Headed Out

For the past three years, I’ve helped lead a team from our church [nlcf] down to Honduras.  For the past two of those three years, we’ve gone to Danli, Honduras.  It’s a really nice city full of some great people.  Last year, just before we left, we visited a place out in the country where we could relax, have some great food, and enjoy the company of the church members who hosted us.  Here’s a picture of what was on the menu that day…

Talapia grown right there where we ate.  The talipia farms are a great resource for the otherwise poor community.  That fish was probably swimming in water that day, eyeballs and all!  Honestly, I didn’t have the fish – I opted for the steak (before I even saw the fish though!).  If we go back there to this same place, I’ll be sure to have the fish.  We fly out Saturday.

Well, not really, just a guy on there.  Once I finally got a fly rod, I didn’t really know how to properly use it.  I knew it had to be more than just waving it around in the air, hoping the fly would go further than five feet away, but I had no concept of technique when it came to casting.

Being a product of my environment, I looked it up on Wikipedia and on YouTube.  Wikipedia was good for info, but I really wanted some sort of visual.  YouTube came to be my teacher.  Grant it, there are some ridiculous things on there, as well as some rather trashy things, but there really is a lot of helpful information and tutorials.

I came across the guys of Tight Lines Fly Shop.  Tim talked about everything fly fishing I needed to know so that I could get started.  Here’s the 1st video on fly casting…

Here’s the second where the casting actually happens…

There are a ton of good resources out there.  If you’re interested in watching more of these videos (like how to roll cast, read the water, etc.) go here.  If you’re interested in more of the inner workings of fly casting with some science, imagery, and a bit of humor, check out the Flysophy blog.  He’s just finished up a series of posts on casting which have been really helpful and fun to read.

I guess I’ve been on a video sharing kick.  Hoping to go fishing on Saturday, maybe I’ll have some good news.

Carl over at Fly Fishing Benefactors (FFB) has been busy lately getting together some videos of their gear.  He sent me a couple that you could download from their sight and I told him that I’m typically the kind of guy who likes to hold something before I buy it.  I like knowing how it feels, what it sounds like, how it works.  These videos are almost like putting the reel and other gear in my own hands.

Here are a couple.  This one is an explanation of how quick and easy you can change the retrieval of most of the FFB reels…

Here’s one of the FFB Snake II reel (I like the green!)…

You can check out their Vimeo site here to see videos of their inventory.  Speaking of inventory, they’re still having a sweet inventory reduction sale.  Check it out.

Today the skies are gray and they’re calling for scattered showers.  But over the weekend, the skies were blue and temps were in the upper 40s to lower 50s.  I decided on Saturday it was about time to hit the water and do some fly fishing.

I packed up all my gear (including a lunch) and hit the road.  I fished for 5 hours (yeah, 5) and didn’t catch a single fish.  I didn’t see a single fish.  Not sure what the deal was, but I actually had a great time.  It was so nice to be out side and to be on the water.  I’m thinking mid to late March will be a better time to fish but I just had to get outside.

Interested in a funny story in the midst of a shut-out?  I am…

So I often say that I’m the most forgetful person I know.  I bet I say this at least once a week.  I’m relatively organized, but my memory just sucks.  Anyways, when I finally decided to give it up and pack up my gear to head home, I took apart my rod, packed it up in it’s tube, took off my waders, threw them in the floorboard of the back seat and tossed everything else in the back – well, almost everything else.

It’s about a 10 mile drive back to town from where I was fishing, on Tom’s Creek, and I had to stop by our church’s office to take care of something before going home.  Right as I pulled in to the parking lot and stopped, I heard a “clunk” on the roof.  I instantly knew what it was.  I had left my reel on the top of the Jeep and it actually stayed there the entire ride!  It’s a really curvy road and I stopped at several stoplights before getting to our office.  I really can’t believe the reel stayed, but I’m glad it did.

I really need to work on my memory.  Any suggestions?

and some kinda think they are.

It’s probably my own fault… I’m highly considering going fishing tomorrow and I thought it’d be good to do a little practice with my new 5wt.  The ground is totally covered with snow but I figured that since it’s above 40 degrees, it’d be worth taking the new rod out for a few casts.  Here I am, standing out in the outfield of a softball field in the park across the street from my house, it’s cold, and I’m holding a fly rod – like I said, it’s probably my own fault.

Three guys walking a dog passed by me and one of them asked the inevitable question, “Is anything biting?”  No, thank you.  I shook my head indicating that, in fact, no – there was nothing to catch.  He replied back, “Ah, son of a b****.  Maybe you should dig a hole or something!”  I told him that I had heard that “practice makes better”.  He chuckled a little and they were on their way.

Not much I can do about that.  The things we do for our hobbies!  The rod casts great (like buttah) and I totally love the FFB fly line.

In the midst of trying to figure out how to put videos up here, I came across this…

aahhhhhhhh……

Chasing Hatches by Beattie Outdoor Productions

I don’t usually win contests. But, my luck recently changed. Some time ago, Cameron, over at The Fiberglass Manifesto (T.F.M.), was apparently approached by the folks at William Joseph Fly Fishing Gear to host a contest called Old School to expose folks to their newer line of packs called “Old School” due to it’s retro look.

