Critter's Corner

Good bye 2011!

2012-01-01T00:38:00.000-06:00

Test photos of fly patterns

2011-12-10T00:22:00.001-06:00

So I wanted to improve my fly photography by improving the mini-studio I built for taking pictures of flies. I did a little research online and then picked up two new lights from National Camera Exchange to replace the old convoluted system I was using.

I am now just using those two lights and a reflector inside a light box. Before, I was using the light box, a reflector, three lights, an on camera flash hooked up to secondary slave flash via a cable, and the full kitchen table with two leaves in it. Now I'm down to using a third of the kitchen table without the leaves in it.

Here are some photos of tonight's practice session (click on each to enlarge).

sparkle soft hackle

tungston zebra nymph variant

zebra stable (7 different variants): fresh off the vise last weekend

wet fly on bamboo background

wet fly on oak background

streamer with maple background

streamer with dark stained wood background

double midge fly

double midge fly 2

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Reminders...

2011-11-20T10:09:00.001-06:00

After spending several hours in the initial attempt to straighten out the Fly-tying/man-room last night, and waking up to fresh snow this morning I definitely have trout on my mind. So I just thought I would send out a post with a couple of reminders.

Fly Tying related:

As winter sets in and we restock our fly boxes, keep in mind that the St. Paul Fly Tier's meet every week on Thursday nights at Schroeder's Bar & Grill in St. Paul. It's great way to get out of the house, socialize, and keep you motivated in your fly tying.

The Fly Angler has a variety of Tying Classes you can sign up for during the winter months to develop those skills of yours. They also have been hosting an "open tying" night once a month where you can bring your own vice and materials to tie whatever you want in the company of other like minded fisherman. And if you forget something, they probably can sell ya whatcha need right there.

Fishing related:

If you are getting twitchy, there's always a trip down to Iowa where the fishing season never closes. Otherwise the MN Winter catch-and-release season opens to a select number of rivers on January 1st.

For the love of the trout:

I know the past couple of years have had a bumpy road financially for the nation, but don't take it out on the trout. Personally, my donations this year have been significantly less then in years past however they have been more strategically picked. So I limited myself to only three or four organizations/causes rather then a dozen that were a little lower on my social responsibility radar.

1) December 8th, 2011 from 6-10pm is the Annual Holiday Dinner and Fund Raising Banquet for the Kiap-Tu-Wish chapter of Trout unlimited. Buy tickets in advance and save a few dollars so that you can spend it on the silent auction! This can be an excellent opportunity to pick up a Christmas gift for that special fly fisherman on your list. Hope to see you there!

2) February 11th, 2012 is the Annual fund raising event for the Twin Cities chapter of Trout Unlimited. This has been a a great "Date Night" in years past for my wife and I, loaded with tons of energy, excitement and friends while donating to a good organization. And who knows, maybe you''ll find a unique Valentines gift for the loved one in your life.

Fall day on the Namekagon

Consider supporting a newer organization that has been in the works since this summer called the Namekagon River Partnership. Their mission is to celebrate and conserve the cold water fishery of the upper Namekagon River. This group is made up of citizens, business owners, and government conservation entities, and non-profit organizations. I wrote a check out this morning to them in hopes it will help the Partnership pave their way in protecting this great Wisconsin resource. If you've never fished it, you are missing out on one hell of a great north woods experience.

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Deer camp

2011-11-14T20:05:00.001-06:00

So two weekends ago, I went up to visit deer camp over opener to see old friends and my dad. It was good to see the usual suspects and that they were all doing pretty well. It had been a year or more since seeing some of them, and it was nice to hang out and bond with the traditional card games, story telling, and good natured ribbing. Hunting-wise, the weekend didn't turn out so well, one eight-pointer (shot by Dean) out of six deer hunters in the 20-25mph winds is all we got. I didn't do to well either, instead of deer hunting I bought a small game license and brought the 20 gauge over & under in hopes of getting a grouse or black squirrel for tying flies. I find that grouse hunting is more enjoyable to me because I can relax as I put less pressure on myself when I am not competing for a deer in an acreage that isn't exactly overpopulated. I only flushed one grouse, and it was gone before I could get a bead on it. I also kicked up deer twice in some thick underbrush. And both times I could not hear it running off into the woods even though it was within 20 yards of me. I watched it's white flag bob back in forth out of sight completely stunned that I didn't even hear so much as a twig snap. The odds were not in our favor this time.

Even though the hunting wasn't so great, I did get to see a bald eagle circle over me just above the tree tops. The highlight of the weekend was Carmi's video footage from her deer stand. She captured a couple minutes of a grouse by her stand and almost ten minutes of footage of a bobcat chilling out. It appeared to know that Carmi was there, but really didn't care. It napped, it stalked a bird, and it stared at the camera, before scooting away. Earlier in the day, the land owner had seen two adult bobcats and a kitten from his stand. Very exciting stuff!

As for the increasing stories and evidence of wolf sign in the area, I was not as impressed. One pack of wolves actually treed an acquaintance of ours a few weeks earlier when he was bow hunting for deer across the lake from where we were hunting.

As of last night, I heard that Dean got a button buck, making for two deer total for the camp. Dad is still up there, so hopefully with a little luck he will get one too. I'll cross my fingers for him anyway.

Steelhead closes tomorrow and we did not go fishing for them since my last post. So now we wait till next fall to resume that game. This weekend consisted of prepping the house for winter and freeing up space by bringing a lot of stuff over to our storage unit. We did a pretty good job with our to-do list, but I am saving the Fly Tying room (a.k.a. the man room) for this coming weekend. It might only be one room, but it needs a lot of attention. It is in total disarray with fishing stuff, camping gear, and hunting clothes strung all over. I think I can see what color the carpet is, sorta, maybe. Okay, I can't. But, I do have memories of what it should look like once it is back in good order and prepped for fly tying season.

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End of our steelhead season...probably

2011-11-01T23:07:00.002-05:00

Photo taken by J. Rawls

We continued fishing Sunday and Monday, but there was no catching. We did have a great time in the evenings socializing and tying flies while watching YouTube videos of "Cows with Guns" and a clip of Richard Simmons doing a hilariously crazy appearance on "Whose Line is it anyways." These are the moments to remember with friends!

I had reached out to several of my fishing buddies for reports of happiness, but sadly their fishing stories also lacked any significant catching.

So unless the river gods "wave" a magic wand to change the "tide" of the "current" conditions, our season has "plunged" to an end for this year. (bad pun, but I thought it was amusing)

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another steelhead weekend

2011-10-29T18:36:00.001-05:00

Photo by Waring, Michael

So we are back up for a three day weekend steelheading. Friday night was fun. The Kro had a comedy show, and after that two Tequila models from Eau Claire, WI were there pimping shots of a new tequila (I don't remember the brand but keep reading and you'll see why) on behalf of their distributor. I met a local gal who was a retired post office mail-woman from Superior, WI who introduced me to a few people around us and chatted with them for a while and they bought me a beer. Then the bartender bought me a beer cause we fried the keg. Then the Tequila models were back and we ended up talking about fishing for awhile (as I "sampled" their shots). Then Paul and Mother Feiker walked in close to 11pm just in time for the Tequila girls to ask them to take a picture of the three of us before they moved on with their night. Not sure why they wanted a picture with me, but who am I to argue with a request like that. So I did my part, stood in between them and smiled pretty for the camera as they hugged me. I know, I know, I know what you're thinking and yes, it was a hard job standing up after all those drinks, but I persevered so as to not disappoint the models. Then Mother Feiker bought me a beer. Mind you, I still bought plenty of my own Leinie's Oktoberfest and shots of Parton in between all these gracious gifts of barley. As you may have guessed, we were there till 2am, before they closed and we had to call it a night.

Saturday's fishing was slowwwww. And by slow I mean that it was slowwwwww. But, we did watch a muskrat for awhile on the opposite bank of one our fishing spots. He was cute, but not as much as the otter that visited us a few weeks ago. The otter was very curious as to what we are or what we were doing. He was swimming up stream on the opposite bank and would stop every few yards or so, pop up on his back legs and gave us look as if to say "whatcha doing mister?" It did that all the way up stream until it was out of our site again.

Maybe fishing will be better tomorrow.

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This past weekend, low and clear

2011-10-25T00:05:00.000-05:00

Jen and I went up again this past weekend even though the river was still low and clear and still no rain. What can I say, we are addicts to this game.

We found Peter a couple of doors down from ours at the motel. He fished that day and lost his fly box, so there was some flies being tied as we chatted with him. Which still totally sucks to lose a fly box on the river. But if anyone finds said fly box, please send to me so that I can see what his secret flies are.

Jen and I went over the Kro-bar for supper where we were joined by Mike, Phil, and David who also just pulled into town for the weekend.  Talk about perfect timing! And the all you can eat fish fry wasn't too bad either with a side of Leinie's Oktoberfest of course. If only someone could have tripped over the cord of the horrible karaoke that was taking place on the stage, it would have been so much better.

Jen and I had zero luck on Saturday, not even a strike. We fished till dark with no rewards from the river gods.  Peter had walked by us about mid morning Saturday and reported landing a very nice steelhead just upstream of us. So we knew they were in river, just not on the end of our lines. Before going out to dinner as we all gathered at Olie's motel room for a warm-up beer, Jen and found out that we were the only unlucky ones out of our group of eight. Good for them, but I say Grrrr to our luck.

The blueberry ribs at Deep Lake Lodge in Iron River, WI is still the best ribs I've ever had and they once again did not disappoint, unlike the Badgers football game that we could hear in the background on TV. At lease the Packers beat the Vikings the next day. Poor Bucky Badger.

Sunday, we had a little bit of a late start as we were not in a hurry since there was a 60% chance of rain in the forecast for the day.  But when we opened the door to get going, it was dry and overcast. Jen and I headed to a spot we knew that fit our latest steelhead theory with a Mountain Dew in one hand, and snickers bar in the other (which by the way is a four-star fisherman's breakfast).  We spent most of our time at one spot insistent that we were right and then we were proved right. I was lucky enough to catch two steelhead about an hour apart from each other! WhooHoo!! Shortly after, we gave up the spot to another gentleman and headed back to the truck just in time for the rain to start. Lucked out again! We changed in the parking lot and headed for home happily.

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A Good fall so far

2011-10-24T23:05:00.000-05:00

So the weekend before last Jen and I got our first steelhead fishing weekend under our belt. That weekend was the annual St Paul Fly Tier's steelhead outing and to keep things manageable for our group we broke up into smaller groups. Jen and I fished with Louise over the weekend and had a lot of fun. The best thing about the weekend is that we get to see so many people that we haven't seen in awhile and is a lot like a fun family reunion. Jen caught a steelhead on Saturday and was in the minority of successful fisherman we found out as everyone shared their stories of the day over an awesome feast that Tony prepared for the club.

On Sunday, the weather was the same as the day before, which was sunny and windy, with a windchill in the low 30's. Louise had to leave by a certain time to get back home in her final hour before she had to leave the river she landed a 26" chrome steelhead. She was very excited! Congrat's Louise!!!

On Monday, I had the day off and had planned to go fishing with Mike and dad for smallmouth. Dad and I met up with Mike as he was doing final prep work on the boat at the landing. Everything went pretty well except someone turned the wind machine on HIGH. We struggled through some pretty heavy wind and it made for a challenging situation. But the three of us had a great time joking around and we did have a few bites. Mike landed a few smallie's and I managed to land one, but dad lost a very nice one. NO, I didn't cut the line on him. We did get a glimpse of it, and it would have made for a good picture. Instead, I have put in a nice photo of dad and I with a bass and the lure we caught it on. The funny thing was he was convinced the white lures were not on the menu for the bass that day and that chartreuse was the ticket...oops!

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Link to Vacation Pictures

2011-08-28T20:29:00.000-05:00

Hello all! I know, I know, it's been a while since my last post but here we go. Jen and I just returned from a week of camping in West Glacier in Glacier National Park in Northwest Montana. We had a great time taking photos, going on random adventures and hikes. As our reward, we caught Yellowstone Cutthroats, Brookie's, and even a Bull trout! Saw both black and grizzley bears, columbus ground squirrels, almost got run over by a ram, and enjoyed lots of things made with Huckleberries or bison.

We took a lot of photos...a LOT of photos! The place is breath-takingly beautiful, especially if you get off the asphalt and put on the hiking shoes (or waders in some cases).

So without further delay, here is the link to our photos of the trip, I hope you enjoy them.

Chris & Jen's Glacier vacation.

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This post is not really fishing related, but there is fish art pictures

2010-12-27T20:31:00.001-06:00

So not really a fishing post, but it's been a while and I didn't want you all to forget about me. So for Christmas, I asked Santa Clause to talk my brother into bringing his ~~suitcase of pain~~ tattoo equipment home. So Santa did, and "B" brought home his ~~Needles of terror~~ tools of the trade, and I now have more ink. Check it out!

Yin Yang Trout with a Japanese kanji symbol meaning "little treasure" on my arm. This was inspired by a painting I had seen at a restaurant we stopped at for lunch out west on one of my Montana fishing trips.

The other one I had done on my leg was from a Chinese scroll painting that I saw years ago and fell in love with it's eye catching simplicity. This particular image of the black and red koi according to Chinese symbolism means Success. Additionally, In Buddhist thought, fish represent freedom. The enlightened state of Buddhism allows for unrestrained movement in the world, you will not be held back by life's illusions. Not to mention, it's just cool looking.

Thanks again for doing this for me B!!!

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December 18th, 2011

2010-12-18T21:21:00.000-06:00

Brrrr.

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Steelhead (Part 4)

2010-10-25T18:42:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning, the Jen and I left home about 4:30am to chase steelhead up north. It was pretty overcast, and windy, but the rain didn't start until 2pm. We were on the water fishing by 8am, and generally enjoying the day. Jen snagged one in the rear pectoral fin and it gave her a pretty good fight. When it got close enough to net, about the same time that I spotted how it was hooked, the steelhead turned down river into the rapids and broke off. It was gone, with a very upset Jen on the other end! On the ride up we had mentioned that we need to start landing more of these guys. Guess we were foiled again. We messed around on a few other spots throughout the day, and then drove down river to a different stretch of water. About a half hour in, I hooked into a steelhead and it fought pretty good until it jumped out of the water and spit the egg fly out at me. Seriously! We really need to start landing these things! The only things landed were three smolt I caught, and well....that's not exactly what we were looking for.

The three of us ended the day at the Twin Gables for supper, with a quick stop into the Kro. But the long day got the best of us and we were sawing logs by 9:30pm, maybe it was 9pm. Either way, it was way early by our usual standards.

Sunday:

We arrived to our first choice anglers parking lot, but it was full, so we headed down river a couple spots and found a pretty empty parking lot that I expected to be full. So we wadered up and headed down to the river in the drizzle. It pretty much rained constantly all day, classic steelhead weather. We found Peter at the first place we went to. He insisted Jen and I take a few casts so we of course did. Peter laid out a bet that we would buy a shot for whoever caught the first steelhead. Within ten minutes, the Jenorator hooked and lost a steelhead and then landed a very nice and chunky 22" brown trout. Guess she won the bet!

About mid-day and a few spots later, the three of us were fishing a spot when two guys we saw earlier walked by. Which meant that their fishing spot was open, so Peter hopped up to try his luck and he did pretty good. He hooked into two steelhead with in minutes of each other, but wasn't able to land either. Jen was no longer the only person on the board now. :) There was hope for the guys! Which was nice, cause the spot we had just spent 45 minutes fishing and chatting with guy had ended the convesation with "I've never seen anyone land a steelhead here, and I've been coming up here since the fifties." It would have been nice of him to mention that earlier, but I guess he liked company. Anyway, maybe those two fish wouldn't have been there for Peter had we just skipped the steelhead-less hole and not chatted with the nice ol chap.

We moved on to another angler's lot, Jen and I went to one spot, and Peter went to check out another favorite hole he wanted to fish. I hooked one about a half hour in, but it wasn't able to get a good hook set and I lost it about ten seconds into the fight. Didn't they get the memo? We are supposed to be landing these things! In the last two hours of light, I tried to coax another strike by calling the steelhead "chickenshits" and making various clucking sounds at the river in front of me. Trying my best to taunt them, the Jenorator just shook her head at me and kept casting her fly. I guess it didn't work, because I didn't get anymore action before dark. They were too afraid to battle me I guess.

We hung up the wet waders, soggy clothes and changed into dry cloths, and the three of us met up with Mike, Rob, and Kurt in Iron River. Mike took us over to Deep Lake Lodge for dinner, and we knew it would be a good place when they had the bartender yelling at the tv. Yup, the Packer/Viking game was on, the bartender was openly biased. Jen was happy. The menu was awesome too, if you are in the area, you must stop by and try them out. The Blueberry ribs were very good, and everyone else's choice looked great as well. Mike had the hot hand, he landed five of six steelhead! Way to go Mike! Show off. ;)

Egg flies still seemed to be what they were hitting on. The water was clouding up pretty good and slowly rising. I took a temperature reading of 44 degrees on Sunday. The rain was much needed as the guy in town said it had been 22 days since the last rain.

Next week, we are going up again, and hopefully landing some steelhead for a change! I'll keep you posted.

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Fly tiers Steelhead Outing (Oct 16 &18)

2010-10-18T21:40:00.000-05:00

We came, we fished, we've had better successes. The higher numbers of fish that I had hoped for failed to produce for the club outing. But that didn't stop the gang from having lots of fun on a great fall weekend!

Jen and I went against our normal pattern and after a late night at the Kro, and short night at the hotel, we found ourselves fishing a little after 7am. Which proved to be a good for both of us, as most of our hookup's for the weekend happened before 10:30am. Jen lost a nice one after a long battle, I made the choice to touch the leader and snap it to save the steelhead. It had taken her into a tough spot between two trees into deeper water. It was that or kill the steelie. We were majorly disappointed, but soon after we had another strike, then we gave up the spot to a Andy and his friend. We had our fun, so why not share it.

It wasn't till the five o'clock hour that I had tied into another steelie, but it made short work of me and the line went slack. Damn it! Oh well. What were the taking this weekend you ask. Pretty much the everything seem to be on yarn flies this time. Earlier in the afternoon I pulled a bone headed move and walked off the plank bridge at one parking lot as I wasn't paying attention at all to where I was walking. Now I have a nasty rug burn on my elbow from it as well as both my knees now sore and bruised. Beautifull, that will match perfectly with the popped blister on my toe and broken eye glasses.

The evening was crazy with everyone back at the cabin, and with the addition of several visitors, there was a lot of excitement and conversations. Chef Tony had been working on Supper since noon according to Rick and Rayanne, and it was pretty much the full Thanksgiving spread. When I went to drop Jen off at the motel before going over to the Kro, I bumped into Peter. We shot the breeze for a bit, and shared the news of our groups general lack of success. I also gave him some of my "secret" colored yarn for him to tie up some egg flies with, and wished him luck for the next days fishing.

I haven't heard yet how the fishing went for the gang on Sunday, but look forward to hopefully hearing some good news at this weeks club meeting.

