PDA

View Full Version : Welcome



gusstrand
10-14-2009, 11:40 AM
Welcome to a new beginning.

When I first came across it, smallstreams was a personal website about fishing small, overlooked and magical water, something I've loved most of my life in preference to large rivers, lakes and seas. It was the personal website and brain child of Adam Trahan over a decade ago. What started out as a personal blog site before we knew what blogs were grew in to a niche forum over the years, and morphed, changed hands a time or two, and finally, due to complications of spambots invading the site, disappeared.

This site is the resurrection of smallstreams. It is not an archive, but a new beginning based on a common love for open-minded fishing of small waters... to the seas, and everywhere in between. We hope to rekindle the love, energy, camaraderie and community of bygone days here, but know that this is entirely up to you, the community and participants.

Welcome to the stream. Step in and join us.

-Gus

adam
10-14-2009, 01:33 PM
Wow, that was honorable.

I had a team help me get things moving.

Brooks - Ivan (lost) - Gerard - Chef - Adam - Ted

Ted stopped helping us, Gus took over. The rest of the guys are still out there except maybe Ivan who is lost...

I'm going to go get those guys and try to capture a little bit of what we used to do. More importantly, I'm going to try to funnel cool people back here that made the site what it was.

I'll leave it at that.

You can't go home, but you can go fishing.

I think it will be a very cool thing to get back to the forumula that we started, more than a decade ago.

You can't kill a good idea although ahh, nevermind.

Thanks Gus, you are a good man.

matsoberg
10-15-2009, 01:13 PM
Thanks for the invitation Gents. Quite honored here I must say. Don´t know how much I can contribute but I will certainly check in here on a regular basis. Small streams were the way I got into fishing in the first place and I often look back.

Yours truly

adam
10-15-2009, 02:49 PM
I'm glad you are here, exactly the type of participant I'm looking for.

This is a story place, a little different.

You will see.

3creeks
10-15-2009, 04:12 PM
Nice, thanks for the invite. I miss the old small streams before it became what it did. Enough said about that. Looking forward to hanging with the cool people. :)
jeff evans

adam
10-15-2009, 04:28 PM
Yup, let it go, not worth it.

And I'm glad you are here. We will build this place word of mouth.

stevekiley
10-15-2009, 04:37 PM
i am looking forward to the ride,thanks for the invite,steve

greendrake
10-15-2009, 05:06 PM
Yep, I echo the same sentiment.In other words, thanks for the invite.Smallstreams were where I got my start trout fishing and my preference still today.I'm looking forward to this new adventure.And the fact that I get to start the journey with a handful of people that I consider friends even though I've not met a one of you in person.Doesn't matter,it's easy to tell a kindred spirit by their enthusiasm in sharing the likes that we all have i.e. a love of fly fishing,small streams,bamboo rods( both making and using) and sharing all of the above with likeminded mates.
This should prove to be fun.
Will

SnooKen
10-15-2009, 08:14 PM
I also started out on small waters. It took many years for me to learn that the only way to fish big waters is to break them back down into compact and unique units and fish each section like all its surroundings were dry land. For myself fishing is a way of hunting without having to kill the quarry blended with reconnecting to what is truly real in this world. Small waters make the immersion that much more intimate and interconnected. Small waters reduce our pace to fit their scale. They focus our attention. They calm our souls.

This is going to be a good place.......Thank you for including me....

Ken Welch

PS; I am honored that you even included an emoticon of me. :ugeek:

mems
10-16-2009, 01:55 AM
Yeah! I am going offshore tomorrow and might have a good report. Sorry no pictures will be available, the wife is in Samoa helping with tsunami relief, and she has the under water camers. Wish me luck, Mems.

ttalsma
10-16-2009, 03:27 PM
Gus & Adam,

I, as with the others, am honored to have been invited to join here. I'm not always that active, I'll certainly add my input when I can!!

pmcroberts
10-16-2009, 06:09 PM
All,

Thanks for inviting me to come aboard!! I did all the registration stuff a couple days ago, but have been busy getting ready for my rod building/fishing trip!! I am heading up North to Dunsmuir for 2.5 weeks. I will catch up with all of you when I get back. Thanks again for the invite!!! Let the fun begin!!

