Drive this and you'll get it in

This incredible specimen of a vehicle is available on Craigslist, and was brought to our attention by Brother Walsh. As its current owner (although can you ever truly "own" something this majestic) writes:

Good day my fellow hooligans. For sale is a mobile baby making station. This lady of the night has seen it all, and still runs like a top. She's long and smooth, just what the females are looking for. This iron lady has the fire breathing dragon that some pencilneck at Ford decided to call the Triton 4.6 liter V8. Will she do a burnout!? Does a the pope wear a funny hat? You're dang right she will son! Its got enough power to jump the Grand Canyon in 3rd gear, oh and its got air ride so when you come back down to terraferma you won't even spill your scotch. But what are we really talking about here? We're talking about luxury. You pull up to the scene in this 26 foot tube of sex appeal and the ladies know there's a new sheriff in town. She's got room for 6 on the back seats, from there it depends upon how you want to stack the dirty dames as to the actual capacity. This here hot rod is up to any task you got for it, from a night on the town to shuffling illegals over the boarder, the Lincoln is up to the challenge. And that there roof rack, she'll hold 4, count em 4 dirtbikes. So if the boarder patrol catches you, which let's face it is unlikely, you just roll them mudscooters down and ditch em in the forest, don't worry about the car, she's a survivor, she'll find her own way out. So if you're a mamby pamby and say "Well gosh Phill, she's got a lot of miles" I'll tell you the same thing I'll tell my opponent in my upcoming presidential run, SHUT UP. She's not high mileage, she's highly experienced. She's that silver haired cougar that is going to teach you what you need to know. "But Phill it's got rust spots and bondo" SHUT UP. She's got character, a pile of it. This hear steel was forged in the fires of Mt. St. Helans and hammered together by AMERICANS is Detroit. When you buy a new car made in Mexico you fund terrorism. Probably. So if you decide you're man enough to embrace this fine automobile then you c'mon up to Royalston and bring 600 US dollars and you got yourself a deal.

Phill out.

An email discussion lead to the idea of the BFC Alumni pitching in and buying it for the current BFC Members, and claiming it as our annual contribution to the College. This is how I imagined it playing out:

- opening scene -

A black screen fades into the smoky tailpipe of this orange giant as it rattles down College Avenue, bottoming out on every pothole. Robert Earl Keen plays over tinny speakers, fully audible to passersby as one window in the limo clearly doesn't close all the way any more.

Wilkie e-brakes this beast onto the lawn of an off campus house. A cloud of smoke emerges as Robbins rolls down the window, and Clark pops out of the sunroof, shirtless, drinking Allen's from the bottle. Lane slowly emerges from the back, one glistening Bean boot at a time hits the ground as the camera pans up to his bright red jacket. With the stern look on his face of a central Maine drug lord, he points a sly, McConaghy-esque, finger at BFC Bassmaster Ford.

"You sober?" the Captain asks, as a subtle flick of the wrist sends the keys floating over the roof, glinting in the setting sun.

"Enough," replies the Bates Senior, barely able to form words from the jaw-dropped look on his face

"You boys have fun" says Jasper, as we walk six-abreast into the fading evening light towards the neon sign of the Blue Goose shining through the haze like a beacon of $2 beers.

The silence is broken by the sound of a beer being cracked opened, and the current BFC members emerge from the house and pile into the new machine.

"Who are those guys?" a slack-jawed freshman blurts out.

"Legends," says Ford. "Fucking legends."

- end scene -

Grabbin' Tail On the Miramichi

Last summer Walsh and I ventured north and east to New Brunswick to chase the bright Salmon as they ventured upriver from the ocean.  We were full of intel from our legendendary contact Wayne.  If you recall our post from last July, we had everything we needed from perfected fly patterns, free lodging and detailed information on fishy runs....yet we got burned hard.  The weather was in the upper 80's, sun high in the sky, low water conditions and unwilling fresh fish filled the water.

