• Cohiba Behike, the most exclusive line of Habanos, arrives in Canada with three new formats: BHK 52, BHK 54 and BHK 56.

• Its extremely limited production incorporates for the first time a specific tobacco leaf called “medio tiempo”, which grants exceptional character and flavor.

• Each Cohiba Behike Habanos has a band with two holograms for security identification.

• Also denominated Fortaleza 4, the Medio Tiempo is a very scarce leaf coming from the two upper leaves of the sun-grown tobacco plant. However, not all these plants produce both. Availability of Medio Tiempo will depend on the dedication, care and attention paid to each tobacco plant, considering the changing climatic conditions as well. Due to the foliar position in the plant, the flavor is concentrated with greater intensity in the leaves of “Medio Tiempo”.

•The three vitolas of the new Línea Cohiba Behike are:

- BHK 52 52 x 4 3/4 Factory name: Laguito No 4

- BHK 54 54 x 5 5/8 Factory name: Laguito No 5

- BHK 56 56 x 6 1/2 Factory name: Laguito No 6

I plan on catching a few musical acts when I’m in Southern Saskatchewan.  Bengough, a small town in the south of the province, has a rock and country music festival featuring bands like Victoria Banks, Derek Ruttan and my favorite, “One More Girl”.  I went to the festival last year and it was hot hot hot weather but the cold beer was flowing and the great music made up for any discomfort, weather wise.

I’ll have the folding chair, my Cohibas and good friends to keep me company…….

I have this friend, Al, who I golf with quite a bit.. He is a bit deaf and when riding in a golf cart with him I find that I’m always repeating myself, louder and louder, so he can hear what I’m saying… But….. Most of the time I’m not convinced that he’s even listening….. I give him the odd cigar but he just ends up inhaling the smoke and then telling me how much he doesn’t like cigars… But he still asks for them……

Good grief!!!!!!

This morning I heard all about his round yesterday where he shot an 80 and, well, I’ve never seen him break 90 whenever I golf with him…… It drove me nuts!!!!!!

So here is what I did after I got off the phone!!!!

I went to my humidor and picked a lovely Siglo I, sat on the back deck and enjoyed one of those beauties as I cooled off…… There is something about smoking a great Cuban cigar that settles you down.  You search for all of the subtle flavors that a cigar of that quality will give you and it never ceases to amaze you in that it will deliver the goods each and every time…… We are very fortunate to be able to buy Cubans and smoke them without any repercussions from anyone and Cohiba does it for me each and every time!!!!

The golf course has two courses, a links course and a resort course ( which we visited today) and the greens were as fast as lightning.  This course started out being a private course but due to the distance from Vancouver it changed it’s policy to accommodate everyone who wants to golf there and their bottom line improved dramatically after that.

This course is by a river and water plays on many holes.. Keep the drives straight !!!!  Another thing that we saw was a lot of wildlife today.  Many deer were walking around the fairways and it makes for a more beautiful experience all in all..

This little Cohiba was a few years old and the creaminess was through the roof.  The burn was exceptional throughout and required no re-lighting or correcting at all.  Wow, it makes you wonder how they do it. I mean, its only a bunch of rolled up leaves but a steady draw, earthy flavor and the exquisite distinguished cigar band make the whole event as perfect as you could imagine.

I decided that I wasn’t going to play ball at all, too many injuries occur when someone of my age gets a few drinks in him and then decides to prove himself to a bunch of jacked up wild eyed weirdos.. It just isn’t worth it…… Plus…… Tomorrow is a golf day and I’m going to a rather pricey course.. I want to hit the ball straight and have my wits about me// The last thing I want is to have aches and pains when I have my driver in my hand………..

Thursday was a hot hot and humid day that featured a lot of talent on the main stage. The highlight of my night was a set by a group called, “One More Girl”.  2 young women, Britt and Carly McKillip with an awesome band played a highly charged set that consisted of their hits on radio and video that had the crowd on it’s feet.  I waited patiently for aaron Pritchett to come on when we noticed the sky getting darker.  Canada’s prairies seem to have different weather patterns every few minutes so I don’t think that anyone cared, everyone was waiting to hear Aaron sing, “Hold My Beer”!

He started his set with a song called, “Let’s Get Rowdy” which got the crowd in the mood and we all felt that the rest of the night was going to go without a hitch…. Not so fast!

3 or 4 songs into Aaron’s set and the music stops and we were told that for safety reasons the show was going to be put on hold.  I went to the car and lit up a Siglo I and stared at the sky in disbelief.. I had never seen swirling clouds like that and had never felt a shift in temperature as extreme as we were feeling at the festival site that night.  Lucky for everyone that nothing happened Tornado wise but we heard that Saskatchewan, one province over,  got hit….

I finished my cigar and then went back to see the rest of the show but I kept thinking that with us burning the fossil fuels at the rate that we burn them we have to be changing our weather patterns and my experience that night cemented that theory for me..

The music and the Siglo were a real treat…….

It took me about 4 hours to get to the lake and in that time I listened to Miles Davis, smoked a beautiful Partagas and thought about big, really big, fish that I was going to trick with my superlative flies.. As I pulled up to the lake I saw that we were the only ones at the campsite and the others had their tents set up, tarp shelters built and I saw my friends out on the small lake in 2 boats.. I noticed that one of the boats had a fish on and I couldn’t wait to get my 10 foot car topper aluminum boat off the roof racks and get out on to the lake.  I was ready to kick their butts! Then I saw the dog!!! Oh-oh !!

