The Watery Rave

Alaska holds a special appeal to those that like the outdoors, like a magnetic personality pasted to a stool in a college bar. When it’s out of sight it’s out of everyone’s mind, but open a few windows and let the cold air roll across the top of a few IPA’s and it sticks to your steely medulla like a thorny synapse.

I really had no plans to travel to Alaska, that is until an old friend joined the Navy and relocated there. That’s the side of E-mail you don’t hear much about, the Devil in the black dress that watches over the working man, throwing images of majesty in the face of his In-Box. It all started with a few photos of fish from JJ and the message, “Hey man, I got the commission in Alaska, it’s incredible.”

Well…Crap! Everyone knows Alaska is incredible. It’s just not a place I really thought much about traveling to, and it’s enough of a hassle getting there that I’ve been able to keep it out of the crosshairs for some time. That is, until the photo of the plane arrived.

Stuck to the top of my In-Box was the E-mail from JJ and the image of a red and white bitchin’ little float plane that had, “endless adventure” written all over it. When you work in an advertising agency in Austin, TX there’s an element of creativity that goes with the job, and when you can think of nothing besides big fish, snow-capped mountains, free falling down from the ionosphere, endless daytime and some of the best microbrews in the world, then it’s just a matter of time before the rest of the staff accuses you of mixing Lunesta with your morning vitamins.

Living in a state the size of most third world countries but with the population of South Beach, the opportunity for outdoor adventure is limited by your willingness to drive, or in JJ’s case, fly. So he spends his weekends flying his float plane and looking for remote lakes where he then introduces himself to the local gamefish population via wind drifts while fishing from the pontoons. In other words, he lives out the normal working person’s vacation on a weekly basis.

And I was good with that, until I received the e-mail with a half-dozen dive tank sized silver salmon stretched across the pontoon. If a picture is worth 10,000 words, then I just received the book on how to mindlessly daydream of the frozen tundra. I was two weeks into a three month project with a plastic bag over my head and just enough oxygen to focus on the computer monitor when I fired back an e-mail along the lines of, “I’m there. See you in a couple of weeks,” thinking that would back him away from the lion’s cage.

I’d just poked a hole in that bag and gotten back on track when my In-Box displayed a response along with an attached image. The text read, “So this is just one of 200 cabins you can fly into and rent across the state. We found a site about them and rented this one this weekend. Cool huh?”

JJ has always been the kid who goaded the lion to take a swipe, and I’d just whiffed at the pie-faced kid holding the stick. He ran it across the front of the cage with an email saying, “they’re still catching some Rainbows on the Kenai. We can fly up there, or drive in and get a guide.”

By the time I get home, I’m twitching like a Starbuck employee with a nervous tic to the point that my wife pulls me aside and asks if I need a time out. I explain JJ’s gig and the epic fishing, and mention something about maybe going out to visit him next summer, when she puts a hand on each shoulder, shakes me back to reality and says, “Why don’t you go now AND next summer?”

I know what you’re thinking, and yes, I am married to the all-time greatest female on this planet, but I’d been burning the wax hard and hadn’t been able to spend time with my family, so how was I going to get past the guilt meter pasted to my heart? I mention the trip to JJ, who explains that the lakes he’s been fishing are about done for the fall. I slump into the easy chair until my wife walks in and calls me out, “Go anyway, you idiot.”

Two minutes later I’m filling out my credit card data on a discount ticket website and e-mailing JJ to find out whether he likes plain or peppered beef jerky. Nine days later, I’m standing in an airport in Phoenix with a connecting flight to Anchorage staring at the people in the boarding line and thinking, “Geez, if this plane were to crash land in the bush, I look like the only one here who couldn’t find a way to walk out.” Even the women had a confidence that said, “We’ll eat you big guy, if we have to.”

Before I can get the image of a woman frying my liver on a pan made out of discarded beer cans with a University of Texas keychain handle, I’m knee-deep in rainbow trout. Just me, JJ a pocketful of egg-sucking leech flies and enough salmonids for a good case of tennis elbow.

