I Surrender!!! Back to Fly Tying Table...

I was holding out as long as I could - I figured if I didn't admit it, it wouldn't happen. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I can no longer deny that Winter is here. Yeah the Winter Solstice has come and gone and the days are getting longer again - but there is that 'temperature lag' thing and recently it has been WAY TOO cold (Lake Newport, my personal Bluegill heaven is frozen over).So what does the settling in of winter mean to me? At least in the last couple of years, it means spending more time tying flies. Not the one or two flies that I will be using that day, but tying more for the days ahead. So I give up the idea that winter is going to be mild and the fishing is going to hang on and I am moving towards the goals of completing maintenance on the reels and rods, tying flies and remembering warmer days. Here are the first (more than two in quantity) flies off the vise - a tiny black foam sabiki, a peacock hurl micro bugger, a gray foam back beadhead sabiki and two Cheech's Low Fat Minnows (instructions from www.flyfishfood.com) - entertain me by letting me go down a separate rabbithole for a second - I love flytying for a few reasons. First, it is way less expensive to tie your own than to have to go to the fly shop everytime you need a fly. Second, assembling flies means you must first understand how they are phased - what pieces are tied on first, second and so on; this really satisfies the engineer in me. Third and perhaps the most enjoyable reason - the names that people give to their flies always makes me laugh - Cheech's Low Fat Minnow!!! Alright back out of the rabbithole... These Cheech Minnows are tied to resemble the Shad I see swimming in the shallows - give the predators what they want - and they will reward you a game of tug-o-war. Tomorrow's forecast is calling for 100% rain - but lighter in the morning just when the magic '2 hours after the high tide' time occurs. I'll be stringing up the Orvis Superfine Glass 3wt and the Tadpole 6wt I've got to see if I can dredge up some 'hungry for shad' bass... Stay tuned for the results (and impending vise poo - what stuff comes off my vise...)

Recycling Old Clothes to Make Rod Socks

La helped me make a rod sock for one of the flyrods that didn't have one. Old clothes (or old outdated uniforms) make awesome material stocks for small projects like this. Threading the surger was intimidating and kicked our butts. And this is absolute proof that making something camouflage makes it even better than it would have been if it were just plain - at least three times better, maybe even four X... I sewed the button on and made the final stitches up the center to separate the rod pieces. I had a couple of PVC pipe rod tubes for the tenkara rods I have, but haven't been using (I am pretty anal with my stuff so I haven't been placing the tenkara rods in the tubes - just haven't needed to put them in there when I've been as careful as I am) - the PVC is just a few inches too short. I'll fix that with a trip to Home Depot and a hack saw. Pretty nifty if you ask me (and a big MA-HA-LO to La for the surger and high end sewing machine tutorial) ;)

Release the Kraken!!! And Release the Hello Kitty Cooking Spoon Holder!!!!

It's a common occurrence to fear the Kraken - why who would want to die a watery death of impalement by spiked squid suckers followed by being ripped apart by an aquatic parrot beak??? But the real fear factor should be in avoiding the magnetic attraction of the Hello Kitty Plate transformed into a skull sucking Stove Top Cooking Spoon Holder... Oh the humanity!!!!!! Seriously - this is more evidence we thoroughly enjoyed painting ceramics again this weekend!!! We actually spent 3.5 hours painting - don't knock it until you try it (and plan well - if you are going to make awe-inspiring pirate paraphernalia, make sure you know how to spell "Kraken" and what the color of "Hello Kitty" eyes are (brown))!

Blog Logo

We had so much fun painting ceramic during Noe's birthday - we decided to go back for another round! I had hoped to get waves and a legendary fish (not just any fish mind you) into the final painted version - but the brushes and detail applicatory needles were not fine enough to get the detail I was looking for. Despite the equipment driven change of plans, I think the tile pre-glazed turned out AWESOME!!! We'll get it back this weekend. So after several years of writing this blog and capturing all the fine amphibious endeavors for posterity (or as long as civilized man keeps the power grid and internet running), I have finally settled on a logo. Now to figure out how to apply the picture to the blog...

New Hand Plane

This was a Christmas present from Charlie Bisgard - I've seen him working on these hand planes and a bunch of standup paddles in his garage over the past year. I gave him a Mark V Diver being chased by a huge octopus print by Thor from Hawaii. I can't wait to try this out (but the water is going to have to get a lot warmer first...)Or maybe I can take a trip out to Hawaii...

Neck Gaiter or the Winter Weight Buff

My third knitting project. A neck gaiter for those oh so cold mornings. This was the first project I did knitting in the round (used circular needles). The first 10 rows and the last 10 were sewn purling, everything in between was knitted. I used the entire 210 yard skein plus a little of a second one I had of this cool colored 100% wool yarn. The color looks exactly like the US Marine woodland camo pattern (same colors as, not digital). As you all know, camo is one of my favorite colors ;) I am going to use double ended needles on the next project - a fly rod tube sock - to continue my quest to learn more with each project.

