A sensitive time for a steelhead fisherman

[Dustin Revel]

To those that are not completely obsessed with steelhead, you probably read this forum and think we are a bunch of crazed morons... amd we are, that is pretty much the easiest way to explain it.

think about it... who in their right mind gets up at 4 in the morning after driving all night to hike 5-10 miles down a canyon without a trail to see the sun rise over their favorite stream only to find that is completely blown, and there is no chance in hell it will clear? nobody does it. atleast I've never seen anyone else do it...

so what do you do next? you drink a steelhead IPA and you head away from the storm until you hit green water, and you get your flies or fly in the water!

I survive off canned tuna, bread, bananas, and beer. who do you know that has broken down every major producer of chicken noodle soup to see which offers the cheapest calories, protein and carbs?? only to come to the conclusion that chicken noodle soup is a rip off... thats just weird. every penny I earn is spent on school, rent, and steelhead. and its split pretty evenly into thirds.

Steelhead fishermen are often insomniacs... by choice. we spend hours and hours tying colorful balls of yarn oonto hooks, attaching rabbit and marabou to a tube or hook and telling stories (sometimes to themself... thats a bad night) about steelhead. I remember a particular february that I fished 27 days... straight. tying a couple dozen flies every night in my dorm sleeping for a couple hours and doing it all again. I skipped the first two weeks of my second semester in college to chase steelhead on the mad, sometimes deciding to just spend the night under a big redwood.

When we get back into town on sunday nights we usually stay up all night trying to figure out a weeks worth of calculus homework in one delerious night...

The act of fishing for steelhead is the world's most addicting drug, and every spring I go through a crisis... because I know its going to be a while before I can get my fix again. This makes a steelhead fishermen do crazy things... it makes us very irrational and short tempered. We are decent people, but we will lie, cheat, and steal if it means we get to go fishing.

I apparently have a bacteria deficiency in my stomach that causes me to get food poisoning on a weekly basis... Just ask any of my professors.

So if you ever think you're dealing with a crazed idiot on here... You are, and I appologize... I've been hit in the head by a few too many raindrops.

also, try living in arcata without smoking pot (fisjing isn't nearly as productive when you're stoned)... its enraging.

[Steeliejunkee]

That was well said, very humorous yet inspiring.=D>

[Scott V]

think about it... who in their right mind gets up at 4 in the morning after driving all night to hike 5-10 miles down a canyon without a trail to see the sun rise over their favorite stream only to find that is completely blown, and there is no chance in hell it will clear? nobody does it. at least I've never seen anyone else do it...

You've never been with us that go back country all spring and summer long. I can not count how many times I left before my wife got up in the morning "and she gets up early" and got back after my wife had gone to bed. We do that almost every weekend, and most of the time it is for fish that are barely 10 inches long if you are lucky plus carrying a full back pack with about 30 pounds especially if we are taking in float tubes.

The only thing I do not like about the steelhead forum is all the fish police we have on here, telling people how they should hold fish or my favorite assuming that the fish in the picture probably died because you held it out of the water for to long to take a picture. People really need to stop doing that and jut compliment someone on the hard work they did to catch that fish. no one is perfect, so therefore no one should be passing judgment.

[Dustin Revel]

You've never been with us that go back country all spring and summer long. I can not count how many times I left before my wife got up in the morning "and she gets up early" and got back after my wife had gone to bed. We do that almost every weekend, and most of the time it is for fish that are barely 10 inches long if you are lucky plus carrying a full back pack with about 30 pounds especially if we are taking in float tubes.

The only thing I do not like about the steelhead forum is all the fish police we have on here, telling people how they should hold fish or my favorite assuming that the fish in the picture probably died because you held it out of the water for to long to take a picture. People really need to stop doing that and jut compliment someone on the hard work they did to catch that fish. no one is perfect, so therefore no one should be passing judgment.

I'm no stranger to a heavy pack... I work in the mountains with a heavy pack all summer, but you're right I don't often trout fish the wilderness. I am definately planning on doing so this summer...

I have found that the beginning of my steelhead season is much more fruitful if I do alot of trout fishing during the offseason.

[shawn kempkes]

Stop chasing steelhead for a few more years. Get your education. If you dont you will wake up in your forties without a pot to piss in living like a hermit in some old dilapidated van down by the river and have to result to drinking keystone light because you cant afford the great Ipa you enjoy right now.