To enter the contest, you had to become both a fan of T.F.M. and William Joseph on Facebook.  Once you did that, you had to enter a photo of some sort of old school fly fishing gear with the caption, “I want to go Old School with William Joseph.”  I submitted a picture of an old automatic Shakespeare reel that my dad gave me (my 1st fly fishing reel) and a bluegill I caught last year.  Once the date came for the drawing, Cameron had his daughter draw a name out of a hat (it’s a very technical process) and my name was drawn.  Here’s the video.  The last name is pronounced like the country, England, but I assured Cameron it’s all good – it happens all the time.

Anyways, how stinkin’ sweet is that?!  I won a daypack/chest pack combo.

Today I arrived home to find a much awaiting box sitting at my door.  Here’s what was inside…

The fine folks at WJ threw in a couple of stickers and a t-shirt.  The shirt is a bit big, but it’ll do.

I immediately tried it out.  In short, I really like it.

Here’s the longer version:  The backpack isn’t huge but it’s perfect for a daypack in that you could easily have your gear, a lunch (with a small stove if you really wanted), rainshell, rodtube, all that stuff. The pack is really comfortable.  I like that it has lumbar and chest straps.  Being someone who likes to hike, and even backpack, straps for support and even for attaching other doo-dads, come in really handy.  Speaking of straps, it has two adjustable straps on the bottom of the pack to attach your rod tube.  There’s even a compartment inside for a water bladder (not included) if you want to use it for that.  Ain’t nothing wrong with hydration.

Now on to the chest pack… The pack can be used as a stand-alone chest pack or you can attach it to the daypack.  Again, this isn’t a huge chest pack if you’re the type that has everything under the sun that you would ever need for any sort of fishing trip.  Luckily, most of us aren’t like that… most of us.  You can easily get 3 medium to small fly boxes in the chest pack where the side zippers are (if you usually carry more, you could throw them in the daypack if needed).  It has a front compartment with a magnetized latch (also on the daypack) that’s a good fit for a camera with plenty of room to spare.  There’s a smaller pocket that’d be a good spot for leaders, tippets, strike indicators, that sort of stuff.  It could also hold a small fly box if you wanted it to.  It has two elastic zinger type pulls on the outside which I dig.  When attaching it to the daypack, it was easy for the top part, but the  bottom clips were a bit tough to reach when attaching to the pack, but it’s totally doable.  If you don’t want to fool with that, just clip those straps all the way around your back as if you were using it as a stand alone chest pack.

Here’s a semi-fully-loaded view…

I’m pretty pumped about giving this combo a shot.  I’ll know more about how it functions as I get to use it versus walking around my house with it on.  There are some places around here in SW Virginia where you want to hike in to catch the fish.  This combo will be a good fit for it.

Props…

I’m not the greatest fly tier in the world.  I don’t have the best camera in the world either.  But, I like to tie flies and I do have a camera.  And, I have a blog, so there you go.

I’ve come to realize that I’m a sort of ghetto fly tier.  If I don’t have a certain material that’s commonly used for a particular fly, I like to improvise and see what I can do.  For instance, I don’t have anything calf related to use for the wings, but I have some foam sheets so I used those instead.  I decided to do some white and some pink.  Why?  I have dunno!  I thought maybe it might not make a difference (we’ll see) and I thought maybe, just maybe, the pink would be easier for me to see.  I think the pink wings look like Easter Bunny ears, but I’m not sure if trout know what the Easter Bunny is.  Again, we’ll see soon enough.

Just got these in the mail from Cameron over at The Fiberglass Manifesto.

The smaller of the 2 was quick to find a home.  The larger will have to wait till I make a PVC rod tube.

You can check out what Cameron is up to on TFM by clicking here and also take a look at his other project, Fishy Kid.  I’m not a dad yet, but when I am you can bet they’ll fly fish (at least if I have anything to say about it! … that sounds harsh – let’s just say they’ll strongly be encouraged to participate).

I really got in to reading blogs about 2 years ago.  I realized that people I knew personally, and some I didn’t, kept up with some and I like reading what they had to say.  There is a ton of information and thousands of experiences of others out there to learn from.  Sometimes I like to read funny stories.  Sometimes I read blogs because of the way people write.  Sometimes I like to read blogs because they help me to relax – it’s usually one of the first things I do in the morning while drinking a cup or two of coffee.

As soon as I got into reading blogs, I almost immediately started using a feed reader.  I love this thing.  I don’t have to go chasing down a bazillion websites to see if anything new has been going on.  I can totally organize the blogs I read into seperate categories.  I can even save (or “tag” as it were) certain posts and keep them for a rainy day.  A good example of this is whenever someone posts a fly pattern that I’d like to try.

As much as this particular reader feed has helped me out, I think it takes something away that the author has to offer or has intended.  You can easily miss the flair or style of the blog itself.  When I first started following and reading certain blogs, I didn’t even look on the general intertubes for them, I just typed in “fly fishing” in my reader search and there they were.  All I had to do was click “Add Subscription” and I was following them.  At that point it was words and pictures on the screen.  When you go to the actual website, you can see more of what the author is in to, what blogs they follow, a little more of their personality.  It becomes way cooler.

Now, obviously the words and pictures are sweet.  That’s what brings people to blogs.  I guess what I’m saying is that you don’t get all of what’s being said.  I don’t know if it’s like 80(we get)/20(we don’t get) or what.  It might not even be anything like that at all.

I guess what I’m saying is that it’s good to visit the actual blog from time to time – for me.  Whether you’re the same way or not, I don’t know, but this is just me.  “I’m just sayin’.”

Now, I try to visit the blogs I read at least once a week other than just keeping up with them on the feed reader I use.  It helps me keep up with their style.

What say you?