Next up, a three day weekend on the river is coming up and hopefully some more stories to share. Oh, and did I mention that a couple weeks ago that I caught a muskie on a fly rod? Well, I did!!

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Steelhead on! (Oct. 10th & 11th)

2010-10-18T21:04:00.000-05:00

Beep beep beep, whack the snooze button! Beep beep beep, whack the snooze button! Two hours later of that, and we got up and raced out the door at 6:30am last Sunday. We were out the night before celebrating at a friends wedding reception and may have been enjoying ourselves a little bit more then the anticipated 3 hours of sleep could have cured.

Jen and I headed up North to chase steelhead for two days. Jen was really antsy to get up there and to cure her steelhead fever, which I found really amusing. She had the fever bad!

We got our trout pants on and were in the water by 10:30am. It was warmer then it usually is as was noted by something I normally don’t run into while fishing for steelhead. MOSQUITO'S! Anyway, we headed to a spot we knew to try our luck and within two hours, the Jen-orator had hooked a steelhead. I was one hole down from her chatting with Mother Fieker when we heard yelling through the woods from her direction. We ran up the trail to see what was going on and Jen was in mid fight with her opponent! She worked it perfectly to the net and it was a NICE 26” Buck with all the dark red colors on the cheek and sides. It was awesome! We popped the flask for shot in celebration, and I had a cigar on her behalf, and it was only 12:30p!

We simmered down and got back to business fishing. Jen had a heck of day, as she had many more takes and battles, (eight in all) but wasn’t able to get them under control and landed. I admit that by early evening I was getting green and agitated as I hadn’t had so much as a head-shake while she was getting all that action. But about 5pm, I had a steelhead strike, I set the hook and it was landed after some serious racing in both directions up and down the river and several acrobatics in the air. I was just along for the ride and had little control over where it wanted to be. It was a 22" bright silver steelie. I was feeling much better after that. We fished a bit longer then went back to the truck just before dark. As for what they were biting on, they were hitting nymphs and eggs pretty much equally. We changed into some dry clothes at the Brule Motel, and then headed over to the "Other Place" bar and grill for supper and cocktails with Mother Fieker.

Sunday was a little different flavor. Jen caught lots of snags, trees, and frustration. She hadn't had single hit to add to her frustration. I missed a couple, and then when fishing one of the tougher spots I know with a lot of snags, I hooked into a Steelhead. And she like going downstream....Alot! Every time I reeled in the line to get it close, she would shoot down river again. I ended up wading after it a good ways until I could get it beached. Another fresh chrome, this one being about 24 inches and heavy.

I really like fighting these guys! We fished a bit more then called it half way through. We had a good weekend and knew we'd be back again in four days with the club thinking the peak of the run is yet to come! If only thier run lasted the whole year!

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Fall fishing, closing one season and starting another!

2010-10-06T23:08:00.000-05:00

Brookies, Browns, Muskies, and Steelhead, Oh My!

Wednesday:

I left early morning and headed southeast to Vernon county to close out the inland trout season. There was much uncertainty the night before at the Fly Angler trying to decide where to go since so many rivers have been impacted with all the rain, but I rolled my dice to see what I would find. I rolled into Viroqua, WI and headed straight to the Driftless Angler fly shop for some local intel. The guy at the shop was way helpful with where to go, where to avoid, and what the hot flies were. Turns out the rivers North of town were cloudy to blown-out and the rivers south of town were clearing up really well.

A total of twenty minutes spent at the shop and I was out the door to my first destination where I rigged up my 4wt bamboo rod for the occasion. That day, with no exageration, I caught close to fifty brookies and browns. Mostly all the fish were caught on nymphs. The 15-20 wind pretty much blew out the Blue Wing Olives that were around and killed any hopes for a little dry fly action. There was one rocket of a trout that shot out for the ant pattern I threw. He managed to take my line over a big branch sticking out of the water, so when I crossed the stream to "save the trout" I blew a perfectly nice pool only to find that the trout attached my hook to the branch and had left before I got there. The tricky little bastard conned me. So not only was he not there to save, but now I had to wait a while for the fish to return to the pool.

At the end of the day, I set up camp and then went to town for a great German beer at Chilito Lindo, the local Mexican restaurant, run by a frazzled Asian girl. I know, odd three-way combination, but it all seemed to work out okay. Especially since my order was messed up the least by the cooks. They must have been new. I returned to camp shortly after and fell asleep to the sound of the Amish horse and buggy traffic driving through town near the campground.

Thursday:

I woke up in the tent to mid 30's accompanied by pretty damp surroundings. Nice! I packed up the site then made breakfast of oatmeal and peanut butter sandwich in make-shift cheap plastic water bottle. That didn't go too well, I don't recommend making oatmeal in cheap bottles. It kinda shriveled up and didn't mix as well as I thought it would. Lesson learned I guess. Oh and the cheap spoons I commandeered the night before from the gas station doesn't work too hot either when they were heated up by the boiling water.

Anyway, I found and paid the nice lady for using the campground and for my new membership to the West Fork Sportsman's Club. After shooting the breeze with her for a bit I headed fifteen minutes West to fish, where I caught a really beautiful fall brookie that made my trip that measured twelve inches in a very hard place to fish with crystal clear water on a pink squirrel.

I moved on to another river 45 minutes East towards home and had a blast catching a bunch of browns, picking one to two fish out of a pocket of water, then moving up river to the next pocket for one to two more. I did this pattern of "run-n-gun" a good ways up the river till evening. When I was at the bridge earlier deciding whether to fish up stream or down stream, I noticed two signs down stream. The one closest to me stating that it was open to the public for fishing, and the one back further stating "Beware of Bull." Some land owner had a sick sense of humor. Since I wasn't armed with a meat grinder or hamburger bun for a Bull-encounter, I thought it best to fish the other side of the bridge upstream. I jetted home at the end of the day completely happy. I stopped in for dinner at the St. Paul Fly Tier's meeting at Schroeder's Bar & Grill and reported the great fishing I had enjoyed to some buddies.

Friday:

After a less then satisfying day at work, I headed up to Peters cabin in Northern Wisconsin

met up within ten minutes of his arrival, we settled in, set up our fly tying vises and cocktails and tied Steelhead flies until late while catching up and swapping stories.

Saturday:

Peter made a great fisherman's breakfast with the added bonus of some good tea that I brewed up. We were out the door an hour later to our meeting point with Wendy from the Hayward Fly Fishing Company for a day on the Flambeau River chasing muskies.

Peter spent a little time with his special technique of casting flies in the trees, but that didn't slow him down from catching three muskies. Must be some secret there I don't yet understand. I caught my first muskie ever. It was about 32" on a 9wt rod with a big 6" black and orange puglisi fly. I got to keep the fly in honor of the occasion too! It was a fun fight and I could hardly believe that it was finally going to happen. The next thing I knew we had it in the net in the boat and my camera was Peters hands. Way cool! The weather conditions were pretty unstable, there were spurts of rain and heavier wind gusts with the sun shining at the same time for most of the day. Wendy is always fun to spend a day with, and did I mention that I caught my first muskie?!

We returned back to the cabin to pack up the muskie stuff that we used to catch my first muskie, then I converted some stuff over to for Sundays fishing trip to the Brule River for Steelhead. Once that was done, we celebrated at the local supper club with some cocktails, local micro brews (appropriately named "Mouthy Muskie Light", and the "Crappie Flopper"), animated discussion of various subjects, including each of us writing down on napkins the species of fish we had caught this season. It was a fun mojo thing. Peter kinda kicked my ass in that department as my count was 13 different species this year and his count was 23 or 24 species. For the record though, he did have a minnow marked down on his list.

We moved on back to the cabin and with a little inspiration from our celebrating, some "interesting" flies were tied and then we talked ourselves into retiring for the evening so that we would be ready for more fishing the next day. And maybe spend some time dreaming of the Muskie that I caught.

Sunday:

With the fading smell of the muskie slime on my hands from my first muskie, we packed our stuff up and closed the cabin down as we were not returning. We arrived in Brule, WI where we stopped first to look at a potential fishing cabin in town that was listed at an attractive enough price for me to actually think about it seriously. It could pass for a nice fishing cabin, but it is in the middle of town, which could be both good and not so good. After a quick inspection we headed to the river to try our luck fishing.

The morning started out slow, but it was beautiful. We had seen a ton of turkeys everywhere we drove over the past two days and the fall colors were putting on a show for us. It was perfect fall weather in Wisconsin. We decided to drive to a different location which proved to be the right thing to do. Peter landed a 22" chrome Steelhead mid morning on a caddis nymph and I had missed my first take of the season, which made me confident that I was doing something right and that they were in there.

The very few people we ran into said they hadn't had any luck, which wasn't encouraging, but

in the last hour of light of the day on the third stretch of the Brule further down river, I "got on the dance floor" as Peter put it. I briefly caught and fought a Steelhead long enough for it to launch clear out of the river and spit my fly back at me. I am pretty sure he stuck up his middle fin at me too while laughing at me. And that was pretty much the end of the action for the day. We changed out of our waders at the local gas station and headed for home very happy with ourselves.

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This last week of inland trout

2010-09-28T22:37:00.000-05:00

With the streams being muddy last weekend, I had opted to socialize a bit. Saturday morning I attended the annual Bamboo rod makers gathering in Martel, Wisconsin. About 20 people or more came together for the event and the weather was great. Met some new people and saw some old friends. Steve Yasgur was on the grill serving up tasty burgers for everyone to add to the fun.

After spending most of the morning and early afternoon there, I moved on for a beer at my pub (The MainStreeter) in River Falls, WI before attending the Northern Driftless Area River Gala presented by Kinni Creek Lodge & Outfitters. The hosts Paige Olson, Bob White, Andy Roth, and Kip Vieth did an excellent job putting this together. A special gift for all to enjoy at the event around the cozy campfire were many flavors and endless supply of beer provided by the Rush River Brewery. That was fun sampling the various flavors they had to offer. While this was only scheduled to go to 10pm, many hung around later then that sharing stories and laughs.

I have the next two days off for the last two days of inland trout season. I plan to hit the road early and hope that the reports of clearing rivers in Wisconsin hold true, since SE MN is pretty much out of the question with the recent flood activity. Some snacks, the tent, sleeping bag, fleece, waders, and a few maps are all packed up. More importantly, I just hope to find some hungry trout and enjoy this great fall weather.

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Stinky Pinkys!

2010-09-21T20:20:00.001-05:00

The original plan for this past weekend was to go to SE MN and go trout fishing with the club. But, I was easily talked into going fishing on the North Shore by Jay and Ben as the pink salmon run was on!

Long story short, we joined up with the Canadian, and Jay's crew (Adam, Jesse, and occasionally Tony) North of Duluth after having a great continental breakfast at the Lander B&B.

Jen and I caught our first Pink Salmon, adding another species to our fish list. We caught so many fish our arms were truly tired by the end of the weekend. We are guessing that between just Jen and I, that we caught around one hundred pinks. And I am pretty sure we were the slackers of the bunch. Several times we had five of the six of us with fish on at once. Total Craziness!

We had dinner Saturday night at the Gun Flint Tavern in Grand Marias with Tony, and then we camped ON the beach of Lake superior, set up tents in the dark, had some beer around the campfire and then woke up to a spectacular vista. And then, more fishing. In total, we fished five rivers over two days.

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Tough Trouting

2010-09-12T21:01:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday Ed called me up to go fly fishing on the Kinni and of course I said "you betcha." We had about 4 hours of fishing in before the rain pushed us off. I caught a handfull of browns using small streamers, and Ed caught a trout on a fly he tied, which was a first for him. Way to go buddy, keep at it! It was my first time down to the Kinni since the high waters and you can see some obvious changes to the river, not all bad either, except that we didn't catch anything over 10" long.

As we were getting out of our waders at the truck, it started raining really good, which was about the same time that Ed realized he had misplaced his cell phone. We looked quickly before giving up betting that it was somewhere inside the truck. We then headed back into town to the Mainstreeter for lupper as the rain poored down. By the time we were done eating, the rain was done. With one more look through everything inside the truck to find Ed's phone, I spotted it...on the roof of my Toyota. The miracle wasn't that it was there after driving into town from the fisherman's parking lot, it was that after all that rain, it still worked!

Yesterday, the Canadian and I went back to the Kinni for the evening and fished till dark. Between the two of us, Ben caught the first, biggest, and most fish, by landing the one and only trout for the evening. Even the worm dunker that was fishing below us was not catching anything. Odd, he must have bought the cheap live bait. We ran into a few people with nothing much significant caught, with the exception of one guy. He said he caught sixteen fish. Show off or liar, I can't decide which. He, for what it's worth, said that he was using grey scud patterns. hmm, the one fly in the kitchen sink I didn't throw in the water. Go figure. At our debriefing over supper at the Mainstreeter in River Falls, we decided to try fishing again Sunday on a stretch of river Ben knew of in southern Minnesota.

Ben served up some great Sweadish pancakes and jam for breakfast. FABULOUS! Then he and Jen and I left Amy behind, and headed out the door to see what the fishing would bring us. With the one minor issue of back tracking bit to a local DNR license agent after realizing that when Jen bought her MN fishing license at the Fly Angler this morning before drinking her coffee that she forgot to add the trout stamp. REALLY GIRL? REALLY? GEEZ!! So I got over my minor aneurysm, and she bought her trout stamp and we continued on to trout country. Which, by the way, we did see a Conservation Officer driving around several times. He never stopped to chat with us. Dang, he could have seen Jen's brand new shiny unused trout stamp! Just kidding Jen. Kinda.

We fished for half a day and then decided to pull the plug. It was pretty damn hot, especially wandering in the woods in waders with our sleeves rolled down to the wrist due to the amount of stinging nettles around. It was a bright blue bird day and not a single cloud in the sky for cover. To add to the day, the trout didn't get the memo we were coming to play as they were not really active or feeding. I caught three brookies, Ben caught one brown, and poor Jen caught none (must have been the bad trout-karma for her earlier "trout stamp incident"). One of the brookies I caught was on one of my latest wet fly concept patterns that stayed up until 5am tying this past Friday night. (Note to Yaz: it was the black/silver variation of the flies I gave you on Saturday).

Even with the fishing not being on fire for us the past week, I have hopes that this coming weekend will get better. The forecast is optimistic, with temperatures easing back a bit, and as the end of inland trout season comes nearer, the trout gods need give up something for us to reflect on during the upcoming winter.

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August Montana Vacation

2010-08-31T21:50:00.000-05:00

Jen and I got back late Saturday night from a week on the Bighorn River in Montana. We had a great time with a nice group of fellow fly fisherman, about 16 or so. The trip was booked through Scott Struif at The Fly Angler.

On the way out to the Bighorn, we stopped in Miles City, MT Friday night and I gave Jen the nickle tour of the town starting with a bite to eat at the Chop House, and then the favorite saloons in the area. Jen got the whole "cowboy bar" experience with tin ceilings, huge wood bars and lots of cowboy hats. But the streak was broken, it was the first time we hadn't been invited out to someone's ranch to shoot prairie dogs, not that I ever accepted but it always seemed to happen out there. I am glad we went out because the local road construction crew had decided to use the Motel 6 that we stayed at as their party grounds. They were whooping it up pretty good all night long.

We arrived at Cottonwood camp on Saturday and settled in for the week. I talked to Thor and gathered a little intel on what the current fishing conditions had been, what was working and what we thought would work the next day. The predominant hatches were hoppers, black caddis and tan mottled caddis as we had expected before coming out there.

The week was a hot one, we had two days out there that broke the 100 degree mark, but the evenings cooled down enough so that everyone could spend time outside the "Condo" sharing stories and hanging out. A number of former Berger Brothers employees and Alaskan guides were in our group, so we learned a bit about the interesting times they had and people they had met back in the day. I bumped into Jim and Sharon who were out for a few days of fishing and was able to do a little catching up with them since I had last seen them. And if you are reading this ANDERSON, Jim says he is into oil now and is becoming an "Oil Magnate." Jen, Peter and I did spend one evening at the River Run Dining Room attached to the Bighorn Trout Shop, a fine dining establishment that served us a wonderful meal, and met a very nice guest that had also been fishing the river for the week. It was his 27th year doing so!

The hopper action turned up on the second half of the week, while the dry fly fishing was slow. Big Morrish hoppers and the green or tan Rainys Hopper patterns proved to be very effective. Indicator nymph fishing turned out to be the most productive for the week with the Tan or Grey Ray Charles #18 being the most consistent producer, along with the hothead tan sowbug. This was the first time I had been in MT where the size of the fish caught didn't live up to their billing. We averaged 14-16" fish, while on past trips I've caught plenty in the 20s".

One day during the week we were invited to join a small group led by one of the former Alaskan guides, Kelly, to drive out to the Tongue river to fish for cutthroats and that made for a nice break in the week as well as adding another species of fish caught to my fish list; bringing me to a total of 42 different species I've caught. Though the drive was longer than expected (with more road construction), it offered the opportunity for us to add WY to the list of states we've fished in this year.

The place we went to was very scenic and had plenty of fish to be caught. It was a crazy sensory overload for me! There were elk, moose, cows, high valley's cold stream water, and lots of different hatches all going on at once. It was your classic advertisement out of some glossy outdoors magazine that makes you day dream. I caught mostly cuts and rainbows, Jen also caught a cutbow on top of that. Peter pulled out the Tongue Grand Slam, catching cuts, rainbows, cutbow, and a brookie! I hope to go back to that river again someday.

Jen and I finished up the week on the Bighorn with numbers of fish caught significantly better then the first half. On the down side, Kelly's truck broke down, and had "forced" some of the boys to extend there vacation until parts came in on Monday for it to be fixed. I bet they are coping with the situation pretty well.

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Jen does it again!

2010-08-11T21:43:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Jen and I headed up to Peter's cabin to meet up with boys. The boys being the same ones I went fly fishing in Mexico with a couple years back (Peter, Mike, and David). With some planning and working around everyone's schedule we were able to get everyone together for a mid summer bass weekend.

Everyone arrived Friday evening and we were all energized and had some catching up to do. It was great to see everyone together. Some beverages and stories were exchanged and few hours later we had a "game plan" formulated for the next day and then we headed off to bed.

Saturday we loaded up the canoe and removed the motor from the john boat after breakfast, then headed over to our launch on the Chippewa river. Jen, Mike and David started down river in the John boat, while Peter and I got our lines wet just up river for a few minutes before drifting down. We floated for a couple of hours, had a break for lunch and then resumed fishing. The flavor of the day seemed to be poppers of whatever color, except for Jen. She caught, landed and released her first smallie on a rabbit strip lead eyed streamer. The smile in her picture says it all! This was her first time fishing for them and her first time floating down a river. So it was a pretty fun day for her.

At the end of the float we had a few sprinkles and just as we got every thing packed up, the rain started up for the rest of the evening. Great timing on our part!

We headed on back to the cabin. When the rain subsided, we grabbed the fly rods and fished the lake for a couple of hours. After sunset, we had a great spaghetti dinner and shared some fun stories.

Sunday, the boys headed out after some great blueberry pancakes to the lake to fish for some pike and bass, while Jen and I stayed in. I ended up injuring my back the day before while rushing to get the canoe on top of the Yukon and was dealing with the consequences. They had some luck, and after a good power nap was ready for the drive home.

