Ep 122: Looking Back and Looking Ahead, with Mel Moss
This is the annual episode I do with my pal, Mel, where we look back on the previous year and look forward to the year ahead. We talk about whether we completed our goals and what our upcoming goals are. In this episode, Mel also talks about her DIY trip to Alaska where she and her husband rented a vehicle and caught trout, salmon, and char on easy-to-access rivers without a bush plane.
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Katie
You're listening to the Fish Untamed Podcast, your home for fly fishing in the backcountry. This is episode 122 with Mel Moss on looking back and looking ahead. all right well I guess I have to crack the beer for the both of us so I will do that now because you've already poured your draft.
Mel
I love that sound. Cheers. Okay, so I haven't really been drinking much because I am breastfeeding slash pumping, but I can't do a podcast with you without having a beer, so we're going to get silly.
Katie
Well, that's hilarious because I have a non-alcoholic beer here. So you're the only one actually drinking.
Mel
You're such a cheater. I had those in my fridge, and I thought, no way can I do a non-alcoholic beer.
Katie
Oh, that's funny. Yeah, I haven't been drinking much either, so I've treated myself to non-alcoholic beer, so you're the only drinker here.
Mel
Oh my gosh. Well, then I'm going to get silly. That's great. You need to tell me when I'm out of control, okay?
Katie
All right. I will let you know. 20 minutes in, here we come. Okay, well, this is our, I don't know, third or fourth annual year in review and goals for the upcoming year. And I'm going to go ahead and say that I'm guessing both of us were a little slow this past year because we both had very big years for different reasons. I got married and went on a honeymoon and then traveled to Europe for another wedding. And you just popped out a kid. So you barely did anything.
Mel
Yeah. And to be fair, when we set these goals last year, it was right before I knew I was having a kid. So I might've been a little lofty with some of that. But, and I think that's another reason why we've been delayed in recording this is because I've started to realize how difficult it is to actually just step away for two hours and have uninterrupted time.
Katie
So yeah, so we'll see if we make it through the whole thing without a pause and maybe we'll need to stitch two things together, but we're going to give it a try and see how it goes.
Mel
So she's with daddy right now. So we're good.
Katie
Okay. Well, just to review what our goals were. Oh, and I guess I should do just a little intro that every year we do this. We talk about our goals that we had for this past year, whether we accomplished them. We have since come up with a grading scale where we will give ourselves grades on how well we did. We can also mention anything else that we did that was fun that maybe wasn't a goal, but came up anyway. And then we'll talk about what our goals for this year are, which hopefully we both have kind of a better idea of how busy we're going to be this year. And so maybe we'll have more realistic expectations. I guess time will tell. But just to summarize from last year, my goals were to do another fastest known fish route to catch a saltwater species on the fly and two half goals of trying to go chase splake, finding a splake spot and getting more into fly tying, which has been a running goal of mine that I've been failing at for years. So I guess we'll find out if I failed again. And what I have for you is that you were going to take three new-ish people, like people who weren't into fly fishing, you were going to help them, kind of mentor them a little bit and get them into it. Brush up on your entomology, get better entomology and go fishing in Italy. And then you had a half goal of making more time for close to home fishing, which I don't really know why that was a half goal, but I guess just maybe you can't tack that on at the end as, as like something that you're not really trying that hard for, but you'd like to just make more of an effort to do that.
Mel
Yeah. I was kind of wondering what made us, determine if it was a full goal or a half goal.
Katie
I think for mine, I considered the half goals, things that I cared about less, you know, like I don't, I, I think I kind of came up with something on the spot for, for one of them. And, I focused more on the whole goals. Um, so I don't really know either, but perfect.
Mel
Well, we'll see where this year takes us with half our whole goals.
Katie
Okay. So you have more than I do. So why don't you start and you can pick one of your goals and let me know how it went.
Mel
Great. We'll just start from the top with the help three newish people learn how to fly fish or get more into it. And I do enjoy the fact that we're starting this grading system because I feel like there are ways to cheat these and kind of half-ass do them. And then there are ways to like really get, you know, like get an A plus.
Katie
Like was it in the spirit of it or did you kind of cheat off your neighbor?
Mel
Yeah, exactly. The reason I say that is because I will give myself like a B minus on this one.
Katie
Okay.
Mel
Do we have pluses and minuses?
Katie
We do. We do.
Mel
Okay. B minus because I did make the effort. It wasn't just like I was with some people and we were by a river and I happened to have gear and so we should, you know, fulfill my goal. But it was only one trip. So it wasn't like three separate people on three separate trips. It was one trip, but we did have the intention to dabble in fly fishing with these people who hadn't really done it before.
Katie
Was it three people?
Mel
Yep. There were three people that put a rod in their hand and hadn't done it before or had done it maybe like once.
Katie
Okay. Not going to lie. I didn't expect you to complete this goal because I saw that plus having a kid. And I'm just like, I can't imagine seeking out people that like want to start fly fishing and be like, you know what I need to take on right now with an infant is this.
Mel
Right.
Katie
So I'm very impressed that you even got a B anything.
Mel
Well, thank you, Katie. I appreciate that. However, I didn't actually have the infant to care for yet. It was just in the womb still.
Katie
Still, I just, I'm impressed that you did any people. I thought for sure this was going to be an F.
Mel
You did?Oh, okay, okay.
Katie
Yeah. So I'm proud of you.
Mel
Well, thank you. Yeah. So we ended up going to one of our local rivers, the St. Joe River in Idaho here. And it was a group of four additional friends of ours, plus Jerrett and myself. And we had planned this camping trip together, maybe a month in advance or so. And we kind of just said, hey, should we all go camping together? Yes, yes, yes. Everybody's in. Okay, cool. And then I picked the location because these people are relatively new to the area. And I decided that we should go to one of our best fly fishing rivers around the area because what better than a hot summer day to get in the water without waders and just like, you know, toss a line in. And they were all really excited to try fly fishing as well. So two of the girls had never done it. And then one of the guys, I think, had done it once or twice. And I call it a win because, A, he caught fish. And B, he's super into it now. And he bought his own gear. And he wants to go a lot more. I don't know if the girls are as gung-ho about it as he is. But I still feel like that was a win.
Katie
I think you should give yourself a B not a B minus
Mel
straight B
Katie
straight yeah you got some you did you helped three people and one of them actually picked it up which I feel like is better than my record of when people say they want to try it and I do like a lesson with them and they never like do it again they're like okay I experienced that that's cool so the fact that you got somebody to continue with it I think that's pretty impressive
Mel
great I'll take a B great thank you
Katie
B’s get degrees.
Mel
That's right. Yeah, I could really make a career out of this. You could. So yeah, that was fun. And I hope to do that again with them and with new people because that's just super fun and so exciting to see somebody who catches what we would just consider an average fish around here that may not need its picture taken. But for that person to catch one of their very first trout on a fly, they're like, we ought to get a picture. The stoke is high.
Katie
As Alex Thoele would say, every fish, no matter how small, deserves to have its picture taken.
Mel
That's right. And these were decent cutties. They were probably, oh, 12, 14 inches, something like that.
Katie
Yeah, that's not bad.