[Mike O]

also, try living in arcata without smoking pot (fisjing isn't nearly as productive when you're stoned)... its enraging.


I did. For 3 1/2 years. And it was...Are you sick of the people up there yet? That's the reason I couldn't stay, the area is be-yu-ti-ful, but most of the people of Arcata suck.

Best time I ever spent there was my last year. Got married, moved to Eureka, finished HSU. Eureka = semi-reality.

I sure miss walking up to Founders, then back down to the wildlife building, then back up to Founders...then off into the forest for some quiet time. Haven't been back up there since 1992...God, I need to go back for a look-see, and check the blackberries at the Blue Lake Hatchery. Good memories go with the enraging ones...

[BillB]

Had two girls and a son-in-law that went to HSU. All have recovered! Beautiful area. Spent many summers (all summer) there visiting the kids. I used to get a kick out of the folks at Ra Gay on the River. All concerned for the environment, old growth trees, spotted owls and such, then the 10,000 "concerned" used the El for a latrine.

[shawn kempkes]

Had two girls and a son-in-law that went to HSU. All have recovered! Beautiful area. Spent many summers (all summer) there visiting the kids. I used to get a kick out of the folks at Ra Gay on the River. All concerned for the environment, old growth trees, spotted owls and such, then the 10,000 "concerned" used the El for a latrine.


you should see the garbage they left behind

[Bruce Berman]

Try being a steelhead junkie and living in southern Arizona. I've driven back home from steelheading, 15.5 hours in a day, worked a job and then turned around a few days later to head back north. The closest steelheading is just about 950 miles. It sucks so bad, I'm in the process of moving to the Pacific Northwest for the anadromous fishing.

[Sammy]

Here here Scott V

[Dustin Revel]

I moved here for the fish, and thats what I'm going to do. If I stop fishing I'll move away or smoke more pot... HSU is a garbage university, and it doesn't look like its getting better anytime soon. I have absolutely no desire to ever go to founders hall... but this is not the intended subject of this post. trust me when I say i'm done ranting about hippies, and i'm not into pickin berries and layin in the grass.

[trinity]

Dude, you might want to see a psychiatrist. Seriously, you are totally offensive.

[Dustin Revel]

Dude, you might want to see a psychiatrist. Seriously, you are totally offensive.

haha... good call

[aaron]

Dude, be social, enjoy college. The fish will always be there but you won't always be in school. Sure there's a lot of hippies but there's plenty of normal peeps too. Learn stuff, chase ladies, and do a bunch of stuff you can look back at and laugh and have a good time. You'll regret it if you don't.

[Dustin Revel]

Dude, be social, enjoy college. The fish will always be there but you won't always be in school. Sure there's a lot of hippies but there's plenty of normal peeps too. Learn stuff, chase ladies, and do a bunch of stuff you can look back at and laugh and have a good time. You'll regret it if you don't.

Trust me... some nights we're on a rocket ship to the moon!

http://www.kiene.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=60&pictureid=408

[Blueracer]

Way to spit the truth Dustin. You won't regret anything,,, but you already know this. Been there, and done some of those things you mentioned. Grades were important for sure but I knew when I could afford to be out of class. Keep doing what you love. The future may change the time you can spend there. Don't quit putting in the hours you are able to. Thanks for spitting the truth. I'm glad you're being following your heart and taking advantage of it. -Bryan

[Dustin Revel]

Way to spit the truth Dustin. You won't regret anything,,, but you already know this. Been there, and done some of those things you mentioned. Grades were important for sure but I knew when I could afford to be out of class. Keep doing what you love. The future may change the time you can spend there. Don't quit putting in the hours you are able to. Thanks for spitting the truth. I'm glad you're being following your heart and taking advantage of it. -Bryan

Thanks Blueracer! you ever want to relive it for a weekend you're welcome on my floor (the couch is pretty gnarly)

Also thanks for not calling me dude! I've really sucked the marrow out of my college days so far... and it turns out you can party and all that fun stuff, fish, and pass classes if you can make it to the coffee pot in the morning.

[STEELIES/26c3]

You got it all right Dustin...

Complete academic immersion is overrated and underpaid...

One of my fave professors, Bob Van Kirk (fisheries) from my HSU days once told me that I needed to fish more and stress less about the difference between a B and an A GPA... I carried a 3.4 pretty much across the board and he always told me that as an employer, he preferred the solid B student over the 4.0 grad because the academic perfectionist was less malleable and tended to carry a more elitist, know it all attitude and as such would be less teachable/trainable...