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Duluth couples weekend

2010-07-18T23:22:00.000-05:00

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, and I apologize for that. Since my last post I've been out to Montana and fished the DuPuy's Spring Creek as well as the Big Horn River for a two week vacation. Jen and I have been out fly fishing a couple of times chasing bass and pan fish. We both acquired a bicycle and fly rod each. Mine is still be built as of this post. We've also had a lot of weekends with family for both good and not so good circumstances.

On our latest adventure, we booked a weekend with Chad and Sarah in Duluth, MN and had a lot of fun. Friday we packed up our stuff in our new 2005 Toyota Highlander that we bought on Monday after too many repair bills on the Tahoe with no end in sight, and headed up to Duluth. A quick two hours later, we jumped out of our SUV, and into Chad's with his boat ready to go. We stopped for gas and then launched for nice evening cruise on VERY calm waters. The view from the lake was spectacular. You couldn't have planned better weather then what we had for the ride.

Saturday morning the four of us headed over to the Brule River Canoe Rental for a bit of kayaking on the Brule river. And boy were they busy, as a couple of large groups had showed up on thier doorsteps pretty much wiping out all their canoes and kayaks. Luckily Chad had reserved our kayaks the day before. It had been a few years since I've last kayaked, but got back into the swing of things pretty quickly. The scenery was nice, and again the weather was very cooperative. We were greeted, or rather scowled at by a couple of eagles in the trees above. And then we had some close-up contact with a couple of does. I think the black flies must have driven them out as they really didn't care that we were only a couple of paddle lengths away from them.

Further down stream we floated by an odd scene of five women doing yoga on their riverside dock. And along the way was a C.O. that scared the crap out of me sitting on a rock stream side. I think he was counting canoes and kayaks. At least that would explain why he had a table in his hand that he was looking at as we passed by. The girls ended up ahead of us and that worked out okay for us to just chat and catch up with each other. The trip was supposed to be 4 hours, but we finished in 3.5 hours, even with the flow of the river being low.

To reward ourselves we headed back to Fitgers Brewery and dived into some great wild rice burgers smothered in mushrooms & cheese, sweet potato fries, and frosty mugs of Big Boat Oatmeal Stout beer (of which I ended up buying a growler of to take home with me). I love that beer! We wrapped up the day with a few other activities and then checked the weather for the next day before going to bed.

Sunday we slept in a bit. Jen and I hadn't slept well in like five days, but the spare bed in Chad and Sarah's house fixed that both nights. We slept very well and it was hard to tell ourselves to get up and not sleep the day away. Eventually, we did get up and get going. Today's agenda was to add a couple of miles to the bicycles on the Munger Trail. Which, coincidentally, ended right at the house. The rain had stopped, the sun came out along with a light breeze. Another perfect day for our plans. I recommend taking a ride/hike/run/walk or what ever on the Munger trail. It was very nicely groomed, and if like looking at scenic views or going through what feels like old woods without too much effort, this is a must do. The very curvy drive up to our drop off spot was ~~fun~~ scenic too.

Over all it was a very relaxing time, which Jen and I really needed.

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Blue Wing Olive UV-Parachute thread body

2010-04-20T21:58:00.000-05:00

So to add to my arsenal of flies, I tied up some BWO UV-Parachutes tonight that have a thread body. I don't normally tie flies with a thread body unless I am tying midges. But, a few weeks ago, we had a guest speaker who is a commercial fly tier and fly shop owner (Joseph Meyer) do a 'Parachute' clinic for us at one of the club meetings. The pattern he used had a thread body, so you could say I am a little inspired to add some thread body flies to my boxes.

Hook: TMC 100 (or other dry fly hook) size 16
Thread: Uni-Thread 0/6 Olive Dun
Body: Tapered thread body using the Uni-Thread 0/6 Olive Dun
Tail: three or four light dun cock barbs
Parachute: 4 strands of Wapsi Tan UV Krystal Flash and white polypropylene floating yarn, with three or four wraps of a medium dun dry fly feather.

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Official News Report..........

2010-04-14T22:14:00.002-05:00

My wife's life is about to change. Tonight, after a bad day of work, she bought a new fly rod (Sage Flight 5wt) and a reel (Ross CLA 2) and Scientific Anglers Mastery GPX fly line (WF-Floating) from The Fly Angler. Guess the house will never look the same as she will be out on the river with me...for the most part. She already has found a substitute for me as she has set up a tentative fishing date with a friend while I am out on vacation fishing in Montana. I know Right! Good by old life, goodbye semi-clean house, helllllllloooooo FISHies!!! I'm so proud. Unless of course she makes a habit out of catching trophies. Then we may have to have a little chat for my ego's sake. ;)

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A UV parachute midge

2010-04-12T21:28:00.000-05:00

Last year on the Big Horn River, there was a hatch we hadn't come across before that the trout were keyed in on. After looking at a few, I had to come up with something that night that would come close. Below is what we came up with at trout camp.

Hook: TMC 100 size 18 - 20
Thread: black
Body/tail: black Ultra micro-chenille
Parachute: 4 strands of Wapsi Tan UV Krystal Flash and black black polypropylene floating yarn, with three or four wraps of a light dun dry fly feather.
FYI: The over all length of this fly from tail to eye is about a half an inch.

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Ray Charles

2010-04-11T19:44:00.000-05:00

In preparation for my trip to the Big Horn River that is coming soon, I tied up three different colors (orange, natural, and tan) of Ray Charles in two different sizes (#14 and #16) on a TMC 3761 hook today.

The first two pictures were taken with my 18-55mm Nikkor lens. The second two pictures were taken with a lens that is on loan to me, which is an older fully manual Micro-Nikkor 105mm lens. I love how detailed the ribbing is, especially since the x-small ribbing is so very thin to the naked eye. Enjoy!

Hook: 3761
Tail: tan hen fibers
Body: Ostrich herl
Ribbing: red (x-small) wire for some, and for the others copper (small) wire
Shell back: mylar tinsel, Pearl
Thread: dark red

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Jen catches her first trout of the season.

2010-04-06T18:33:00.000-05:00

About a month back, Jen and I made plans to go fishing with a friend of ours, Mister Hinz. It's been years since we'd gone out fishing together, but we were determined to fix that. And we did. Last weekend, everything went as planned and Friday after work, we were on the road to another adventure.

We got into town and checked in at the motel, where I got a quick run down on the fishing reports of the day (which were promising), and got the room number of where Mister Hinz was staying for the weekend. The three of us hooked up in the parking lot, and Mister Hinz had told us that he had already hit a spot and caught a couple of trout before we got there.

Excited to hear more, we headed off to the local burger joint for supper and to hear more about the local waters of the area. Typical of rural trout country, the establishment was adorned with local taxidermy of fish, furry things, and fowl. This was just what the doctor ordered!

Saturday morning after breakfast we headed to our first stop, changed into waders for the day, and grabbed our 4wt rods. I had brought with me my new bamboo rod that I bought the weekend before at a very good price that I couldn't pass up. A 2 piece, 7' 4wt, with two tips made by Steve Pennington. We set Jen up in a nice area that had some fish occasionally breaking the surface here and there, but nothing too consistent. She fished for awhile and then we had her switch to a rod that was set up a little differently. It didn't take long and she was getting some action. After a few "practice" sets thanks to the playful trout, Jen caught her first brown trout of the season. It was a blast to watch, as she was really excited while she was trying to land him. Her smile was huge, and now she could relax a little about the rest of the season. Mister Hinz popped a beer and I lit a cigar in celebration of her victory. We have confidence that eventually Jen will develop her own sinful victory dance, but until then we've got her covered.

She caught a couple more, and then finally I couldn't refrain from trying my hand at a trout I had been watching downstream of her this whole time. I tried my best sight fishing for the one nice sized trout, but after many last second refusals and several different flies, we moved on to another spot.

Contrary to all the grim weather reports of rain and wind, it was a blue bird day with very comfortable temps. In fact the whole weekend had great weather, we really lucked out. We jumped from spot to spot, occasionally getting in the truck and moving to other sections to try out. As our streak would have it, there were once again lots of various mayflies popping throughout the day, and the trout would have very little to do with taking them off the surface. They were keyed in on emergers, and thus most of the fish caught were on nymphs and midges in the size range of 18 to 22. I was really excited to catch several browns on one of my newer variations of the old zebra midge. This one had a little flare and an additional twist to it. I'll keep that pattern a secret for just a while longer.

When the day was done, we had all caught several trout, and they all were scrappy fighters. We had a lot of fun. We also tried something new that I heard about and never done before, which was we did a rotation so that only one person was fishing at a time. And we stuck to that most of the time. It made it fun by keeping us close together and we all felt that we were a part of each take, miss, and landed fish.

We ended the day back at the same burger place were visited the night before to crush the well deserved appetite. Then went back to the hotel where Mister Hinz and I had a few refreshments and looked at a lot of fish porn that was on his digital camera from his past several trips of the year.

It was a great April Easter weekend and I am pumped to get back out on the river for more fun.

The last four days was kind of like Christmas for me.

2010-03-28T20:54:00.001-05:00

The last four days of the Great Waters Expo was kind of like Christmas for me.
To keep things from getting long winded on this post, I will just note my highlights from the week, so as to not bore ya too much. So hang on and here we go!

A year ago, at the expo I was not really enjoying it as much as I could have. With the weight of having been informed that my department was being off-shored and I was to be out of a job soon, having my DVD player stolen at the expo, and wrapping up all the mess that was involved in replacing the engine in my truck, I was having a serious bad streak that was beating me down.

With that in mind, we flash forward a year for the 2010 expo, I am in a different place. A happier and more appreciative place.

Thursday:

Thursday night at the club, we had a great presentation by Jeff "Bear" Andrews from Michigan on fly fishing for Labrador Brookies. The photos and the stories had me dreaming of going on such an adventure. In support of Bear (and my want for a fresh lesson) I purchased one of his fly tying DVD's on tying trout flies.
Thanks to Andy Fiskness's hard work, we also got our hats and clothing back that night with the new club logo embroidered on them so that we would have them for the expo.

Friday:

Greg Meyer gave me a nice display piece of driftwood that I can use to display my flies on when I do tying demonstrations. It's very cool!
Mark Tibbetts brought his 105mm lens for me to use to see if I like the results in regards to my macro fly photography. I can't wait to set up Critters Fly Studio and start snapping a few pictures to see what happens!
The Fly Tiers gang had supper at a nice Italian restaurant, called Biaggi's, that was way too good and way too filling and way nice atmosphere. I HIGHLY recommend it as a must try for anyone needing a night out.

Saturday:

I scored three dry fly capes for the price of two. I only intend on keeping one for myself, and donating the other two as raffle items for our club presentations.
Then, from the chicken pimp, I scored four nice sections of cock feathers, each different colors, for use as hackle that will be suitable for 18 - 24 flies, along with two hen necks.
My buddy Jeff Kennedy and artist, came up to me on Saturday morning as I was set up doing some fly tying demonstrations and asked for one of my flies, so I gave him one of my Spruce streamer flies and he headed back to his booth to paint it. He painted up a very nice water color portrait of it then returned the fly to me along with the water color painting. I was very shocked and VERY grateful for the gift. I have purchased some prints of his work in the past along with his recent book, Drawing Flies 365, and to have an original painted by Jeff of a fly tied by me...well that's something I just can't describe in words. Wow.
I found a nicely made 4wt Pennington bamboo fly rod that felt very good and is going to work very nicely on about half a dozen streams I know. Not to mention that both Steve Pennington and his wife were extremely nice and wonderful to talk to and talked a little about his home waters in Northeastern Iowa. The feel was right, the price was right, and now, I am in need to find the right reel for it since I bought it home.
Another bonus was that I had several opportunities to socialize a bit more with another tier, Bill Heckel, whose flies and personality I really admire. A Really nice guy, with some illustrative and funny stories involving his friends Lefty Kreh and Dave Whitlock. He also was nice enough to tutor me on a technique to improve a problem I was having with the wings of a fly I was struggling with, which worked instantly to improve the quality of the flies I that I was tying at the show.

Sunday:

We started the day with breakfast at the french restaurant across the street. I normally get their awesome eggs Benedict, but this year I chose to deviate from the tradition and ordered their French Crepes made with salmon and dill. It was very good, but something that would have made a better dinner then a breakfast as it gave me strong salmon breath. I'd do it again as there was no need for lunch after that.
I was able to take a breath from the show and go to two hour-long seminars. One on fishing the Timber Coulee, a river I want to get to know more about since my last encounter where I had an epic battle of man vs. trout, and the trout won. The other seminar was actually not a seminar but a open forum workshop for those looking for help with writing and publishing. I found it very interesting and wished that we could have had an additional hour for the discussion to continue.

So that was my weekend in a nutshell. I hope everyone that attended had a great time, it appeared that everyone from the club that was volunteering was having a good time. I think this was the first year that I wished that the expo would have gone on for one more day. Usually I am completly worn out, this time, I was energized by it all.

So as promised, I won't get into all the other sub-stories to keep this post short. Time to kick off the socks and grab a beer.

Team Scandinavian Scores Gold!

2010-03-14T22:05:00.008-05:00

Last night I got a call from my buddy, Canadian-Ben (SWE) to see if I wanted to go fishing Sunday in spite of all the bad reports about how the rivers were blown out by mid-week. He was watching the flow plummet back to normal and the weather forecast was optimistic. I was easily swayed since I had my heart set on fishing this weekend since being skunked last Monday. We set a time to meet at his place for breakfast, and spent the next 20 minutes getting my stuff together for the trip.

The alarm went off at 6am this morning, I was out the door by 6:30am. I got to Ben's place, it was still dark thanks to the daylight savings time switchover, and he made a great breakfast. We headed out and found our way to the riverside by 8:30am.

The fog had lifted, the sky was overcast, and the water was very cold. We headed to a favorite spot of Ben's and to assure me that there were trout here, he caught and landed a nice buttery Brown trout to show me. That was very kind of him, but now Team Sweden was ahead of Team Norway in the medal count thanks to a size 20 brassie. The water was near its previous flow from a week ago and was somewhat stained, but it had gradually got better as the day progressed. We fished awhile until we thought we pretty much checked out all the possible feeding lanes, then headed back to the car to move on to other possibilities in warmer water.

Along the way, we stopped in at Lund's so that I could check out the fabled Hardware store that had fly fishing stuff that I had heard about over the years. That was interesting, they definitely had a large fly assortment. It was still kind of weird to go into a hardware store and see Filson clothes, Fish Pond fly vests, echo rods, and Dr. Slick tools. I did my obligatory purchase of some flies, as I try to do at all "normal" fly shops that I have visited and we continued on our way to fish some more.

A short walk later we were back in the water, and it wasn't long before Team Norway (that's me) evened up the Medal count with a respectable Brown trout on one of my double secret zebra midge variations, in a size 22. We made a few more casts and then decided to leap-frog the guys below. There was a light, but steady hatch all day of little black stone flies as shown in the picture above, running about size 12 to 8 and the fish were not taking them on the surface.

We hit here and there and eventually ran into, Team Sunshine. Team Sunshine comprised Sid, Joe, and Tom from our fly tiers club. When we came up to them, Sid and Joe were relaxing and enjoying all 68 degrees of sunshine and a cigar, with Tom just down around the bend. For those wanting to know, Team Sunshine had no medals earned at this point. We chatted a bit and continued on our trek. The air temperature had risen quickly, and all the clouds had left for the day. It was a nice day, and that sentiment was echoed by the other dozen or so fly fisherman that we came across who all had been unsuccessful. I have to suspect that it was because a lot of them were just getting on the water when the sun had come out instead of fishing the "better" overcast weather earlier in the day.

So, Team Norway and Team Sweden decided to form alliances to ramp up our medal count and we formed Team Scandinavian. Which just really meant that we had enjoyed our time out on the water, and that the we needed to hold a celebratory feast at a nearby respectable Wisconsin ~~beer~~ burger joint Ben knew of. We spent a good 6 hours in the cold water, and we had "earned" it. It was nice way to wrap up a day where we had both got our first trout of the 2010 season on what was a to be considered a tough day of fishing as far as the trout not cooperating. For the record, the l~~einie's honey weiss tap beer and Spotted Cows on tap~~ waffle fries were very good.

WI Trout C&R Opener

2010-03-08T19:03:00.000-06:00

Jen and I went fly fishing for trout over in Wisconsin today and we were skunked. Which was better then yesterday when we "tried" to go fishing and every single place I knew and some new places we discovered had too many cars for any non-combat fishing. It was more crazy then I had expected.

Today it was overcast and chili on the water, not terrible for a day off from work, but it could have been warmer or less windy. Their was a good wind that was blowing up-river which didn't help things for a first fishing excursion of the year. After spending so many hours on the Brule last fall, I had forgotten how skinny and clear my little local trout water is. Wow! Guess I am getting used to bigger waters, thanks to the Brule and Montana rivers. The snow along the banks was also deeper and heavier then I had anticipated, but nothing to stop anyone with any decent sense of balance from getting out. Jen used my 4wt Winston rod and I opened the season with my custom 5 weight bamboo rod hoping for some magic.

We did run into fisherman today who said he had caught one on a #20 BWO, and the other half dozen where on a zebra midge. We saw very few risers, but we did see some healthy brookies and browns racing up stream from us. There was a brief hatch, but is was a sparse one, and nothing to write home about.

The lessons learned today were 1) leave a little earlier in the morning then we did to get a spot on the water, 2) my left foot of my waders has a small leak, 3) packing a lunch for the drive home would have been nice (I can only eat so many of those health food bars in one day before I getting tired of them), and 4) don't forget the cigars again (it's proving to be bad luck for me).

Jen took a few nice pictures with her new pocket camera and all three of the ones in this post were taken by her. She also got a small taste of how to fish dry flies, more to come on that later this season.

Updates from the frozen tundra.

2010-02-21T20:10:00.000-06:00

I see that it has been a little while since I've posted anything so I have a little update. This past week I was feeling a little "off" for the first half. Good or bad, I missed out on the open-tying night at the Fly Angler and couple other opportunities the weekend before, but I got a lot of sleep and filled myself up with lots of vitamins and fluids. And after the past three days, I think my shoulder is back in where is should be, that is to say it has stopped clicking every time I raise it up now.

I had a blast at the Thursday night fly tiers meeting. Anderson had a weird sense of humor that night, and it was making us all laugh our asses off. I mostly just came to socialize and had tied a couple of flies at Feiker's vise when I decided he had abandoned his tying station longer then I could bear. So he had a couple more flies in is box when he had eventually returned with a fresh beverage in hand.

Saturday was the highlight of the week for me. Ben, his wife Amy, and Andy all came over for a Lie-n-Tie. We had set an additional challenge for the event in that everyone could bring beer or wine, but they all in some way had to be related to fish, fishing, or rivers. Most of our finds were pretty tasty. Jen and I had cleared the kitchen table and turned on the Olympics for background noise and we tied flies from 1pm to around 7pm or so. Amy brought some delicious goodies for the event, including home-made chips in the shape of fish. How can you go wrong with that I ask? Well, you can't! Jen had also prepared chili in the slow cooker for everyone to snack on as we chatted and tied flies.