JJ owned the Dolly Vardens, while I was one with the rocks. In a calm pool, miles upsteam from the ocean, JJ caught a Silver Salmon with a malfunctioning GPS, then hooked several more.

We tipped a few at Humpy’s and at F Street, watched eagles flock like seagulls and caribou marching to Sheryl Crow.

We came, we saw, we slipped on wet rocks and filled our waders with freezing water, and then I returned home, ready to return the following summer with the greatest woman on the planet.

Professional photographer Andrew Yates from Boston, gets on the water to fly fish three or four times a year. So when one of his friends who happens to be a federal judge (probably the coolest federale or judge that you’ll happen to meet) rented a cabin near the Galletin River in Montana about a half hour south of Big Sky asked Andrew to come out for a few days of R&R, he was all over it like a lion on a llama.

“We fished the Firehole outside Yellowstone and also the Madison (which is a big river that had a lot of big fish),” said Yates. “There were four of us and it rained every day, with snow, so it was a bit arctic, but these guys are hardcore and we fished six hours or more every day.”

Yates has always owned polarized glasses, usually wearing them when biking or outside. But he’s never had a pair of Costas before. We sent him and his three fishing buddies Costa 580’s with copper lenses to try on the trout streams of Montana.

“One of the guys had a pair of Costas he’d owned for eight years and when he put on the 580 lenses he was just blow away by them. Everyone was. And we wore these things right up to dark every day,” said Yates.

The four road tripped around Yellowstone, ripping lips and doing their best not to slip with a serious case of numb foot. They released rainbows to 20 inches under the gloom and doom of approaching weather.

“Everyone caught one or two big trout every day,” said Yates. “We fished a combination of dry flies and droppers, then went to nymphs with a strike indicator.”

Fishing was good, but it wasn’t epic until everyone put their girdles on. With a Girdle Bug on top and a green flash nymph on the bottom, the visitors started pasting the home team. While everyone likes a nymph now and then, it was the girdle that was consistently getting lunched.

They fished the Gallatin river for two days then switched over to the Madison for an opportunity at some big water. In both rivers it was the guys soaking their girdles that ruled.

“We had this nice little stretch on the Galletin with two or three beaver dams that helped limit the flow,” said Yates. The weather was going to crap, the light was horrible but with the 580s you could see deep into the water and spot fish. Some of the guys caught fish in the 20 inch range.”

The swift waters of the Madison River weren’t going to let these guys off without some put and take, as every member of the group took at least one dunking, with Yates going under with one of his cameras. That’s the price of fishing Montana in October: rain, snow and a frigid clown dunk tank. In other words, just another day of seeing what’s out there.

Being in the chase boat while the pros are filming a fishing video is about as fun at telling a girl (any girl) she looks fat in those clothes, but there can be a good side to it. As opposed to trimming your toenails, looking for skin blemishes and other means of killing time in the blazing heat, you can grab your Minolta Autopak Super 8MM camera and le the dinosaur roll.

What you come away with are the artistic/scratchy/creepy black and white home movie that reminds you of the films in the attic that mom shot of your sixth birthday—the one where you were wearing knee socks and matching red blazer and shorts. Only this has kind of a campy/historic feel, like something that ought to fall out of Howard Hughes’ safety deposit box.

Costa advertising agency guru Austin (Shaggy) McKenna captured the following film last May while on safari with Costa Pros Oliver White and Jose Wejebe. The traveled the Yucatan Peninsula hitting Isla Mujeres (Marlin, Sails and Dolphin), Isla Holbox (hunting giant tarpon and snook) and Boca Paila (Bonefish, Permit, Tarpon), and not once during the finished film can you hear McKenna whining in the background about when he was going to get a chance to fish.

Costa pro Casey Ashley is so proud of his roots that he regularly sings about them in his songs. The 27-year old professional angler/singer from Donald’s, South Carolina recently released his new six-song demo CD titled Release, just prior top rolling into Columbia, South Carolina to fish a Bassmaster Elite Series tournament on Lake Murray this past week.