My friend’s German Shepherd, who’s always hated me for some reason, came running out of the trees and made a path straight for my car with his teeth bared, drool aplenty, and the voice of Satan in his growl.  Oh great!!!!  I was trapped.. I sat in the car for a minute and honked my horn, hoping that one of the boats could come in and get this vicious animal away from me so I could set up and get ready.  All I saw these guys do was wave their hands in recognition of the fact that I had arrived and kept on fishing. I kept on honking and they kept on waving.. This went on for about 45 minutes before one of the boats pulled up their anchors and came to shore..

After pulling the dog away from my car and tying it up and a few jokes about my fear of emergency rooms and needles that freeze your flesh as the stitches go in I gratefully handed out a few small Cuban Cigars and got my part of the campsite in order and went out on to the lake.  I did pretty well with a sinking line and stripping in a small green shrimp, catching about 7 beautiful rainbows, some getting close to 4 pounds when I heard what I thought was a gunshot.  Gunshot??

Back at the campsite I thought I recognized one of the guy’s wife’s brothers step out of a big American car with 4 other guys exiting the vehicle after him.. So now we have 5 strapping young lads who obviously look like they’ve been drinking and who were ready to let off some steam. They started yelling for my very unlucky buddy to come ashore so they could have a few words but my friend started his outboard and headed for the other side of the lake in a very brisk fashion.  I guess it was up to me to go over to the campsite to try to cool down some very hot moods.

As soon as I got to the shore one of the dark haired, very drunk lads with the pistol asked me where his brother in-law was and I had to say that he temporarily had to do some work on his engine at the other end of the lake.  Some quick and quiet discussion took place between the brothers and they told me that they were going to the bar and that they’d be back.. The dog, oh yeah I forgot the tied up dog, was growling and snarling all the while I was ashore and I couldn’t wait to get back out on to the water..

The rest of the day was spent in quiet relaxation in my boat.  I caught about 4 more (good sized) fish, kept a few for a shore snack and then rowed to the campsite and started on dinner.  There is nothing better than fresh rainbow trout fried in a pan over a fire, baked potatoes in the fire and grilled corn on the cob dripping with butter.. Well the only thing better is the Siglo IV with a tumbler of Scotch and a comfortable folding camp armchair in front of a fire afterwards..  This was what I had been waiting for until my friend untied his dog who made a beeline in my direction and promptly clamped on to my leg with jaws of steel and an attitude best reserved for the battlefields of Afghanistan..

My week-end was over…… After a thousand apologies from the others and no shortage of help packing up all of my stuff I tried to best I could to keep the bleeding at a controlled rate and drove very quickly to Kamloops for a visit to the emergency ward.

I guess I’ll keep my fishing equipment, rods, lures and flies and all that goes with it but for now golf is looking pretty good..

Now the thing here is that we’ve all been hearing about the great fishing at the lake we’re planning on visiting.  You just don’t turn your back on something like that, especially since this is the first lake fishing we all will be doing this year.  A few of us spend time together in the winter at a lot of the rivers around the lower mainland as we go after salmon and steelhead but a 5 pound, scrappy rainbow trout on light gear should give any crusty old fisherman a rapid heartbeat.

Although we are only planning on staying for a couple of days, I’m taking along a humidor full of Cohibas, a few Ramon Allones, a couple of Trinidads and an ancient Davidoff I got from mu uncle a few weeks back.  OK the cigars are packed, lots of booze (we’re going to have too much), all of the fishing gear and a couple of Valium for my buddy’s dangerous German Shepherd…. Hey, I SAID self Preservation….. Lets hope I get back in one piece…….

One of my friends has a bit of a gambling problem and he wants to get out of town because he feels that there is a slight possibility that “some guys” may be showing up at his house.

Another of the guys has a girlfriend who has a bit of a trust issue with him because of his “occasional” visit to the strip bars and she’s threatening to show up at the lake this week-end with a car load of her very protective brothers to “check in” on things.

The last guy told me that he’s having a difficult time finding a dog sitter for his “headcase” German Shepherd that hates me and has already taken a nice piece of flesh out of my thigh ( 18 stitches).  He said that he’s taking the dog along with him on this week-end’s trip!

Here I sit……………………

We also know how to set up a tent, set up a boat for fishing, tie a knot and catch a fish.  We also know how to clean the fish, examine it’s stomach to see what kind of flies it has been gorging itself on and how to match that fly with something in our fly boxes to catch even MORE fish.  We are Men!!

I guess by now you are probably guessing that I’m going on a week-end fishing trip with a few guys to the B.C. interior. I can’t wait, my bags are already packed and sitting in the garage beside my rods, tackle boxes, depth sounder, oars and rain gear.  The coolers for refreshing beverages have been cleaned out, a food list has been attached to the front of the refrigerator with a magnet and many phone calls have been made while deciding who buys what meals and who will be cooking first.

Cohiba cigars will be going along with me on this trip.  I plan on including a few Robustos, some Siglo I’s and a few Non-Cohiba Cuban cigars.  Because we can drive right up to the campsite I can actually take a nice humidor and leave it locked in the car as we fish.  I want the cigars to be in great shape whenever I need one.

I’ll be going over to a buddy’s place to do the odd blog and with any luck I’ll be able to tell a few tales of some really BIG fish being caught!!!