Survived the holidays of which I am not and have never been a fan. Watching Band of Brothers (the marathon that seems to be on every month, the same one I watch every time and never get tired of watching), drinking a small glass of zinfandel, snow on the ground outside. Amy and I are leaving for Durango in the morning to stay a week. We are finishing up a couple of books for Wayfinder.

I am reading The Montana Chronicles about Sherlock Holmes' visit to the West in the late 19th Century. Great fiction, nice to pass time during the holidays.

Always fun to see a table full of your books. Or even a table with a corner of your books.

Paparazzi has been in the news lately too. NHAS has a student-run coffeeshop that creates scholarship money for the students. The Business section of the Globe News did a huge article about the students and their biz.

Brenda Bernet of the Amarillo Globe News interviewing Kristian Holland, Janet Nabors and Octavia Chambers for a nice article she wrote about them and the book, Voices from the Heights. The article appeared in the Today section of the Globe News, Dec 6.

My students at North Heights have been in the news (for good things) lately. Barnes and Noble asked them to hold a booksigning (with me signing my So Many Fish book) this past Sat Dec 6th at 11 a . m. Kristian Holland, Janet Nabors, Octavia Chambers and Jonathan Standish were the standout students who sold out all the books B&N had in the store. Channel 7 came out and interviewed them for the 10 p.m. newscast. The book has sold about 1000 copies worldwide and is available on both amazon and barnes and noble websites.

Amazing. This table full of food is what Darrin Murphy and Andy Roller ordered (and ate) at the Cracker Barrel at our weekly Saturday meeting.

Book Signing, So Many Fish So Little Time

December 6th 11:00 a.m. Barnes and Noble, Amarillo Texas.

This'll be cool because I'm tying my book signing to my students' booksigning for their popular book, Voices From the Heights.

Speeches, Presentations and Panels

Been busy lately, what with taking care of Amy after her kidney surgery, and giving speeches (one to Expio/VisionForum re: State of Education in Amarillo) and panels (Sat. found me on a great panel for the Panhandle Professional Writers Association with Beth Duke, John Kanelis, Pat Tyree and good friend Dr. Mike Bellah, all of us rambling on about encouragement to about sixty writers who clapped and pretended to be excited.)
I need to brag on my North Heights kids too --- they run a coffeeshop at our high school and it counts for in-class credit for Marketing and Economics and Business classes. At the end of the year, the coffeeshop, Paparazzi, gives away over a thousand dollars to -- who else? The students who have gone to North Heights. Paparazzi worked the presentation I gave to VisionForum and served 50 folks coffee and espresso and such. Now for another couple of feathers in their respective caps: 10 last year, they published a book Voices From the Heights that is now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble (online and brick and mortar) and is sold from TExas to New Jersey to Denmark. We'll be giving our second book signing at Barnes and Noble December 6th. All profits go to the North Heights scholarship fund -- we've raised nearly 1000 bucks so far from sales.
Today -- Sunday -- was cool because in the Sunday paper, I found Amy's excerpt article on the front of the Lifestyles page (took up a half page and then continued later for another half page) and then in the Outdoors section, great buddy Chad McPhail had his turkey article. I also have a student -- Cylar Brown --- who sold an article to Southwest Fly Fishing on Spring Creek due out Jan 09 and then my nephew Chase had an article run in last edition of SWFF. Fun to see friends and family being published. Now to get Lance in print somewhere.