Mel
Yeah. Sweet. Okay. So you, what do you want to start with?
Katie
well I'm gonna start on my low points because I don't want it I don't want to end on a depressing note
Mel
oh maybe I should have done that
Katie
it's all downhill for you I'm gonna start at the bottom so my two half goals for some reason I kind of had them paired up I think it was because I didn't really care about either one that much and so I kind of made them like the two halves of a whole which I actually think that's where we came up with half goals is that I wanted to divide one goal into two items and then you just did a single half goal. So that's where we're at. So my two half goals were to try to go after Splake again. And I think this was spawned because I went to a place that had Splake and I saw them in the water, but I couldn't get one to take. So I think that's what spawned us. And that's why it was kind of a last minute. I think we talked not long after that trip. And so it's kind of on my mind. That was one of the half goals. And then the other one was to get more into fly tying. And I'm going to give myself a big fat fail for both of these. But I, the splake, I honestly forgot was even a goal with, with all the craziness around the summer. And also I think one thing I forgot to mention in addition to the wedding, the honeymoon and everything that happened over the summer, I took a new job that is field work heavy over the summer. So like on average, I'd say like once a week we're in the field for a couple of days, without much access to, I can fish, but I can't like, I can't plan fishing. I have to just take a rod. And if there happens to be water nearby that I can fish, I can wet a line, but I'm not going to be planning for specific species or anything like that. So I did get to do quite a bit of fishing, but it wasn't targeted fishing like this. So I just didn't even like, that didn't even get attempted. So that was an F minus, minus, minus.
Mel
Oh no, you can't go below an F. You cannot. Okay. Just take the F.
Katie
Just a big fat F. Which is fine. That was not a goal I cared that much about. Fly tying, I did hope to get like more time with this, but again, with the wedding and stuff and all the traveling, I just like didn't really get around to it. And I did do some, but I did a lot of like repeat stuff. I already knew how to tie and I was kind of hoping grow myself and try new things. So simply tying some flies that I already know how to tie was, I'm not going to say that that cut it. So I'll give myself like a D on that. Okay. Um, which is sad because I've, I've wanted to do that one for a couple of years and this, this year just, it didn't happen. I think I just caught up on my to-do list like two weeks ago after all this time. So I get it. That one did not go well, unfortunately.
Mel
How many times do you think you tied?
Katie
Oh, I don't know. Under 10. So not even a lot, but yeah.
Mel
What are your go-to patterns that you can sit down and do for 20 minutes and not have to really think about it?
Katie
I do a lot of really simple nymphs, like pheasant tails and RS2s and things like that, which are useful. I use those a lot, but they're not particularly complicated. So we'll get into this year's goals and we'll see if this one makes the list for the third year in a row for me to fail. So, yes.
Mel
Would there be like an extra like something that we have to say, like if you fail a three or a goal, one single goal three years in a row?
Katie
You get kicked out, you get expelled.
Mel
Yeah.
Katie
Maybe what I need to do for this one, and maybe we're getting ahead into goals, but maybe I need to make it more specific. Because I think for a lot of these other ones, there is some specific thing where once you do it, you know you did it. And the problem with this one is that it's kind of like, I want to do this more. And it's like, what is more? And in my mind, I guess I mentioned that I wanted to expand upon what I know, not just repeat the same things. And I don't think I voiced that last time. I just said I wanted to do it more, get more into it. So maybe this time I need to make a concrete goal of like do it this often or progress to this type of pattern or something like that. Right. Which maybe I'll think about it while we talk and get to that when we get to the goals.
Mel
So I think that's a good idea. We should start making these more concrete and more attainable with like numbers and how many times and that type of thing.
Katie
Yeah. And we do that for some of them. I mean, some of them are just like, did you or did you not do it? But like, for example, one of yours was fish more close to home. And it's like, well, what if you go once? Does that count? Which I think is why we came up with the grading system. But even with the grading system to be more nuanced, this is still objectively a terrible effort by me. And it's an F. So that's all I'm going to say about that.
Mel
That's all I'm going to say. We'll see if it makes the list next year or this year, I guess. We'll see. We'll see.
Katie
All right. Next one for you.
Mel
Okay, well, I'll pick one that I get a big F on as well, because I don't want to end there. Can you guess which one?
Katie
Yes. Wait, wait, wait. Yes. Yes, I can. Because we talked about it. Well, I don't know. Okay. I guess we'll find out. I was going to guess entomology.
Mel
Yeah, you're absolutely correct. Did I do an ounce of research or reading on entomology? No, I did not.
Katie
I bet you were reading about how to take care of a human instead.
Mel
Yeah, I was watching baby classes legitimately. I can't believe you prioritized that over learning about bugs. I know, I know. And I think that we talked about this in the fall and you were like, well, why don't you reward yourself and for every baby class you can read about bugs for five minutes. Oh
Katie
yeah, I do remember mentioning that.
Mel
It was like, okay, after my baby class, I want to go to bed.
Katie
So obviously didn't take my genius advice of treating yourself to bug reading.
Mel
Yeah. So that's a big F. I didn't do a thing. Didn't get one step closer to my knowledge of matching the hatch. And that is that.
Katie
Well, that's that.
Mel
We're on to you.
Katie
Yeah. I mean, the ones that are Fs are not really much of a conversation. I just, I didn't do the assignment. Okay.
Mel
Right. My dog ate it. punishment.
Katie
Well, let's, well, we'll see if it makes the goals for this upcoming year. Yeah. And we'll go. Because it'll be only the second year in a row for that one. Yeah. I'm one year beyond you in terms of my failures. Okay. So on a brighter note, my next goal was to catch a saltwater fish on the fly. And this, I absolutely succeeded. It was, I mean, it was kind of a low, it was a low goal or a low effort goal, I guess, in that if I went on a week of guided fishing and didn't catch a single fish, that would be like really sad. So, right. So it's not shocking that I caught a fish, but I caught, you know, lots of bone fish. I had a permit on for several minutes. I had a tarpon on. So, and then plenty of other little, you know, species that the guide wasn't trying to have was catch but I was having a blast catching just in the surf and stuff little snappers and things like that so I caught multiple saltwater fish on the fly and I had a permit on which is way farther than I thought I'd get with that species I didn't expect to to have that happen so I would give myself just an A I guess I would give myself an A plus had I landed the permit but I'll just give myself an A and be satisfied with that I won't go into too much detail because I did a whole episode about our trip to Belize, but, yeah, we caught a, got a lot of fish, learned a lot, got our asses handed to us a lot as well. It was hard. Yeah. You haven’t?
Mel
Nope. I haven't. And I, it's on the goals, but it's not for the next, this next year. Yeah. Get that baby to be a little bigger.
