I saw this brief story and always applaud someone able to stretch the edge of the “fly fishing envelope.” Desperation or genius is immaterial as Tuna are capable of 60MPH speeds – any size fish has to be a rare thrill.
Fly fishing’s weakness (and strength) has always been its inability to access deep water, so finding clever ways to circumvent that yields bonus points in my book.
You had better have a high quality reel however…
Technorati Tags: tuna, fly fishing blue water
A well dressed bass boat has more electronic countermeasures than a WWII destroyer, now bank anglers get some love…
While the supercharged, wake tossing, bass boats wail off into the distance (with coolers full of beer and all the hot babes) The Lawn Chair Navy can get busy catching fish with their Fish Cam.
That groan was warranted, as a Korean company has introduced underwater live action camera depicting the worm’s eye view.
At $385 you had better not snag anything, as you’re about to go swimming.
Anglers with small hand-held TVs can see fish move up to the bait — and move their line towards them.
Likely we’ll see a significant jump in fishing license sales, as all of the joystick trained wunderkinder will be flocking back to fishing by the hundreds. The question remains whether you set the hook via the VCR remote or whether you still have to grip the rod..
Now all you have to do is jar a sixpack (or hotty) loose from the bass boat with one well placed rock, and walk your bait over for salvage rights.
Technorati Tags: Fish Cam, beer and hotties, bass boat, damn them
Got plenty of exploring done, fished 6 miles of river over the last 14 days. Fishing is a lot more than catching, and there’s nothing like the reward of nice surroundings and willing fish.
None were big, but all were enthusiastic and committed. I’m left satiated and 8 lbs lighter due to of liquids lost while humping trail in triple digit weather. The hip boots arrived none too soon, another week and I would have been a casualty.
The Carp are still elusive, but I don’t feel so bad after reading the Day Tripper’s account of spotting carp, I felt their pain. Being solo all I can do is use stealth and foul language, usually one then the other…
Lots of free turkey tails, and they were as parched as I was, overcoming their fear of humans long enough to get water from the creek bottom. Something to ponder in November, us fly tiers are incorrigible – if it moves we are sure to kill it for the fur or feathers, with only beaks and feet to make the trash can.
I do need to find a better hydration system, as I sure can’t drink the local effluent, that will be a next season issue, as temperatures will likely start falling soon.
Satellite imagery was a new tool in my kit this year. Both Google Earth and the Microsoft Terra Server offer the ability to get imagery of the local landscape, although both are often dated. Unknown water is always a challenge as the next bend always holds more promise than the last. Getting topological information ensures you always have a feel for what lies ahead, for us aging, lard butted solo fishermen, it’s a safety issue as well.
See you after work, on the foam line.
Technorati Tags: brownlining, Google Earth, vacation, satellite imagery
The good news is that I cast about as well as I write; tortured, circuitous, and unnecessarily lengthy. The bad news is I stumbled onto another time wasting pastime that had me cursing and giggling uncontrollably.
A devout follower of the Church of Monday Night Football, and this being the first services of the season, my pre-game warmup routine was interrupted by the fellows that invented the tele-prompter wizardry.
Did you know them same lads invented a fly fishing game?
It’s not bad. Casting is nightmarish, but quickly mastered once you remember the 10Am-2PM stroke of your youth. You have an ample fly assortment, and it even keeps count of the flies snapped off due to your hammy handed strikes.
You can zoom to the water to observe insects, and then match the hatch. Nymphs and dries are available as are weighted nymphs and splitshot attached to your leader.
The demo is a 5MB download that allows you to fish a couple of the six rivers present, it runs under Windows XP just fine, and is virus free. The demo will end after each fish caught, just fire it again to catch another fish. Perfect cubicle fodder during lunch.
Casting long distances is a bloody Herculean effort, but roll casts and mending line are available to ease the fishing somewhat. I was hard pressed to cast beyond 50 feet, but did manage a 64 foot spaghetti cast that yielded a 16″ Brookie.
Mindless fun, liable to amuse you greatly – more importantly, it gives you the line you’ve lusted after for years, “Daddy will surrender the computer after the Caddis hatch is over, now go do your homework.”
Never happen? The holidays are fast approaching and you think you’ll be able to resist the new fishing rod controller for the Wii? More likely you’ll buy it for the kids…then fight them for it.
Technorati Tags: fly fishing video game, time wasting, video games
The annual report on job prospects for college grads has aired, with Marketing majors the top prospect. This makes perfect sense as spinning the unpalatable into something desirable is on the increase.
Top salary belongs to Chemical Engineers, the high mortality rate warrants it, what with constant AWACS surveillance and the high cost of Banana boats.
Fishing jobs were again omitted, prospects for your average fish bum remain dim. Nice try, but you may want to stick with your current cubicle-based vocation.
A Singlebarbed sampler of top angling openings yields a paltry mix of fishcutters ($8.00/hour), a Business Development Director for a Bass resort, editor for “The Fisherman” magazine, and a Marketing Coordinator willing to promote fishing to trade unions. If your requirements involve fly fishing, then Orvis is hiring computer geek’s.
Proof that the demise of the Adjustable Rate Mortgage has spread to the angling industry, or merely coincidence?