I saw the she-wolf trotting up the road that runs beside the lower Rio Hondo. I go about 190 and this demon dog did too. This dog was a beast. Cujo had nothing on this canine. Some folks are dog-people and some aren’t. I can almost always get along with any dog but when the she-wolf bared her teeth and raised her hackles twenty feet away from McPhail and me, I knew that there would be no friendly introduction replete with wagging tails and patted bellies.
As this Cerberus growled from about ten feet, I pondered jumping in one particularly deep pool, ringed by huge rocks but Mac and I had been holding that pool in reserve, high esteem, because we’d spotted a couple of nice risers earlier. The spring before, Mac had fished this pool and landed a buttery sixteen-inch brown trout that fell for a sweet Copper John hybrid that he ties (and won’t loan me.)
At five feet, it was clear there would be a confrontation between angler and man’s best friend. The pool we planned to fish was definitely now an escape/swimming option. The best and only gesture I could make was to assume a fencing position and horizontally lay out my rapier/8-foot, four-weight Hexagraph fly rod, ready to defend myself. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a splashy rise in the big pool and that darned McPhail casting to it. I was alone with certain death.
Nothing happened of course. The devil-dog snarled at me as she circled. Her master, a snarly woman wearing a gimme cap and driving a red truck pulled up at the last second to simultaneously save me and gripe me out for attacking her precious dog with a flyrod. Mac hooked up with the trout and as he played it out, the rough-as-a-cob lady ordered the huge dog into the bed of the pickup and as she drove off, counseled me that “now you know how the natural order goes, son. Women rule.” I already knew that and as she left me standing in the dust, Mac netted the 15-inch cuttbow and grinned at me. You’ll never be bored on the Rio Hondo.
Ten miles north of Taos flows the Rio Hondo, an upper and a lower section, each distinctly different. You reach the upper section as though you’re heading to the Taos Ski Resort; the wooded high-country canyon stream twists and turns, clear with a green tint, right along with the winding paved road. This is dry-fly fishing at its most fun, offering dancing water, a million riffles, tiny pockets, foamy drop-pools, small flat pools, tiny chutes and some classic long runs. You always have to bring your full array of trick casts because the upper Hondo has tight quarters. Cuttbows and browns and not many are bragging size. In the highest reaches of the Rio Hondo, you can still catch the occasional cutthroat. We like it because it’s a five-hour drive from Amarillo.
Our favorite two times to fish the lower Hondo, especially the mile upstream from its confluence with the Rio Grande, are on Indian summer days in winter and in late spring when fish move up from her big-sister river. This is one-packed river, loaded with lies, full of trout, requiring patience, persistence and presentation. Start at the John Dunn Bridge and work your way upstream, taking care to watch out for large bearish dogs and mean women in pickup trucks.
******

3 little gems NM, CO

You ever have those little gems you don't want to write about because they're so good, you know if you shared them, your little piece of heaven would be overrun? here are three --- unnamed of course --- two in NM, one in Colorado. Nuff said.

Sugarite Canyon State Park, New Mexico

Went to take pics with Amy this past Saturday. She's finishing up an article for Rocky Mountain Fish and Game about Lakes Maloya and Alice in the park. No, she is not mentioning that special lake 1/2 mile walk away and in the other state.
Blustery day. No fly anglers on the water, only spin and bait. One determined kayaker braved the elements. Hiked into that one special lake with our dogs. Always fun to see NM trees and brush changing into fall dress. Amy and I are recently contracted to write two books with a two book option after that with Wayfinder Press: Top 30 Things to Do When You're In Durango and Top 30 Things to Do When You're In Telluride.

Amarillo Globe News outdoors

• I'm back to writing again for the Amarillo Globe News ---- every Sunday, all about the outdoors. Everything from dove hunting to extreme outdoor sports and of course, angling.
• Amy and I sold a book. We are proud to announce our first joint venture in the book world, a nice deal with Westcliffe Publishing, to write the book, Touring Colorado Wine Country.
• Amy is now hooked up with Rocky Mountain Game and Fish: one article she just finished covers winter fishing at a trio of tailwaters --- the Uncompahgre, the Dolores and the Chama; she is also finishing up a piece on Sugarite Canyon State Park (Lakes Alice and Maloya --- no, she is not writing about that sweet little lake nearby.)

fishing summer 08 continued

Henson Creek
S Clear Creek
N Clear Creek
Lake Fork Gunnison
Cebolla Creek

Not a bad few days fishing.

Two weeks angling in sw colorado

The last few weeks -- fishing. Around fishing, grilling, hiking, a bit of wine, a bit of bourbon, a few cigars, some houseguests and lots of fishing. Junction Creek dodging runners and dogs and hikers with walking sticks. East Fork Hermosa where in four trips, we saw one other angler. Hermosa Creek which we fish in the afternoon as everyone else is walking out (great hatches then too.) Upper Florida River where the water was cold enough to turn my tan legs crimson while I fished throug a serious double hatch of mayfly and caddis.
My wife Amy caught ten trout in an afternoon of fishing East Fork H and Hermosa.
My sister Tammy caught her first cutthroat. She bought a shadow box and pinned the fly (a Goddard Caddis) inside. Her new gig is to save and publish every fly she catches fish on ---- I don't think she knows how much flies cost.
My neice Kay Kay caught four trout in two days. She's a true beginner and picked up flyfishing as fast as anyone I've taught.
Kay Kay's BFF Gabby cast well but never landed a trout. Disinterested is the word.
My buddy Chad caught 7 in a short afternoon of fishing E Fork H and Hermosa sandwiched around me losing my keys, finding out they were in the car, and Chad stretching his Stretch Armstrong long frame through the back zip on the soft top to open the Jeep.
The waters are in late June form which I like --- slightly high and clear and cold.
Going to Lake City for the next week to fish Henson and Lake Fork and South Clear Creek and Big Blue and Cebolla.