Katie
The hardest part I found, I thought I was going to have trouble casting the distance I needed. And that was not the problem. I was able to cast like well beyond what I needed to do. But the accuracy, you know, the getting it into a basketball sized area at 50 feet was a struggle. The wind, I guess it wasn't the wind wasn't a separate struggle, but doing this in the wind was a struggle. And also the hardest part I thought was when the guide says a time on the clock and a distance, understanding what that means. Not Not that I can't read a clock, but when he says 11, 11 might look a little different to him than it does to me or whatever. And then 50 feet, when you're just looking at blank water, it's really hard to gauge a distance for me. And the guide is doing it 365 days a year. So I'm sure he's really accurate with his numbers. But when he would say, you know, cast to 40 feet and then I would cast to what I thought was 40 feet. And he'd be like, that was not 40 feet. That was the hardest part for me. And you've got to get it right on or that's it. So that was the challenge. But it was a lot of fun and I would consider it very successful for my first time out, even though I didn't catch as many fish as I'm sure someone who is much better and more experienced in that situation would.
Mel
Sure. And what type of flies are you throwing out there?
Katie
A lot of shrimp and crabs. Some bait fish streamers, too, for the tarpon. But for a permit in bonefish, it was mostly shrimping crabs. It was cool to, like, experience new types of flies and stuff, too, because obviously I've never used those for something like trout. Right. So it was just all around a good experience. And I will give myself a passing grade on that with an A.
Mel
And a pat on the back.
Katie
Pat on the back. Pat yourself on the back. Gold star.
Mel
Way to go, Katie. Awesome.
Katie
Okay. I'll toss it back to you. What's your next one?
Mel
Okay. I'm going to save the Italy thing for last. So let's talk about my half goal.
Katie
Let's talk about it.
Mel
Why I made it a half goal is beyond me. Besides that, I just slapped it on.
Katie
It's like when you take a college course, it only meets one day a week. And so it's worth one credit instead of three. That's what this is.
Mel
Fair enough.
Katie
The grade weighs less heavily toward your GPA than some of the other goals.
Mel
It's a filler. It's a filler. Okay. Make more time for little trips close to home that don't need a full day. I would give myself a... D minus or F. I can't remember if I did one of them.
Katie
I just was trying to guess what letters you were thinking between. And I was like, oh, maybe it's going to be like a B minus or a C plus. You're like, it's either a D minus or a big fat fail. I like that there's nuance there. As though, you know, if your kid gets an F, that's not okay. But if they get a D minus, now we're talking.
Mel
We're talking.
Katie
I mean, we can do something with that. All right, tell me more.
Mel
I don't know if I actually took any dedicated, really close to home fishing trips. And I am ashamed to say that. But this was a little more related to pregnancy than like taking three people out fly fishing who hadn't done it before. for that, for the going on half day trips, goal, whenever I could get outside in the summer, I was actively trying to like go hiking and do something fitness related because I wanted to stay really active and, and, healthy during pregnancy. So on my days off of work, I would go hiking a lot or backpacking or that type of thing. I mean, I guess bringing people, bringing people fly fishing on the St. Joe river was a local goal, but it was overnight. We'd camped, so I can't call that.
Katie
It doesn't count.
Mel
It doesn't count. Cause I would consider like the Coeur d'Alene river to be one of my, you know, half day outings that I can easily go do. It's if you want to get into a really good spot. Um, and you can go all the way up to two hours of driving from my house to really get into good fishing out there. So for, you know, if, if you really want to get into it, you make it a full day thing anyway. So we're not super close to any, you know, rivers, for example, I think you have a spot that you can pop in after work sometimes. And so we don't really have that around us. Um, you do have to get out of town a little bit. So yeah, I just, I did a lot of hiking, a lot of local, local hikes with the, with the pup and got her out and myself out a lot. And I feel like the, between that and trips with my parents, cause we ended up going to the Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island this year, this summer together. and we did a couple of the fire lookout towers together around the area. And so between those trips and hiking, I didn't do a whole lot of local fishing, if any.
Katie
So it sounds like this is just one of those goals that because you didn't know what was going to happen, like your goals shifted once pregnancy happened. So you kind of had to rethink. And it also felt like when I talked to you over the summer that you were kind of trying to fit in a couple things that were, I don't want to say like a last hurrah, like your life is over now, because that's a really depressing way to think about having a kid. But I feel like there is kind of a sense of urgency. Like you can go out and fish for an afternoon while you have an infant. Like dad can watch the kid for a couple hours. So that's not really going to go away. But doing some of these longer trips that require, you know, backpacking, being gone for multiple days, that's going to be gone for a couple of years. So I feel like you tried to kind of fit some of those in once you realized that the time was ticking down. So I think it's understandable that once you found that out, your goals kind of shifted a little bit for the time being.
Mel
Oh, okay. Perfect. I'm going to take the F.
Katie
But you still get a D minus.
Mel
Okay, I'll take a D minus. Instead of an F, yeah. Cool, cool. I don't want two Fs in this course. No. But yeah, I think that's exactly right. You made a good point that I made that goal before I knew and then definitely wanted to smash some trips in that I wouldn't be able to do for a while.
Katie
Well, extenuating circumstances. So we'll give you the slightly higher grade.
Mel
Thanks. All right. Back to you. What do you got?
Katie
All right. My last one was to set another fastest known fish route, which I believe most people should be familiar with it because we've talked about it several times. But based on the idea of a fastest known time in the running world or in the skiing world, where you set the fastest time on a known route that other people can then try to beat and do it faster. And so fastest known fish is the same thing, except you need to catch a fish and drink a beer at some point along the way. So I set one with Caitlin, actually, back in, I don't know, maybe August or September. We did one close to home. And as far as I know, no one has beaten my time, but it would not be hard to beat. Like literally anyone who's good at running could beat it. But that's my goal here is to just go set the first one for each of these so I don't have to be fast. I just have to do it. And then other people can come and set the faster routes. but I think we did maybe seven ish miles. I caught a little rainbow on actually this the river that you mentioned that I can do after work. It was probably 10 minutes from where I work. We went out one morning before work and knocked that out. She didn't fish. She just hung out and watched. And yeah I mean that's that's basically it. But again I would just give myself a I'll give myself an A because an A plus would have been had I done it quickly you know like actually said a good time.
Mel
You don’t feel like that was quickly?
Katie
No, no, I'm, I'm slow as shit. That's why I have to be the first one to set the route.
Mel
Okay. Okay. Fair enough. Um, so question on that. Do you log these somewhere so that other people can try to go beat it?
Katie
Yes. And actually the, the next episode that's going to air, which is going to be, the timing's to be weird because we were recording now and yours will air later. But the next episode that's going to come out is with Andrew Todd, who runs the flyathlon and he's the one who like who runs this system. And they had an old webpage on their, on their site that listed these, but they have since created a dedicated website for it, but I don't think it's up yet. I've seen it. I've like, I've gotten the link and I've been able to check it out, but I think it's not live to the public yet, but it will be, it will be soon. And it's really cool.
Mel
Nice. Very cool.
Katie
So yeah, I think I'm going to save the things like a pluses for going above and beyond. yeah I agree and I think I I very much completed this but I did not go above and beyond so I will just take the regular old A
Mel
and pat yourself on the back again
Katie
yep another gold star so I got two a's in my three credit classes and I got two f's in my one credit classes so I'll have to calculate my gpa after the fact
Mel
yeah I know you're not going to be valedictorian but I think you'll pass
Katie
Yeah, I'll pass. All right. Let's hear about Italy. Well, or not Italy, not Italy, but.