 With his parents watching him fish the event from a nearby boat, Ashley won the second event of his four-year professional fishing career Sunday with a four day total weight of 61-pounds, 3-ounces, besting another South Carolina native, Elite Series pro Davey Hite. Hite and Mike Iaconelli of New Jersey both had 58-pounds, 1-ounce. Ashley won $100,000 and entry into the 2012 Bassmaster Classic.

 After winning the Evan Williams Bourbon Carolina Clash, Ashley now sits in 9^th place for the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year, an honor considered one of the pinnacles of the sport, with two events left in the season. Ashley has fished the eight event Bassmaster Elite Series tournaments out of a Triton Bass Boat wrapped with a Costa logo.

Suntanned toes were tickling the sand around the Dallas/Cowboys Stadium in mid April as the Kenny Chesney Going Coastal 2011 tour rode into Texas like a brahma bull with its tail soaked in Kerosene.  The pride of Luttrell, Tennessee made his entrance from the rooftop like a Big Star at the Cirque Du Soleil bar before taking the stage after a cool warm-up from Uncle Kracker.

From then on, it’s was time to dance the aisles in flip flops, as the top selling live act ripped the stage and delivered the country side of the beach, summer and hometown memories, complete with guitars, tiki bars and a whole lot of love going on during one of the best concert atmospheres in the business. From the second the sun went down, the place was groovin’ and movin’ and shaking to the rhythms of a cowboy gone coastal.

 Costa was there too, with the new Limited Edition Signature Kenny Chesney Costa’s, the hippest shades for tractor driving, girl watching or just hanging out in an old blue chair. Proceeds from the sales of Limited Edition Signature Kenny Chesney Costa’s go to the ocean conservation group Coastal Conservation Association, one of the largest marine conservation groups in Texas. So here’s your chance to look cool and hang tough with the best sunglasses on the market while knowing that next redfish you catch came directly from your purchase. 

 The Kenny Chesny Going Coastal 2011 tour is just getting started with dates across America and into Canada still ahead. So it’s time to check out the hottest act in America and his music at a venue near you before the keg in this closet runs dry and you have to sleep on the porch with a dog named Bocephus. For upcoming tour dates, see www.KennyChesney.com.

Billy Pate (81), Islamorada, Florida—Billy Pate, legendary big fish on fly pioneer passed away April 19, at a Homestead, Florida nursing home at the age of 81. Pate first drew notoriety in 1982 for a 188 pound tarpon he caught on 16-pound fly tippet, a class record for 21 years, and a fish that was at the time the largest tarpon ever caught on fly.

His world record tarpon drew instant notoriety that followed Pate throughout life. A regular in Homosassa, Florida during the spring run of giant tarpon, Pate would fish from dawn to dusk for weeks at a time hoping for a shot at giant fish, and forever sought to be the first to catch a tarpon over 200 pounds on fly.

 A true innovator of the sport, Pate was one of the first anglers to expose the “down and dirty” fish fighting technique so popular with tarpon and big fish anglers today. In 1989  he joined Scientific Anglers to produce “Fly Rodding For Tarpon with Billy Pate,” a video on targeting, fighting and catching tarpon on fly that helped popularize the sport as well as the fish fighting technique. In the video, Pate showcased his custom tarpon skiff which featured a forward raised casting platform and surrounding net system to keep the fly line from sweeping off the deck in the wind. 

Pate partnered with Ted Juracsik in 1976 to help design the Billy Pate Fly Reels, a series of fly fishing reels that were among the first to feature an antireverse system. Since then, the Billy Pate Fly Reels have caught 225 world records, and the reels remain among the top tools of the sport.

Financially solvent, Pate’s family made their fortune in the South Carolina carpet business (he was the president of Wunder Weve Carpets), and later in real estate, and Pate was the consummate Southern Gentleman and had three wives who often joined him on his fishing adventures. Unlimited finances allowed Pate to search the world for large gamefish on fly and led to the discovery of the giant tarpon off the coast of Africa along with the catches of the first blue marlin and black marlin on fly. Pate was also the first to catch six billfish species (blue, black, white and striped marlin, and Atlantic and Pacific sailfish) on fly.

