Montecristo Cigars

    Steelhead season is upon us again in the Pacific Northwest and I couldn’t be more excited.  Those are fun fish to catch in a river because of the strength they have and the fine arial display they give you once you hook into one.  They are a freshwater trout that migrate into the ocean but always come back to fresh water to spawn.  When fishing for them your hooks have to be “Tacky” sharp in order to  actually hook one, the inside of their mouths are hard and resilient, I mean consider the name!   Now rather than standing in one spot in a river and waiting for the fish to come to you, hunting them is more the norm and you could end up doing a lot of hiking and wading in a river before you find oneMy friend Al (not a cigar smoker but we’ll let him live) picked me up in his new 4X4 at 5:00 AM yesterday morning and we drove about an hour and a half to catch the first light out on the river.  We were the first to get to our spot, we quickly set up our rods, on went the waders and we were off!  I hooked into a small wild “steelie”, maybe 5 or 6 pounds and after about a 5 minute fight brought her in.  A quick photo and then I released the beautiful doe back into the water!About an hour later and about a 1  1/2 mile hike Al hooked into something bigger…. Waaaaaay bigger!!!!  Steelhead can reach sizes of 55 pounds but that’s a real record and no way did Al have anything that big.  After seeing his fish jump a few times he started yelling over to me that he thought he had one on that had to be in the 22 lb range.  Al was only using 15lb. test so I was hoping he brought all of his fishing skills with him.  After about 12 to 14 minutes of running up and down river with that jumping silver torpedo, Al brought it in to the river’s edge.  We didn’t have any scales with us but 22 pounds, or even more, wasn’t out of the picture.  One more photo opp of a beautiful fish and a toothy grinning maniac and the fish was released  gently back into the ice cld water.I’m always talking to Al about cigars and telling him why I love to smell up my car and my clothes with the wonderful aroma so as we were building a small fire to warm up and take a break, he asked me if I brought anything special to this great event (in HIS life).  After packing all of my fishing gear that morning, I went to the humidor and picked a Monte Robusto LE 2006, I hadn’t smoked one for about 6 months and thought that now was the time.  After the fire was built and we were sitting around on the rocks I decided to fire it up.This is a re-edition of the 2001 Robusto and complexity would probably be the most appropriate word for this beautiful cigar.  In fact, this is the most complex Monte I’ve ever smoked. Vanilla, chocolate and coffee are some of the nuances mixed with wood and  a wonderfully spicy finish.  A couple of beautiful fish, cool fresh air, a hyperventilating lunatic and an incredible LE to make for a perfect morning!