Where's CB and is he fishing?

The answer is right here and yes, of course I'm fishing.

A variety of circumstances have prevented me from my usual flurry of blog posts as of late... One of them is the new job I started last week. So far I'm very much enjoying it- I'm working from home, my new coworkers are awesome, the job is exciting and interesting, and there's a lot to learn. Since I'm working from home, those 3 hours I used to spend on my commute are no longer travel time anymore.

It was during those 3 hours of travel I wrote most of my blog posts. Sitting on the metra, typing on my laptop; that's where most of CB Fishes came from.

The story behind this brown trout?

It didn't feel like hanging around for another picture

Now, there is no transit time to my job (besides the 10 second walk up the stairs). Once I'm done with work, instead of sitting down and writing new posts I head out into the world and go fishing. Or kayaking. Or pretty much anything else besides sitting down in front of a computer and typing up a post.

I've certainly had some adventures recently- now they're getting older, sitting on the shelves of my "need to blog about this" library. Last weekend in Michigan I experienced my first canoe trip with Mark and Rob, caught some trout; then went fly fishing for the first time under the expert tutelage of Rob Vink, fly fishing master. Naturally, I came back to Illinois and purchased a fly rod/reel combo. Saturday night Claire and I went to the local pond, where I proceeded to catch 3 bluegill and a nice largemouth bass on the fly!

First cast, first flyrod, first bluegill on the fly

It's been exciting, with the fly rod in my hand I feel like a complete novice, the way I felt with a spinning rod about a year ago. To be clear, I'm still a total newbie to fishing, but at least I know how to handle a spinning rod and jig. The fly rod, well, that's another story. I can catch some fish with it, but I have a suspicion I'm doing it wrong...

Claire caught this one on a black and red chigger craw

Should I still blog about adventures that are more than a week old? I think I will. When will I be doing that? A very good question. In the meantime, I'll keep posting new pictures to Instagram and Facebook should you be so inclined to see the most recent catches even without the story behind them. I've also gotten on the Twitter bandwagon: follow @cbfishes to get a stream of mostly fishing-related posts shorter than 140 characters. And a bunch of pictures too.

One of 5 smallies I pulled out from one spot
on the Rogue River in Michigan

News: CB Fishes featured on BrookfieldAngler.com

I was taking a break from assembling lesson plans and researching audio manipulation techniques at work when I saw BrookfieldAngler.com's most recent post. I try and keep up with all the local fishing blogs to find out what's working and what's not, to see what kind of adventures they've been having... but most of all to learn. Basically, steal all their tricks.

So I was very surprised as I'm reading to suddenly see the phrase "Let's talk about CB Fishes!" in the middle of the page. The great guys over at the site said some real nice things about this blog, although they did make fun of the small fish I catch.... I won't hold it against them though!

Thanks so much for the write-up guys, I really appreciate it! I hope that any craziness I put out there will inspire others to get out and catch some fish... whatever size they may be.

Tight lines,

-CB

News: CB Fishes featured on Fisherous.com!

fisherous.com is chock full of great info, informative fishing reports, and extremely useful gear reviews

Mad props go out to Cory of fisherous.com, who decided to begin his new "Spotlights" series by spotlighting this very blog. Thanks for the great review Cory, so glad you dig it! It's great to know that these random posts are providing some entertainment, and hopefully some good tips to get y'all on some fish. (And many of the photos up here are in fact created using Instagram for the iPhone, a great, easy-to-use photo filter app.)

Cory has a pretty great blog as well- fisherous.com  is full of awesome content, including product reviews, videos, fishing reports, and of course blog spotlights. Another fan of both Mexican food and fishing, Cory keeps his blog updated with locally-relevant fishing info that can be applied to fishing anywhere. I'm a big fan of his product reviews, that not only explain the selling points, but explain the pros and cons of each piece of gear, as well as how he personally fishes them. Great info for beginner fishermen like myself!

the Outdoor Blogger Network- a veritable gold mine of everything outdoors

Also, CB Fishes is now a member of the Outdoor Bloggers Network! Thanks to Ken G for the tip, and thanks to the good folks at OBN for adding this blog to the directory. I've been checking out tons of great blogs in the directory, and it looks like some of you have found this blog through the OBN.

Thanks for reading, and I'll keep the posts coming. If you like what you read, feel free to subscribe!

Tight lines, and see you on the water!