Paul

Gerard
10-17-2009, 02:38 AM
Man this is cool. SS was my first actively visited board and I have fond memories of it. It was arguably the first active all FF board on the net and quickly became a "meeting place" for likeminded souls across the globe. Each time I visited I read about the experiences of others, which in a way made those "50 places to fish before you die" type books absolute. I really look forward to the new chapter.

Thanks Gus and Adam for bringing this one back to life. :D
G

adam
10-17-2009, 09:57 AM
I'm in Disneyland so this will be short.

smallstreams.com is one of the oldest sites on fly fishing, on the internet. I know some of you know this, I've been reading about your adventures as I write mine over the years.

I couldn't stand to see the place go...

Gus is bringing it back to life.

It will have all the same elements.

I believe we are going to try to work it by word of mouth, no restricted access code, just word of mouth to find it. There are a couple of other pieces that need to be in place, but we do have the foundation to build upon and this train is already headed out of the station and on down the track.

The memberlist, gus and I will be working on, please help us to work on it as well.

Soon enough, I will have my first story for the site, that's what I am looking to get back to.

Keep a weather eye on the place, let us know.

gusstrand
10-17-2009, 11:08 AM
Ride the Pirates for me! And Tower of Terror! Certified Disneyholic here... (http://www.gusstrandphoto.com/Travel/Disney-Details/)

On the word of mouth: Share this place like you would share your most precious water. Be prudent, especially early on.

I have a robots dot txt file and a few other contingencies protecting us from search engines for now. Hopefully that will help fly beneath the interweb radar until we decide otherwise.

CM_Stewart
10-20-2009, 11:57 AM
Thank you for the invitation. I learned to fly fish on a small stream that I'm sure most anglers two counties over never fished and two states over never heard of. Then a famous writer (at least as famous as fishing writers ever get) moved to its banks and what's worse, started writing about it. Now everyone knows about it. There's even a fly pattern named after it. Don't know if nothing's sacred, but certainly nothing's secret. I've long since moved away, so I suppose it shouldn't bother me, but somehow it still does.

I now live in the heart of urban America, but have found the joys of suburban trout and happily fish small streams that most anglers drive past to get to more famous waters. May they continue to do so!

adam
10-20-2009, 12:52 PM
This is an old site.

It changed hands and got broke.

We are fixing it.

The site is based on the love of out of the way places by anglers who are not interested in naming names or telling just anyone where to go. Secret streams are secret for a reason.

But it's good to see you here and you will see how we do this as soon as the place goes live.

Pentalux
10-21-2009, 08:41 AM
To start and to close every fishing season I find myself standing in a river no more than 10 to 15 ft wide..... Thanks for the invite.

Rob

gusstrand
10-25-2009, 12:20 AM
This place is no longer experimental. Nick allowed me the keys and the pink slip, smallstreams.com lives again. I'm grateful to him.

There will be very few "announcements" aside from a couple of places near to the soul of this place - but feel free to tell people you believe would fit in here.

Word of mouth.

Cross Creek
10-25-2009, 06:49 PM
Glad to return to a new beginning. I, too, miss the "vintage" smallstreams, and look forward to this site becoming something like.
-CC

jeepster
10-26-2009, 12:01 PM
Hey everybody. Glad to see smallstreams is back online. I hope to read about how many fish everyone caught with all that extra time off the computer. As for me I have been hitting up the bigger water with the exception of fishing with adam and mikey one weekend on some pretty skinny water in the wht mtns of az. And I do mean skinny. http://users.dakotacom.net/~jeepster/tipshades.gif

http://users.dakotacom.net/~jeepster/2564-1.jpg

terry
10-26-2009, 12:17 PM
Its good to see this site up and running again. I definitely missed this place the last few months. I invited a couple other guys over from the old site, hopefully they will re-register soon.

adam
10-26-2009, 01:07 PM
As for me I have been hitting up the bigger water with the exception of fishing with adam and mikey one weekend on some pretty skinny water in the wht mtns of az. And I do mean skinny.