Mel
Right, right, right. So, yeah, this is my last one. So, it's, it's a good segue because I wanted to talk about what we did in, replacement of that. So when I set the Italy goal, we had every intention to go to Italy. And if you don't go to Italy, you can't catch a fish in Italy. Correct. So once we found out I was pregnant and the due date, which was in November, we were going to go to Italy end of September. And we talked to my doctor and they just said, it's probably not in your best interest to go on that long of a flight and across overseas and go out of the United States when you're that close to your due date. Just, you know, I don't want you tickets and then have to cancel that, that trip because you're having complications or what, what have you. So we made the sad decision to cancel that trip.
Katie
sorry, it wasn't part of it also that you wanted to be able to enjoy wine in Italy?
Mel
Oh yeah. Yes, you are correct. Yes. Um, so another sad decision. Cause I was like, I can't drink my face off with wine while I'm in Italy because I'm pregnant. So, well, I could, but I don't know.
Katie
People might frown upon that.
Mel
Yeah. So we did already have the time off of work. Both of us did. And so we decided, well, what can we do in replacement and just save Italy for a time when I can drink all the wine and go fly overseas. So we ended up coming up with Alaska because we I have been to Alaska once, but Jerrett has never been. And we I've been in the fall about the same time as our trip was going to be. And it was gorgeous with all the fall colors. When I went to Alaska in the past, it was not a dedicated fishing trip. It was with my parents. We did a little bit of fishing, kind of a slow side activity because we saw some of the salmon, the sockeye salmon. And we wanted to try to go catch one, which really you're snagging them at that point. So that was that was the trip with my parents. It was many moons ago. I'm aging myself, but, I remembered parts of the trip, but, but not enough to say, oh, it's, you know, I don't want to go back to Alaska because I was just there or something like that. So we booked flights to Alaska. Um, I kind of wanted Jerrett to do a lot of the, planning of the trip because I feel like I do a lot of trip planning most of the time. And, it was kind of moon. And I thought, I'm going to have him treat us to a trip that he plans. So we were getting really, really close to the, to the trip, maybe a month out, maybe, maybe a month and a half. I don't know. But I'm like, all right, so what do we got? What do we got going? What's on the itinerary? And he's like, I've been so busy with work all summer. I haven't really done anything. I'm like, oh gosh. So he, he, we actually have some friends of ours, local friends here who used a guide in Alaska at certain lodges and remote lodges. So Jerrett ended up reaching out to them and got in contact with one of their bosses. He owns a lodge on the, let's see if I can pronounce it correctly, Talachalitna River. So it's like a 40 minute little puddle jumper flight from Anchorage out to the lodge. And so we ended up booking that. The guide's name is Chris. And Jerrett was in contact with Chris pretty much every week up until the trip, kind of talking about logistics and everything. Well, about a week before the trip, we're looking at the forecast. And mind you, we were going to be the only guests there. So it was going to be us and Chris at the lodge because it was at kind of after season, but he knew we wanted to target trout. So he's like, that's perfect for perfect timing for you guys then. Um, and so we contacted Chris a bunch of times, talked about the forecast. The forecast wasn't looking great. It was looking really rainy. And Chris was saying the river could be totally blown out and it could be completely not worth your time and money. Um, but we'll keep an eye on it and we'll talk as, you know, like even a day before you guys get here. So day before we go, it's really not looking good. We're like, well, why don't we touch base? Like when we get into Anchorage, cause he was super awesome and flexible with us. And he goes, so he, he's like, I'm not going to have you guys pay until you get here just in case you do have to back out. And it's totally fine. I totally get it because we can't control mother nature. Um, and so we called him when, well, first of all, we landed in Anchorage is dumping rain and it had been dumping rain for like five days straight and called Chris when we got to the hotel and he's like, I'm going to let you guys make the decision, but it's really not looking good. I just, I don't want you to come out. You guys are more than welcome, but I don't want you to come out here and pay all this money and the absolute garbage because I tried it the other day and it was horrible at least he told you that yeah super nice super honest we were so appreciative of that but we did end up backing out which I was really bummed about and so was Jerrett because we were getting a pretty good deal on the cost of the trip and all that but the big thing for the cost at that time of year that Chris couldn't control was the cost of the flight. And cause he's, he doesn't own that company, obviously. So we were going through the, I can't remember the company name, but anyways, they had to charge more because it was kind of out of season for their flights. And so we decided to just cancel it all. Um, everyone was super, super nice about it. Uh, but we sat there in the hotel after that decision and looked at each other like, okay, well now what? Because we had a rental van or we had a van rented for the last week that we were there, but we had, I think, four days before we were going to go pick up the van. And so we didn't even have a vehicle because we got dropped off at the hotel and then we were just going to Uber over to the flight place. And so we're like, okay, well, first step, let's get a mode of transportation and then we can figure it out. So we ended up getting a rental car last minute. Costco travel. Whoop, whoop. Shout out.
Katie
Shout out to Costco.
Mel
Yeah. And then we just decided to go around to a couple of the local fly shops and ask people if they would be willing to give us kind of tell or cry to them about our circumstances. and see if they would share some good insight onto where we could go fish. So I think we ended up going down to the Kenai Peninsula first. We ended up booking a little glacier cruise one of the first days, which was kind of fun, in Whittier. And then went down to the, we booked some really last minute Airbnbs. So that took up our whole afternoon when we got into the hotel. Went down to the Kenai Peninsula. We didn't fish the Kenai because, you know, we went back and forth for a little bit. Like, should we hire a last minute guide and float it? Because obviously that's the way to do it. Or should we just go to some of these smaller rivers that people in the fly shops have been telling us about? And a lot of the rivers that they were mentioning were along the Denali Highway, like up towards Denali, which we knew we were going to go to in our van. But we wanted to check out the Kenai Peninsula first. so I was kind of doing some online research about some creeks and small rivers that we could fish as well as taking the advice of the fly shot people and we ended up fishing a river called I think it was called Ptarmigan Creek yes and it was really cool it was awesome there were the color of the water was gorgeous we fit we mostly caught dolly varden which we had a kind of a goal to catch because it's not something we catch all the time around here and they were saying that that's one of the big ones to go catch at the fly shops and what was super interesting to us was we go and we're like okay so these are the flies we've got kind of showing them our our array of selection that we brought because I only brought a couple because heaven forbid I lose my entire, fly bag on or fly pack on like a flight. I am always so paranoid of that. So I just hand select several, and they're like, Oh yeah, you don't need any of those here. You just need some flesh and some trout beads and you're good. I'm like, what? This is a foreign concept. Um, so we had them explain like how to set all that up. Cause we really haven't done that before. Um, and so we brought those out to