Rush River 1/24/16

Well I hadn't planned on fishing this weekend but sometimes when the weather is perfect you just have to live a little.

I met Aaron in River Falls at 8:00 and informed him of my plan to fish the Rush River.  I didn't do extremely well on the Rush last summer and felt that I had a score to settle.  When we drove up to my secret spot we were relieved to see that we were the first ones there.  Within two minutes another guy showed up and parked behind us.  After a few minutes of small talk I agreed to give the guy GPS coordinates to all of Nick Brevitz's favorite spots in exchange for him agreeing to fish downstream of the bridge.  My plan was to fish upstream.

I started out fishing a shallow run and advised Aaron to fish the run above me.  He caught a small Brown Trout on his first cast.  I told him about the time my dad landed 20 trout in that run using a Shop Vac Midge.

 I looked back towards the bridge and thought about the guy that went downstream.  I wondered if he was a fan of my blog.  He sure seemed star struck when we were talking to him earlier.

 Sometime when I have trouble with my casting I look down at my shadow.  At least I can cast a shadow.

 I had thought I had seen every type of ice shelf.  These were some really cool and unique ice shelves.

 I wondered how this one formed.  One layer for each Ice Age I suppose.

 Raccoon tracks.

 Fox tracks.

 First fish of the day was a Brook Trout.  They are so pretty.

 I love winter scenery.

 If you ever look into taking better photos you will probably read about the "Rule of Thirds".  This photo is a pretty good example of that.

Here I am casting.

 First Brown trout.  He was quite a little fighter.

 Second Brown Trout was nice too.  Long and skinny.

 A little while later I caught another one that was quite large.  I didn't measure it but it was probably pushing 18".

 I was so happy.

I've heard it's a good idea to check the temperature of the water.  I think my thermometer is broken though.

 Another Brook Trout,

 Aaron came running up with a Brown Trout he had caught.  I was in the zone so I hadn't heard his yelling.  He was so happy.

 It puked up a Sculpin and some other minnow.  If you know what the other minnow is please comment below.

 So beautiful.

 Another one for Aaron.  Check out Aaron's Timberwolves hat he gave himself for Christmas. Go Wolves!!  #FireSam

 Hashtag No Filter.

 Aaron was so happy.

 Catch and release baby!

Towards the end of our outing I caught a chunky 12 inch Brown.  He was quite the fighter.

It will probably be a while before I fish again.  I'm glad today was a smashing success.

Year of the Tiger

I am still putting the final touches on this post and it will be finished sometime this week.  Rome wasn't built in a day.  It will be worth the wait.  Thanks for your consideration. -Eddie Rivard

Sticker Madness

I don't know what it is about stickers but I've always thought they they were pretty cool.  I remember riding up the chairlift at Wild Mountain as a boy and seeing this shack near the bottom of the hill.  The door to the shack was covered with stickers from all the major ski brands.  "That door is awesome", I thought to myself.  As years past it always seemed like the hippest dudes would have stickers signifying their most rad passions.  I always hoped that someday I would be awesome enough to have a good collection of stickers myself.

I started this blog in the October of 2013 and it has been one wild ride.  I have always felt that no one would ever take me or my blog seriously until I had my own stickers.  After a lot of soul searching I decided to take action.  One day I made a rough sketch of what I wanted my sticker to look like.

 

I soon realized I was in over my head so I enlisted the help of my friend Dan Braun of Brauntrutta.com

Man having friends is great especially when you need stuff from them.

I needed to have these stickers printed and after comparing price estimates from several online sticker companies I decided to use StickerMule.com.  They sent me the proof.  It looked good.

I few days later I received a special delivery.  It was the stickers but they did not turn out as expected.  I sent them an email explaining my thoughts and included this image.

There was an obvious discrepancy in the appearance.  They agreed to do it right. A few days later I had the stickers and they looked great!  Now it was time to distribute them.

I sent some to Ryan Frick.  He is my #1 fan.

 I even handed them out at the fly tying club one night.

At Mend Provisions there is a door that is filled with stickers.  I convinced Mend Master Mike to let me put one of my stickers on his door.

I was so happy.

Then I paid a visit to Lund's Fly shop in River Falls.

The vault door is covered with stickers.

I was so happy.

I even have a file cabinet at home that I've started a pretty good collection on.

 On the side as well.

 And my car.

 It isn't a life. Unless it's a Sugarlife.

 I was so happy.

If you would like to have a sticker please send a self addressed stamped envelope to

Eddie Rivard

PO BOX 40389

St. Paul MN

55104

It would be nice if you include 2 dollars to cover the cost of the sticker but I also accept stickers in trade as well as flies and SAGE fly rods.  Stickers in trade will work well because then I can fill up my file cabinet.