Hey, that was a whole lot of fun. I'm glad we got to share a little time together.

I'm thinking of a meet up at the third meadow of our bridge stream. I have a huge tarp and some other goodies I'll hike in. Do you think you could backpack your stuff for one overnight up there? I think that would be a whole lot of fun. We can draw a fire after an afternoon of fishing, break camp and fish down back to the cars...

You know third meadow isn't that too big of a deal if you hike straight to it.

Say next September?

Anyway, good to see you here.

AndyBaird
10-26-2009, 03:44 PM
Hey Gus... I've missed this site for the best part of last season (closed on 20th October...). It was always a magical resource with a cool atmosphere.
So, welcome back and really looking forward to seeing things evolve.

Best,
Andy Baird

Jax
10-26-2009, 04:12 PM
I have said it in another post, but will say it again.

I AM GLAD TO BE HOME! I cut my internet teeth on smallstreams and mourned it's loss. Thanks Gus and Adam for getting it up and running again. I have been given a new lease on life. Jax. aka Onecast.

jeepster
10-27-2009, 09:02 AM
I'm thinking of a meet up at the third meadow of our bridge stream. I have a huge tarp and some other goodies I'll hike in. Do you think you could backpack your stuff for one overnight up there? I think that would be a whole lot of fun. We can draw a fire after an afternoon of fishing, break camp and fish down back to the cars...

You know third meadow isn't that too big of a deal if you hike straight to it.

Say next September?

Anyway, good to see you here.

Next sept? That’s a little ways away but I doubt I’ll be backpacking anything that far anymore. Getting old sucks.

mikeytwoshoes
10-27-2009, 09:44 AM
it's good to see smallstreams back up and running. thanks gus.

question though...every time I check in here, I've got to login in. why's that?
and can we get some new post light indicators on the index page?

thanks again and I apologize for nit picking.

terry
10-27-2009, 10:27 AM
question though...every time I check in here, I've got to login in. why's that?


I have the same problem

gusstrand
10-27-2009, 03:04 PM
New post topics show up red but I'll look at other themes... Am out of town but will also work on the logins... In a day or two when I get back (on my iPod at the moment...) It's a cookie thing...

caseydale
10-28-2009, 10:06 AM
Hello everyone,

Thank you for allowing me to join...I spent quite a bit of time at work reading the last version of smallstreams as a guest before the spambot invasion and I'm glad to see it's been resurrected.

I'm originally from Michigan but have lived in western Massachusetts for 10 of the last 11 years and I've been fly fishing for about 4 years and I started tying my own flies last winter. I average one broken rod per year so I tend to buy cheap equipment and I mostly like fishing a 3wt on small streams. Massachusetts doesn't really do much to manage it's fisheries but there are some nice stocked small streams and I've found a few unstocked streams that have decent populations of native brookies, and because they're unstocked I never see anyone else fishing them and that's fine by me. It's nice to have an open season all year though, I've had a couple of nice Christmas day trout. Once the lakes freeze over though I like to go ice fishing so I can get outside and keep from going crazy...grew up ice fishing for pike at an aunt & uncle's cottage in the northern lower peninsula but I mostly have to settle for bass and pickerel through the ice out here.

I probably won't post much as I don't have a digital camera, but I love seeing the places everyone else fishes, the fish they catch, and the flies they use. Helps me make it through the boring days at work. My brother is a pretty dedicated hunter though, and last year got a turkey & a deer so depending on what he gets this year I might be interested in trading some tying materials.

