It’s the fourth quarter, folks, and we’re now 75% done with our upper-east odyssey of fish, photography, road miles, fast food, and cheap motels.

Last week, Pete McDonald and I completed the third leg of content gathering for our impending collaborative book release. We started in Freeport, Maine on August 17th with Captain Eric Wallace who showed us a cross-section of his immense sand and mudlflat fishery in Casco Bay. We got to sight-cast to some serious stripers in skinny water, but the bright skies and temps in the mid-eighties had them acting a bit sulky. From there we ran down to Boston and spent a couple of days with Dave Skok and Rich Armstrong. Rich found some really nice fish that were blasting bait under birds in Boston Harbor, and Skok gave us a whirlwind tour of his shore fishing gig and fly-tying enclave. As you might guess from a guy that ties like a billion flies a year, Skok’s office looked like a desk and a vice neatly assembled inside a bombed-out poultry farm.

After Boston, we took the Woods Hole ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard to chase fish with Jamie Boyle. On that leg we got to see first-hand how well a giant hookless musky plug works as a bass and bluefish teaser. While Jamie worked them into a froth with the plug, we dropped flies into it’s wake and caught some honker fish. From the Vineyard, we ferried back to the mainland, drove to Hyannis, and took another ferry to Nantucket. There we met Shawn Bristow who parked us on a massive tidal rip where schools of bluefish up to 15 pounds were surfing down the face of a two-foot standing wave to eat our flies. The next morning, with weather threatening, Shawn parked us over a sandbar where schools of bonito were speeding around and eating sandeels (and flies that looked like sandeels).

On August 23rd, we ferried from Nantucket back to Hyannis as the first Nor’easter of the 2010 season slammed into Cape Cod. Our last two days were spent with Captain Jim Ellis in Barnstable and Corey Pietraszek in Newport, Rhode Island. Despite a driving rain and winds up to 30 knots, we did find a few fish working under birds, and once again I was glad that I had packed along the underwater housing.

In October, we’ll be wrapping up the shooting and interviews with a trip to Virginia, the Lower Chesapeake, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. From there, we’ll start the tedious process of editing and designing a coffee table book that we’re getting seriously stoked-up about. Best guess for release is late summer of 2011. Jump on this mailing list if you’d like for us to keep you posted of our progress.

Here’s a selection from the shoot, click here to see the rest.

Scarecrows and welfare geese, Casco Bay, Maine

(L) Sunrise bass  (R) Dave Skok wrapping a herring pattern

Birds, bass and bait

Sunset over Beantown

Scenes from Martha’s Vineyard (we couldn’t get within camera range of Obama, maybe because we were wearing buffs?)

Jamie Boyle with a not-small Vineyard bass

This place sells t-shirts, too

Shawn Bristow releasing a green meanie off Nantucket

I’m not exactly sure where the geographic dividing line of hatred is between Yankees and Red Sox fans, but there is one, and it makes the Texas/OU rivalry look like a girlie fight

Captain Jim Ellis: walk softly and carry a big fly box

(L) Captain Corey Pietraszek in Newport, Rhode Island  (R) Storms-a-brewin

I suppose my son, Blake, was about 10-years-old when it became obvious that he was choosing fishing and hunting over skateboarding and Xbox. When he reached middle school I decided to dangle the carrot that would hopefully keep him on point. I promised him that if he made good grades, kept his nose clean, and got into a decent college, that I’d take him on a bigtime cool trip for his high school graduation present. We started saving our pennies and over the years we kicked around a lot of destinations. Last winter we finally decided on Alaska, and from there we narrowed it down to Royal Coachman Lodge.  We just got back, and the trip couldn’t have gone any better.

With a fairly narrow window, we decided to go for max species variety. Blake has fly-fished quite a bit in saltwater, but he’s never cast to any of the cold-water species. Our mid-July week promised lots of action and lots of new techniques, and Blake really took to it. We caught a ton of fish, we dined like sovereigns, the guides and crew were fantastic, and the scenery was unmatched. More importantly we got to reconnect before he takes off for college. His senior year has been a chaotic blur. We often went days with nothing more than snippets of conversation. I had a couple (okay several) small speeches planned for this trip about life and college and such, but I soon realized that none of that needed to be said. More than anything, it was great to have a full week with Blake without distractions beyond an occasional bear, and scads of salmon, grayling, pike, trout, and char that were bent on eating every fly in our box.

