Ruh Roh

As Scooby Doo would tell you, sometimes things have a way of getting worse before they get better. Yesterday Jimmy Kimmel's interview with Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Actress and heir to the Dreyfus billions, that's right, a billionaire) was circulating around fly fishing social media. The talk show host and actress were talking about their new found passion for fly fishing. Prior to that, Kimmel had chatted up Ashton (Chris) Kutcher about the same subject (He was even wearing an Orvis Trout Bum trucker's cap).

While I'd like to get all excited about this, I can't. Sure celebrities sharing and talking about our sport can only be good for attracting more young folk and maybe some older ones to our sport. This could be great for the vendors we love. And I don't begrudge a flood of new anglers on the river. I generally walk further off the path than most are likely to do and thus won't be troubled with the water slapping newbs. Snap it!

What I fear are new Huey Lewis' and Charles Schwabs. Both these two, aside from their run of the mill fame, are infamous for trying to privatize public waters and block and harass anglers who try to use waters that are a public right. Kimmel and Louis-Dreyfus and their social circles have the money for land, leases and lawyers that could do a whole lot of damage to stream access for mortals.

Hopefully Kimmel and Louis-Dreyfus are more benevolent that some of the other moneyed types. Maybe they'll even join in with TU and other conservation organizations to make hay for public access. It's not been my experience, but maybe I'm wrong.

So I'll start by extending the olive branch. If Jimmy or Ashton (Chris) or Julia want so swing by and fish some fine public waters and visit restoration projects that benefit the public, they can give me a call. We may even need a hand in the fall sampling streams and digging holes for new trees. And I'm sure I could find a few projects in need of cash.

Here's to hoping they're on our side.