Thanks again for letting me join,
Casey

jbutt
10-28-2009, 12:43 PM
Have been lurking Smallstreams in the past. Good to have it back, as I have enjoyed seeing others small streams, as well as their ties. My passion is tying and my relaxation are small streams. Thank you again for coming back.

garethl
10-28-2009, 02:05 PM
Welcome back Small Streams! So glad this fantastic site is back. Already looking forward to reading your reports and photos.

tkd7
10-29-2009, 03:34 AM
I'm glad to see this site back. I had just found the old one and ready to join up when the infestation occurred!! I didn't really get a chance to see everything on the old site but what I did see was definitely my sort of thing. I look forward to drooling over all the fabulous streams you guys fish, from around the world :D

Just a question though so that I don't tread on toes or annoy people. Is this forum mainly a sort of story telling / show off your beautiful steams or can we ask questions too? I'm fairly new to this stream fishing lark but am fairly confident in what I am doing as I'm not new to fly fishing but in my thirsty quest for more and more knowledge I do usually have a few questions. :roll:

Many thanks

Gary

honda 450
10-29-2009, 07:15 AM
I'm glad to see this site back. I had just found the old one and ready to join up when the infestation occurred!! I didn't really get a chance to see everything on the old site but what I did see was definitely my sort of thing. I look forward to drooling over all the fabulous streams you guys fish, from around the world :D

Just a question though so that I don't tread on toes or annoy people. Is this forum mainly a sort of story telling / show off your beautiful steams or can we ask questions too? I'm fairly new to this stream fishing lark but am fairly confident in what I am doing as I'm not new to fly fishing but in my thirsty quest for more and more knowledge I do usually have a few questions. :roll:

Many thanks

Gary


This has me thinking a little, sort of story telling/ show off the streams. Never ever thought of it that way. I do post photo,s & reports of such, but always look foward to others, who post photo,s ect, that i for one drool over. When you have a small base like this, with people who has a passion for what they do & where fishing is a way of life, then its always going to be a special place.
Like most subjects in life, if you ask serious Questions, you,ll get a lot of info back, to help you on your way, to become a better stream hunter. I for one, post , then fall back into the shadows, of the forum, for a while. That is why i like this place & respect it.
But if i can help, i will, so in my eyes you you have to do is ask.

adam
10-29-2009, 05:18 PM
Stories, photographs, what ever you want...

I prefer stories and made the sight for people who wanted to share their stories, get tips, that sort of thing. I started a bamboo fly rod story contest where the winner of a year long story contest won a custom bamboo fly rod. We did that for many years. I am not a bamboo fly rod maker myself and I may start up the story contest again...

But since you are asking, I really like the stories of your favorite haunts.

Chef
10-30-2009, 10:30 AM
Nice...It's been a while but never too far away. I've been here and all over yet still connected with the common addiction of fly fishing.

The fire is still lit and the warmth from it connects us all. Good times ahead.

Where's Ivy? Wish I knew where he ended up.

Chef

Pekka
10-30-2009, 12:37 PM
I'm glad to see this site online again. I've missed this place.
I don't fish small streams too often, but I love the fishing reports by other members.
However, there are several streams nearby me that I'm going to explore next summer.
Streams like this:

http://pekka.pictures.fi/kuvat/Kuvat2/IMG+057e.JPG/_medium.jpg

-Pekka

adam
10-30-2009, 12:52 PM
Nice...It's been a while but never too far away. I've been here and all over yet still connected with the common addiction of fly fishing.

The fire is still lit and the warmth from it connects us all. Good times ahead.

Where's Ivy? Wish I knew where he ended up.

Chef

Yeah, he's back.

Good to see you.