Fast forward eight months and Jasper and I found ourselves pointed in the same direction to meet up with Wayne and our mutual longtime friend Dave Comeau. 

I departed Thursday at 2:45 am from Farmington, met Walsh in Newburgh and we were on the road in earnest by 4:30a.m.  It was rainy and 48F for most of the ride; the elders were one day ahead of us and word was they had gotten into a few, excitement was building.

We arrived at the bridge and honked at the guys as we spotted them upstream.  Ten minutes later we had exchanged greetings, split up and were into fish almost immediately.

My First Ever

They continued to come and I had three to hand along with a bunch of Searun Brookies for each of us

A move downstream was in order to an old glory hole that Wayne had up his sleeve.  This is what a good run looks like on a 150yd wide river in New Brunswick

Significant cutbanks along submerged shrubs proved deadly

Day 1 ended with old Walsh grabbin' a few more tails for me....stoked

Dave may have done some damage as well

 

And Wayne lived up to his legendary status in his unassuming fashion...

Day 2 kicked off with divided sessions above and below the bridge and we finished off the day in the lower river where we had done well the afternoon before.  I had a tough one with numerous fish battled but none to hand.  Old Walshy got down and dirty and put his first ever Atlantic Salmon on the bank. 

Day 3 was a slow pick but we did manage to handle a few and once again we stung a multitude of fish but their spinning acrobatics in the water/air made it difficult to keep these fish on. 

Hurling the spey...



Last day...



The icing on the cake for the trip was a research tagged fish in the final 30 minutes





Tag # has been submitted and we are eagerly waiting to hear the information on this fish

All told we landed roughly 28 fish between the four of us.  Many of the pictures from Wayne and Dave I have yet to download.  I enjoyed a hot stick throughout the trip so I would like to apologize for the glutonous amount of pictures of me holding these amazing specimens.  Its not often that I experience such good fortune when it comes to a fish that I have not tangled with before but I am grateful for the opportunity to lay waste from time to time.  My kind friend Jasper tailed many fish for me and I plan on returning the favor when the roles are reversed.

While staying in the town of Miramichi, NB we dined at pubs, pizza joints, and family style restaurants.  The locals are very interesting no doubt, constantly using lingo like "you's guys", "lads" and "yanks".  It is a different world and worth experiencing. 

Wayne tells us that the fishing we experienced is what he would classify as 'quite poor' so we both left wondering what the hell a great trip would be like.

Put it on your bucket list guys; this was an experience of a lifetime.

Legends

There is a legend that I finally had the pleasure of meeting this past Spring after decades of hearing about his legendary fishing prowess.  We have fished together, we have crushed countless trout this season, he will always outfish any guest he brings to his prized locations, and he is as giving and forthright with advice and fishing intel as anyone I've had the pleasure of fishing with; in short Wayne is a legend.  I possibly have explained the connection in a prior post between he and I but it all stems back to a longtime family friend and mentor Dave Comeau (Bowdoin grad.....BOOO....Bates takes CBB football title '12...YES!).  Dave and  Wayne are old chums from as far back as the 60's or maybe the 70's.  Their friendship led them into fishing as many of our own friendships have, and as retirement as settled in for both of these fine gents, fishing has once again taken hold.  Wayne does it all from trout/salmon fishing in Maine to Steelhead and Brown Trout fishing in Western NY.  We have been exchanging stories and reports recently after I returned from a recent trip to the SR and Wayne was stoked for his upcoming adventure with Dave and I believe a couple other old buddies.  Today I recieved a couple pics from Dave recapping their first day on a nameless creek in the Buffalo, NY region.......lets just say The Legend knows how to put his crew on amazing fish.  With a few more days left of fishing, the crew moves on to Steelhead waters after putting over 30 monster browns on the bank today....hot damn!

Well done Wayne & Dave, keep up the good work.......the BFC hopes your lines remain tight and that Steelhead find their way to the bank in the coming days!  Keep the reports and pics coming.