this Ptarmigan Creek, had some luck, but we were like, why don't we just throw some of the nymphs that we brought from home and see what goes, what happens. And sure enough, cat, so many more fish on all those other nymphs. And I think it's just cause everyone just goes and checks the fleshy flies and that's all they are ever seeing. So, there were a bunch of red sockeye in the river too, which was really pretty to see them. Um, we weren't targeting them. Obviously we were targeting trout and I think we only ended up accidentally snagging like two. Um, but they got off. I actually almost broke my rod on one of them cause it got under a log. And I'm like, that is one of the biggest fish that has been on this five weight fly rod and it's under a log right now with a lot of current so I was like in my backing and almost to the end of my backing oh man but I ended up it just snapped off so good yes so then we went to let's see yeah the Dolly Varden day was really fun we did all DIY we ended up deciding not to do any guided trips we heard about the Russian river which was supposed to be really good for wade fishing near the kenai I think it dumps into the kenai and we were gonna go there but then the access point was closed due to grizzly bear activity I believe is what it was and I was pregnant and Jerrett's like I don't really want to bring you into gris country I know we're in griz country just in all of Alaska but
Katie
but if they're calling this out as a hot spot maybe
Mel
yeah exactly yeah and then we got our van finally which was so fun the van was very bougie way better than the one we had in new Zealand although Daryl the dragon was incredible but this one actually had heat and like a refrigerator in it and it was all powered off of just the battery of the vehicle so we didn't have to be plugged in which was fabulous so we could remote camp anywhere and have heat because it was really cold end of September in Alaska and they had an early start to their winter as well so but we ended up going and driving the highway up to Denali I think we kind of just jetted up there and then fished our way back down because there's so many rivers that cross that highway. Um, and we would just stop at any fly shop and ask advice and kind of, kind of got like, you know, a running list. And if one of the rivers was mentioned more than once, then we ended up trying it. Um, yeah, cause there's so many and we just had limited time and we ended up running, into this one river that, so, so I guess I'll start with, we fished a couple of them and we didn't really have much luck and we're like, oh man, I don't know what we're doing wrong. Or if it's just not the time of the year. Um, yeah. Or like the river, all the rivers were so high cause of all the rain. Um, so anyways, I ended up, I think it was maybe our third or fourth river and we're kind of feeling defeated, but we're like, eh, we're here to fish. Let's just keep going. Um, and I think I threw, one of my tried and true nymphs from home or that work here. And I ended up catching a huge rainbow that day. And it was in this like tiny little run. Um, but it was a deep little run and we're like, okay, all hope is back. Oh my gosh, there's huge rainbows in this river. And then we ended up going to a confluence where another creek dumps into this river. And also this river is crossable. Like we're going back and forth from side to side the whole time. So it was like our favorite size of river and went to this confluence and I hear Jerrett just yelling because he gets there first, obviously, because he's always running in front of me.
Katie
Yeah, he power walks ahead of the group to get to the good spot.
Mel
Yes, he does. Yeah. Yep. Dirty dog. But yeah, and so he's yelling. He's like, come over here. And he caught another, like a huge rainbow. And we ended up having a great day. We caught, I don't know, over 10 really massive rainbows. And so we ended up going back to that river, I think three days in a row and just like had the time of our lives fishing it and catching big rainbows. Now I will say the stretch of river that we were able to fish was really limited because it's private on one side and then, and that's towards the highway. And then if you go further in, it just gets like really hard to navigate because those rivers around there aren't, I mean, there's like a couple of them that have trails along them but most part you're just bushwhacking like there's kind of a fisherman's trail but you're not quite sure and it was really slow moving so but yeah it was awesome
Katie
it's cool to hear this and I don't know if maybe we can do if you ever get time back again after having a kid like a dedicated episode on this because I feel like every trip I hear to Alaska even if it's DIY most of them talk about requiring a bush plane and I know that I know that's like I would rather go somewhere that requires a bush plane like get out into the middle of absolutely nowhere but you don't hear very often about someone going up to Alaska and just like getting a car and going fishing like if I were to fly to Montana I would rent a car and then I would go fishing like I it wouldn't be rocket science but then I feel like you think about Alaska and it's like oh my god you gotta fly the whole way up there arrange a flight out into the middle of nowhere then you know start from there? Do you need a raft to float and all this stuff? And even if you do it on your own, it still requires a lot more effort. So to hear that you can just rent a van and go to fly shops, like it sounds like a lower 48 adventure, but it's up there. So that's just kind of cool to hear that that's doable.
Mel
Yeah. Yep. And I wasn't sure how that would go, honestly. Because I agree. I'm like, you think of Alaska and you're flying somewhere for sure.
Katie
Yeah. You're like, it's daunting. But it's just like out of Anchorage? Like that's where you flew into and you just drove around from there and you got to do all this stuff within a driving radius of Anchorage.
Mel
Correct. Yep.
Katie
Cool.
Mel
Yeah. And we, on the way back to the airport at the end of the trip, we were with our Uber driver who is from the area and he asked us how our trip was. And we're like, Oh man, we went all over and fished. It was awesome. And he goes, where'd you go? And we kind of told him, you know, where we were at. And he goes, Oh, you touched like 0% of Alaska. He's like
Katie
Well what are you going to do in a single trip? Fish the whole state?
Mel
I know. But yeah, it was just funny because we were like, yeah, we went all over and we fished. It was awesome.
Katie
Well, from down here, I mean, I feel like 1% of Alaska is like the entire state of Colorado.
Mel
So right. Right. Yeah. No, was really cool yeah it was fun we actually ended up going into a fly shop called mossy's fly shop at the end of the trip it was in anchorage and of course I had to get hats and yeti you know yeah cups and all that stuff with their name after you yeah I know but we talked to the guys in there for a while and we're like so are there any brown trout here by chance because we don't we didn't catch any and we don't really know and he's like huh if there were brown trout here I would have moved here a long time ago I'm like okay so noted it's just rainbows and a lot of salmon and dolly varden
Katie
I couldn't have told you that there were browns up there but I never think of browns when I think of Alaska it's like never comes to mind so that answers that yeah so what's your grade on this what's your grade on your trip to Italy
Mel
this one's hard to grade so F for Italy, but I will say the reason, I don't know. I'm going to be generous to myself.
Katie
Yeah. I don't think you get an F on this. I think you need to be fair.
Mel
Okay. Well then it's a B. I'm taking a straight B.
Katie
All right. Wow. Wow. a B.
Mel
I went from an F to a B? Because you gave me an inch and I'm taking a mile.
Katie
Yeah. If I'm grading myself, then.
Mel
Well, I don't know because I feel like if it were, okay, so let's just say the goal were take a destination fishing trip and fish some fish. Then, then I really, then I got an A.
Katie
No, I think a B is fair. Okay. Perfect.
Katie
Um, okay. Well, is that the last of our goals from last year? That's all I have written down.
Mel
Yep. Okay.Katie
Well, would you, how many new goals do you have?