Fiberglass Fly Rod Sampler

Here is the DC/Northern Virginia/Maryland area, there is a webgroup called the Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders. There is a forum where you can get information on places to fish, what is being caught, what equipment is out there, what flies are working and who is out there fishing. Recently, there has been a few people trying to line up a casting session where you bring what fiberglass equipment you have and you get to try what everyone else brings. Despite the really cold temperatures this morning (12 degree F), four of us on the forum got together to cast. I brought the D. Lewis Performance Rods 6'6" 3/4wt 3 piece, the C. Barclay Glass 3wt 3 piece, and the Orvis Superfine Glass 7'0" 3wt. Lucky for me I am not a person concerned with my image and I am very receptive to constructive criticism - I heard "SLOW DOWN, THIS AIN'T GRAPHITE" more than a few times during the shared casting - but when I did slow down, did I get a huge smile on my face as the rods started throwing controlled tight loops. There were Fenwicks (the 7'6" 4wt that Bruce brought was a gem), a half-built McFarland (wonderful rod that Carl Z was still building), a sibling rod to my D. Lewis 6'6" - a 7'0" Lamiglas S Glass 3/4wt (Art seems to think there were not many of these - I just know the 6'6" is the sweetest rod I own because it likes my casting cadence), an Eagle Claw Featherlight 5/6wt that I found casts a DT6 as sweet as silk, a tiny Lamiflex that Bruce had yet to fix the reel seat he stripped off of it years ago - but that rod could cast a line and pull wide smiles from me, and many more. And last but certainly not least, Carl brought out some fly rods built out of spinning rod blanks that made me look like a casting god (at least I like to think so) - tadpoles!!! I can't remember the last time I was that cold - a few hours of casting and I had frozen sinuses and locked fingers, but the experience was invaluable - in getting more experience with different rods, learning for more seasoned casters on how to improve my own casting, and meeting some cool new people. I thought about pulling the waders on and trying to catch my first fish of the year - but I didn't want to risk a skunk with the temps so cold, or reduce the effectiveness of my casting muscles and miss out on casting the different rods. Definitely time well spent!

Practice Casting the Barclay Glass

While I was casting, I decided to try and get to know the Barclay Glass rod better. I lined it with the WF4F SA Trout line and began casting. It seemed to like the heavier line better (even though RIO Golds are slightly heavier to begin with - maybe the 3 I have is a 3.5), but as I continued to cast, I started to realize, it was not the rod, or the 3wt Gold, or even the 4wt SA Trout line - it was my cadence. I can feel the rod load, I think I now need to slow down my pauses between the load and foward/back casts. I'll go back to the RIO Gold 3wt line and try slowing everything down and enjoy the sweetness this rod promises. It just so happens that I will be participating in fiberglass rod get together tomorrow - other guys bringing other rods and everybody casting them all. Of course I'll get there early and chuck some fake meat to the year-round sunnies. So here I take my first steps to becoming a better fly caster -

Looky - Looky....

I signed up to participate in a fiberglass rod loan program from The Fiberglass Manifesto. And the first rod came in today - the 7' 3 piece 3wt Orvis Superfine Glass. I lined it up with my RIO Gold 3wt line and practice cast it in the snow filled road. This rod is a true 3wt - I felt like I could hit whatever I wanted to, just point and shoot. The feeling of the rod loading on the backcast was not as evident as what the Lewis 6'6" provides. And overall this rod is softer throughout, but in a balanced way. I like the taper (but truthfully if they made the uplocking reel seat in black I think the aesthetics would be much better). I've got my name in the hat to try out several other rods, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to get more working knowledge under my belt. It is actually rare when I practice cast... I think this year I will have to change that and get better overall casting whenever I have some spare time (resolution???).

Winterized Sand Crabs

As the water is way cold, Marlon and Noe passed on the surfing/salt emersion. But Marlon did dig a number of holes. One of those holes that was closer to the surfline had water fill it up from the bottom up. And after a few minutes Marlon had noticed there were Mole Crabs moving around in the flooded hole. Definitely smaller ones than what we catch in the Summer - and very interesting to find out that the Mole Crabs are still around, just much deeper than their summertime surface jaunts.

Beggars Can't Be Choosers - Opening Day - Microwaves

Yesterday's waves were definitely better - bigger and cleaner with the offshore wind. Today's were WAY smaller and choppy. I have a tad bit o' crankiness from realizing early on that today would not be a repeat of yesterday (a rare throw back to the wave snob I was in my early 30's), but that went away once I pulled on the cold, damp wetsuit and started paddling. I had tons of these microwaves and Charlie Bisgard came out to share the waves (check the left side of the picture).Lastly - the water was as cold as you would imagine water should be in January.May 2014 bring you epic surf sessions and oodles of stoke!

More Fun

Proof that the 3.5 hours in the truck was worth it!

Another Wave from New Year's Eve

Not as good as the first - but still fun! I love this inflatable SUP board - dropping into crashing beach break was an act to be avoided at all costs on hard boards - snapping fins off, dinging the rails and giving birth to hidden deck cracks were certain maladies that awaited you if you dared to go. Now I throw caution to wind and look forward to completing heroic deeds worthy of epic blog posts.Don't knock the blowup toy until you try it - you just might end up selling all your conventional boards and turn to dredging the high water mark for lasting smiles!!! Stay tuned for more from tomorrow's surf session!!! Happy New Year!