Baily checked in occasionally to see what we up to and more importantly to inspect what materials we were using. I think, after last weeks 'encounter' were she found and distributed two full packs of peacock herl throughout the house, she now has a heightened awareness of the potential play things for her amusement. I'm just glad she didn't get into the more expensive feathers.

At the end of the day, I set up my mini-studio to photograph some of our flies that we would use for the next four months for the "Fly of the Month" patterns, and called it a night after that. I am positive everyone had a good time and that this is something we will have to keep in mind to do again.

Photos from last weekend at the Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo - Chicago

2010-02-07T20:50:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, I have spent most of my day doing some quick clean up, editing the photos I took last weekend at the expo. Because there are so many of them, I posted them to one of my online web albums, which is at Picasa. I hope you like them. Happy viewing!

Saturday

2010-01-30T13:49:00.000-06:00

The show is going strong. The turn out is good, the seminars and isles are packed, there seems to be a lot of "business" transactions taking place. We also set up a tying table close to the theater which I think assisted with increasing traffic to that area of the hall. Now its time for a beer break, I mean lunch.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

last night

2010-01-30T08:28:00.000-06:00

The show opened on time yesterday. With two presentors (Sara Sanford and Jeff "Bear" Andrews) under our belt, it looks like we have most of the bugs worked out. I took a lot of pictures with the SLR and will share some of them later.

Dinner was had at a "dry" pizza joint and was pretty ok, but not what were looking for. I feel a do over may be necessary.

Afterwards about a dozen of the usual suspects had set camp up in lounge and we enjoyed great conversations in spite of our obviously board cocktail waitress.
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Friday a.m. Setup

2010-01-29T13:20:00.000-06:00

We arrived at Pheasant run hotel west of Chicago at around 1:30am this morning. We had a couple of beers and retired at 3am.

We were up by 8am and went to the local iHop for Swedish crepes. Set up went very quickly this time and we even have audio on our dvd recorder this time. I got to say some quick hello's to some friends I hadn't seen in awhile.

Now we are kicking back with a couple of brews before the gates open.

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Ready...get set...

2010-01-27T21:11:00.000-06:00

So I stopped by the fly shop last night for a couple of items. The boys were a blur as they were packing up stuff for the Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo in Chicago. We are all hoping for a fun and successful weekend. Last year we got hit with a small snow storm over Friday night through Saturday morning. Looks like the forcast for this weekend is just cold and cloudy, I can deal with that.

The crew members "representing" our club, will be Mother Feiker, Andy, Anderson, and myself. We'll be taking off tomorrow after work and I'm really hoping for easy traffic. At this point, it sounds like our main duties to help Tom Helgeson out at Chicago expo will be setting up and running the "Fly tying Theater" and all the Audio/Video stuff that goes along with it, possible assisting with the local fly Tying group(s) with the "Teach a kid to tie a Fly" program (I'll be leaving that for the others who know how to talk short-people speak), and making sure that the Audio/Video stuff works for each of the featured presenters as they swap in their own equipment.

I'd like to give a shout out to my pops, who just had knee surgery yesterday and sounds like things went ok. I wish him a speedy recovery!

A fly filled week.

2010-01-16T20:01:00.004-06:00

It's been a busy week for me in Critter-world of it being the middle of winter.

Back on Tuesday night Jen and I participated in the open-tying night at the Fly Angler. I think around ten or twelve people brought their vises and materials for their fly du jour. Like many fly tier gatherings, the group was an eclectic bunch with varying backgrounds and specialties. All were outgoing and very sociable and shared stories, laughs, and even some impromptu teaching of tying tricks. We had a great time and met a couple of people we hadn't seen before and was a great way to get out of the house. For those who attended, there was also the added bonus of a 10% discount on fly tying materials for the night. I'd like to give a special thanks to Mike Rolek for hosting the event, I look forward to the next open-tying night next month!

Then on Thursday the club had our annual business meeting where we elected new officers for the year, appointed volunteers for various committee chairs, and set a tentative schedule for the fly fishing outings. The results have been updated to the Officers page of the club website for those who are curious. My three year term as a board member has ended with the passing of the meeting, but I was elected to serve as club Treasurer for 2010 and will still be actively participating with the clubs business meetings. Congrats to all the new Officers, and thanks to the past Officers for your contributions to the club in 2009.

On Friday night, after a long and mentally draining week at work, I had decided to do something about my frustration with not being able to remember off the top of my head, the web address to this blog. Not a big deal for those of you who subscribe and get emails sent to you automatically. But when trying to give it to someone who is interested, I needed an address that was easy for me to remember so that I can pass it around. Well, I fixed that. I bought a domain name for the year which cost me eight-whole-dollars at NameSecure.com, coincidentally the same company I use for the St. Paul Fly Tiers website that I manage. Which I think was worth the money to squash out my frustration and embarrassment when people asked about my blog and I got the deer in the headlights look when trying to recall the URL. People can still find me with the current/old address, but now I can be found at: critters-corner.com and be redirected here. Much MUCH easier than the http://critter-critterscorner.blogspot.com/ for me to remember and for others to write down.

On Saturday, I was able to finally attend the Screaming Chicken's annual Lie-N-Tie after several years of missing out for various reasons. I had set this in my schedule back in early December, and am very glad I did. We had a good sized group attend, many of them were members of the Wis Fly board, so I knew most of them, if not by face, then by their on-line aliases. So it was good to connect the names with the faces. The Screaming Chicken was a very nice gentleman who had a great "Man-Cave" for the event which was very cozy and visually stimulating. We had five tables of fly tiers in the middle of a large wood heated building, surrounded by tons and tons of hand made bows, arrows, Native American style painted jaws and skulls, and leather & bead garments. It was the Possum lodge meets fly fishing meets the Anchor meets Native American archery. Stuffed animals such as raccoons, deer, and a full size standing black bear looking over us. Then there was the tom cat who checked each of us out and returned to playing with one of the fly tiers squirrel tail it was so enamored with. While tying we had the chickens and very vocal turkeys outside letting us know they were there too. I have to say, I loved it all. And of course the most memorable thing to me was the old Herters vise that one of the grand kids of Mr. Screaming chicken was tying on. I think it was an early model as it looked to weigh a good ten pounds and of old-school metal work. I got a little crap from the gang for tying so many flies this time and not chatting as much as I normally do. I didn't think I was too quiet, I was just "multi-tasking" more than usual as I really need to get my fly boxes refilled for this spring.

Program Night at the club house: Scott Thorpe on Steelhead

2010-01-08T18:49:00.002-06:00

Last night, we had a great guest who did a steelhead presentation, his name was Scott Thorpe. He started with a brief but cool video of the Talaheim Lodge, which he guides for in Alaska and features Helicopter fly-out fishing. When he is not guiding in Alaska, he can be found guiding in Montana, Minnesota or Wisconsin. Initially an Architect, he left the profession four years ago to "get serious" about his passion for fishing.

Even though the roads were crappy (as my work commute was two hours to get to and from home instead of 45 minutes) we had a good size audience. GOTTA LOVE STEELHEAD FANATICS DISREGARD FOR BAD WEATHER CONDITIONS!

Scott covered fly fishing tactics, ethics, a little history, and his favorite flies, areas along the Minnesota north shore and the Wisconsin south shore, stories from his past 40 years of chasing steelhead as a fisherman and as a guide, and the nuances of how steelhead are not trout.

It was a fun night and I walked away with a lot to think to about, as I am confident that Scott has forgotten more about fishing steel then I have learned so far.

Two soft-hackle wet fly patterns

2010-01-01T17:07:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, while milling about in my fly tying room, I came across a scrap of paper with my chicken scratches and a crappy fly drawing on it. The chicken scratches turned out to be a materials list for a fly pattern that someone at some point must have given me. After doing a little research, the fly is a "classic soft-hackle" from way back before my time. It is similar to a fly known as a "Blue & Black wet fly" even though there is nothing blue in it. One deviation from the classical pattern is that I used a wire rib instead of tinsel, and I'm okay with that. I think it the would not have been as sleek looking and not every fly needs "flare." If I were to tie some with tinsel, I would go all out and use either the silver holographic or red holographic that I have laying around. The other deviation is that the one I tied here, didn't have the Golden Pheasant Tippet tail.

Hook: TMC 200, #12 - #16

Thread: Red Uni-thread 8/0

Rib: copper wire (small)

Body: Black dubbing

Hackle: Black Coq De Leon (I’m sure any black hen feather would suffice)

Note: I took the extra time to spruce up the fly by applying a coat of Sally Hanson’s “Wet & Wild” red nail polish on the thread head. Once it dried, I applied two coats of clear Sally Hanson’s nail polish.

The next fly I tied was based on the previous one and similar to the "Blue & Black wet fly," but I modified it so as to incorporate some of the new Golden Pheasant Tippet that I got for Christmas from Mrs. Critter. The Golden Pheasant Tippet was listed in the Black & Blue pattern. I also substituted the black hackle for a Brown Speckled hackle. I am sure if I researched a bit, that both flies have have a name.

Hook: TMC 200, #12 - #16

Thread: Red Uni-thread 8/0

Tail: Golden Pheasant Tippet

Rib: copper wire (small)

Body: Black dubbing

Hackle: Brown Speckled Coq De Leon (or other brown speckled hen feather)

Note: I spruced the head of the fly with the same steps as the previous fly.

I have not fished either of these patterns, but I tied up a dozen of them in two different sizes and I look forward to trying them out this spring.

My Wikipedia submission, gone bad!!!

2009-12-30T22:16:00.008-06:00

Some of you have heard of me speaking ill of my enemy, the Snagasaurus*. I continue to speak ill of said pain in the ass and developed "Stage II" in my war against it. "Stage I" was me bitching about it to anyone who would listen when I talked or wrote about it while sharing a fishing story.

"Stage II" is launching a Public Awareness Campaign to educate and inform the public so that they know what and who this evil doer is through the use of our greatest on-line reference of the 21st century, Wikipedia. I would like to give a special thanks to my Editorial Staff and Public Relations Consultant for this campaign, Mrs. Critter, who assisted with all the ~~English mumbo jumbo~~ formatting.

THE PROBLEM: You will not be able to see it on Wikipedia as our submission was deleted within minutes of posting it. The reason given was that "the information was unverifiable...and...can not use...for personal inventions." I call Bullsh@#!! I know many who have met this evil doer who have had terrible personal encounters. Now that we know that the evil Snagasaurus has an insider at Wikipedia on it's payroll, I will have to find other means to disseminate information to the masses. And for the record, Mrs. Critter is very upset with the henchman at Wikipedia after all her effort to figure out diphthongs (whatever those are) that she had included in the submission.

Mark my wordsssss Snagasaurus...bewarrrrre.

* the truncated and much less embellished definition from what Jen and I had before we were deleted: Snagasaurus is the entity below a water surface that causes one who is fishing to get hung-up on or even lose their fly or fishing lure. Usually there is no indication of its presence as it resides outside the victims (i.e. fisherman) field of vision. Frequent snagasaurus encounters can result in frustrating outdoors experiences as well as increasing the expenses incurred during and following the fishing endeavors.

Skinny Nelson

2009-12-28T21:54:00.003-06:00

The Skinny Nelson

Hook: TMC 200R #20
Body: Black 8/0 thread
Rib: silver wire (small)
Thorax: two strands of peacock herl
Shell back: Pheasant tail
Tail: Pheasant tail

Griffiths Gnats

2009-12-27T21:55:00.001-06:00

Tonight I noticed that I only had bigger Griffiths gnats that survived last trout season, so I tied up a dozen size 22's to fill that void.

Hook: TMC 100 size 22
Thread: 8/0 Black Uni-thread
Body: Ice Dub Peacock black
Hackle: Grizzley
Post: Black 'Float-Vis' (a high float material to help see the little bugger at dusk)

Christmas Unwrapped

2009-12-27T20:31:00.000-06:00

This Christmas was a great one as far as a fly fisherman and fly tier goes. I was fortunate to have received many nice presents that will be used for many years to come. I also received (from my grandmother who passed away earlier this year) a nice family heirloom.

Because of the weather, plans were changed and we decided to stay at my parents home for the weekend instead of traveling to see Jen's family like we had planned. It was good time, we ate homemade Christmas goodies (Jen especially appreciated the rum balls and the truffles), I tied some flies for both dad and myself, football was on in the background, and the frozen lake was pretty to look at while the snow continuously fell.

Our new goal now is to see Jen's family next weekend, even though there won't be as many there, I am sure it will be as festive and just as meaningful.

"Craft" project

2009-12-24T00:21:00.000-06:00

So for lack of a better title, I have been working on a "craft" project the past couple of nights. With inspiration from a previous post showing a picture I had taken of a fly I tied, it hit me that I could do better. And since I had all the camera equipment to make that possible, I set out to see what others do.

I surfed and surfed and saw some themes of how people set up to take good pictures of flies and I built my own "portable studio." The total cost of this project for me was $0.00. I just happen to have all the ~~crap~~ crafty stuff I needed around the house to make this thing.

I grabbed a mid sized cardboard box and mutilated it with a razor. The idea was that the object inside the box would be lit up by lights outside the box, hence the holes on the opposite sides and the top.

Then, I added the "deluxe" option to this project which was adding a piece of Velcro to the back of the box and to the back of various colored file folders.

To the bottom of the box I taped in some white ink jet glossy photo paper to reflect light back up to the bottom side of the fly.

I re-enforced the box with packaging tape and then covered the openings with two layers of that gifty tissue paper stuff. Here now, is the set up. The camera is a good distance away because the lense I am using is the Nikkor 70-300 with the Macro option. So, unlike a normal macro lense, I needed a little distance before the vise and fly where in focus.

The other thing you will notice is the vice is in front of the box instead of inside it. After a couple of hours of messing around with different positions of the flash and trying to get it to work with the slave flash, I had to change tactics. I wasn't getting good lighting, or when I did a huge shadow would be cast upon the background making for a serious distraction.

Once I brought it out in front of the box, the shadow issue disappeared and I could adequately light the fly enough for a descent picture that could go along with a pattern description. It's obvious that I'm no Jim Schollmeyer, but I have to start somewhere.

So here are some of the pictures that I did while playing around with this project.

A good weekend

2009-12-20T20:19:00.002-06:00

Friday night Jen and I had a dinner date with Ben and Amy at a little Russian Restaurant called Moscow on the Hill. It was pretty fun, the foods were good, the staff was fast, and several vodka ~~shots~~ tastings were had. They had more choices of vodkas and specialty drinks then there are pine needles on a tree. My main entree was a pork dish with apples and almonds inside it, and it was very flavorful. Jen ordered a salmon fillet with dumplings on the side. She raved about the dumplings. I tasted the salmon and thought it was the best I'd ever had in the Midwest. The appetizer was very good as well, it was a smorgasbord of things, and surprisingly, we all were digging the beat salad the most. I' would definitely do it again.

Saturday morning Jen and I ran around picking up the house a little, wrapping presents, and last minute shopping. Ben stopped over after his shopping was done for the day, and we set up to tie flies around the kitchen table for the next four hours. We did take a brief break with a quick visit to the Fly Angler down the road, as I needed some more hooks and beads for the pattern I was tying. We just plain enjoyed the day, a couple of cocktails (our friends bourbon, spiced rum, and crown paid us a visit), tied a few flies, had Christmas music on in the background. Later on in the evening I did some consolidating of my many random post it notes listing flies to tie and made a consolidated list that was more manageable to read then my various chicken scratches on yellow squares. Overall, I'd call that a good day.

Sunday we didn't leave the house. I made a hearty breakfast, we paid some bills, spent some time on both the wisflyboard and then on the Flytyingforum websites, opened our stocking stuffer gifts to each other, and then I was back to the fly tying bench with football on in the background and VH1's top 40 videos of the year. Inspired by a fly pattern I saw online today and by the theme of the flies I'd been tying the past week or so, I came up with a neat pattern.

Hook: TMC 3761 #12
Thread: 8/0 Olive Uni-Thread
Tail/shuck: 2 strands of pearl accent flashabou
Body: Ultra-wire green (size brassie) and Ultra-wire copper (size medium)
Thorax: Black UV Ice Dubbing
Hackle: Hen English soft hackle

A Cold Tuesday Night.

2009-12-15T22:13:00.003-06:00

I made it up to the Fly Angler tonight for their first Open Tying night of the winter. Several of us showed up and we pulled up a chair and our sense of humor upstairs in the middle of the rod shop. We had a variety of flies being manufactured from Gotcha's, to soft hackles, to the Ultimate Meat Whistle Fly.

Some of us ordered delivery from Jimmy Johns, and they delivered speedy-quick! I did my part to support the night by purchasing some 8/0 red thread as mine kept breaking a little to easily and must have been a bad spool. Oh, and I bought a fly rod on my dad's behalf for this coming year. I had two choices for the price range he was looking at, and I of course, I got the more expensive of the two. But I won't tell him that and only charge him what he thought he wanted to spend. He is getting a 9' 4-piece 5-weight Ross Essence FS fly rod with a soft case and rod tube. I thought it was a fair deal, and added that to my spool of thread.

Later this week or next I will double check the extra 5wt fly line I have, and if it is good I will spool it on one of my former Orvis reels. I just need to remember he is a south paw and to have it spooled backwards for him. I think he will like the set up.

We tied from 6pm to 8pm and it was a great way to spend a winter night. Tying with buddies (and The Jen who showed up with her glamorous haircut, fresh coloring, and big curls), terrible karaoke to the radio, and talking about future fishing trips (real and fantasy) to come.

Article

2009-12-13T09:58:00.000-06:00

I know I've been slow on the posts lately, but I've been busy with the holiday activities as I am sure many of you have been. I came across this article that may be of interest and thought I would share it. The name of the article is "Waters quiet but deep for Montana angling icon- so the Lilly legend goes" and it was found on-line at http://www.greatfallstribune.com/.

Enjoy, and maybe I can take some pictures of the flies I've been tying to post here in the next couple of weeks.

end of the season

2009-11-18T19:05:00.000-06:00

wet muddy wading boots by the door.
waders hanging from the shower curtain rod.
a dirty, smelly, messy truck, in the driveway with a Brule stained floor.

the shed that needs to be re-organized.
the lawn neglected of regular attention.
a house in need to be prepped and winterized.

for weeks and weeks, a hot water bathroom faucet in need of repair.
piles of left over snacks, expired coupons, old mail on the kitchen table.
liqueur cabinet seriously bare.

photo's of the seasons victories...on the kitchen counter, the coffee table, the fly shop bragging wall.
rod tubes and grouse gun sitting in the corner, disguised by sleeping bags and sleeping pads.
half-unpacked luggage bags are in the hall.

fly boxes in need of refilling before winter thaws.
gps chips, delormes, sketches of maps on napkins, placed on the special shelf.
in the fly vest...empty leader packages, used tippet, a few surviving Thing-A-Ma-Bobs.

the fly-tying room in serious despair.
camping cookware waiting to be put back in storage.
fleece and Under Armor everywhere...everywhere.