I emancipated, levitated, inebriated, proclamated, cohabitated, emaciated propagated, and gradiated/graduated, ate way too many Hey Juan! burritos, drank way too many Soil Science and Cladistics cups of COUGH-E at the "Village Panty-Tree" (Giuntolli RD) at o dark thirty the night into the day before a final exam, got pissed when I woke up wet and hung over on Clam Beach with some girl I picked up at Moreno's (before it burned down...) hitched to 'Cata with a hankerin' for a Los Bagels Tomonion Slug with Larapin Sauce... only to find that DAMN IT! It was TUESDAY@$%^! and EVERYONE knows Los Bagels is closed on Tuesdays (or is it Mondays?). Body surfed naked at College Cove, camped out chained to a CAT D9 with Daryl Cherney and a bunch a Earth First hippies trying to save Marbled Murrelets and spotted owls and a forest (later became Headwaters~;) full o trees that sprouted when Clovis ruled the Franks (511 AD) and Simpson Timber and later Maxxam Corp were hell bent on turning into Redwood decks...

I partied and danced and sang and protested and indulged in so much BS I got a diploma with the same two letters on it.

I survived Humboldt Krud and girls with harry armpits, Birkenstocks and push-start V0Dubb buses, cyanescence, psilocybe, rooteralis, Jolly Giant Commons dorm food, DR. Kaster (The Master of Disaster's) Zoology lab lectures (Damn tenure program@#%^!).

I experienced the rhythmic, melodic, lyrical, heartfelt blessings of Kate Wolf, Eggly Bagelface, MR. Bungle, Carlos Santana, Neil Young, BB King, the HSU Lumberjack Marching Band and many other talented musicians in tiny venues and at close range.

I grew by leaps and bounds in that damp, musty environ and I loved every waking, sub and un conscious moment of it...

In fact, looking back on it all... and I have for many years now...

My ONLY regrets are that I didn't fish enough and I moved away.

Soooooooo keep draggin' dem books up all those Founders Hall steps... and suckin up that sucky soup so you can rake the rent together (even if you have to pick daffodils out in Samoa this spring) but whatever you do...

MAKE DAMN SURE you keep your priorities straight.

Take that really windy road to the 'lost coast' and catch a chromer~

[Dustin Revel]

Its amazing how little this place has changed over the years

[JasonB]

Dustin,
Let me see if I have this right. You live in a place most of us would consider to be pretty darn close to paradise, going to college, and cuttin classes to go steelhead fishing... and you're having to suffer from being surrounded by a bunch of hippies that smoke too much pot. That sounds like a pretty small price to pay all in all. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would trade you places in a hot second. As others have indicated already; enjoy it all right now, you wont likely have a time quite like this in your life again.
Cheers,
JB

[Mark Kranhold]

Dustin, are you related to George?

[BillB]

Geez Mark you bring back a copious amount of pleasurable memories. I never ate at the Jolly Giant Commons but I paid considerable dinero to them. When I brought one of my daughters home from there she looked like the warning on the iodine bottle she was so skinny. Wouldn't eat in the commons and lived on cereal. Humboldt Krud turned into pneumonia for one of the kids. We sent the best in rain gear but the ladies still made it to class wet. Only one of the girls suffered a bicycle accident when the rain gear obstructed her view and she ran into the side of a car removing it's mirror.

You left out Rico's Tacos and the taco truck that resided near the Humboldt Crab baseball venue. Best chicken taco ever. Also Luzmilla's made a decent Chile Colorado. I can still feel, smell, the garlic from the Los Bagels Guacamole.

As for fishing, the girls didn't but I did! Loved to fish the north jetty, Mad River Beach, Mad River and the Mad at Blue Lake.

The trip from home was a grueling 9-10 hour marathon that required considerable medication upon arrival! Needless to say I required much medication over the years, but not just from the drive!

[Dustin Revel]

Mexican food from my experience isn't that great around here... I've found hey juan's to be bland, and rico's is allright. the roach coach is definately the best.

Los bagels Guac is probably the best i've ever had... and their jalepeno scrambagel! that is the breakfast of champions, I just wish they opened a couple hours earlier. I live just a couple blocks from them.

