I found an old Fish and Fly article that outlines some golf-fishing synergy, initially I was thinking an “olive branch” extended to the lads at work, but after thinking it through I’m not sure that this isn’t the resort from Hell.

“…our own lake at Sagebrush doubles as our irrigation reservoir and private trout lake and is stocked with Rainbow. These are Triploid Rainbow which means they are non reproductive and therefore spend their days eating and growing.”

The first thing to mind is the nightly brawl that occurs at the bar, as only fishermen are more opinionated than golfers, mix the two together for a volatile cocktail hour. It would be like Marines walking into an Air Force bar, and assuming most are passionate about both sports, shifting allegiances and piling on would be commonplace.

To raise the capital to fund the club, he is selling 40 shares in the club for $200,000 a piece. From there, there will be annual memberships sold. These members will become part of the “Posse” Zokol?s nod to Redtail?s “Round Table.”

My guess is they pass out armbands at the front desk, red for fishermen and blue for golfers, and both are reversible. It helps to know who you’re throwing the chair at…

Large trout sipping mayflies near the dock, you’re inching forward with rod low to avoid detection, and Mr. Slasinger strides to the tee and slices his ball into the feeding fish – not once, but three or four times. The golf cart broadsides to a stop in the wet grass, and Himself steps from the cart, insisting you recover his lucky Titleist – as you’re the only fellow in waders..

I’d interrupt his “toddy” later, and with great enthusiasm.

I’m sure the Course Marshal would be distraught at the slow play of my foursome, what with my bag containing, woods, irons, and graphites. All it would take is a couple feeding fish to have me selecting the #5 graphite from the golf bag.

Triploid fish would likely respond well to a golf ball with a couple of treble hooks attached, to save space I’d put them in play – likely I wouldn’t have to number them, I’d just ask the bystander hopping around with both hands on his arse whether he’d seen my ball.

…but what to yell when casting is the real conundrum, golfers are obliged to yell “Fore” – and us fisherman are likely to counter with something witty, I’m thinking “Ten” – homage to the traditional 10:00 – 2:00 casting stroke, but mainly as it’s two and half times better’n fore.

We’ll settle this at the bar.

Technorati Tags: Sagebrush Golf, boutique angling, fly fishing, triploid rainbow

I got another half dozen obligatory junk mails delivered this week hawking angling publications and conservation organizations. That isn’t so bad, but they all signed off using the “dead cow” angling salutation, “Tight Lines.”

Daytripper expressed his suffering a month ago with his magical post on trite overused angling phrases, but it appears as if it was in vain, everything I get still ends with the same pabulum.

I’ll never be confused with Twain or Hemingway, and most of my best work is scrawled in public washrooms, but I think “Tight Lines” is short of the mark.

My line is tight when snagged, my “lines” are tight after a big Italian dinner, a hooked fish is a tight line, but it’s a “diet tight line”, not as good as landing it.

I’d assumed the author was wishing me something good, but there’s enough leeway to wonder.

“Weight gain and lost flies” may be the original intent, and we’ve been insulting each other ever since. I’m thinking we can do better, certainly we can be more precise.

“Sharing the warmth of forcibly puncturing the cartilaginous orifice of  innocents” is a tad dry, and a two to three word limit is appropriate.

The salutation that’ll haunt your magazine renewal notice for decades, will immortalize an angler better than a dozen fly patterns that share his name, and I’m at a loss… It’s like the “Sword in the Stone” – I gave her a yank and she didn’t budge..

Technorati Tags: angling salutation, Daytripper, pabulum, tight something

I don’t make this stuff up I just giggle and pass it on. I yanked the forum dialog to quell your urge for witty rebuttal, it’s an artifact of  “antiseptic plastic packaging”, carnivores too far removed from the sledgehammer smacking the cow to appreciate that all steaks used to “Moo.”

I was doing a search on Google for jackdaws and came across a link to the fly tying/feathers section of troutcatchers.co.uk. I don’t want to post a direct link but it’s easy to find. I was shocked to find that they sell mandarin duck and jay skins, jay and jackdaw wings an many other bird and animal bits. As an occasional fly fisherman I was rather shocked to be confronted by the evidence of the carnage and trade associated with production of the flies. Although I presume it’s all ‘legal’, it’s incredibly distasteful and shocking to be brought up against it in this way.

Response:

You’re a fly fisherman and you didn’t know that the feathers in trout flies came from birds, or the fur from animals?
Mallard and Claret, Snipe and Purple, Gold-ribbed Hare’s Ear,
Teal, Blue and Silver, Pheasant Tail Nymph, Grouse and Purple, Partridge and Orange, Woodcock and Green, I think there may be a clue somewhere in the names of these well-known traditional trout flies.

Original poster:

go fly fishing about once every 5-10 yrs and I don’t think I’ve ever known the names of the flies but thanks for pointing them out. I think all I’m expressing is how easy it is to not think in a joined up way about how we live and what we do. Seeing pictures on that website of dead jays, jackdaw wings etc was a real wake-up call. My daughter has become a vegetarian recently. Whilst I don’t think I’m likely to do that, I’m increasingly trying to avoid battery hens, to buy meat from more humanely reared animals and so on. I also haven’t been fishing at all for several years and am most unlikely to return to it.

Good. I’ll not dissuade a fellow from his convictions, for us it’s one less car in the parking lot, and one less fellow carelessly wading through our fish.

Technorati Tags: fly tying, fur and feathers