Im coming home!

[jbird]

Wellp! Oregon? Here I come :) :) Whooooot!!! After 3+ very strange years in Wisconsin, my wife and I are returning to the great PNW!
Goodbye frozen wasteland! Goodbye featureless terrain! Goodbye cruelly short fishing season!

Unlike the previous 25 years, We wont be in Bend or Medford. Its Portland area this time.

The only stinker about the deal is my wife is moving out in 3 weeks to start her new job, I have to stay behind til the house sells. "Please God, don't drop another Wisconsin snowflake upon my head" ;)

Im excited to explore the fisheries of NW Oregon and dust of my steelhead weaponry!

[Mark Kranhold]

Right on Jay! Congratulations on the next chapter of life in beautiful steelhead country.. I'm envious, but not the packing and moving part:p

[David Lee]

No more epic Smallmouth ..... BITCH !

At least you'll be closer to Baja - perhaps you will join us sometime ?

D.~

(have a safe trip !)

[Rockman]

Welcome back to year round fishing!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Pretty cool........

[Dan Blanton]

Hey Jay,

I sure wish you well and that it all turns out to be the best and final move you make. Good luck!

[jbird]

Thanks guys!


Hey Jay,

I sure wish you well and that it all turns out to be the best and final move you make. Good luck!

I hope so too Dan. My heart is in the west. I fished for three days with Brad Bohen earlier this week. Your name came up a couple times as a fun guy to fish with. Brads a pretty cool dude and a really "fishy" guy :)

[Dan Blanton]

Thanks guys!



I hope so too Dan. My heart is in the west. I fished for three days with Brad Bohen earlier this week. Your name came up a couple times as a fun guy to fish with. Brads a pretty cool dude and a really "fishy" guy :)

Hey Jay - so that's why my ears were ringing... Brad is indeed a fun guy to fish with. I've enjoyed the couple of times I've shared my skiff on the delta with him. I hope to fish his water with him someday. Once you're settled, come on down to the Bay Area and I'll take you out on the delta.

[Larry S]

Jay,
I know that makes you a happy camper! We of the Kiene Krowd will miss all of those great
avian shots that you sent our way. If you have extra room in the moving van, bring back
some water to the west coast.
Best,
Larry S

[mems]

Aloha Jay, make sure you bring a couple of cases of leinenkugels with ya doncha know. Good luck on selling the house. Wisconsin is a beautiful place, at least the north woods, but besides fall colors and football there is some very cold weather and tons of snow to contend with. Good luck with the move. I have lots of fishing buddies from portland. Let me know if you want some crazies to fish with. Don.

[BobVP]

Ah, yes...I too spent 3 years and 10 days living in Wisconsin. I only miss the beaver pond fishing a little now.

[JasonB]

Congrats Jay,
Lots of cool fishing and beautiful mountains to explore for years around Portland. Hardly ever snows. Of course you might come to curse the dreaded drizzle that can linger for weeks (or months). The worst part is when it just will NOT drop enough precip to do any good, but won't stop and break up enough to get just a little tiny bit of sunshine either. Grew up in Oregon, and while I miss it a lot, I sure don't miss the winter blahs. Given the choice between Portland and Wisconsin though, I can't say it would be much of a choice :-)

I imagine you'll be too busy fishing year round now to keep up on your custom flybox stocks. My Dad still has his and loves it btw.
Cheers,
JB

[jbird]

Yeah Jason, this last winter here in Wisco we had 53 nights below zero... 53!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And so far this summer has been a bust. Its only climbed out of the 70's on a couple occasions. Of all the things I couldn't get used to here, the #1 frustration is actually the culture. As charming as it seemed to be part of "what America used to be like", it has its down sides. Nobody is in any hurry to do anything. Innovation is not in the vocabulary. I have to order so many things online because there's just no local diversity. To put it plainly, I am very excited about getting back to "my people".

As for Flygrain, I don't plan to stick a fork in it. I love it too much. I seem to ALWAYS have a custom project going on for someone. I will almost certainly have a hiccup between leaving here and setting up a new workshop out there. We will probably be starting in an apartment out there. I have a pretty stout inventory now and I plan to build on that a bit before the move. but between moving my wife out there, getting this house ready to sell and all the great fishing in the fall, my time will be limited.