A holder of multiple world records on fly including mako shark, jack crevalle, bonefish, redfish and grouper, Pate campaigned tirelessly for the IGFA to change the bite tippet length for flyrod anglers from 12 inches to 30 inches, feeling the shorter bite tippet length created a disadvantage for fly anglers.

He was an original member of Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, the Everglades Protection Association, the Don Hawley Foundation and the Pate Foundation, and partnered with Islamorada fishing guide George Hommell in 1967 to form World Wide Sportsman, a tackle shop dedicated to fly and light tackle anglers and travel agency for booking domestic and international fishing trips.

In 2003, Pate was elected to the IGFA Hall of Fame, an honor he cherished while contributing the honor to having the financial opportunity to pursue gamefish across the globe. While Pate pursued fish on fly in over 40 countries, he maintained residences in the Florida Keys and in Oregon so he could pursue his favorite fish species (tarpon and steelhead).

Even if you can’t be a Big Star In A Karaoke Bar you can look like one. If you’re into cold Corona’s, pretty girls in cowboy hats and country music superstars that own flip flops (and who isn’t), be sure to check out this little seven piece band rolling through you’re town soon, along with the smallest biggest name in live performances. Kenny Chesney kicked off his Goin’ Coastal Tour the way any other country music superstar would, by opening on St. Patrick’s Day in West Palm Beach, Florida. The 49 stop tour rolls its video screen and amp collection across the U.S. and Canada like a stegosaurus-sized chick magnet, as Kenny and the band belt out new tunes from his Number One album Hemmingway’s Whiskey along with a jukebox full of past number one hits.

 For those that want to get a little closer to Kenny, this year’s tour will provide the opportunity to keep Kenny Chesney “Somewhere With You” at all times. Chesney who has a lifelong passion for the ocean and beach environments and shares it in his music also digs seeing what’s out there and protecting these environments for the future, which is why this year’s tour will feature the sale of Limited Edition Signature Kenny Chesney Costa’s, with proceeds from the sales going to the ocean conservation group Coastal Conservation Association.   

 After trying on every single pair of Costa’s in the warehouse (with the help of every female employee on the property), Chesney selected five Costa styles for his limited edition sunglasses line.  Each style – Hammerhead, Caballito, Rincon, Howler and Little Harbor – feature unique hand drawn artwork etched inside the sunglass arms, along with Kenny’s signature. And since the KC Limited Edition Costa’s represents only Chesney’s passion for the ocean, SEC college football fans will be disappointed to learn there are no orange frames with a music box implanted that play Chesney singing Rocky Top in the mix.  

 The artwork designs on each sunglass style are tied to a piece of Kenny’s life – one style features the song lyric, “No Shoes. No Shirt. No Problems!” while another commemorates the 2011 “Goin’ Coastal” tour.  The etched sunglass designs are reminiscent of scrimshaw, an ancient art form practiced by Native Americans and then Yankee whale men in the early 1800s, who carved nautical images on whale’s teeth during long sea voyages.

So When The Sun Goes Down, we’ll all be groovin’ in outside stadiums across the continent, but when the sun comes up, we’ll be diggin’ the fashion and function of the Limited Edition Kenny Chesney Signature Costas.

Get your Limited Edition Kenny Chesney Signature Costa’s at one of the tour stops below, or visit the Costa website www.costadelmar.com. 

Casey Ashley knows what’s out there. Whether that’s on the St. Johns River in Florida or Lake Murray in South Carolina, the Bassmaster Elite Series Pro can be found pitchin’, chunkin’ and windin’ as he lives his dream of getting paid to go fishing in the best bass lakes across America. But the work (and dream) doesn’t stop when the boat hits the dock. At night, you can find him on stage at events along the Elite Series trail singing about his passion–fishing and music—a one-two combination that touches the soul.