-Christopher Sprau

Steelhead season closes

2009-11-16T22:53:00.000-06:00

Friday: Jen and I were greeted by a cold bottle of the Doctor at our Hotel door. Thanks Peter!
We found the room where Peter was staying and chatted awhile about the recent weather, river conditions, and fishing reports of the past few days. Then Jen went off to bed and we headed over to continue our conversation at the Kro-Bar over a couple of Spotted Cows.

Saturday:
Headed over to Twin Gables for breakfast. The morning was overcast and it was one of those quiet drizzly days. With no one joining us this morning, Jen and I got ready for and headed to the river.

The parking lots busier then expected, but finally we just picked a spot and hit the trail down to the river. Jen hooked into brown trout just feet from her that was about 20" or so from what I could tell, but it spit the hook before we could get it to the net.

We quit early that day stopped and stopped by Big dog's Trout camp looking for Struiff, but we didn't see his truck so we headed back to the hotel change out of our trout pants. We then swung by Nesterville looking for Rick, but he was out setting up his stand for deer season.  His wife RayAnn said that he'd back soon for the Northwest High School championship game that was going to be on at the Kro.

The bartender's grandson set up a laptop to the main TV so that the webcast of the game could be watched by the prideful folk of the town. The desktop of the laptop showing a very very busty topless gal and a pool table, which didn't seem to bother grandma all that much...weird. Customers there could get drinks, but not food...that would interrupt the staff from watching the game. I think everyone in the bar was somehow closely connected to every player on the team.  It was a very lake Woebegone and neat to have experienced. Comments about the ref's and the players were in no part unbiased, and some constructive criticism about the announcer was also given. Several of the gals were totally engrossed in the game, putting thier hands together, breathing heavily, one of them actually just stood through the whole game to watch as she "just couldn't stand it." For the record the Tigers went into this game with an impressive 12-0 record. We later found out, that they ended the season with a 12-1 record as they had lost. But, now Jen and I know why everyone had "Go Tigers" signs in the local towns and yards and businesses, and on their sweatshirts.

We went back to the Hotel before the game had ended to pick up Peter and George for supper at the Italian place. It was 5:30pm and been dark for at least half an hour now so we assumed they'd be ready. In fact our timing was great, they were in the middle of emptying the truck form the day and going in to change clothes.  The minestrone soup was as good as what all the locals had said it was. And it was the real deal as both Jen and Peter ran into a little bone that they spit out. A couple of hours later we left and dropped everyone off.

Nine-thirty came around and after my short nap I headed to the pub and hung out with the bouncer for about 45 minutes, talking about bow hunting and fishing. Things were getting busy, so I left him to his job and I invaded the table were Andy Roth and his two cohorts were deep into some friendly competition to decide who the billiards World champion was. It was a fun group of guys filling up on Lienies and pizza.

Sunday:
Met up with Anderson and Feiker at our usual breakfast place, and we were off to fish closing day of the season. The weather was chilly this morning and mostly sunny, and the parking lots was a little less crowded from the day before. We fished till sunset, several of us had hookups, Jen had a frustrating day with the snagasourous and tangles. There was a part of the day, where Anderson decided to break out his unpolished sports commentation skills, and did a play by play as I was fishing. It was funny, but he needs a little more practice before ANY sports channel will hire him to jazz up any event. And I am pretty sure he is ok with that.

After a chili day, we headed back to the Kro to warm up, use the 'facilities' and enjoy a cigar. Talked to the bouncer who was running on 3 hours a sleep and a 1-hour nap and just about to start a bartending shift. Long story, but lets just say he gets the call to fill in and work at several places in town when other people call in sick or can't work for whatever reason. We finished our last mugs of Spotted Cow of the season and wrapped things up with a supper together at the Anchor Bar in Superior, WI. Nothing kills hunger or hamburger cravings like the Anchor Grill. We left there very happy and full around 8pm and was home around 10:30p and went straight to bed. We unpacked the next day after I had called in sick.

And that was not fun. Unfortunately, Jen and I had both had some bad stomach thing going on. It was kind of there on Sunday, but we tried to ignore it. We were suspect of the famed soup we had the night before since that is the only thing in common that Jen and I had, besides water. On the drive home I went through a whole bottle of the pink stuff, as my stomach was doing this non-stop gurgling flopping around thing. It was not fun at all, and I spent most of the day in bed hunched over. I know not the ending to the season that one wants right? At least we had fun this year, and I don't have to quit steel heading as I was threatening to do before this season had started. I hope next year is just as fun.

Steelhead weekend #4

2009-11-04T22:25:00.000-06:00

Friday night:
dropped Jen off at hotel, and then met up with Ben and Amy at Kro-bar for drinks. We met drunk banjo "bubba" guy (think of Jeff Dunham's bubba puppet and you are getting very close, only not as good looking) who kept talking with us. At first I thought he was a day early with the Halloween show. It turns out that it was not a show. He was drawn to my Psycho-ward sweatshirt and thought it was really funny. At least that is what I could make out of his really slurred "bubba" accent. He told us that he was going to stay home Saturday night to avoid the freaks...ironic.

Saturday:

We met for breakfast at the Twin Gables, Jenny and myself, Ben and Amy, and Peter. We formed a loose plan and started our day. Once again, the parking lot of choice only had one vehicle. The River was ours for the taking. Jen and I headed up to a specific spot on a hole suggested by Mike, but once we got there, we backtracked to "my bush" as I just had better feeling about starting there.

I am glad I did! On my first cast of the day, I caught a 29" steelhead out of the middle of the bend. It seemed like it took forever to land, and I was enjoying every second of the fight. Ben netted it for me, as Jen didn't have a net, and mine was too small for this guy. We took several pictures and measurements, and after a hard decision, I chose to return it to river.

We figured we let the area rest for a half hour, and after I finished my cigar, Jen and Ben chose their spots, and I moved up to the lead in to the pool. It was all of 15 minutes and I had a second steelhead on! I remember yelling to Ben that I was sorry, and pleaded for his help to catch this one too. The first steelhead pretty much stayed in the water, but not this one. The second one jumped out of the river 4 or 5 times and fight took just as long as the first. I couldn't be happier. It was mid October of 2007, when I landed my first and also last steelhead before today. The day went by quickly as we continued to fish and even moved to another angler parking lot for the last two hours of the day.

We ditched the trout pants and put on some comfortable clothes and headed to the Italian place for pizza, and beer, where I bumped into "Big Dog" and my buddy Struif. So I shared my personal victory with them and Struif was very supportive, as he is fully aware as well of my frustrations with this steelhead game.

From there we ventured over to the Kro-bar to see the Halloween costumes, where we found Big Dog and Struif again, along with Tony, Louise, Jay and Rick. Lots of stories and good conversations were had while watching the ghouls and goblins that floated around the bar. Later in the night, the bartender appointed our group as the costume judges, she bribed us with a free round of drinks for our services. Sounds good to me, we were kind of rating them already. I have to say though, this was the quietest and rather disappointing from prior years. Maybe next years run will be better. ;)

Sunday:
We may have gone out for breakfast an hour early...oops, daylight savings time happened and my watch wasn't corrected for it when I crashed the night before. Jen and myself, Ben and Amy, Peter, and Mother Feiker met up for breakfast and headed to the river. When I caught steelie number three with in a half-hour. Can it get any better for me this weekend? I was delighted, but a new challenge was presented quickly. Ben was up river at another hole, and Jen didn't have a net, and she has not ever netted a fish before. While I fought this runner of a steelie, Jen was working at removing my net from y back so that she could land it. It was a very silver 24" steelhead that made several long runs. On all three of the fish I caught this weekend, they all brought me within feet of going into my backing. Jen was getting nervous when she failed to come close to netting it a couple of times and suggested that she take the rod and I land my fish. But, since this was number three of the weeekend, so I denied her suggestion. I told her this would be good for her to do, and was thinking to myself "please don't screw up, please don't screw up, please don't screw up" while giving her words of encouragement.

Jen did land the fish, and in the process, ended up more wet then the fish! To put it in her words, "she got the sucker, god bless it!" It was deep and heavy and everything a healthy steelhead should be. Peter happened to walk by just before the release, so I was able to "Flash" him with my steelie before returning her back to the river for another day.

We only fished for another hour or so as we wanted to get back to see the Packer v Vikings game. I did catch a little smolt about the size of the cigar I was smoking, which made me chuckle at that realization.

And that is my story of the end of my long dry spell of not catching steelhead. I like catching them a whole lot more than fishing for them and not catching them. I hope I don't have to wait as long for my next one, especially now that we made it look so easy in front of Jen.

Where did my steelhead monkey go? WHO CARES!!!

2009-11-01T19:11:00.000-06:00

That's right, after a long dry spell, the monkey is off my back. This weekend I hooked three steelhead and landed all of them! Two at 29 inches on Saturday and one 24 incher on Sunday. A special thanks to Ben and Jen for for being excellent net-men!

28.5" Steelhead

2009-10-25T20:25:00.000-05:00

Well this past weekend was steelhead weekend number three for the fall. And coincidentally Jens 3rd weekend of steelhead fishing in total.

We did the usual Friday night run up to the cabin we rented. The drive seemed long as we drove though rain, then sleet, and then snow. We moved our gear from the truck to the cabin and settled in for the night. Everyone else that we knew were coming up for the weekend would be pulling in later or the next day.

Saturday we woke, had a hearty breakfast, and hoped we see my buddy Ben from the club soon. He arrived just as we had fished getting dressed and rigging our fly rods for the day. The plan...to go to a spot where the parking lot wasn't packed.

Ben and Jen hopped in the truck and on our first parking lot of choice, there was amazingly only one other vehicle there. Rare for this spot, especially since it was 10:30am. Guess this is where we were going fishing! We made the slippery trek down the trail and could see that the river had definitely changed over the past couple of days. It was up, it was faster, and it was no longer clear.

We knew a particular spot that I was fond of and it could accommodate three of us fishing it at the same time. We got into position, Ben at the head of the pool, Jen in the middle, and me at the tail. I tried to make my first cast and caught a tree, just as three old timers across the stream came by. So I pretended to ignore my situation while we chatted with them for a bit. They said they this spot to hold few but big steelhead. I smiled, and kept what I knew of this spot to myself.

They headed down the trail and Jen made a noise. She said she missed a fish. I thought, "whatever" it was only her first cast, and went about undoing my mess from the tree. Jen again made a noise and claimed to missed it again. I broke off my line as it was a hopeless feet to try to save my rig, and again Jen said she missed a fish. Ben and I advised she change how she set the hook and do a strip set instead of a rod set. I went back to tying on a new fly and this time, Jen got excited and when I looked up she had a steelhead on. In less then five casts she was fighting a steelhead. I tossed my rod onto shore and worked my way up to her. Ben also started to move down to assist as well.

We gave some direction as to what she should do and how to handle the fish and she was executing well. And then the point came that I got excited, I saw the steelhead come by and realized my net was not big enough to land this one. After two attempts, I hollered up to Ben that he needed to come down with his net. Ben was able to get down by me pretty quickly and I stepped back out of their way, all this time Ben and I giving advice and shouting instructions to Jen. It made several runs downstream and to the opposite bank and then found a spot just feet in front of us but past the deep edge where we couldn't wade over too. It parked itself there. Now time usually seems skewed when I get into these situations, but we were at a point where this battle was getting close to being abut 5 minutes long, and the three of us were looking at each other and looking at where the line was going into the muddy water and wondering what to do. I then thought, the time is now or its going to be refreshed and take another run and we will lose it. I advised to Jen that she angle and tilt her rod towards the bank and apply a little more pressure. It worked, and the steelhead began to move. After about a eight or nine attempts now, Ben netted the fish, and it was NICE. Jen was sooooo excited and I started taking pictures in case it escaped the net, or fell out of someone's hands. We did measure it before we took it out of the net for the grip and grin pictures and it measured 28.5" from kipe to tail. We had great fortune of a great fight, Jen handling herself well for her first encounter with fighting a steelhead, and not screwing up in the unhooking and picture taking.

Jen was able to tell her story later to Mike and Phil over supper and we were all celebrating in her success. Then we continued celebrating back at the cabin for bit a longer and sharing in other fishing stories. I'm so proud of her!

2nd Steelhead weekend

2009-10-19T21:48:00.001-05:00

Friday
It was hard to stay focused at work on Friday, so I didn't. I did everything I could to make the day go faster. Four o'clock came, and I was out of there and headed for home. I moved the pile of stuff from the living room that packed the night before into the Tahoe. Ran over to Big 10 where I was to meet Mother Feiker to pick up the fleece windstopper coat and hat that Jen would need that we left behind at the previous weekend steelhead outing. When I got back, Jen and Mike were ready to roll out of town, and so we did.

We made a couple of stops along the way to refuel, pick up "supplies" and have a bite to eat. We arrived at our sleeping quarters around 9-ish and popped a beer while we unpacked. Luckily we unpacked right away as Mike and I had some high-energy conversation and laughs, which kept the pace of our arm curls going at a pretty good pace. Jen retired around midnight, and we ran out of steam around 2:30am. At least that is what Jen says.

Saturday

At way too early an hour Saturday morning, we here a knock at the door. It's Muffin-top and his wife and they are ready to get the day started. It was like 7am, and way too early after last night's Leinie-bourban marathon. But we got our selves reasonably presentable to meet them for breakfast, of which I don't remember much. After breakfast, we headed back to our room and got our trout pants on and it was decided that Jen would drive us to the river, as it appeared that Mike and I, or maybe really just me, may have been not sober enough to drive yet. Oops! I don't remember the drive to the river, but the next thing I knew we were standing in it fishing for steelhead. It's amazing how standing in 40-degree water with a fly rod in your hand can sober a guy up so quickly. The water was a .10" lower then the weekend before and a tad slower, and still very clear.

It was a nice day. The kind of day that one who grouse hunts typically wishes for.  No wind, light cloud cover, 40's for a high, perfect for walking at a slow pace with a 20 gauge in hand. We checked our rigging and our flies and started our nymphing.

We covered some good water and Jen still seems to be a natural at learning the basics for fly-fishing. Over all, the day didn't seem to be delivering too many steelheads to too many people.  But I was pleasantly happy. By the end of the day I had caught three smolt. Which to many, is trivial, but to me it was the end of a two year streak of catching nothing in the steelhead family. This made me feel confident that the changes I had made in my rigging this year was indeed going in the right direction.

At dusk we headed back up the trail to the Tahoe, and then back to the cabin to get out trout pants off before going out to eat. I am sure it has something to do with being in the outdoors all day, but there is nothing better then a heavy sweatshirt, a burger, and greasy appetizers to end the day. We had a few people join us for supper. I had just had a bailey's and coffee placed in front of me when Peter came in and joined us, eager to hear the days reports as he would start his three-day steelhead tour in the morning. Ole and Bucky also stopped by a little after Peter and shared their fishing encounters that they had that day.

Sunday
We got a chance to sleep in this time, as Muffin-top and his wife had left town yesterday. And leisurely worked our way through the morning steelhead routine. We tried a different landing then the day before to go fishing. Both days, the spots we had picked was based purely on the number of cars at the landings rather then any skillful predictions of where the fish would be. We just wanted to be away from the crowds. Turns out, there was a lot of good water we covered that day as well.

And then it happened. I was working a nice bend pool. I covered the top two-thirds of it and started into the tail of the pool. A half-hour of fishing with nothing to get excited about. I drifted my line down in the tail and my indicator did a fishing move so I raised my rod, not sure if it was a rock or a fish. As soon as I had tension the steelhead I hooked was tight to the line! It moved up and to the far side of the pool, then over to the close side towards me. I could see that it was a dark steelhead, and that it looked to be about 20" or so. Then it turned and screamed downstream and in about ten yards of its dash, my line popped and went limp. My 5-second rodeo with a steelhead had ended.  I had also lost both my beadhead X-legs nymph and the yarn fly dropper. The 3x G-max floro was cut cleanly off. At least it wasn't my knot the did me in I thought to myself. And while I may have cursed out loud at the loss off the fish, I quickly smiled and was happy that I got the chance to finally fight a steelhead after my long dry spell.

To add to my count, I managed to land another smolt later that day a little further down river. And as the day came to an end, I had to convince Jenny that we did have to leave so that we didn't get home too late. She was enjoying herself and really wanted to stay. Eventually she came out and we left the river around 4:30pm.

We were greeted by your classic north woods "old timers" smoking a Backwoods cigar at the parking lot where we changed out of our trout pants. He updated us on the scores and his analysis of the Packer game as well as the Viking game. And we returned the favor by updating him with our analysis of the day's fishing. After a bit of chatting, we hopped in the truck and headed for home leaving the old timer in my rear view mirror puffing on his cigar while he waited as it got closer to sunset before he wet his line.

Club Steelhead weekend

2009-10-12T21:01:00.000-05:00

Friday
Jen and I arrived in Brule around 8:30pm, dropped off some stuff at the cabin, and went in to Twin Gables for supper since we saw Bob's truck there. We found them (Anderson, Mother Feiker, Ben, Ryan, and Andy) in the back bar, watching the Twins-Yankees game. Ben had pictures of the steelhead he caught earlier in the day and it was a very nice one at that. Jen and I bellied up to the bar and ordered supper and watched the game. We also chatted with Dee, the owner, and met her boyfriend during the commercial breaks.

After watching the Twins lose, we headed to the Kro-bar to see what was happening.
I ran into a few more friends that I knew and did some catching up with them (Joe, Ash, Grizzly, Buzzy, and Shane). It was great to see them and rib each other a little and share what little intel we had gathered on the current steelhead situation.

We (Mother Feiker, Ben, Andy, and myself) head back to the cabin after closing the bar down and went to bed around 3am.

Saturday
We were up and getting ready to go to Twin Gables about 7:30am or so, and there it was...about a 1/4" of show on the ground. Jen and I were excited by the fresh snow and were actually looking forward to spending the day in it. It really made the bright colored leaves pop even more.

After breakfast headed back to the cabin to get ready for fishing for the day. The plan was that we park at two different landings and walk in opposite directions to where the other was parked, making our fishing groups smaller. Jen, Andy, and myself in one truck, Mother Feiker, Anderson, and Ben in the other truck. This was Jens first time going Steelhead fishing and it was no warm up to it, the weather and water was in full "normalcy" as far as steelhead weather goes. There was no easing her into it. For the record the river was 42 degrees, air temp started around 31 and the high for the day was around the low 40's and our guides kept freezing up all day. It was cold, and windy, leaves of red and orange and yellows were floating in the low clear river, and it was beautiful.

For some reason, I couldn't stay on my feet this weekend. I fell three different times, so I was nursing a sore knee and elbow, but the back feels more aligned then when I started the day. Go figure! And today is the best my back has felt in a week. Guess I should fall on my ass more often when my back is feeling crappy.

Andy tagged into a colorful steelhead with bright red on it, and it broke off quickly. He also got a strike in the same area before that. When it happened, Jen was resting on the bank and got to watch the 15- seconds of excitement right in front of her and got to see the steelhead in the water racing around.