Mostyn
10-30-2009, 06:29 PM
Hi Guy's, thanks for the new format of the forum : Small Streams! I love fishing small streams and talking to like minded people, also listening; and reading about the exploits of others with the same passion for fishing with a fly rod on Rivers and small streams! Thanks for accepting me as a "Small Streams Forum Member"

Mostyn

adam
10-31-2009, 12:12 AM
Adam: You don't know me; but, you helped me when i followed your small streams as I was trying to figure out fly fishing. It is ironic, that when I just learned of Tenkara, I thought first of you. You made fly fishing very simple; i.e., the few things hung around your string of old fly line, a few flies like the Adams in a simple box. Thanks for your outlook. It helped me.

I am starting to get those messages again, here is the last one.

Nice to know you are appreciated and the work you do does not go unnoticed.

papasequoia
11-12-2009, 11:17 PM
March 28, 2006. That was the date I found smallstreams and excitedly started participating. How do I know the exact date? Because when I tried to visit here a few days ago, my password didn't work. So, I went into my files and found my original "Welcome to smallstreams.com Forums" email from Adam (I really have to clean out my inbox one of these days!) and checked my password and login, but they still didn't work.

I had no idea that the site was down, I had no idea of anything happening with smallstreams for quite awhile. All I remember is that there came a point when it wasn't as fun to visit as it had been at first. There was an all-out internet flame war going on, and for every fishing report or story there seemed to be a dozen angry diatribes. So I just quit visiting. I don't know how many others there were, but there must have been some. It was a shame, but other sites filled the void. Still, I did miss this spot, because there had been a lot of good things to like about it. So, I really hope that all of that stuff has been settled and put behind everyone. I don't want to appear to be pointing fingers or anything like that, because I neither know nor care what the "inside story" was. I just hope it's over and the new beginning is a true new beginning, for all.

I like to write, so my reports or tales are often lengthy and descriptive. Not long after leaving here, I posted one that I thought was pretty good on another site. It was fairly large, but I had peppered it with some pictures every couple of paragraphs. However, when one of the responses was from someone who said that they only opened reports to look at the pictures and another person agreed with them saying that they barely skimmed the written part, and then only to see if there was any information they could use (I almost always exclude locations, and rarely include stuff like type of fly used, instead concentrating on the narrative) I knew I was really going to miss smallstreams. And I have. Glad to see it up and running again! Jon

adam
11-13-2009, 07:16 AM
Jon, that is how life is.

But I'm glad you are back.

My experience here is similar!

Your post is reason enough for me to explain a little, it might help, it might not.

Anytime you want to know what kind of person you are dealing with on a web site, check out the "search users posts (http://smallstreams.com/search.php?author_id=53&sr=posts)" function. Pretty quickly, you will get an idea of what kind of person someone is. In a nutshell, you can quickly see what they put into the site.

I learned early on from looking at the forum statistics, what users where looking at, what site they came to smallstreams from and what site they went to after leaving smallstreams. Policemen, judges, lawyers, doctors, nurses, engineers, chemists and the like, all human, not all good things they were coming from or going to. I learned early on from before I started making web sites that there was a "clique" in the guys who made bamboo rods. The old "newsgroups" is full of this example and this is way before the proliferation of web sites on the internet. Life didn't change, and neither did the online participants.

I studied what I was doing, educating myself and what I came up with is that the internet is like alcohol. What ever personality people have, the internet amplifies it, when they are online, it's like they are drunk. People who don't get drunk, there personality does not change, it matches what they write and you have everything in between. That would be just a brief of it.

Names do not matter to me. There are people that I have never meet online that I would call a friend, others that I have known for years, they treat me worse than someone they have meet on the street.

It's very disheartening.

I no longer research it, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

And then I (a while ago) got a message from a young woman who's husband was lost at sea fishing a wild spot in Hawaii. They found the story I had written, he printed out, in his briefcase, went to the spot, found his rod... Funeral, hundreds of people there, a little internet search and I found the reports from the memorial, the search for his body.

People make choices every day how they want to communicate with others.

How they want to present the forum, the rules, what ever.

I am a guest here.