Mel
so I have two new and then probably gonna pull a couple you're gonna retake the class for a couple yeah
Katie
okay well I'll start and I I'm also gonna retake the class of flight diving perfect I i think I need to make this more specific and I think I'm gonna say that I need to sit down and tie flies and like act actively make an effort to improve every week like every week I need to try you know a new technique or a new fly the hard part is going to be that in the summer with field work and everything like I'm not going to be able to every week so there's I think there's going to be the goal is to try to make it like average every week so in the winter now I actually do have some time probably on my hands so I might try to tie more now and kind of front load it and then maybe not do as much during the summer and then once winter comes around do a little more but like actively make progress throughout the year and try to do it kind of more on like a weekly basis which isn't even that specific because like what am I going to do every week but it's more specific than just saying I want to do it more yeah I like that I'd like to sit down at least every week and make some serious progress
Mel
okay now when you do that are you gonna count it if you don't like attempt to learn a new pattern or something like that are you still going to count it? I think you should
Katie
I think I could count it if I'm you know perfecting something you know I think there's also progress in for example I can make six pheasant tails that don't look anything like each other or I can make six pheasant tails that all look like each other and so being able to have that consistency would also be progress but I don't want to basically I don't want to phone it in I'm trying to do something that's not phoning it in so in whatever form that arrives whether it's just perfecting something or getting really consistent on a fly or doing different sizes of flies, trying something smaller or larger, just like not just getting comfortable and tying the same midges and brassies a hundred times in a row and not actually like learning anything.
Mel
Yeah.
Katie
So that's what I would say is like, that's what counts.
Mel
Cool. Okay.
Katie
All right. How about you? Awesome.
Mel
Love it. Okay. So I'm going to set this one. This first one is just going to be kind of like a, I don't know. It's going to sound lame maybe, but I'm trying to make it attainable. And I want to give it a number too so I can really make it attainable. So I just want to bring – our daughter's name is Brynlee. I would like to bring Brynlee fishing three times in the summer.
Katie
And what counts as bringing her fishing? Like if you and Jerrett went fishing and you just sit on shore with her while he fishes, Or is it like she's going to be out in the water, like playing around? Like what's the count?
Mel
Yeah, so I will not count it if I'm not fishing.
Katie
Okay.
Mel
Like if she's not in my pack on me or even on Jerrett, you know what I mean? Like, or honestly, if we take turns, but I have to fish and like she has to be like splish splashing in the water and having a time too.
Katie
Okay.
Mel
I want her to kind of like be immersed in it a little bit, whether it be like in a carrier on our backs or watching us fish from like the shore when we take turns.
Katie
It's not like someone hangs out at the car with her while someone else goes and fishes. Like she has to be part of the process.
Mel
Right. It's actually a lot harder than it sounds to make that happen because Jerrett's schedule in the summer is insane. And so he can, I mean, we'll have to do day trips. This is like bringing in my half goal from last year because he can't do a lot of like go camping overnight. He is, his work schedule is insane. And so, yeah, we'll have to do that and just go for the day and bring her. But yeah, it'll be, it'll be fun. And honestly, I think I'll be more excited to go to some of my local areas that, you know, we've exhausted, like we feel like we maybe have exhausted on our own, but bringing this new, fresh human who's exploring the world, you know, and like you can, we are going to be able to see the happiness in her, like enjoying it a little bit. I don't know. I think there's gonna be something different about that and I'll be really excited about it. So. Yeah.
Katie
Well, I think that, I hope that's attainable. I know you said the schedule is, is hectic, but hopefully you find some time. And I feel like even just going for an hour or two will be a success. So three times
Mel
three times. And you know what? I hope to report back that I did it way more than that, but I wanted to at least just set something that's low.
Katie
Well, if you set it too high, it's going to feel daunting and then you're just not going to do it at all. You're going to be like, well, I'm, I just see that I'm not going to accomplish that. So I'm just going to stop trying. Whereas three, it's like, great. I attained it. Now I can keep going.
Mel
So like that was really fun let's do it more
Katie
yeah cool well my next one is to complete a troutwoman which is like a this is the lady version of a troutman which is a trail marathon four species of trout a 12 percent beer and I think 3000 feet 3000 feet of elevation gain in under 12 hours
Mel
whoa okay
Katie
so I have so I I told you I talked to Andrew and his episode's going to be coming out soon. I don't know if you can see it behind me. There's a beer sitting like right here on my desk behind me. That is the 12% beer that I must drink. He gifted it to me as like a, you know, get me in the mood.
Mel
Like a nudge?
Katie
Yeah. And so I have it sitting there on my desk staring at me, reminding me that I need to actually go out and run before I do this because I am very resistant to training for anything. I prefer to just go out and wreck my body. So I can't do that.
Mel
So that's a training beer.
Katie
No, no, no, no, no. That is to sit there and stare me in the face to be like, go run. Like, go run because you're going to have to do that this summer. And so that beer is my accountability, buddy.
Mel
Oh, I love it. What is the beer that is 12%? Because that's kind of rare.
Katie
It is a Westbound and Down Louie. What? that's what it's called westbound and down is the brewery and the beer is called louis
Mel
like what is it a dark or is it an ipa
Katie
oh I don't even know it's just sitting there. it's just a 12 percent. they all merge into one when you get that high
Mel
it tastes like wine at that point because wine is what 14 almost yeah it's almost wine
Katie
so that's fun that is a goal that I don't need to set any sort of yeah do it or don't
Mel
yeah it's you do it or you don't so okay well you say that one more time so how many species?
Katie
four species of trout 26.2 miles I think 3 000 feet of elevation gain but I'd have to double check that and a 12 beer all in under 12 hours
Mel
and the beer can be at any point like you could start with it or you can finish with it?
Katie
you could yeah I will I will probably end with it because that sounds like a way better idea
Mel
I don't know I think you should start with it you could
Katie
maybe I'll sip it the whole time I'll put it in my like bladder on my back and just like sip on the beer as I run
Mel
perfect yes now is this something that you will have a companion go on with
Katie
you have to do it as part of the challenge and right now there's a plan for like a whole bunch of people to go do various so there's various levels of this this is the lowest level
Mel
oh my gosh
Katie
there's kind of a gathering happening of of people who are going to be working on whatever level they're on and so there's somebody who's going to be doing like a 60 something miler and a couple people are going to be doing like 50 milers and so the people who are doing shorter ones will just stop before the other people. And so, yeah, I will be doing it with other people, but I'm not sure if I can go on this group outing, but either way I need someone to come with me because it's, they, they encourage it for safety reasons to have a partner when you do it.
Mel
With a 12% beer? I mean, yeah.
Katie
Yeah. And they don't have to do it. Like they don't have to do the whole challenge. They just need to like be there with you to, verify that you did it and to be your safety buddy.
Katie
Cool. I like that. Yeah. So if I don't join the group…
Mel
I wish I could come
Katie
You should. You should bring the baby. We’ll all do it
Mel
Lord, that would count for like three times bringing her out fly fishing.
Katie
Yeah. I mean, it would. And, you know, for people who don't drink, cause there's like, alternative roles. If you, if you don't drink, then they're not going to make you drink as 12% beer, but you have to do something else. That's equally kind of disgusting, to make it harder. So maybe you could like they've in the past, someone has had like to drink a half gallon of milk or something.
Mel
I was literally just going to say drinking one gallon of milk.
Katie
I was going to say you could just drink your breast milk. Like one pint of breast milk counts as a 12% beer.
Mel
I haven't even tried it yet.
Katie
Really?
Mel
That could be a good way to introduce it.
Katie
Yeah. Oh, man. That would be quite a way to learn it. See what it tastes like.
Mel
All right. So you're in. You're signed up. All right. Moving on. This is a topic for another time, but I did resign from my job. So I do have the summer off.