Thanks, Blake, for studying hard and toeing the line. It was a great trip and I’m bigtime proud of your accomplishments.

Oh, by the way, I took a small mountain of camera gear along and fired a few frames. Here are the highlights, and you can click here to see the entire shoot.

Alaskan taxi cab

(L) Better than Starbucks    (R)  Nuyakuk River

An ambitious grayling

Guide bling

Blake’s honker pike

(L) Evening entertainment    (R) Chrome rocket

Dolly or char?

And he gets PAID to do this!

Lake-run rainbow

Tuna on whole-wheat, to go

Does your dog bite?

Lots of moving parts

Go forth and be fruitful

This entry is about the incredibly cool photos that I didn’t get

I’m normally neck-deep in redfish this time of year, and there’s typically a matter of protocol that goes along with that pursuit. When I arrive in Port Aransas each June, I first spend a few days fishing–just fishing. No cameras allowed. I have an infirmity for tailing, waking, and noodling redfish; but before I can get serious about photographing, I’ve got to stick hooks in a few of them. Sorry, but that’s how it goes. Why not just fish and keep the camera handy? I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work. It causes a prickly and unpleasant conflict between church and state.

I’m pleased to report that the protocol started off very well, this year. I had five days of glass calm, sunny skies, and perfect tides. I got all of the catching out of my system and I was gearing up for a week of serious photography…

But then Alex came calling. He pushed three feet of Starbucks-colored water onto the flats, kicked the wind up to sixty, and forced me indoors for the remainder of my redfish window.

So, in keeping with my obligation to provide you all with stirring content, each month, I’ve pulled a few favorite shots from my redfish archive to show you what I would have been shooting if Alex hadn’t trashed the protocol. Honestly, I’d like to blame the whole thing on that goofball Jim Cantore, but he’s only responsible for the spinning mass of hot air that comes from the Weather Channel, not the tropics.

This photo was NOT taken during Hurricane Alex

Neither was this one

New photo….(not)

From last year’s collection

A golden oldie

I try to avoid back-to-backers, whenever possible. Pack, depart, return, unpack, wash clothes, repack, depart, return. This time, however, it was unavoidable. The first trip involved the extremely busy schedules of nine people, and the second trip involved tarpon fishing dates that have been carved in stone since 1991. I shall now apologize to my wife, my kids, and my dog. By my calculation: some of you missed me terribly, some of you were pissed, and some of you barely noticed I was gone.

Private Vallarta

On the first leg, I had the pleasure of following and photographing a great group of anglers on a corporate getaway trip to Puerto Vallarta. The plan was to drag lures and baits for billfish, but the conditions for that gig were less than ideal. We had light winds and flat seas, but the water was a little cool and off-color. Despite the lack of large pelagics, there were plenty of dorado around, and the food, drink, staff, and accommodations were all top drawer. Thanks to Sprague Mullikin for pulling the trip together, and to Janice and Bob Carter for sharing their wonderful airplane, villa, boat, and crew.

Dang, I Love Tarpon

After three loads of laundry, I packed up again and flew to Key West for my annual tarpon sabbatical. My family is normally in tow on this one, but the school calendar tossed this year’s trip into disarray. The weather was phenomenal for four days running, and the tarpon swam by in droves. The big palolo worm hatches went off while I was there, and the tarpon were doing surface gainers to eat any fly that was orange and squiggly. Thanks to Albert Ponzoa for once again lining me up on a bunch of fish, and for taking the rod and getting sweaty so I could fire a few jumping frames.

]]> http://toshbrown.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=579 9 http://toshbrown.com/blog/?p=531 http://toshbrown.com/blog/?p=531#comments Sat, 01 May 2010 23:46:01 +0000 toshbrownblog http://www.toshbrown.com/blog/?p=531

Last week I traveled with Pete McDonald to Maryland and New Jersey for another round of fishing, shooting, and interviewing for the new book project.

We started the trip on the upper reaches of the Chesapeake (The Susquehana Flats) near Havre de Grace, MD. Captains Tom Hughes and Sean Crawford put us on piles of post-spawn stripers, but we never connected with the big mamoo that typifies their fishery in the spring.