I can't believe no one has mentioned toni's... my favorite drug front!!! I mean what kind of business that large only takes cash and checks? I ordered checks just for toni's and they refuse them because they aren't from humboldt, but damn they make a good burger or breakfast... 24 HOURS A DAY!!!

Or Don's???? some of the most interesting things I have ever seen have happened while that small cambodian man was jumping up and down on the counter top yelling at the top of his lungs "GET OUT!!!!"

and no i'm not suffering because of hippies aside from the fact that you can barely buy meat on campass.. thats lame.

As for medication I certainly can't be as productive as I need to be if I'm consistently medicated... moderation is very important.

I definately have a lot of fun here, but I would have fun anywhere I came HERE to fish!!

[BillB]

Medication for me, boys and girls, tends to be many of the fine ales that must be tasted. Red Nectar is an exception noted.

[Ned Morris]

Or it's a complete waste of cash. I went to UO rather than UC Davis as my only basis was to choose fishing over education which I sometimes regret to this day wondering "what if". Honed my craft Fly Fishing for Steelhead and Trout on the McKenzie and Willamette Rivers for 4 years + every other coastal stream from Seaside to Bandon. Fished 4 days a week after class for 4-1/2 years straight and even ditched some to boot even though my Dad was paying some hefty out of state tuition. All the while still made every party at my Fraternity and every barn dance invited to by the Sorority gal of the week who had the guts to take me for a few hours before I bored them to death talking about where I had just fished last. My only girlfriend the whole time was from Mercer Island WA and she loved a fresh smoked Coho I usually nabbed from NF Nehalem or Siltcoos which I was more than happy to provide catching myself in return for some... well other things. Too bad I ditched her as she was loaded too. Then when I finally finished the "BS" degree and got that first piece of sheepskin, uh oh....I need to make some money or I start going in the "red" like every other dummy. I think hmmm..... work in corp. america for just a couple of years, save some cash, go back to Grad school and get my M.S. in Fisheries so I can really say F-you to all the working hacks I laughed at growing up. Get in to UW and OSU however the prospect of going 60K in the hole when finally done only to start a career making a meager 25K a year (actually you could live off that at the time up there) living in a Gov't trailer for the next 10 years was not a good prospect for me (not to mention I failed Organic Chem). Well fast forward 13 years and a couple of MS Degrees later and yes I regret it. I live a way too fast life in the city and fish about a 1/100 of what I used to. I have a wife, 2 kids, live in a fabulous neighborhood of San Francisco and make enough money a year to be considered that evil top 1% tax bracket. Work my ass off 60 hours a week to pay for it all too. Do I miss my old college life being a fishing fool driving an old 1969 Dart in snow flurries trying to make it to the Alsea having only $7 in my pocket for the next 5 days? Yes. I now drive a German Yuppie mobile like every other white colar clown. Do I miss the lifestyle? Yes and no. Was it worth it? Undetermined because I know what I had once and yes it still eats at me. Today I do get to go on some sweet trips every year I could have only dreamed of back then but they are infrequent as I am saving for my kids education as well so they can come to this same crossroads if they too end up to liking fishing as much as I do. Priorities shift for some people, for others they don't. No one is wrong in their decision, it is theirs to live with and no one else's. Am I happy, you bet. Seeing my 3 year old daughter catch her first fish last summer was worth a season of fishing for me. For the record, I have been Steelhead fishing once this year on the Russian and scored the standard goose egg. I enjoyed it though. I hope you make the most of your years at HSU Dustin. It is a good school and a great place with fantastic fishing opportunities I'm sure you take advantage of. Sorry to break it to you but hippies are at every 4 year school on the west coast. Ignore them if you must and worry about what makes you happy. When you pick your career after you're done, no matter what you choose be prepared to make sacrifices. It goes both ways.

[huntindog]

i so agree with the message above. I went to Montana State University and fished and hunted my ass off, partied like a drunken hillbilly, killed some cool critters, caught a butt-load of trout, got the degree, failed organic chem also...as well as comparative anatomy, that class sucks butt (and yes there are a bunch of hippies in Bozeman too)...had the time of my life. I would love it if i could do it over againa a few times and i wouldnt change a thing. I still fish more than the average married guy, and still manage to fill my freezer with red meat...but the care-free college life is something you only get to do once...i have some friends that still try and live that way but it doesn't seem very fullfilling. Have fun, fish hard.

[Dustin Revel]

this thread to an interesting path... it went from "you should see a psychiatrist" to keep fishin'... both of which are obvious :)