Katie
Yeah. Oh, okay. We'll have to hang around and talk afterward because I want to learn more. I fully support that though, because it always prevented you from hanging out.
Mel
I know. I know. Okay. I don't know why I'm looking down at my phone because I don't have my goals listed. I have our old goals listed.
Katie
And I just looked at my paper as though I could answer that for you. I'm like, I don't know what your goals are.
Mel
okay so the second one's fun I think you'll love it I I'm I'm going with the number three like I'm doing sets of threes okay goals so this is to catch three fish on flies that you have gifted me
Katie
oh that's a fun one
Mel
so I don't know if in previous podcasts that we've done if we've explained that what we what we I don't know Christmas
Katie
give it the 30 second spiel
Mel
yeah so basically we I can't remember how long ago we decided to do this but it's been several years now where at Christmas we pick each other out the what do we call it now just like regular dozen regular old dozen flies that we send to each other and I we've talked about we talked about that this year as how we just kind of like stow them away in our fly pack and we don't really know in the future when we go to use them which ones you've actually been given by the other person so I'm going to take a picture this year before I organize them in my fly or just keep them separate yeah and try to catch three fish on your flies because it's like an extra little challenge like you go to a river that you know you're gonna probably catch fish you know exactly you should put on, but, to put on something different that you've given me would be really fun.
Katie
Okay. I love this goal. This is super fun. I want to add a personal challenge into this for you. I want you to open up that box and pick the fly that you think is the most extra, like not, not pick the one that you think is actually good. Yeah. Don't pick the one that's like, well, she sent me a, you know, zebra midge. And I know that's going to catch a fish. Like pick the one that you're just like, this is absurd. Because I go into the fly shop and I try to pick some that look good. And I try to pick some that I'm just like, well, that is fun. I'm going to put that in there. Like, I don't know when you're going to fish with this, but it looks fun or it's a fun color or whatever. So I would like to challenge you to make one of those fish be on the most gaudy, absurd fly I sent to you, which I don't even know what it is, but send a picture if and when you do
Mel
Okay. I will. That's fine. I like it. Yes. Okay.
Katie
And from now on, I'm going to ensure that I include at least one every year that is like outrageous.
Mel
Perfect. But how, but the thing is, how long do I have to sit there and fish that fly before I give up on it?
Katie
I mean, if you're going to fail the whole goal because you can't get a fish on that third one, you can't get that third fish, then go ahead fish but it looks good I don't think anything in that box was ridiculous enough that you wouldn't be able to catch them it's not like I sent you a tarpon fly and it's like you have to catch a trout on this right like they're all trout flies and they're all they are they all I guess catch fish I mean I got them in my local fly shop so if they sell them I would assume they have to catch something
Mel
yeah okay that's fun I think we also talked about how I kept going to the same fly shop for you. And so you probably kept getting the same flies because every year I'm like, oh, I really like the looks of this one.
Katie
But I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know.
Mel
Yeah. But this year I went to a new one. And so I think you got a nice new variety.
Katie
Okay. Well, I like that goal. I'm very excited to hear how that goes. Because I just, I'm going to forget what I even sent. I already forget what I sent to you. I didn't even, I forgot two seconds after I picked up the flies, what I sent to you. So I'm just excited to hear what you have success on.
Mel
Cool. Yeah. I'll be sure to send a picture of the flies that I use, that I pick too. Or honestly, I got to send a picture of just all the whole dozen, the regular dozen.
Katie
I think the reason we call it the regular old dozen is because sometimes at my fly shop, if they'll do deals around the holidays where they, if you buy 12, you get the 13th free. And so I was expecting to get you 13 flies. And then I went in there and it was, there was no deal. And so I think I texted you like, you didn't get 13 this year. You got a regular old dozen.
Mel
You shorted me. Oh my gosh.
Katie
I know. You're expecting that 13th, but not this time. Sometimes I pocket that 13th as well.
Mel
Not going to lie. Sometimes I do too.
Katie
Okay. Is it, is it to me again?
Mel
Yep.
Katie
All right. This is my last one. The first two goals I listed, I felt like were kind of chosen for me because I already knew that I failed fly tying and I had to retake that class. The Trout Woman has been established for me upon receipt of that beer. So that was kind of already selected. I didn't have to think about it. But then I was sitting today and I was like, I need three. So I just kind of came up with something that sounded fun. So I decided I would like to do a, I'm calling it a follow the stream backpacking trip where I would like to just pick a stream. and start at one end of it and carry my camp on my back and just fish my way up to the other end of it and maybe maybe it's not the whole stream because maybe I can't do the whole thing with the time I have but I'd like to just pack my tarp tent that's super light it can be in my back and you know it's not gonna weigh me down and just kind of like fish until I feel like settling down and pitch camp right there and then just wake up the next day and do it again and do that for like a weekend or a long weekend like two or three days just fish my way up carrying all my stuff so I'm not burdened and I can just move as much as I want and cover as much river as I want. I think that'd be fun to see a stream from like top to bottom or bottom to top.
Mel
Oh, I love that. That is super fun.
Katie
And maybe start at like a lake. If there's a lake, you know, I could camp there the first night and then work down from the outlet or something like that.
Mel
Awesome. That sounds amazing.
Katie
And that should also be a very easy one to know if I did it or not.
Mel
Yes. Are you planning, is that, is this going to be a solo trip?
Katie
It doesn't have to be. It doesn't have to be if someone wants to come? Wink, wink. I know. If you want to come or if Mike wants to come or like, I don't really care who I do it with, but if, if no one wants to come, then I will gladly do it by myself too.
Mel
Yeah. Well, if you make it an Idaho stream, then I'm all, I'm all there.
Katie
I'll have to see what my work schedule looks like. The problem with summer is that it's so busy with field work and I don't know what I'm going to be doing until often like a week or two before we do it. So it's kind of fitting last minute things in, but in between field trips, I can basically take whatever time off I want because I'm usually working like a ton of hours during those trips. So then in between, I can kind of slack off a little bit, not slack off, but I can take that time, that extra time I worked. And in between trips, I do usually have a decent amount of time. I just don't always know when that's going to be until like it's happening. So it may need to be a bit of a last minute trip.
Mel
For sure. But that sounds awesome. I love it.
Katie
Yeah. So we'll see how it goes. I just kind of made it up. So it's fun. All right. Your last one or maybe your last one.
Mel
I guess I mean, I don't have an, I don't have like another new.
Katie
Oh, okay.
Mel
So I'm, I'm just pulling two more, two others from last year.
Katie
Are these half goals?
Mel
So now I have four. No. These are full credit courses. This, yeah. Learning entomology is a full credit course. If I do that, I'm going to quantify it. So I think that the easier way for me to do this is listen to podcasts. over like reading. Yeah. Or I mean, looking stuff up online, I could do that too. Um, heck I'm up at 3am every day breastfeed or breast pumping. So what, what better to do? I should just turn off Netflix and start looking up bugs on my phone.