We crossed paths with the boys half way through for a bit, had some beef sticks for lunch. Anderson caught a 22" steelhead out the same area that Andy fought his. Anderson's was a bright chrome steelie, fresh from the lake.

Near the end of the day, Jen did get a strike, but that was it for her.

We warmed up back at the cabin and Tony was there making a feast for the cold hungry crew. Ham, wild rice, cranberry sauce, salmon dip, mashed potatoes. It was a full holiday meal!

Joining us for dinner were Jay (who also caught a couple steelhead that day), also two of Tony's friends from the area, Troy and Rick. Then, Mike from the Fly Angler and his buddy joined up for some food and friendly conversation.

Around 10pm Mother Feiker, Ben, and myself headed for the Kro to see what local characters were out and about. Anderson joined us later after Rick left the cabin. I chatted with Dee's boyfriend about our day and his recent bow hunting experiences while he checked ID's at the door. The Bugs were in full swing rocking the house. Over the years, that band has definitely improved.

Sunday

We ran into Mike and his buddy at Twin Gables for breakfast, as well as Big Dog and Greg Lonke. We shared some status reports and predictions for the day along with a couple of laughs. After breakfast, the boys headed off fishing while Jen and I headed over to Duluth to spend the afternoon with Chad and Sarah, before heading home for the Twins game. It had been a while since I was there last so we thought it was a good time to do that before I get into my "serious" steelhead hunting mode over the next three or four weekends to come.

Jen did say that even though the weather was less then ideal, and didn't catch anything, that she had fun and might even do it again. I had a great time with her as well as seeing all my old and new friends.

Hanging around.

2009-10-03T23:06:00.000-05:00

So I opted to stay home this weekend instead of steelheading for two reasons. First, I needed another appointment with the Chiropractor. Second, I wanted to attend a friend of mines' surprise birthday. In between the two, I had six hours to kill.

So as I left the Chiropractor, the truck just drove all by itself to the Fly Angler instead of going home. Mike was at the shop, pretty much running it all by himself. So I pulled up a chair at the rod building table and was offered a cup of coffee. Clients came and went, I chatted with some about fishing and others about the fly rods they were looking at. In between, Mike and I got to catch up on the past couple of months stuff as well as talk about a potential salt water trip. Two hours into my visit, Jenny calls me up. Hm, I wasn't sure how this was going to go over, but I answered and she said she would come up to the shop to join us. I am on my third copy of coffee at this point and was enjoying chilling out. I mean really, if ya aren't out fishing, hanging out at the fly shop, posing as the fly shop dog is a good second best thing. Jen joined us shortly after our call with her Caribou Coffee in hand.

More customers were coming and going, so I fitted Jen with some Sims breathable waders and Chota wading boots. She said she had enjoyed our summer trips and was really looking forward to doing more. So what the heck. We dipped into our respective minnow funds to finance her new gear. I am sure she will be happy with it and spend some time in them soon.

We hung out for a little while longer then we had headed for home to grab a quick lunch and the directions to the party. It was a good way to spend five hours to avoid all the nags of home, without going too far away from home. And I am pretty sure Mike appreciated us hanging around, with the added contribution we made to the stores profit margin for the day.

Drifting for Muskie's

2009-09-29T00:14:00.004-05:00

This past weekend finally came after a long time of waiting. Peter and I had set aside this weekend for a float trip to fly fish for muskie's with Wendy, our guide from the Hayward Fly Fishing shop. Wendy, by the way, was also a cover girl for a fly fishing magazine holding one of those big trout things. I'll skip the recap of the ugly drive up on Friday, but just mentioned that we met up at Peters cabin within 5 minutes of each other, which was pretty funny since we both had a long ways to go and had each had our side stops along the way.

It had been a while since I last saw Peter, so after a hurried unloading of some gear and our clothing for the next day, we had a chance to exchange some highlights while we settled in by the fireplace. We both had a long day so we retired early for the evening, and we needed to get up early in order to meet up with Wendy at the fly shop.

Saturday, we eagerly got up, had a good breakfast, and were out the door with no delays. We met up with Wendy and Larry who were both hanging out in the parking lot waiting for their respective clients. After a short confusing dialog of regarding the shuttle logistics we ventured off to the Chippewa River. On the drive out we saw three wild turkey's near the road. I declared this to be a good omen for no good reason. But it brought a smile to our faces.

We got to the boat launch, jumped into our waders as Wendy unloaded and prepped the boat for the day. It was a cool morning, and a little overcast, a very little wind. A lot of the trees were revealing thier fall colors, mixed in with those that hadn't started yet. In no time at all we were floating in the river and getting familiar with the 9 and 10 weight rods as well as the flies the size of week old puppies. It didn't take long and Peter had landed a pike. Nothing huge, but still a fun fight and fun to watch.

Before we knew it, several hours had past, we were deep into our chatting about random stuff and enjoying an absolute gorgeous fall day. Then Peter tagged into a muskie. He quickly had that landed in the boat, and we took pictures. It had a neat iridescent green color on it's side, and again, a nice sized fish, but not the scary monsters you see in brag pages of Outdoor News.

Then there was the "almost" double header. Peter and I were at a spot where we both set the hook at the same time on strikes. Peter hooked his and ended up landing a pike. Mine decided it didn't want to commit to me and spit the fly. It was crazy fun moment and would have been cool had we both landed something at the same time.

At some point we did break for a lunch on the river, prepared by Wendy, who makes a good lunch, but an excellent desert. We had also stretched our legs and waded a gravel bar where there was some good water and some potential channels for muskie. That is when we encountered the only other people we had seen all day on the river. Two kayakers that paddled by us. Other than that, we had the whole river to ourselves all day. I think if I remember correctly, the float was around 7 or so hours from beginning to end. So if you are keeping track, Peter caught one muskie and two pike, and I had two significant strikes and nothing landed. As for wildlife we had saw a couple kingfishers in an aerial dogfight over the river, an eagle, we also heard a grouse fly off and a turkey putting.

After the float we headed back to the cabin. Peter jumped in the canoe for a little lake fishing to wrap up the day. I transferred my running line and backing from an old bad Orvis reel I had to a new Ross spool that I had got last Christmas in preparation for Sunday's fishing in Northern Wisconsin for salmon and steelhead. David Keene arrived while I was working on this, and directed him down to the lake so that he could go fishing with out of the canoe for the last hour of the day.

I made a few casts along the shore shortly after my project was done and caught two large mouth bass and a decent sized pumpkinseed within a half-hour. Once it was too dark, we headed off to the dead animal bar for supper. While that is not its real name, it was an appropriate name. There were a lot of dead animals mounted, more then your average Wisconsin bar. Supper was good, then we headed back to the cabin to prep for Sundays fishing.

All packed up and unable to go.

2009-09-20T13:31:00.000-05:00

So my fly tying/fishing club had scheduled a weekend outing to camp and fish in SE MN. I had been looking forward to this the past two weeks. Campfires, trout, friends, fall, nice weather forecast...you get my drift.
Wednesday, I had most of the stuff put together and piled up in the living room, since I had to go to the club meeting Thursday night and had planned to take off right after work Friday. It was week of mounting stress as another person quit and the department was short staffed to begin with. I also had several things to take care of myself to complete my transition from a temporary contractor to a permanent employee (which is a good stress, but still stress). Plans were going well, with a surprise appointment that had at the end of the day for a pre-employment exam for my new job.

I got home on time according to "my plan" and commenced loading the Tahoe with our tent, cookware, fishing gear, chairs, table, stove, clothes, etc. etc. Jen came home as I grabbed the final thing to put in the Tahoe, which was a sleeping bag. As I went to toss it, I felt a shock to my lower back and my eyes instantly went wide open as I felt the pain! My damn back went out.

I sat down with a pack of ice and had to make a decision. Should I stay or should I go. Is this a quick warning shot or is this going to hurt all weekend. Jen pointed out some logic that my narrow focused fly fishing mind wasn't thinking about. So a decision was made that I take care of my back for the night with an ice, take some lame weak ibuprofen, and lay down in bed to see how things go. I called Ben, who I was supposed to rendezvous with in the south part of the cities and reported the bad news.

Saturday morning came uncomfortably, and I surf the net till I found a chiropractor that was open on Saturdays. I found one who was open for two hours. After the typical initial paperwork was out of the way, he did an adjustment, and I went home to put an ice pack on again. At first, I wasn't sure that he helped it or made it worse. The muscles were more tense then they normally are when this happens to me. I wasted the day in and out of bed. We did leave the house for a little bit just to get out and went for a "real burger" over at Moe's Grill, but I needed to get back as sitting straight wasn't giving me much comfort.

I was kind of cranky, in part due to the pain of my back, but more so I think because I missed out on a weekend camping with friends and Jen and fly fishing for trout as the season closes soon. If there is a sliver lining here, I guess it is that I started reading a book that I just bought by Jack Hemmingway called A Life Worth Living. At least I could read a little bit about fishing if I couldn't actually be out there doing it. Jen just unloaded the truck since I won't need half that stuff for my adventure next weekend where I am going to northern Wisconsin for a guided Muskie fly fishing trip that my buddy and I booked last year.

Hopefully next weekend will go more as planned then this one did.

Origins

2009-09-16T21:16:00.006-05:00

It has been pointed out (from my last post) to me that Mountain Dew and Snickers is an odd combination for breakfast.

The Mountain Dew and snickers breakfast is actually an evolution from when we were going to college at the University of MN-Duluth. Back then, we would get up early on a Saturday or Sunday morning, pack the car with people, and head to the Brule river for kayaking. On the way would stop in at a gas station to fuel the car and us, so we would grab a king size snickers and a large chocolate milk each.

In the spring we would get some good white water kayaking and our trips ranged from two to four hours. Except for this one time where a two hour trip turned into a five hour trip and the beginning of the end to a relationship of one of the couples, but that's a story for another time. The snickers and chocolate milk we great energy and it kinda helped the hangovers too, which were caused by, ahem...STUDYING REALLY REALLLLY HARD. Yup, I miss Duluth, and those college days.

Fishless Saturday

2009-09-12T16:50:00.013-05:00

Jen and I woke up early this morning and turned on the weather channel. It looked like there was little chance of bad weather till the evening so we threw our fly fishing gear in the truck and took off.

I broke from my usual morning trouting routine of Mountain Dew and Snickers and instead had a "Nature Bar" and cheap Super America iced coffee...and that was "my bad" for changing the morning ritual, as our day went fishless.

We arrived at the chosen river a little further south then there was water. Damn maps, they should know where the river has water and where it is just a dry rock bed. We headed north up the "river" about eight miles where we actually saw moving water, but it was so overgrown that the weeds were at least a foot to two feet taller then myself (that's about three to four feet taller then Jen, if you're keeping track of her). After a couple of unsuccessful approaches, we retreated back to the truck to try a third spot.

This time it looked more promising, with trout regulation postings and an actual mowed foot path to follow. Well after trying several of the trails that came to the river, there was not really "great" water nor a way to get down to it. We would step off of the trail to approach the river only to find steep eight to fifteen foot drops. Again, we retreated to the truck.

Now this early in the morning, I had already flicked the bird at some 16-year-old punk for his crappy driving decisions, we had been rejected by the river gods several times, Jen injured her thumb (blood and all), the humidity was high, and it had already cracked 75 degrees and it was only 10:30am. Yes, such fun we are having. At least the scenery was nice.

On our 4th approach we found an access point to the river that A) had water in the river, and B) had not been overgrown. So this is looking awesome at this point in our day, right? We get down to the river, Jen is using my 8.5' Sage 3-wt, and I have my 7' 4-wt bamboo rod, and we are ready for some trout. We fished all the usual riffles, bends, and pools without success. In fact the whole entire time we were on this beautiful little stretch, we saw only a shadow of one, count it again, ONE fish. And since it was only the shadow I saw, I am not sure what kind of fish it was. It was warming up, our patience had worn thin, and the lack of seeing anything getting better, we pulled the plug. We did see a neat little hawk up in a tree in front of us and humming bird inches above one bend in the river, but that was pretty much the extent of seeing anything wild along this water.

We changed out of our waders, hopped in the truck and headed for Cabela's to replace my blown out Thermarest and get Jen an upgraded sleeping bag for the fall adventures. Sometimes, I guess, going fishing is going fishing and not catching.

Labor Day weekend

2009-09-09T21:03:00.009-05:00

A few weeks ago Jen and I were invited by our friend, Bryan from Milwaukee, to join him and a group of fellow fly fishers for Labor day weekend. We had no commitments so we gladly accepted and set about getting ready for a weekend of camping, fly fishing, and enjoying the beauty of the remote wilderness and the trees as they were starting to display their fall colors. And I do mean remote, as we were lucky to have an outhouse, but no more. It was just the kind of weekend we needed.

Very early Saturday morning we hit the road and headed to our destination. We arrived just before noon, where we set up our campsite a hundred yards or so from a nice small lake amongst the other tents of our trout seeking group. The usual routine of setting up the tent, filling it with sleeping stuff and our clothes, camp chairs, setting up the new portable camp table so that we wouldn't have to use our cooking stuff on the ground as we have been doing in the past. I think this is a huge improvement to our camping adventures. Checked to make sure both the Coleman cook stove and lantern worked.

Then we grabbed a map since no one was around and canvased the area looking at potential streams to fish and doing a little off-roading. Apparently the red-dotted lines on the Delorme is used to mark ATV trails in addition to minimum maintenance roads. Oops! We went a little ways down one of the red-dotted lined "roads" and ended up backing our way out as an ATV raced toward us from behind. That was embarrassing. But, on a better note some of the red-dotted line roads were basically nice logging roads that I am familiar with seeing in northern Minnesota, which was comforting. We had a blast on our explorations and seldom did we find paved roads to follow along on nor other people. When we got back to camp, a few of our buddies where there that we knew and a few that were new to us. After some quick catching up and introductions, we headed down to Eli and Tara's campsite where they had set up right on the beach and had a good fire going for cooking supper. The feast, by the way, was fabulous. Appetizers made of wild game, pork loin cooked over the coals, summer veggies, and much much more. Stories, naturally, where shared around the campfire and lots of laughs were had among the 14 of us. It was a late night. :)

Sunday morning, after a making some hot cocoa and oatmeal, I got some guidance from Gimp as to where Jen and I could catch some trout. Jen and I tried one of the rivers for the first part of the day. It took about 20 minutes of driving into the woods off of a back road on to a forest "highway" (basically an un-groomed logging trail with a number indicating we could drive it). It was a slow moving river and crystal clear. Gorgeous right? Yup, very much so. And therefore hard to fish. The trout were spooky, so we had to cast longer distances and delicately. This ended up being a little too much for our patience level that morning so we moved on.

The second half of the day we spent on pocket water tucked in an old growth forest, with very little undergrowth and nice cool shade on a pretty warm day. Jen and I took turns catching brookie's and rainbows. None of them were very big, but there were a lot of them caught in their little pools and they were very mad that we caught them. They were true firecrackers of a fight for their little size, which I would say averaged around six to seven inches. We returned to camp for another feast and lively campfire conversations.

Monday morning, we had a quick breakfast, broke down camp, said some good byes, then headed off to a river about 20 minutes from camp. It was another pocket water river that gave up some brookie's to my #16 Royal Wulffs and #12 orange stimulator's. Which, by the way, almost all of the fish caught on Saturday were on #12 orange Stimulator's. After an hour or so, I returned back to the Tahoe, stopped for ice cream at a local tourist trap next to some water fall, and then we headed for home.

I'm glad we had three days for this trip, but I think making it a four day trip would have been a little better. I can't complain though, it was a good trip and the only casualty was that my Thermarest blew out. It was not really a surprise, as I use them a lot and these are getting pretty old. And with all the off-roading, the dirty truck escaped breaking down, flat tires, and almost getting into a situation that would have ripped out our rear axle.

I love fall!

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2009-09-01T23:39:00.002-05:00

Critter is now set up to go mobile with my blogging!
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Sunday with Bob and Josh

2009-07-27T21:07:00.005-05:00

So we (Bob, Josh, and myself) decided to float the St. Croix river and fish for smallies. It was a nice sunny day, mid 80's, and 7 miles of river we floated. Josh caught the only fish, a 21-incher only 10 minutes into a 6- hour float. Action was slow, and no one we ran into was having any luck either so it wasn't that we forgot how to fish or had too many beers. It was nice day to be out with friends regardless. This was Josh's biggest smallie he has caught so he was pretty pumped about that. Congrats Josh! The highlight for me was to see a five foot sturgeon in a foot of water as I stripped my fly in front of it, it turned away and bolt off as I'm pretty sure it wasn't happy with us about to float over it with the drift boat.

Fishing on the lake with Kate

2009-06-28T19:59:00.010-05:00

Weather: Sunny to Partly cloudy
Air Temp: mid to high 70's

Water Temp: 75 degrees

Wind: 15-25mph

A couple of weeks ago Kate and I decided we needed to set a day to go fly fishing together. With the memory of my last hot day of fishing in waders, I thought it be best to hit a lake. So today we went up to my parents lake home to try our hand fly fishing for bass and sunfish.

Kate arrived at my place at 9am, we transferred her stuff to my Tahoe, hit the gas station for a Snickers and Mountain Dew breakfast, and headed North. Along the way we may have gotten a little too into our conversation and we may have missed our exit. So with a couple of extra miles added to our commute we got to the parents house, loaded the boat and hit the water.

We found our first spot sort of out of the wind where we thought something would be on the north west side of the lake. It didn't take long for me to realize that I left a gear bag in the truck where my seven or eight boxes of bass flies. We fished for a little while with a lack of any activity we swung back by the house to pick up the bag-o-flies.

We returned back to the North side of the lake in a different lilly pad area that felt like it should have had something. I was sure I was on to something with three other fishing boats scattered about the area. But after an hour or so of nothing, we headed south to a connecting lake to try our luck.

We anchored at a spot that I have had a good history of catching bass and pan fish in. We started fishing and I got a hit. I pulled in what I thought would be a sunfish and it turned out to be an ok sized crappie. Score, I am no longer skunked....but wait, now Kate needs to get something. I landed two more crappies, when Kate delivered and landed a very peachy pastel colored sunfish. Very pretty specimen I thought. Kate lost a couple of good fish that were biting off her flies. We were having good success with dark colored (browns, blacks, etc) weighted Woolly Buggers fished deep at the bottom of the six feet of water that were in.

Then we had some excitement. I had switched from my 9 weight rod to my 6 weight rod with a brown bead head woolly bugger. I saw a flash of fish smash my fly and take it to the bottom. Some excited words jumped from my lips and Kate got excited! I carefully played the fish back up to see what it was as I was lazy and hadn't switched my leader on this rod setup to my lake leader from my 6x leader. I was sure that whatever this was, it would win. When it came up we saw that it was a very nice sized walleye. My fear of losing my catch fell to half of what it was. Yes it still has teeth, and yes I am still using what ever light test line a 6x leader is, but at least you can wear out a walleye a heck of a lot quicker than a pike.