Gus Strand owns the site. He bought it from Nick. I sold the site to Nick after many many years of taking care of it and it fell into a state of disrepair. I prompted Gus and he obtained the site, I told him I would help him get the feel back and I believe I have done that to some degree.



But if you look around, there are still elements that are like bits of trash on the stream. Posts that have nothing to do with fly fishing. People hanging out at the board and talking to people like they would if they were drunk at a bar.



It's an old web site, Gus has restricted the flow but it will grow and it's not going to be all nice.

So I ask you to please help keep the stream clean.

Do it on your own.

Post the things that you want but how in the world Tony Danza (http://smallstreams.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=121) has anything to do with fly fishing is just odd to me. I look at those sorts of post like I see a beer can on the side of a stream.

You write some nice stories. I hope to find your participation here enjoyable but you may not get out of the site what you put into it, I never have but I keep trying because every once in a while you will meet quality people, I've meet a handful over the years and it was worth it.

Take care Jon.

gusstrand
11-13-2009, 11:27 AM
Danza, truly off topic and totally odd... but honestly, that is the purpose of that particular section - the catch all, non fishing topic area that keeps the rest of the stream clean.

People's nature is to post stuff like that, not unlike the random discussions on barstools in the diner before dawn on the way to the stream or at the little local grill at the end of the day, or... if I provide a place for it it keeps most of it out of the water and off of the banks... you get the picture.

It's at the bottom of the list for a reason. From the "garbage" perspective, you can think of it as the trash can in the gravel parking area at the trailhead... a place to leave all your unrelated cares and worries and odd stuff... :)

...and yes, the flow is restricted and monitored to keep the rest of the water flowing and pure.

papasequoia
11-13-2009, 12:17 PM
Thanks for the thoughtful response, Adam. The part about Hawaii was quite moving as well. Perhaps I shouldn't have brought up the past, but I had been sitting at the desk tying up some #24 midges for an upcoming trip, forcing myself to tie "just one more" before taking a welcome break and catching up on what had been posted here so far. So, I had been thinking about it (smallstreams) while I tied, remembering and wondering, hoping that things were back on an even keel, and I suppose that is why I wrote something about it (like lancing a boil to get rid of it). It's good to see you here, and I'm glad that Gus has revived the site, apparently with an eye both for the past (the good stuff, the original flavor of the board) and the future. I look forward to it. Jon

adam
11-13-2009, 12:53 PM
That's what I'm after, introspection, I love it.

Around ohh, I don't remember exactly, I started a forum for chatter, the gravel bar I called it, I think I called it the "grovel bar" a play on words, a double entendre' I made it for a couple of reasons. Gus templated the site, put his own touches on it and you know it's hard to be a guest in your own home but he has made me feel like family and that's what I'm looking for (bite your lip Gus).

There are a ton of old stories to tell. Smallstreams used to be a lot different. Stories would come in and I would "schedule" them to appear in the different sections. We had a different message board, that was kind of cool. The architecture you see here works well for me and Gus knows it well, he compliments my weakness in knowing the code.

I am grateful that Gus was able to rescue the site as well.

But like anything, you won't be able to go home and have the same old thing, life just doesn't work that way. I'm going to go forward with what I know and I've learned a long time ago, I'm not going to be able to make everyone happy. But if people hang in there with me, they will see that I am extremely kind and willing to see bad things through and promote and bring forth the good. Years and years (mid 90's) of huge internet web sites (some bigger than this one and international in scope) has prompted me to be secure in who I am.

It's just a defense mechanism.

I/we offer the chance at bamboo fly rods, promote good writing, help charities, offer a place where you can meet with like minded anglers and all things fly fishing. It's a great site. I've meet way more cool people than a handful, that was for effect.

#24 wow, cool, midges.

I've got a box full of tiny tiny midges from Hans, Reversed Parachutes from you know who, I carry many things with me on the stream, often times like you, the best things are memories from this place. Cool of you to point that out.

Again, good to see you here.