Katie
You know what you could reward, you could do this thing where you reward yourself with five minutes of big reading. I don't know if you ever heard a suggestion before, but
Mel
like after you watch your Netflix show reward yourself with reading about bugs
Katie
my actual suggestion would be to put a an entomology book in the back of your toilet
Mel
right I just never spend that much time on the toilet
Katie
you're efficient
Mel
I am so okay so I did look it up today because I was like if I'm gonna make this a goal how many entomology podcasts are really out there And there are actually a lot.
Katie
Like fishing specific ones or just entomology in general?
Mel
Yeah. Let's see. I looked it up. There's one that you might've heard of. It's like entomology. This is not a fish. I should have had this written down, but I wanted to know if you had heard of it. It's like something wet fly swing.
Katie
Oh, wet fly swing.
Mel
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. You've heard of it. They have a lot of entomology ones.
Katie
I've been on that podcast.
Mel
Oh my gosh. Did you talk about bugs?
Katie
No. So you can skip my episode.
Mel
Okay. So on podcasts, I searched entomology fly fishing and what fly swing is on there a lot. And then I scroll down and fish untamed comes up.
Katie
Never heard of it. The guy, the guy, Rick Hafele who came on mine, I think he's done several podcasts. So, and he's one of the go-to guys. So I think you could search his name too and probably find even more than you would just searching keywords. I bet his name would take you like right to where you need to be.
Mel
Yeah, perfect. That's probably why yours came up, huh? Because of his podcast.
Katie
Yeah, yeah. I did an episode with him that has that in the title. So that's why it came up.
Mel
Yeah. Okay, so quantifying that, I feel like listening to a podcast every, I don't know, month. I mean, that's like, seems easy.
Katie
That does seem easy. I thought you were going to say every week, but I also listen to a ton of podcasts. So that's easy for me to say.
Mel
I know. And I'm more of an audio book gal.
Katie
Well, can you find an audio book? Although that's probably a really dry topic to listen to in an audio book, but I don't know.
Mel
Well, heck let's just shoot for every two weeks and then see where it takes me. Man, if I do that, I'm going to be like a wealth of knowledge next year about bugs.
Katie
Yeah, you are. The only problem I see with this, which it's not actually a problem. I'm not discouraging you from doing it, is I feel like you're going to learn really in depth about like four bugs. You're going to learn about caddises, mayflies, stoneflies, and maybe midges, which is not bad because those are obviously like the four most important ones. But I feel like with a podcast that goes for an hour, they're going to hit the heavy hitters like those ones. And they're probably not often going to get beyond those four groups. Again, not discouraging it because those four groups are the big ones. But I think if you do ever find a way to get reading in either on the Internet or in a book, you'll be able to kind of expand beyond those groups. I mean, that could be a future thing. Like if you get really solid on those four, then you can in the future expand into like other groups.
Mel
Well, maybe I'll do this. I'll do every two weeks. I either need to do some type of reading or a podcast on it.
Katie
Okay. Yeah. And what if you like miss a week? What's your plan? Because like I talked about fly tying. I'm hoping to do it like on average every week, like make some progress, but I know that's not going to happen every week. So some weeks I'll do more. If I'm like into it, I might go, you know, every day and for a while and do some. So if you find that you miss a week.
Mel
I'll log it. Like what did I read about and what was the date or something.
Katie
Okay.
Mel
You're going to keep a journal. I think I'm going to keep a journal.
Katie
Yeah. Wow. You're really serious about this.
Mel
I am.
Katie
Do you want me to be an accountability buddy and check in on you? Because I feel like it's really easy for us to say we're going to do these things. And then if we don't check in, we just whoop to the wind.
Mel
Yep. Like, oh, I'll take an F. No big deal.
Katie
I'll just take the F. I can, my GPA is good enough. It'll pass without this class.
Mel
Yeah. Yes, you should. You should check in. Really light a fire under my ass.
Katie
I always do. It's my favorite thing to do. Yeah. Is that a wrap? Is that all we've got? Or you had another one?
Mel
What was my, Oh, Italy. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Italy.
Katie
Oh, you're going to Italy this year. We're going to Italy. So that is back on the, on the goals list. So that's why I only picked two new because I had two old that I wanted to bring back. And I feel like that's allowed because they were only last year's. You're fly tying one. If you don't do it this time, we got to figure out some type of punishment.
Katie
I get kicked out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to go into delinquency.
Mel
But yeah, we do plan to go to Italy this year and kind of same timeline. Um, now we do have friends that live in the Netherlands and so part of our time will be spent with them. And then part of the time will be in Italy. So our, our time in Italy will be cut shorter. So I'm not quite sure, you know, if we're actually going to be around good rivers to fish. Um, we have friends that live over there that we met when we were traveling New Zealand and the kind of the main goal is to go visit them they do live in the northern alps so I'm assuming we'll have access to at least a river that we can go toss a line and I think we talked about this there's some different types of trout species over there we were looking into it last time we talked about it I'll have to look into that again yeah but I don't know how you know how easily accessible information is over there for fly fish I really don't know what the scene is like over there so it'll be interesting
Katie
yeah I'm excited to hear how that goes and it's actually not to you know deviate from from your goal but I actually just remembered that we are also doing a Europe trip this year in which I would plan to catch fish so I'm going to add that to my goals as well and and mimic you there and say because we're planning to go to Slovenia so I'm gonna try to catch a marble trout that'll be one of my goals
Mel
I think that's what's in Italy as well
Katie
yeah I don't remember I thought you I thought you mentioned some sort of like brown trout like knockoff spin-off
Mel
yeah yeah like we have the brown trout but they just have the knockoffs yeah oh and I forgot to mention Alaska we caught grayling that was sick
Katie
oh nice yeah I think I do remember you mentioning that when we talked about it after you got back
Mel
yeah so that was cool too new new species especially for Jerrett I believe I caught one grayling when I was there with my parents but it was not it was tiny so these were actually some decent sized ones probably 12 inches or so
Katie
12 inches damn
Mel
for grayling I think that's pretty good
Katie
great well is that is that it are we are we locked in?
Mel
that I think that's a wrap we got our goals set
Katie
got our goals
Mel
I'm gonna I'm ready I mean it's already February so we gotta really hit it hard
Katie
we're already behind
Mel
I know we gotta get going
Katie
although none of mine can happen except fly tying until June at the earliest.
Mel
Same. Entomology is the only one I can really, really hit the ground running on.
Katie
This is good though, because we're, we are forced to start with the ones that we failed last year.
Mel
Yeah.
Katie
So we have to face our F's in the eye. Oh. Before we can get rewarded with the easier ones.
Mel
Do you just get like a big, like gut wrenching little knot when you think about it?
Katie
No. I say oh that was a goal that I made a verbal pact with Mel on and I bet she failed hers too so it's okay
Mel
yeah we'll do better
Katie
all right let's wrap this up all right thanks for coming on everyone all right that's a wrap thank you all for listening if you want to find all the other episodes as well as show notes you can find those on fishuntamed.com you'll also find the contact link there if you want to reach out to me and you can also find me on instagram at fish untamed if you want to support the show you can give it a follow on apple podcasts or your favorite podcasting app and if you'd like to leave a review it would be greatly appreciated but otherwise thank you all again for listening I'll be back here in two weeks with another episode take care everybody
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