KZNE Radio interview, ESPN Sports Radio

A few weeks ago, ESPNOutdoors writer/king/playah Brett Pauly ran excerpts of my book, So Many Fish So Little Time. My old friend and radiohost Chip Howard saw the article and since we'd been out of touch the last few years (he didn't know I had a new book out), he contacted me and set up a radio interview for June 12th.
If you've ever done a radio interview, they're not cushy, not nearly as much as a television or on-camera interview. I like to see who I'm talking to -- I like to NOT be on a telephone where it sounds like the interviewer is underwater a thousand miles away.
I listen to the lead-in chatter and I'm on -- Hey Mark, long time no see, not since Valle Vidal a decade or more ago . . . and so on. I have no idea if he wants me to take over the interview and throw out my best stuff or if even he's read the book (actually, I know Chip and is prepared), no notion of how long the interview will last. And Chip asks tough questions, thought provokers and surprises and that sort of thing. Then it's over. Thanks Mark and where can our listeners buy your book? No asking me to come over and sit breakthrough-comedian style by Johnny Carson, no way to know if it went well for them or me.
I was interviewed by quite a few radio hosts for this book this last year and the two questions each of them asks are "Mark, what are your five favorite places on earth to fish?" (my somewhat-thought-out, somewhat stock answer is, in no order: Yellowstone National Park, the Pyrenees, British Virgin Islands, southwest Colorado and British Columbia, Canada.) and "What is the one place on earth you could take someone who has never fished and that place would guarantee a great fishing experience? That second question is much easier to answer: Yellowstone National Park. There is no place on earth quite like it for the volume of great water, the quality of the fishery, the aspect of native trout, and the wildlife/landscape factor. Some are disappointed my personal top 5 doesn't include other places I've been, the classics around the world like Christmas Island (too many serious anglers), Amazon (it's awfully dicey with some operators still), Alaska (too pat of an answer, of course it's a top 5 location) or Bahamas (I'm going back this fall but it's also a cliche answer.) My faves are places where I feel comfortable, and it's nothing I can put my finger on --- a place just feels like home. I also tend to like wild trout and small rivers, wilderness and solitude.
I always leave interviews wishing I had included this or amended that.
I also wonder if anybody's listening out there when a radiohost interviews a fishing writer.

www.sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/general/columns/story?columnist=pauly_brett&page=g_blog_Backcasts_archive_thru-080516

www.kzne.com/chip/

New Agent, New Book and Sum, Sum, Summer Time

Hey:
I've been writing online since way back when, perhaps 96 or 97; first for www.gorp.com and then I rode the wave of new online publications that actually paid and paid well. I'm back, first with www.tibesti.com as their Fishing Expert and now with this blog. Good to be back.
I have been writing articles and books since the early 90s, mostly covering sports (esp baseball) and fishing (esp flyfishing.) My latest book, So Many Fish So Little Time: 1001 of the World's Greatest Backcountry Honeyholes, Trout Rivers, Blue Ribbon Waters, Bass Lakes, and Saltwater Hot Spots has had a good year since coming out in May 2007. Summer's here and that means accelerated trout fishing. This summer, I'll be fishing alot around Durango and Lake City Colorado but also in NM, AZ and NV. We might work in Italy but I figure it'll wait til later in the year (yeah, they have some nice trout streams there). I'll keep you guy up to date with where I am, what I'm catching or not catching and any crazy adventures that come my way. And they will. They always do.
I was with David H. Smith of DHS Literary for a number of years and now I'm with Nick Croce of The Croce Agency. We are shopping my latest book, Rivercrossing. The book is a travelogue/memoir/self-discovery journey sort of book much like Eat Pray Love by E. Gilbert and Flyfishing the 41st Parallel by James Prosek. I reckon I'll run some chapters by you guys here on this blog, get your feedback. Rivercrossing doesn't have a subtitle yet but we are messing around trying to find one or two that fit what I'm doing --- right now, it's something like Rivercrossing: The Misadventures of the Prodigal Son and How He Searched for Fish, Fatherhood and Answers to Life from America to the Caribbean to Europe
or
Rivercrossing: From Nevada to Nassau to Normandy, One Man's Lifelong Journey to Catch More Fish, Understand his Father and Discover the Secret to Happiness. Something along those lines.
At the same time, I have my first novel that is being shopped --- The Bedside Diaries. Dark and quirky. Since I was a kid, I always wanted to be a novelist. Being a non-fiction, travel/outdoors writer is pretty damned great most days (like when I go to the Bahamas this fall, right?) but that urge to write fiction is still there. We will see.
So, writers and anglers, travelers and readers, let's talk.

You can find my latest book at all your fine booksellers including:
http://www.amazon.com/Many-Fish-Little-Time-Backcountry/dp/0060882395/sr=8-1/qid=1171688863/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9067348-7907264?ie=UTF8&s=books
and
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780060882396&itm=9

Later,

Mark