Life's a Beach

Last month Nichole and I celebrated our 6th Anniversary by taking Mattox to SoCal so he could dip his feet into the ocean. We also spent time with some great friends and ate some amazing food. We ate at Bubba Gump’s on the Santa Monica Pier and a fancy Thai food place. We also had amazing sandwiches from an authentic Italian deli, and Nichole’s friend Therese sent us off with her world-famous Korean bulgogi.

At the beach, Mattox loved playing in the giant sandbox, but his mom wouldn’t let me take him swimming. She said it was too cold, so I just let him kick the surf! At Mother’s Beach in Marina Del Rey Mattox got to check out his first sea lion up close. We also learned that Mattox LOVES the swings!

Winter Dreams: Saltwater Fly Fishing and More Part III

Our Hawaii vacation was more than just a fishing trip. Nichole and I celebrated our fifth anniversary and our “babymoon.” It was our last big vacation before Mattox arrived! We spent a week on Kauai, home to more chickens than you can imagine. Our timeshare had an awesome view of the harbor, and its location in Lihue gave us easy access to all parts of the island. We hiked, kayaked, surfed, fished, read on the beach, went to a luau, explored the island, and ate awesome local food including laulau, saimin, and shave ice. One staple of our diet for the week was the huge avocados, nearly four times the size of what we find in grocery stores on the mainland. It was one of our most relaxing trips, even considering the one safety inspection I had to complete while there!

This wraps up my winter dreaming... I know I am a little warmer inside, and I hope you are, too!

Winter Dreams: Saltwater Fly Fishing Part II

If you fly due south from Hawaii, you’ll run across the furthest-most eastern country in the world, Kiribati (pronounced kirr-i-bas). Kiribati is made up of 33 islands spread across 1.3 million square miles. One of those islands is Kiritimati (pronounced kirr-i-sa-mas or “Christmas”). Christmas Island is the world’s largest atoll and part of the Line Islands. It’s time is the exact same as Hawaii’s, only one day earlier. The three-hour flight from Hawaii, while jumping you forward an entire day, transports you back in time to a slower, easier pace punctuated by living off the land and the sea, and lacking many electronic gadgets and basic medical supplies.

But who needs that stuff? We were there to fish! Christmas Island is mostly known for the bonefish found in the island’s lagoon and along its outer shoreline, but there are also many other species to chase including giant trevally. We chased the GT’s in the lagoon with flyrods, and along the rocky breaks in the deep blue with huge “meat sticks.” The large spinning rods proved just barely adequate for the hard-fighting fish, and entertained us for hours. After a week exploring the far reaches of the island and catching more fish than we could count, we reluctantly boarded a plane back to civilization, but not before discovering what Christmas Island truly has to offer: gifts unlike any Santa can bring, but just as full of wonderment and surprise.

Enjoy Christmas Island, and then check back for some photos from Hawaii. I’m determined to help everyone get through this cold snap! Also, you can check out a few more saltwater fishing photos in my Fishing Gallery.

Winter Dreams: Saltwater Fly Fishing Part I

When winter sets in with single-degree temperatures and a cold wind that chills you to the bone, it’s only natural to start thinking about someplace warm. Thanks to my best friend Rick Messmer, every February I start dreaming of the salt. The salt is where winter dreams turn into a heated reality; where hot sticky days are followed by hot sticky nights; where the tug on your fly line may mean a new species of fish, and that same fish may run you to your backing… a few times. It’s also where the sun rises and sets over the water with all the glory and intensity of Fourth of July fireworks. By the end of the week, your shoulder is so sore that you can hardly cast, your lips are chapped, and the equatorial sun has burned at least three parts of your body. You’ve drank too much local beer and way too many rum and Fantas. Above all, though, you’ve experienced a new part of the world, immersed yourself in a new culture, made great memories with new friends and old, laughed until you couldn’t laugh anymore, and staved off that winter chill for a couple more months.

Over the past few years I travelled to Belize, Christmas Island, and Hawaii. The Belize and Christmas Island trips were “boyz” trips and we were there specifically to fly fish. My wife and I visited Hawaii for our five-year anniversary so we surfed, kayaked, hiked, and sat on the beach, but we made some time to cruise the flats, too. Of course, my camera was never too far away! With no salt trip planned this year, I can only look back at photos and remember the warm ocean breezes, the flash of the bonefish, the colors of the coral, the taste of freshly-caught blacktail tuna sashimi melting in my mouth, the smell of saltwater mixed with fish slime mixed with sweat, the beauty of the love of my life reading on the beach, and the heart-pounding excitement of landing a fish that ripped my 9-weight line through the surf as if it was thread.

Here are some of my favorite photos from Belize. I will follow them up with some pictures from Christmas Island and Hawaii in subsequent posts. Keep dreaming… summer will be here soon!!