Fishermen and Vegas always want the odds favoring the house, I throw far too many stones to lust after a glass boat, so lets get some useful stuff this time.
Start with the Immobilizer, a 900,000 volt stun gun ($70)masquerading as a cell phone. This will fix a variety of ills – the crazed derelict emerging from the bushes intent on interrupting your fishing, the paint-baller that fails to acknowledge your white flag, and the teen that never gets off the phone.
It may even be capable of cleaning and frying your catch, ensuring you’re always under limit.
My favorite is the Cell Phone Voice Changer ($40) this beauty guarantees a day off of work so you can extend your weekend when the fish are willing. Twist a couple of knobs and you’ll sound close to death, your boss may even send flowers.
Also available is a voice changer for land lines. For those that have exhausted all known illnesses via cell, this will get your building evacuated in no time. We don’t advocate this, but are smart enough not to use our office extension to originate the call.
Technorati Tags: voice changer, stun gun, how to get a day off work
Climate change and vanishing polar ice has the polar bear caught in the crosshairs. Scientists are predicting it’s demise within the next 40 years.
Polar bear fur has always been highly prized by fly tiers and it’s likely this news will send them into a paroxysm of frantic accumulation. Fly tiers enjoy the same dichotomy as religious scientists, their job promotes the Big Bang, their beliefs are a different animal.
Restrictions on Polar bear fur have existed since 1970, any sale is risky as there are many rules and restrictions. Rugs taken before 1970 and sold at estate sales or auctions must be accompanied with legal documentation or the seller is at risk of fines and imprisonment.
In chatting with local US Fish and Wildlife officers, flies containing Polar Bear hair are not legal to sell in any form.
It’s too bad that little pimp Nixon isn’t around anymore, I’d drive the hook home and watch the little bastard wriggle like Imelda Marcos at a shoe sale, instead I write in a watery little crevasse that only has slightly more fish than sunken tires. How is unimportant, it’s the same question Gore asked when Jeb Bush stole the presidency for his dimwit warmongering brother.
Pikeminnow come to the fly like the cattle feeding the Halliburton coffers, slashing at anything shiny hoping for a glimpse of the hand that feeds them. A monetary orgy masterminded by the disgraced puppet master Karl Rove, who should’ve been handed around like a hash pipe to the depraved flesh pirates of D Block. Ehrlichman and Haldeman took the rap and did time, Cheney’s pit bulls are watered down like cathouse whiskey, free to plunder the lecture circuit like some defiant cur.
I’m fishing, but the weight of the .357 in its shoulder holster is welcome, the hiss of casting overshadowed by the muffled black helicopter, orbiting like a bloated carrion bird, alert for infirmity.
Bass eat flies like Goebbel’s brownshirts storming the Reichstag, and behind me the bank is lined with corpses. The staccato thumping on my fly interrupts the pleasant haze of Jack Daniel’s and twice boiled coffee.
Damn few insects have the nerve to show themselves, those that do are ground into paste by reflex, or swatted remorselessly into the underbrush.
The foam line reminds me of the soiled head on warm beer, rigid and unyielding, an aging Hollywood strumpet with a Botox fetish. Line and fly welcomed unto her aging bosom, where bluegill lie in ambush.
This is the sport of sissies. Lacking the adrenaline rush of driving a snarling battered Cadillac sideways through the streambed … a flaccid surrogate for emasculated hunter-gatherers, who yearn for the heady days of frenzied dance by firelight, smeared with the blood of enemies.
Brownlining is a skid mark on a fine Armani blazer, an abomination akin to tap dancing within the fetid confines of an airport washroom, death is clean by comparison.
Technorati Tags: angling fiction, Hunter S. Thompson, brownlining
It seems like every component of fishing has a 5 year span where the technology changes every time you blink. My old neoprene waders have served me really well, but I missed the entire “breathable Goretex” revolution.
I was hoping to avoid another sweaty Brownliner odyssey, and had ordered a set of boot foot Hodgeman WadeWell II hip waders. Hip waders have never had much of a place other than surfcasting and motivational posters, as their usefulness is limited. I wade like a drunken sailor, and hip waders is an easier way to get water somewhere where it ought not to be.
The “Little Stinking” is an exception, September flows are miniscule and about 24″ of water is all that I’ve encountered, other than stifling triple digit heat.
Boot foot waders with the traditional lugged soles give me some purchase getting in and out of the creek. Felt soles are fine, but always prove treacherous climbing or descending dirt banks.
Goretex uppers removes half of the expected weight, and the flexibility of a thin fabric versus rubber walled sheath, gives the feel of wearing overalls, rather than clumsy armor.
More importantly, this gives me a single fast drying object that I can clip onto a clothesline briefly, or set in the garage to dry. My proximity to the local creek means nightly usage, fast dry mean less exposure to sunlight, the nemesis of all rubber. The traditional neoprene and boot ensemble require a great deal more drying time, only because both inside (sweat) and outer layers must be dried.
So far I am most pleased, we’ll see whether October usage is as pleasant, but for hot summer use, these cheap waders are just the ticket.
Update: After six months of heavy usage, they’re about the most comfortable wading boot I’ve used, update posted here.
Technorati Tags: Hodgeman Wadewell II, hip waders, summer weight waders, Goretex boot foot