He came up, and then went back down several times. I think we danced for close to four or five minutes, giving Kate plenty of time to reel in her line and get the net out from being tied into my vest at the bottom of the boat. With a successful landing, we measured it and it was my 2nd biggest walleye to date that I have caught. It came in at 22" and a mean toothy smile. We snapped a couple of quick pictures and returned him to the water. With only 15-20 seconds of reviving him, it took of to the deep water.

Who does that? Who goes fishing for bass and sunfish in shallow water and catches crappies and a big walleye...well, obviously "THIS GUY" does. That was well worth the overall slowness in fishing action we had. And I think anyone who knows me knows my opinion of walleyes does not match those of most Minnesotans, and I am still pumped about it anyways!

We fished a little bit longer, getting a couple more hits and losing a few more flies before we decided to head back to the dock and hang it up for the day. We had spent 5 hours in total out on the water, watching birds, cranes, pelicans, tons of dragon flies and damsel flies. Kate experienced her first time fly fishing out of a boat, and I think she walked away not afraid to try it again. Dad was awesome, not only did he let us take out his boat for the day, he fixed my weed whacker and barbecued hot dogs for us for luppper (late lunch/early supper).

I did get a lot fried today, I have applied lots of layers of Aloe, and we are not done yet for the day. Remember the flies that I left in the Tahoe...well, the 50 SPF sunscreen was in there too, but I guess that wasn't at the forefront of my mind. :)

Last weekend

2009-06-15T19:12:00.004-05:00

So I went fishing Friday, I can't give any details as I was sworn to secrecy by my anonymous liaison, but it was a lot of fun, and it was a lot of fun, and I am so lucky to have been able to have such a neat opportunity.

Now for stuff I can talk about...

Saturday Jen and I headed over to Wisconsin and went fly fishing. We got on the river to a spot I go to once in a while. Somehow half way through, my compass in my head broke. We may have gotten a little lost for about 45 minutes or so....and it was frigging hot. Walking in waders in 80 degrees in the middle of the woods, black flies, mosquito's....not so fun this time. This would have been the classic story that breaks people from ever going back again.

We eventually worked our way around back to the river...where we STARTED! Now I gotta say that this was only the 2nd time that I got that twisted around (a.k.a. LOST), but I was in no frame of mind for that this time. Last time I kind of enjoyed it. The major clue was seeing some old rusty commercial storage like things that could have been there for something legit....or not. It was kind of a funny place for them. And a funny little banjo was playing inside my head when we stumbled across this scene.

So no fish were caught, we were hot, and we REALLY enjoyed the A/C on the drive back home.

I think I might have to consider this to be an opportune time to switch over to fishing for warm water species now that Summer is upon us...maybe.

A Sunday with Dad

2009-06-07T19:15:00.003-05:00

So the morning started out overcast and misty, and 50 degrees F. Dad pulled into the drive way, where we grabbed his stuff and added it to my Tahoe that I packed up earlier with gear and beer. We were on the road a little after 7am to our first trout stream.

The mist let up along the drive, but the day remained overcast the whole time. We wadered up and surprisingly we didn't forget anything important. At the first spot I wanted to fish, there was spin fisherman who had already staked it out. We moved down to the next run and at the invitation of Bill, the son of the previous fisherman we saw. After a quick chat we tried our luck there.

I set dad up in position and coached him through his first casts with the fly rod. He worked his way through the stretch and had a few takes on wet flies which was fun. We continued to fish for awhile longer and then decided to move on to another river.

The second place was very scenic and loaded with red wing black birds singing away. we worked the water over coming back to a shallow run that had three different pods taking emergers. One pod under a tree, and the other two down stream. I managed to bring in a small brookie from under the tree, and dad had several strikes from the other two pods up until they all decided to ignore any of the offerings he cast to them. It was frustrating and fun all at the same time. By this time it was 12:30pm, so we headed over to Martel, WI where my St. Paul Fly Tiers were putting on a stream side lunch for club members and friends.

It was a good turnout, and I got to see many friends I hadn't seen in long while, as well as some I see regularly. Lunch was baked beans, chips, brats, and very good sour kraut. I introduced dad to many of the attendees, and yes he probably won't remember most of them; but it was still fun.

With brats in the bellies and legs rested, dad and I headed over and fished our final stretch of the day. I set him up with a nymph rig to see what would happen. He managed a few more strikes as well as bringing in an 8" brown as well as a 12" sucker.

We fished a little longer, but it was obvious to me by watching the fish below, that they had stopped feeding in this area. We called it a day and headed back towards home. When we went past the Martel bridge, I saw Jackie getting ready to go fishing, so we stopped in and chatted with her for the better part of a half hour. It was good to see her, I think the last time we got to talk was December or January. We said our good byes and went our separate ways.

Dad seamed happy, except for when he saw the turkeys waving at him in the fields. Something about not having been able to get one hunting yet or something along those lines.

Hopefully next time I can get him on some hungrier trout so that he can feel that magical tugging sensation on the other end of that funny fly rod thing.

First times

2009-05-30T20:13:00.015-05:00

I think it was around 1990 when I purchased my first fly rod at a garage sale for five bucks. Wasn't sure what to do with it at first. I learned to fish with it on lakes chasing sunfish, bass, and pike. Flash forward to 2003, I caught my first trout. Most of the credit for that goes to my friend Ben Hinz. His passion and stories inspired me to try out this trout thing. One day we met on the river and he talked me through every cast until it happened...I caught my first trout, a couple of brookies and a brown trout.

I bring this up because I remember how excited I was to actually catch a trout, and I remember how excited Ben was for me. Today I got the opportunity to be in Ben's shoes. I went fishing with my wife, ans she caught her first trout. She was so giddy, and I was so full of excitement for her that you'd a thought it was me catching my first trout all over again.

The trip started out as an exploratory mission to find some spots to fish that are more accessible and very easy to walk compared to my normal spots. The reasoning being that I have plans to take my dad out fishing next weekend and want things to go well.

We left early this morning and headed to my buddy Josh's house as he had a couple of place in mind for my mission. Josh showed us a few places on a map and then we followed him to a couple of nice picks that I think will do very nicely. We chatted afterwards for a bit and then he headed back home and we "wadered up." Jen has a pair of waders that are on loan from Jackie as she had an extra pair she borrowed when we tried to get her on trout one evening last year.

We rigged our rods up at the truck, I put on my fly vest, had a couple of last minute swigs of Mountain Dew and we headed down to the river. My predictions were that we'd be out there for four hours or so and only catch one fish and Jen would be board. I was wrong, wrong, wrong. We spent about five hours on the river, had lots of fun, and Jen caught her first trout. Six of them actually. Five rainbows and one brown.

She landed the first trout of the day with in a dozen casts using one of my favorite wet fly patterns on my old Redington 2-piece 5-weight rod. It was nice eight inch rainbow, that tolerated our celebratory "grip and grin" photos. That was Awesome! Her next fish, the one and only brown for the day, was caught shortly after around the bend after Jen missed several strikes and takes. The rest of the day just kinda flowed. I gave her some direction and suggestions, she listened and executed perfectly. Her catches were mostly in the six to eight range, with one ten incher in the mix.

There was a point where the wind was just getting too challenging to cast for her, and I wasn't fishing as I had planned this to out to be "Jen's day" on the river so we decided to head back. The walk back was nice, the weather was pretty good for normal people (mid 70's and cloudless skies - YUCK!).

After getting out of our waders we had a late lunch at a typical local WI bar, which I love. Jen was very proud of her accomplishments of the day, and I proud of her too. We followed up lunch with scouting out a few spots on a couple of other rivers and chatting with some locals on the river. It was a good day on the river.

Next weekend...

2009-05-26T20:53:00.004-05:00

I know, right. I have only been back a little over 24 hours and I have already worked out my fishing plans for the next two weekends.

I have emailed a buddy for some camping recommendations.

I've arranged a day to take my dad out and hopefully catch his 2nd trout.

I have checked out a few maps of a river I am new to.

And, I've updated the Fly Tier's website, so that should be good for a week or two.

All I have left is to re-stock my thingamabob supply and tie up some more wet flies to replenish what I left in the brush and snags from last weekend.

This work thing is really getting in the way.

Memorial Weekend

2009-05-25T23:47:00.010-05:00

Saturday:
Saturday morning Jen and I woke up at 5:30am, hopped in the shower and then hit the road at 6am. The morning drive went smoothly, it was scenic, and had intermittent periods of light rain. We arrived in Viroqua, WI and stopped in at the Driftless Angler for some local intel on hatches and fly patterns. We picked up, a few flies, and a great shirt that says "your skills suck and your fly is ugly." I love it!

Five miles later we arrived at the West Fork Sportsmans club campground in Avalanche and found our Troutfest campsite. Attendee’s for the occasion were: Kevin Biegler, Steve Carlton, Michelle Sparrow, Kevin the Intern, Sara and Mike Sanford, Ed T. (with his dogs Sasha & Willow).

We set up our camp before the rain started and I hurried into my waders. Steve was a big help in recommending four different rivers to try out in the area. I hit the river in the campground first since I was kind of in a ‘brookie’ mood. I was not able to land any trout, but I had about a dozen takes. It rained most of the late morning to early afternoon and then it subsided for the remainder of the day. It was a nice overcast day, perfect for chasing trout. After a couple of hours I went back to the truck and checked out the map. We headed out and moved on to try Bishop’s creek.

It was a nice little creek. I lost count of how many browns I caught, but there was no real size to any of them. I fished this creek for a couple of hours and then headed back to camp. We convened around the campfire for brats, beverages, and friendly banter that lasted till a little before midnight.

Sunday:
I awoke at 6am, made some tea over the single burner Coleman camp stove, and grabbed the Delorme along with my Wisconsin fishing guidebook. Jenny and I decided to take off around 7am to check out the South fork of Bad Axe (which turned out to be muddy and UN-fishable). So we moved on to the North Fork of Bad Axe and fished the habitat improvement section for a couple of hours (the water started to clear by the time I left but it was still pretty stained. I resorted to using streamers to entice a couple of strikes, otherwise no action occurred, except for the cinnamon colored white tail deer that I spooked up out of the brush from about 15 yards away. That was a startle as I was pretty fixated on the steam rather than looking for deer.

Jen and I had lunch out of the back of the Tahoe at 11:30am, grabbed the map, and decided to finish out the day on the Timber. I had a few takes and hooked in to a very nice, but educated, brown trout. I drifted an olive soft hackle caddis with an olive sparkle scud through a fast run right up against a lunker structure. I saw shadow move out from the spot, but my indicator did not move. I set the hook anyway because I just had a feeling. The line got tight and the fight got under way. The brown shot back to his hiding spot in the lunker structure and didn’t move. I worked the rod from one side and then the other trying to work him back out into the river. Then he finally did move out and raced down the river a ways turned around and came back up the river ahead of his hiding spot by about ten feet and then he came back down into his spot where he broke my line off. It was a fun fight, and felt like a respectable trout. I really liked the feel and the character of this river, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to fish it again some time. After losing my last sparkle scud and my last Thingamabobber, Jen and I went into town, for a cool Culver’s treat since the day had warmed up so much, and I then returned to camp.

For the remainder of the late afternoon, I fished the river in the campground, and caught a couple of nice browns on a royal streamer out of a little feeder creek that joins the main branch. On the walk back, I picked up some ones large empty McDonalds coffee cup…it was nice to have them walk it in a mile and a half to drink it, and not have the energy to bring it back after its been almost emptied.

Halfway back I had a sparrow chewing me out for some reason and diving at me. Maybe he wanted the last couple sips of the cold McDonalds coffee, but I can’t be sure since I don’t speak ‘bird.’ He was miffed and I kept it away by waving my fly rod at her as she kept circling me to the point I were I started getting dizzy. I must have spun around ten or twelve times. Finally it landed on a shrub and let me continue on my way.

I cooked up some baked beans and kernel corn for supper, while the others cooked up some big steaks and burgers. I was surprised we didn’t have any visitors of the raccoon variety stop in to pay us visit. A glass of Woodford reserve on the rocks in one hand and a Hampton Court cigar in the other, I was set of for a relaxing evening at the campfire. Everyone seemed to be in spirits. Even Steve, who was trying to figure out packing arrangements to get back home as his ride had left camp early due to having pink eye. One by one people headed off to bed and at midnight I decided it was time for a little shuteye as well.

Monday:
I rolled out of bed around 7:30am and drifted over to sit by the morning campfire that ‘Kevin the intern’ started up. Some morning small talk and with the urge to try to wake up, I fired up my camp stove. The morning menu was hot tea for myself, instant cappuccino for Jen, and oatmeal for the both of us.

After breakfast we packed up camp, jump-started Kevin’s car, and the swung by Viroqua. We filled up with petro, grabbed a couple salty snacks for the road, and paid a quick visit to the Driftless Angler fly shop. We then headed for the border for a scenic drive by the Mississippi up through Lacrosse, WI and headed home from there.

It was a relaxing time and I am glad that we decided on doing this even though it was a last minute decision. But it’s the last minute trips that have almost always turned out very rewarding for Jen and myself. I hope everyone else had a happy Memorial Day as well.

Critter

Recycled Waders

2009-05-22T21:51:00.005-05:00

Pretty much everyone on the planet is aware of the movement of "Going Green," from the auto maker trying to use it for gimmicky marketing purposes, or the guilt ridden office worker in a cube farm, or true conservationist. Well, for those who are riding the "Green" train and don't know what to do with their old breathable waders there is a new company in town that can help you out. The company is called RECYCLED™ Waders.

They take used breathable waders that are no longer functional and transform them into wallets, backpacks, etc. You can donate your waders or be on the cutting edge of your Green friends and own your own recycled accessory. Check it out for yourself at http://www.recycledwaders.com/.

(This is an FYI only, and does not constitute an endorsement of any kind as I have not had any interaction with the company as of yet. I just found it interesting and thought I would share.)

Last minute decision

2009-05-21T22:42:00.007-05:00

Starting Tuesday, my wife and I had several indecisive conversations about what to do with our three day Memorial weekend. Tonight we decided that we would go to Troutfest in Avalanche, WI and hang out with some people we know, and some we don't. I have been to the that part of the Wisconsin only once before. It was a rainy but incredibly scenic weekend.

So naturally, we want to leave right after work tomorrow for the three and a half hour drive so that we have a little light to set up our tent by. So I decided to skip tonight's Fly Tier's meeting and we went straight to work by unloading spinning gear and tackle boxes that were still in the Tahoe from the previous crappie fishing trip at the parents.

Jen made her fabulous peanut butter cheerio bars and packed clothes. I rounded up the camping gear, fly fishing gear, cameras, and checked the cat food supply. Baily is so not impressed that this will be our second long weekend in a row with out her. She'll get over it, she is a cat, and that's why we got her instead of a dog.

We made a trip up to the grocery store so that we would have some camping appropriate meals like canned beans, veggies, hash, and sandwich makings. After that, we hit Barnes & Nobel quick where Jen picked up a few books for the weekend.

We have a short list of things that we need to do tomorrow, like buying ice, Wisconsin Fishing License, getting cash, and we are set to head to the campground. The forecast does say that there is possibly rain on Saturday and Monday, but I am gambling that it won't be bad enough to spoil the weekend.

Have a great weekend everybody and tight lines to all!

Turkey Hunting

2009-05-17T21:25:00.014-05:00

The cast of characters:

My dad, my father-in-law (Martin), Jen's cousins husband (Steve), and myself.

So Thursday night on the way down to my in-laws, I get a call from Steve. He called to say that he had bagged a turkey with a bow! Dad was with him had got to see it. This was great news and gave me high hopes for the weekend hunt!

Friday morning:

We got up at some early hour, and headed out to the blinds. We saw a hen going along the edge and disappear in to the woods. A little later we saw another hen running across the field attacking a crow. That was odd. We then saw a hen and a tom down in the middle of the field. We tried to call them in, but the hen wanted nothing to do with us, and the tom was pretty much focused on the hen. They meandered to the opposite side of the field for some privacy, and that was the end of our morning hunt.

Friday evening came we were back in the blind but it was disrupted with someone who decided to disc the field that we were hunting over. We didn't see anything after that.

Saturday: Early morning we headed out to the blinds, the winds were heavy, and all life seemed to have vanished. There were no song birds, squirrels, turkeys or even field mice all morning. We saw one lonely hen in the far off distance in the woods and that was it for the whole morning.

After lunch we stopped in to see Grandma Ester at the nursing home and chatted for awhile and teased the other residents. It was a good time and Grandma seemed very happy to have had us drop in.

Saturday evening was even worse for activity, it was absolutely dead and winds were still strong and constant. With predictions of a very cold morning we decided to call it quits and pull the blinds.

Even though there was only one turkey bagged out of three hunters (the father in-law had already hunted earlier in the year), it was a good time. After dinner Steve and I enjoyed Spotted Cows, Naked Squirrels, and nice cigars out on the porch watching the star filled sky.

Sunday:

The family had breakfast together. The family being Dad, Jens parents, Steve & Rita, Jen and myself. Steve, Rita, and dad packed up and headed out after breakfast while Jen and I headed over to visit her grandma Edna. After a short visit we let her go back to sleep and we headed home to so that we could catch the Chicago/Detroit playoff hockey game.

ready, set, go!

2009-05-13T22:00:00.003-05:00

Time off for Friday verified...check
Wisconsin Turkey License purchased...check
Clothes packed for the weekend...check
Hunting clothes and gear packed...check
Boots packed...check
Shotgun and Ammo...check check
New camera packed...check
Bills paid before leaving...check
Celebratory cigars packed...check check check
Wife coming with me...check

What am I forgetting......

Evening Crappies

2009-05-09T23:19:00.002-05:00

Today I had the chance to mess around with new camera. I was able to take pictures of geese, mallards, various finches, flowers etc.

Dad and I headed out in his boat around 6pm-ish for his spot he had for some crappies. We fished for about 20 minutes before we got our first bite, then things heated up. Besides getting our limit on crappies with in the following 1.5 hours, dad forgot we were fishing for crappies and also landed one smallllll bass, a 12" walleye, and something else that he lost before we could see what it was. We were using slip bobber's and minnows in about three to four feet of water.

We headed back to the dock at dusk, and fillet our crappies so that they will be ready to eat tomorrow. That should be tasty!

Evening before MN opener

2009-05-09T00:20:00.002-05:00

Friday afternoon we rushed home from work, packed the Tahoe for a weekend of fishing at the parents, stopped at Trails End for fishing licenses and new mono for the spinning reels, hit the liqueur store for some adult beverages (Lakemaid beer, and Dry Fly Vodka), stopped at the gas station to fill up, and swung by Wendy's for a quick supper on the go. Half way through the drive, I realized I forgot the new camera on the kitchen counter.

About three miles from my parents place there were turkeys in a field. On the road there was a truck pulled over to the side of the road watching them, and we pulled over too. There was a hen and two Toms in full strut. It was cool to see, then I noticed a black dot at the far end of the field.

The dot was moving towards the two Toms and there appeared to be blue head. I grabbed my binoculars and saw that it was a very nice mature Tom with a beard that almost hit the ground. He was heading fast towards the two Toms, which were heading towards him at a fast pace too. When they met up to each other the two younger Toms that had respectable beards attacked the older one. The older one fought back and this went on for about ten minutes back and forth. The older one gave up and walked away, the two Toms turned around to look for the hen. When they spotted her, they started off towards her and we decided to leave at that point.