From there we hoofed it to New Jersey and spent a couple of days with master fly-tyer (and really nice guy) Bob Popovics. Using his tricked-out beach van to carry our mountain of gear, we roamed the sands of Island Beach State Park looking for birds, bait, bass and bluefish. The weather was fantastic (maybe a bit too nice) and we got some great shots of Bob’s fly patterns in play.

For the final leg, we drove back to Maryland and spent a day with John Page Williams and Shawn Kimbro; two avid conservationist anglers that are doing great work on mantaining the fragile balance of fish, water quality, and hominids in the Chesapeake watershed.

In August, we’re planning to hit Maine, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Rhode Island. In October, we’ll be wrapping up the project in Virginia and North Carolina. This book is coming together nicely, and our best guess for release is Summer 2011.

For continued updates, please join this mailing list. To see the entire shoot, please click here.

That Yaller-eyed Devil loves The Banger

(L) Dashboard bling (R) Bob Popovics wrapping and curing

One of Bob’s creations in play

Stripping streamers at daybreak

Logbook at Nick & Betty’s Tackle Shop – Seaside Park, NJ

Pete McDonald on The REAL Jersey Shore

In Maryland they call them “Rockfish”

The Judge’s Shack – Island Beach State Park

Sunset casting on the Susquehana Flats

After one of the coldest Texas winters I can remember, it was nice to get out last week and sling flies on a warm, muggy day. The newspaper said that the greenies were up shallow on Lake Bastrop, and that’s exactly how we found them. Since hungry, jumping largemouths don’t really need much in the way of explanation, I’ll skip the captions and the rhetoric and let the camera talk.

Click here to see more shots from my bass fishing stock photo archive.

Folks who know me will attest that quail hunting is one of several things that I get all yippy about. Unfortunately the 2009-10 Texas bird crop wasn’t much to yip for.

After two consecutive blistering summers there were scant few coveys and lots of bird dogs and hunters riding the bench. I actually went the entire season without firing a shot, but just before the final bell I did get to fire a few frames on one of the rare patches of Texas ground that held a huntable density of birds.

By nod from Joe Crafton and Bubba Wood with Park Cities Quail in Dallas, I tagged along on a two-day hunt to photograph a group of quail aficionados at Mesa Vista Ranch in the Texas Panhandle. Owner T. Boone Pickens had graciously donated the hunt to raise funds for the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch, and his guests were treated to a literal hunt of a lifetime. Through extensive water management and habitat improvement, Boone has transformed what was once a large piece of dusty cow country into one of the most productive quail factories in the Southwest. Rainfall goes a long way to fuel quail production, but during drought times Mesa Vista makes sure that the key components of water, forage, nesting, and screening cover are still abundantly intact.

In a year when quail slipped way down the priority list for most, Boone’s dogs got a workout, his guides stayed busy, his hunters found coveys, and a pile of money was raised for quail research. Winner winner, chicken dinner.

After the hunt, I poured a selection of the photos into a hardbound mini coffee table book and a slideshow CD for the attending hunters. Those items will also be used to jumpstart the bidding on the Mesa Vista 2011 hunt that will be auctioned off next week at the annual Park Cities Quail fundraiser. This was a rewarding project for all involved.

Click here to see these, and more shots from my quail and upland bird hunting archive.

Mesa Vista Ranch

Chest-high to a bird dog

Scatterguns and plum thickets

You can run, but you can’t hide

Skint back

Hunkered in a creekdraw

This season’s most valuable player

In a typical year there are exactly two reasons why we angling sorts might travel to New Orleans in February: Mardi Gras and really big redfish. For me, because I’m not real big on parades and costume parties, that leaves exactly one reason to go to New Orleans in February.

I booked my dates with Captain Bryan Carter back in October and I was careful to make sure that I got them in before Mardi Gras. What I didn’t count on, however, was a party of a different sorts. Who knew that the world would descend upon New Orleans during my redfish trip, even though the Saint’s first Superbowl was being played 668 miles away?

Honestly, though, it turned out to be a non-issue because I wasn’t staying in the city, and getting up at 5:30 on Monday morning to go fishing pretty much nixed any chance that I would be partaking in the postgame revelry on Bourbon Street.

