Rafts, Rivers and Small Batch Bourbon

Rafts, Rivers and Small Batch Bourbon

Andy Dear | Sunday, 21 April 2019

It's 10pm here in my neck of the woods. I'm sittin' outside on the porch sipping on a glass of Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon, watching a Brisket smoke on the pit...Texas style. Just a few feet away is a Padron 3000 Maduro Cigar begging to have the match put to it. I am by no means a Cigar aficionado, but the last two days have been two of my best in a while, and tomorrow is shaping up to be a stellar third, so a bit of debaucherous celebration is in order.

  In the last couple of Front Pages, I briefly touched on the fact that my son and I have purchased a new Raft for floating the local stretches of the upper Guadalupe River. Well, we took the "Grey Ghost" on her maiden voyage yesterday, and have begun a new era in our now expanded ability to put hook into mouth. She did three miles yesterday, ten today, and tomorrow we'll put five more on her with Mrs. Dear in tow.

  I have been through several different watercraft over the last twenty years, and for river floats, this whitewater raft by far has proved to be the best. It's light, nimble, incredibly durable and most importantly, stable enough for the angler to stand and sight fish "flats style". A vast improvement over my old Coleman Canoe that was prone to tip if you took too deep of a breath.

  Speaking of sight fishing, the water is just a tad bit chilly for the Carp to start tailing, but today's recon mission provided plenty of intel for this summers angling pursuits. There are at least a dozen beautiful flats and sand bars ripe for chasing the "Golden Bones", so its time to hit the vise and put some Carp ties in the box.

  It has been almost twenty years since I've floated some of these stretches of the Guad. In spite of the fact that we've had at least a half dozen catastrophic floods in the last two decades, I am blown away at how much of the river looks exactly as it did pre Y2k. I'm sure there are some lessons in there about the resiliency of nature...and of life in general. I suspect however that I'll need at least one more glass of Bourbon and at least half of that Padron to dig deep enough to put it all together.

  In the mean time, a raised glass is in order. Cheers old friend, it's good to see you again. It's a profound relief to know that as the world seems to spin out of control, you've remained unchanged and are still as gorgeous as ever.

  Hope you all have a great week,

   Andy


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