave Boone another good NJ on the Rio:
i went to a wedding!
Mr. and Mrs. Mueller:
there were a few Batesies there:
and a little dancing:
it occurred to me that i haven't put up many/any pictures of the ranch compound itself. my humble abode, Creekside:
my private porch, window and entrance:
things otherwise include deciding where to go and what to do when the 4UR closes down for the season on october 5th. other things otherwise include going to work now.

i hope everyone is well!