If you’ve ever chased these big wintertime redfish, you know that the entire gig revolves around sunlight and water temperatures. During sunny stretches when the flats warm up, the biguns come in skinny to feed. If the light is good, it’s game on. During nasty stretches when the clouds move in and the water cools, you’re almost better off sleeping in. Unfortunately, we had more bad weather than good on this trip, but as you can see by these photos we did get a bit of action during our one sunny day out of three.

Thanks to Bryan for busting his hump and keeping the conversation from getting too uptight. High-fives to Jim Shulin for making a good cast when the big one presented itself. And a big thanks to Foster Creppel and his fine staff at the Woodland Plantation. The food and lodging were fantastic, and the Superbowl party was an absolute blast. Looking forward to next year.

All of these images are currently available for stock license. To see the entire shoot, please click here.

Mmmmmm, February!

Bryan Carter and Jim Shulin

(L) My bags flying for free (R) Dispelling all rumors

Superbowl party at Woodland Plantation

Who dat?

Beats the hell out of shoveling snow…

The lowly prison permit

After the New Year I got in a couple of Texas coastal duck hunts with my son, Blake, and friend Brad Smythe. I shot my first ducks around Rockport nearly forty years ago (damn I’m old), and until I reached my teens, I wasn’t even sure that ducks would land on fresh water. I’ve hunted them in lots of places, since then, but I always enjoy returning to the spot where I once had to stand on the boat seat to shoot coots off the water with a side-by .410.

We had exactly the fowl/foul weather that we needed to get the ducks moving, so instead of stacking away more cloudy-day shots with standard color levels, I decided to play around with Photoshop. Using high contrast, sepia layers, and vignettes, I came up with a variety of tones and saturations. Some were taken all the way down to grayscale, and in others I let a few of the highlight colors pop through. As much as I often lament the loss of our film culture, I do sometimes enjoy a little nerdlike post-processing.

If you’re needing shots for an upcoming article or promo, I’ve got a pile of duck hunting images in my online stock photo archive. I’ve also setup a cool (new to me) form of delivery using iDisk. High-res downloads are available within minutes, as long as I’m not too far from my desk. My keyword system is based on species, location, and action words; here are few sample phrases to get you started:

Sample Duck Hunting Keywords
duck hunting covers
pintail flying
hunter shooting ducks
duck hunter calling
lab retrieving duck
Texas coast duck hunting

In a couple of weeks I’ll be heading to New Orleans to fish/photograph bruiser marsh redfish with Captain Bryan Carter. Stay tuned for some cool, new views.

Last week I traveled to the Texas Panhandle for my annual goose and crane extravaganza with Blackfoot Guide Service. This is one of my favorite hunts, and the 2009 version was one of the best we’ve had in years. For a change, we had normal weather: lows in the 20′s and highs in the 50′s with sunny skies. That beats the zero year when we had to chip pack ice from our nostrils, and the flood year when we couldn’t even get the decoy trailer into the field. The light winds, this time, made the geese a little picky, but only to the point that we needed modified chokes instead of improved cylinders. Yes, these Panhandle geese usually decoy quite nicely.

In the afternoons we set up windsock spreads for sandhill cranes in a cut milo field south of Tahoka. If you’ve ever hunted cranes, you’ll know that concealment is the key. It doesn’t matter how good your spread looks when your hulking silhouette stands out like a shark in a bird bath. This year our guides packed us into layout blinds woven with grain stalks that proved to be the missing piece of the puzzle. When the first group of cranes swung in and cupped their wings only thirty feet off the deck, we knew we were in for a great shoot.

If you need shots for an upcoming article or promotion, please visit my online archive to see my entire selection of goose hunting and sandhill crane hunting images. High resolution files are available via ftp upload, usually within minutes.

Tools of the trade

Bluebird skies and cautious Canadas, near Lubbock, Texas

Lexie the goose fetching machine

Guide Johnny Miller talking trash

Sandhills on the wing

David Brown hunkering among the stalks

What to shoot when the birds aren’t flying?

Christmas dinner

A goose guide’s mid-season floorboard pile-up

I’ll be shooting some deer hunting photos after Christmas, followed by a couple of duck shoots in January. Thanks to everyone who bought, pimped, and published my work in 2009. Hopefully we’ve survived the worst of a horrendous recession. Happy Holidays to everyone, and I look forward to working/hanging with all of you again in 2010.