It was really cool and hopefully when I go turkey hunting next weekend in south central Wisconsin, I'll get my chance to see another nice Tom that matched their size and bag one. I told dad about what Jen and I witnessed as we re-spooled new line on three of the four rods to prepare for tomorrow. Prelim reports are that their is little sunfish activity, crappies are hot in the evenings, and not sure about what the pike are doing. I guess we will find out soon enough.

Good luck to all the fisherman going out this weekend!

Kiap-TU-Wish meeting

2009-05-06T21:29:00.009-05:00

So I was able to make it to the May meeting of Kiap-TU-Wish chapter of Trout Unlimited tonight to see a presentation on the State of the local trout waters. It has been a while since I've been down to the chapter meeting, but was warmly greeted by several friends and familiar faces. The meeting was held at it's usual place in downtown Hudson, WI at Bob Smith's Sports Club.

Before the presentation began, there were some quick updates as to the chapters budget, up coming stream work projects that will be taking place in the next few weeks through the summer, and a recap of the very successful 2009 river clean up that was coordinated by Sarah Sanford. There were a record number of volunteers that showed up with a steep decline in the amount of junk collected in prior years. I think that is nothing short of excellent news! Also, I was one of the winners of the door prizes they gave out for attending. I won 6 flies (Tellico Nymphs) tied by Perry Palin that were very nicely tied. Thanks to Kiap-TU-Wish and to Perry, I promise I will field test these flies soon, just to make sure they work.

The speaker for this special event was Marty Engel (WI DNR Fisheries Biologist) who put on a wonderful slide show, full of stats, historical references, and a little fish porn. I am glad I was able to attend. The next monthly meeting will be later in the fall, till then I will have to try to make one of the volunteer work days to help out.

Nikon D60

2009-05-05T22:42:00.006-05:00

While I was out in Montana on vacation, my buddy who owns Martie Motors in Zimmerman, MN sold my bass boat for me. I've been wanting something different for a while now, so I was happy to send it off to someone who will appreciate it more than I did. Only one hiccup so far, and that is the title I signed over was only for the boat, apparently there was one for the trailer too. So I'll have to straighten that out now for the new owner.

Part of the cash from the sale of the boat went to purchasing a new digital SLR, which I have been wanting to get for over three years now. The rest of the sale proceeds are going towards grown up stuff.

I am excited to start using my new Nikon D60 on my outdoor adventures, especially since I can use most of my lenses that I had bought for my other Nikon's (N80 and FM10). The best thing about the digital SLR for me is seeing the results instantly and making adjustments if needed. It is so nice for when you are taking a few shots in some place you know you will not be able to make it back to, and crossing your fingers that you got the shot. I so should have went to college for photography and writing. Then I could have been paid to travel around the globe, fly fishing, taking great photo's, and then write about the adventures.

It should be a fun summer learning and playing with the new purchase and a good excuse to leave the house for more often.

Bumper Stickers

2009-04-30T01:15:00.001-05:00

I was looking for some videos of emerging insects for no real particular reason other than curosity that was generated by Jim's conversations on bugs and his portrait photography of them. In my search I found a great bumper sticker that is sold on the website of TroutNut.com Check it out!

Home...

2009-04-29T15:05:00.002-05:00

We departed camp at 12:30pm yesterday and headed for home. The drive went smoothly, stopped for supper at Applebee's around 9pm, and arrived at Anderson's house at 4:30am. After unloading the skiff and Anderson's stuff, I headed over to Feiker's house to drop him off. I arrived at home at 5:15am, and to my surprise found that the house key I had on me was not the right one. Luckily, Jen heard me knock on the door and she even let me in.

Jen went to work, and I slept till 11am before Bailey decided it was time to snuffle my whole face and wake me up with by tickling my face with her whiskers.

I showered, unpacked, and now I am off to the Fly Angler in Fridley to bring in my 4wt rod for repair. The reel seat is loose on it and no longer is able to hold my fly real securely. This will be the second time the reel seat on this particular rod has given me difficulty.

Packing it up

2009-04-28T10:21:00.001-05:00

With a grim weather forecast for today, we decided to pack up a day early and head for home, so we will be scrambling around here for the next couple of hours getting everything rounded up, settling some of the bills, and prepping for a non-stop drive back to Minnesota.

Monday

2009-04-28T00:30:00.001-05:00

Water: 38 degrees
Temp: 51 degrees
Weather: better than expected

We floated A to 3 today, from 11:30am to 8:30pm. Nothing spectacular to report. We had hints of dry fly action, but nothing to write home about, some were caught on nymph rigs as well. There may have been a short nap on the bank while waiting for the BWO action that never developed. The fish are just mean and not playing well with us or anyone else in camp. Size 18 Ray Charles in tan, grey, and natural still seem to be the best bet for catching trout. Today's total was 3 brown trout landed by myself and no success on the drys.

Yesterday

2009-04-27T08:57:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we hit decided to float A to 3. We hit the river around 10:30 or so, and when we started floating down, most of the fishing spots were taken. There were boats and fisherman everywhere. We managed to find a spot a good ways down. We got out of the boat to start fishing and then the weather got crappy. It started to rain and sleet and the temperature was crashing. Then the sleet stopped for a few minutes, and then started up again and the sky was getting darker. We jumped in the boat, floated the rest of the the way to 3 mile landing, and got off the river.

Thinking things would be better to fish in the afternoon, we headed up to Hardin, MT for beer and groceries. More for the beer than the groceries, but what did you expect from a group of displaced fly fisherman. The trip killed a few hours, and when we returned things had not changed much, rain, no rain, sleet, no sleet...so we had some pickled herring, crackers, sliced cheese, and Bloody Marys made with Scorpion Sting hot sauce for lunch. We moved over to the living room and watched a few movies and before we knew it the sun had set and another day of fishing had passed.

Feiker and I made tacos for dinner, and the Bob's both proceeded to use large amounts of Scorpion Sting on their food, to which had some repercussion on Bob F. later on that night. So Anderson deemed Feiker a little girlie-man. Hilarious, something to be said for a guy swallowing hot lava!

This morning is overcast and chilly, with no plans made yet as to what we are doing. We have today and tomorrow left for fishing here before we head back to Minnesota.

Things may be changing...

2009-04-25T22:47:00.002-05:00

Temp: 49 degrees
Wind: tolerable
Water: 39 degrees
Weather: partly sunny

We floated 3 to B today, the weekend rental boats were out in force. We hit a few spots, and floated ahead of them. We parked at pipeline and sat and napped a little on the bank for several hours waiting and hoping to see heads rise for all the midges that were blanketing the surface.

Nothing ever materialized, but it was nice to hang out, drink beer and snooze in the sun. We decided to move on around 4pm to see find a good a place to nymph. We hit two or three places, then settled in not to far up river from Craig Matthews place (of Oakley). We hit the jackpot, and it was a lot of fun. I landed one nicely colored brown, and 7 nice rainbows, I had about a dozen more takes as well. The ticket seemed to be #18 orange Ray Charles. The Bob's were doing just as well, and we were all having a great time. We called it quits at about 8pm as it was getting to dark and we had a mile and a half to go before the landing.

I do want to take a second and raise my glass to my buddy Barber John, who is pulling through his operation and to say that on most the fish we landed tonight, we shouted out our favorite Quote of Barber John which is "Make 'em pay!" And we did. :) We miss you John!

Also, to my wife, cell phone service still sucks out here, but that is supposed to change later this summer, so that's good news for when I retire out here in August. :)

The Front came through

2009-04-24T20:30:00.001-05:00

Temp: 43 degrees
Water: 39 degrees
Weather: overcast with light winds
Flow: 3,500 cfs

The damn was opened up a little further again and we are up to 3,500 cfs. Which I think between the flows being adjusted every couple of days and the changing weather is causing our catching to be a little more challenging then years past. The front came through last night. We woke to an inch of snow with light flurries most of the morning. We had numerous cups of coffee, and headed up the Bighorn fly shop for fly tying materials.

We tied the secret flies of the we were short on over the next several hours, and then hit the river around 3pm. Reports around camp were that their was some dry fly action on river, so we armed ourselves accordingly. There were significant numbers BWO's and midge clusters , but our trout were obviously keyed in on something else as we fought hard to get their attention with very little reward. Bob F. was the only one to connect and land a brown.

Tonight, Thor is making supper with Sharon as the assistant as she is supplying desert. She did caution that it would not be near as good as the cereal bars Jenny had sent with us out here, which was a much bigger hit then I thought it would be.

Time to go warm up the toes and nose.

P.S.
I just received an email from my buddy Steve that after years he got his first turkey with a bow. 18 yd shot. Head on in full strut. Weighed in at 17lbs. It was a bearded hen! CONGRATS STEVE!

A cold ride from 3 mile to B

2009-04-23T20:53:00.001-05:00

Temp: 45 degrees
Water temp: 41 degrees
Wind: 15-25 mph
Wind chill: damn cold

We ran 3 to B today and started about 10:30am. We caught some browns today and it was a nice relief to know that we still knew what we were doing. The clouds and wind and temperature drop all moved in with a front that hit us around 2pm. We fished till around 3:30pm and decided to row straight though to the end as the front was coming in so fast you could watch the mountains disappear into the clouds and snow or rain coming down on them. We exited at 6pm and headed back to camp with the heater on high.

Sharon was quick to make all of us with hot buttered rum. And it was eagerly excepted by all. I had some significant shivering going on by then and wasted no time changing clothes and taking in my first encounter of hot buttered rum...I could do those again.

Now we are munching on crackers and chatting. Tonight we the gang has made reservations at the restaurant connected to the Bighorn Fly fishing shop at 9pm. The menu will be salmon and lots of smiles. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Anderson made us all laugh so hard that Jim actually had to leave the room twice to spit out his drink we were all laughing so hard.

Reports have come in that Bozeman has been hit hard and fast with snow, and that it will hit us tonight and tomorrow. So a day of tying flies and hanging out may be the itinerary for tomorrow for most of us. Rod will be taking off early in the morning for Minnesota. So trout camp will be less one more. I am excited though as Rod has opened an invitation to me to come up and visit him later on this year.

3 to B Trial run

2009-04-22T21:04:00.001-05:00

Water: 40F
Wind: less then yesterday
Temp: 80F

Still no dry fly action today, and the nymphing was exactly going either. Midges are starting to gain momentum, but some forgot to send the memo to the trout. It was a nice day for a float if nothing else. The afternoon we stopped at my favorite dry fly place on the river along with Jim and Sharon, and watched intently for something to unfold. Anderson and I had a cigar and we all had a beer as we watched Sharon take a couple of casts at a couple of finicky risers.

Nothing else too exciting happened today. Tomorrows weather forecast is predicting bad weather, hopefully that will be the ticket to get the fish active.

Another Windy day in paradise.

2009-04-21T23:35:00.000-05:00

Temp: 82 F
Wind: 20-25 mph
Weather: Sunny

The Bob’s and I floated in the drift boat, with Rod in his kick boat from Afterbay to 3 mile today. Winds were strong and challenging today. No dry fly action to speak of, so we nymphed a couple open spots today. The first place we tried was uneventful, but the next spot fixed that. We got into a stretch of water that had a nice weed line and a couple of buckets. We all caught fish off of various midges, and landed mostly browns. I did have a couple of rainbows that I hooked and they took me for a ride and I was unsuccessful at landing them. They seemed to like the green weenie with a red midge dropper. We moved on and ended up at the Minnesota hole where we chatted with Brad who was hanging out with a fishing buddy (Dorothy). We headed back to camp for an afternoon break and a little lunch.

6:30pm:
The wind died off considerably and we jumped into our waders and bolted down to a spot near the cottonwood hole. And there we were…it was so awesome. The four of us, armed with our dry fly rods, standing in line about 50 yards in between each of us in a straight line, knee deep in the river, facing up-stream. The sun was setting, we were covered in midges, and we all just stood there…rods ready in one hand, our chosen fly in the other, waiting…watching the rings, analyzing what we were seeing, and then one by one, we selectively chose our targets and played our game.

And while I didn’t catch any fish, it was one of the best fish-less evenings I have had in years.

A Windy day in Paradise

2009-04-20T21:14:00.001-05:00

After a semi early night last night, we woke to fresh coffee and crisp mountain air. This was going to be pretty good day.

Anderson, Rod and Henry floated Afterbay to 3-mile landing this morning and caught a few. This was Henry's last day out here before returning home in the afternoon. Feiker and I hiked over to the Minnesota hole to try our luck. We spent a three hours there and returned to the parking lot so that we could get a lift back to camp. I did manage to land three brown trout, two on the Green Weenie and one on a Brassie.

After hanging out at camp we ventured into man-town to pick up supplies at the grocery store and to check out the Bighorn Fly Shop. They of course had a couple of things I just had to have and I of course was happy to help support them. We headed back to camp and tied flies waiting waiting for the wind to die down, which it did...after the sun went down.

So we improvised and tied some flies, then Jim and Sharon came over with chairs and beverages in hand. Sharon also treated us to some awesome shrimp she had been marinating since yesterday! I did manage to get the recipe and will be trying it myself when I return home.

Feiker broke out some gifts for the the 2009 attendees, which were t-shirts, bottle openers to hang around our necks, and key chain bottle openers compliments of some SMIRNOFF vodka Reps!

Now it's time to settle in with some cocktails, continue sharing stories, and have a cigar. This is great.

My vacation is here!

2009-04-19T17:32:00.000-05:00

Last night myself and Bob Feiker and Bob Anderson departed St.Paul, MN at 8pm and headed straight through to the Bighorn River, MT after having barbecued burgers compliments of Sandy. The weather held out and we avoided the predicted rain. However, there was a 40 mile stretch or so of thick fog that made things interesting.

We pulled into Hardin, MT around 9:30am for a hearty breakfast and break from the road. Afterwards we hit the grocery store for supplies and to pick up an assortment of locally made beer. We forged on and arrived at the Cottonwood Camp at 11:30am, unpacked and settled in with friends we expected to be here (Rod, Thor, and Henry O.) and also to our surprise we bumped in to some other friends we didn't expect to be here (Jim Schollmeyer and Sharon of www.myflies.com). Sharon made a killer nacho appetizer, and Feiker is currently grilling up some burgers. I'm looking forward to chilling out tonight and can't wait to start chasing rainbows tomorrow!

2009-04-15T06:59:00.001-05:00

Yes! Three days, and I will be on the road heading out to the Big Horn River in Montana to chase healthy spunky rainbows with friends. I have been packed since last weekend with about half my stuff already in the back of the Tahoe. I am so ready to escape and take a break from my current 'issues' and go have some fun.

Minneapolis Great Waters Fly Expo

2009-03-14T00:18:00.001-05:00

So last weekend was the Great Waters Fly Fishing Expo in Minneapolis. Other than myself being in out of sorts most of the weekend with so much on my mind as of late, the show was a fun one.

The club had great representation at the show. We had members volunteer their time in many areas. There were three banquet tables where people could come and sit down, and with hands on teaching, learn could learn to tie Woolly Buggers. This was the second year the club did this and it was a big success. A huge thanks goes out to those who took on the teacher role for that. We had a Membership table for those interested in learning more about the St. Paul Fly Tiers, and we were able to get our name out their to new people. We had a designated booth set up to allow selected members of the club to tie two at a time and demonstrated how to tie various flies; from trout flies to bass flies and things in between.

Then their was the Fly Tying Theater. This was a place for notable key fly tier's like Kevin Feenstra, Kelly Gallop, Denis Potter, and others to tie flies in front of a large audience, hooked up to a PA system and a video camera to show what they were doing on a big wide screen television. There were several sessions where all the seats were filled and had others standing to watch and learn.

Finally we generally kept tabs on Fly Tier's row where local tier's were able to set up a spot, tie flies, share their knowledge, talent, stories, and even a few laughs. I'd also like to give a quick shout out to my peeps of Laughing Trout!

I had a nice time talking to many familiar friends, and new ones. It was a more relaxed show, people held longer conversations then what I have had in the past, there was genuine interest rather than the quick hi-bye conversations, and the weather for the weekend was very "spring."

A couple of highlights were, 1) sharing drinks and cigars among old and new friends. I'd like to say thanks to the very friendly and funny TFO Representative (I think his name was John) who shared his Baccarat cigars (I kept the label as I really liked it) and smooth Kentucky Woodford Reserve bourbon. 2) The traditional Breakfast at the Hotel Sofitel where we spoil ourselves with things like eggs Benedict or crab cakes Benedict and as always, Ursula was there to add her unique flavor of friendly customer service as usual, and 3) I enjoyed a nice social dinner at Kincaid's in Edina. Any place that has that many choices in high end liqueur, mounted trophy Elk and Deer Racks with trophy fish, and Professional Wait Staff, is 5 stars in my book. Oh yea, the fantastic appetizer spread along with the Salmon entree was excellent as well. They were presented in a way that the Iron Chefs on the Food Network would have approved. I especially appreciated that my friend Peter was able to join us along with Bob White. Many stories were shared and laughs had.

I did tie some flies myself at the show. I decided to tie up some tube flies for some yet to be found hungry bass. I was asked by many what the the advantage of tube flies were. Well, I have found there to be three reasons, 1) you can use shorter shanked hooks to decrease the leverage a hooked fish would have in the fight, 2) the fly itself pops out of the way when a fish is hooked, thus allowing for less wear on the fly to lengthen it's usefulness, and 3) they have origins rooted back to the Scandinavian countries of my family heritage (kind of a connect to your roots thing for me). And there you have it...tube flies.

So now that the expo season has wrapped up, and the Sportsman's Warehouse tying event has been cancelled, it is time to shift to the preparation of fly fishing now that the Wisconsin catch & release season is underway.

Wishing Tight Lines to everyone in 2009!

Chill'n

2009-02-15T22:13:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Jen and I stopped by The Fly Angler to spend some dollars as part of personal economic stimulus package to pick up some tying stuff and check on the boys. Bryan was there and the store was busy, which made me happy. I gotta make sure that my fly shop survives these stormy economic times.

Later on in the evening, I started to do a little straighting out of the fly tying room around 9pm, and decided I was done around 2:30am or so. I guess I just got into a grove, but I got a lot of organizing and clean up done even though it doesn't look much different.

Today, I actually spent some time tying some midges. I had the iPod going, a nice cup of tea, and the company of the cat. I also assembled a couple dozen flies that I will deliver to Andy of the St. Paul Fly Tiers who is collecting flies from the club to be donated to the Hiawatha chapter of Trout Unlimited for part of their annual Conservation Banquet (to be held March 28th, 2009 at the Radisson Hotel in Rochester). I spent a majority of the day in the tying room and it was exactly what I needed. I may get some more tying done as we have a company holiday tomorrow for Presidents day, but I have a lot to do for work so I plan on doing that for awhile from home. Overall a nice weekend with the misses and I hanging around home made for a nice rested weekend.

Minnesota Morning

2009-01-16T07:26:00.000-06:00

Warm Green Tea and -21 degrees outside again this morning....brrr.