Laegreid Outdoors

Every good brand has a unique, recognizable logo, right? Well now Laegreid Outdoors has one, too! I've wanted a logo for a long time, but could never settle on a design until now. I present to you, dear reader, the new Laegreid Outdoors logo: It's simple, clean, and focuses on what Laegreid Outdoors focuses on: fishing and being outside. I hope you enjoy it!

The paintbrush, that is! Since I don't have the pictures ready for the post I had wanted to do this week, instead you all get to see my wee paintings. They are  wee, too, the longest being just under six inches. So, without further ado, here is the cream of the crop from my return to the wide world of watercolor: School of fish Spotty Bow Troot Head Eel (watercolor & pencil) Squad of Squid Chinook (watercolor & pencil) And that's that for now; next week will bring a post with some more meat!

Graphic in the way that flowcharts are graphics, of course! Instead of a photo-filled post, today's post is some fishing-related graphics I've done recently. I've already shared my Annual Fishing Goals graphic; let's dive into a few others. Note: If you follow Laegreid Outdoors on Facebook and Twitter you might have already seen these, but I think they're cool, so you get to see them again. Yay! The Salmon ID Flowcharts Salmon are amazing fish. They're strong, they're delicious, and in saltwater, they all kind of look the same. This is the issue my brother-in-law had when he moved from Oklahoma to Washington. With the regulations as they are in Washington, it is very important to be able to distinguish between the different species while they are in their ocean phase. The WDFW provides a nice pamphlet (from which I nicked the photos. Thanks, public domain!), but I felt it might be good to have a helpful guide to aid in identification.  There ...

This has nothing to do with the blog, but I made it and think it's cool. You're a person that loves the outdoors, but you, like me and millions of our outdoorsy friends, work a job in a stuffy office, far from the rolling hills, majestic mountains, babbling brooks and crashing waves that you love. How is someone supposed to keep their sanity while working 40+ hours a week under fluorescent lighting? Here is a list of some basic things you can do to bring a little bit of the outdoors into your work-week: Decorate your cube/office: Your workspace is your home for five days a week, make it your space. Are you a fly tyer? Get a shadowbox with  your favorite flies in it. Runners could do a motivational poster with Steve Prefontaine on it. If you just like the outdoors, maybe a plant or even a tiny desk-fountain could brighten your day. Just remember to keep it classy (frame the poster of Pre, don't use masking tape to hang it) and make sure you keep the decoratio...

I am one of those people who doodles. Doodling is like art, but quick and dirty and usually not shared.  It's a good way to pass the time in hours-long meetings or while on a flight with crummy movie choices. After not fishing for a while, doodling can be a quick outlet for fishing-frustration when you can't get home to fiddle with your gear. Meetings can be productive I do also create some art, which is slower and fancier and often shared, but obviously doodling happens more often. So Since I'm a blogger now I guess, you can look forward to more of my outdoorsy-type doodles and arts. Heck, I might even post some photographs every once in a while! For now, have fun with these few images, these introductions to my doodly, arty brain; hopefully they'll help you through a meeting or long day away from the water like they have for me. Steelhead! Squid! Brook Trout! Since you made it this far down the post, I hope you like what you've seen....

Life is full of firsts.  Some are important; first car, first house, first steelhead, first fish on a fly, first day of hunting season, and so on.  This is the first post of the Laegreid Outdoors blog, which is a big first for me. I am Peter Laegreid, an avid angler and semi-competent artist; I pose as a marketer during the work week. That last name, by the way, is Norwegian in origin, and I pronounce it lay-Grade. Others pronounce it la-Greed, lag-reed, I've even heard it pronounced LaGreen. You can call me Peter. Now that we're on a first-name basis, I should probably tell you that this blog is going to be just chock-full of outdoorsy stuff. I'm based in the Greater Seattle area, so if you don't like hearing about anadromous fish, you may want to check out some other blog.  If you are looking for a place to hear about salmon and trout and steelhead fishing, weird bottom-fish I accidentally hook, squidding, hiking, environmental issues, and maybe even some hunti...