During five years as a professional angler, Ashley has nine Top 10 finishes, yet many of his biggest fans know him as the singer of the song “Fisherman” that’s often heard playing from tow vehicles waiting at the ramp in the predawn darkness. The popularity of Ashley’s music has driven him to Nashville, where the fishing is good, but the music even better, as he hit the studio recently to record two new singles “Sunshine” and “That’s What I’m Fishing For.” 

If you can’t catch Ashley in a Honkey-Tonk, you certainly won’t miss him on the water in his newly wrapped Costa sponsored boat as you see your reflection in Ashley’s Costa’s Corbina and Harpoon frames with 580™ green mirror and 580™ copper lenses. And while he’s looking good, he’s seeing even better, which means any bass without a case of lockjaw can potentially find itself on stage, right beside Ashley, living the dream.  

The Rest Of What’s Out There—Anywhere, Earth (and then some)

 THE STORY:

Costa Del Mar Sunglasses are more than the best eyewear on the planet—they’re a lifestyle. From being able to spot a swarm of black “V’s” moving left as a school of pig permit ghost off the flat to standing on the beach counting the waves in a clean-up set before paddling out, Costa’s follow us on an active lifestyle of action, adventure and unbridled fun.

 Whether you’re a fashion statement and don’t know it, ripping across a lake in the glass calm dawn or getting ready to high-five the guy holding the gaff the second he stings that giant wahoo, your Costa’s are the window to seeing what’s out there. Why see your future when you can live your future?

Some people will sacrifice comfort for style, but Costa believes fashion, function and total eye protection are the gateway to a great outdoor experience, even if you’re just hanging out on a sandbar with the family. In other words, when you’re in the groove, we’re grooving along with you and helping make the experience the best it can be. Because when you can’t see everything, you’re not totally out there.

If it’s cool, rad, fun, adventurous, crazy, gnarly or just a mellow groove, it’s Costa Cool. That might come from the best barbeque shrimp in Islamorada, a shotgun that lived in the hands of a legend or a lost hunting dog that found its way home. Happiness comes from within, and if it can touch your soul, you know it’s Costa Cool.   

THE ADVENTURE:

Life is an adventure—for everyone. Whether you’re tossing a Frisbee in the parking lot at a Kenny Chesney concert or freefalling 50 feet down a waterfall in a plastic boat, the things that make adrenalin zing through our veins are the places we visit when life gets tough. For some, it’s the endorphin highway, for others it’s the sweat on the back of a bucketful of longnecks, and for many it’s the accomplishments along the way, whether that’s switchfoot walking a longboard, pretzeling a rod or screaming “I’M THE KING OF THE WORLD!” from a mountaintop.

Our adventures start with you and end with everyone you impact with your actions. Whether that’s the kids down the street who “Ollie” up on the old skateboard you gave them, the stream, river or ocean you protect with your time, vote and heart, Costa Del Mar is right alongside you riding the rush and protecting it for future generations.

So what are you waiting for, the passion comes from within. You can’t See What’s Out There, if you can’t be Out There. Live the dream, love the lifestyle, be the adventure, experience all that’s out there.   

THE PLAYERS:

Life, death, and how you spend the time in between determines the Rest Of What’s Out There. These are the things that bring out the passion when you tell the story of an adventure to the point that your fingers are curled and your voice cranks a deeper octave and everyone listening steps into the moment with you. Most never even realize their Costa’s were there along the way, but we do because we’re out there every day.

Yeah, we’ll slip in content of what’s new and cool with the Costa army of celebrities, outdoor extremists and misfits, but we’ll also add a dash of the stuff that makes an experience epic. See the future. Be the future. Even if it’s in the lumber yard.

Summertime and the 4th of July just seem like the right time of year to talk about bass fishing, doesn’t it? We went digging in the IGFA film vaults again for something bass-centric and came across a little film of two guys fishing for smallmouth bass in Lake St. Clair in Michigan. What’s the trouble Clyde? Talk about the good ole days…

Big Jumpers Bass: Vintage IGFA Video from Costa Sunglasses on Vimeo.