Woolly Blogger......

Here's another Wednesday night project while the kids are in bed and the wife is teaching young children how to dance: This is my spin on a classic fly pattern called the Woolly Bugger - I just call this fly a Black Leech, because you can't change a classic pattern and still called it the same thing.  It incorporates a lot of flash - from the tail all the way to the thorax, and has a very thin body.  It's tied to bridge the gap for me between a traditional woolly bugger and a stillwater nymph, and I have had good success fishing it from Billingsley Creek to high mountain lakes.  Enjoy the video, or at least turn the volume up and dust your office......

Stay young, go fishing

More playing with my GoPro, more showcasing my mediocre tying ability, and more dreaming of warmer weather when this "fly" will actually work. This is a Chernobyl Ant - one of the most prolific attractor style flies for warm weather. This thing just has a knack for drawing strikes from large fish when nothing else seems to work.  

Gear Review

This is primarily a gear review about two products I used yesterday on the Owyhee River: My new GoPro Hero 2 HD camera referenced in my previous post, and this was my first experience with Cutthroat furled leaders - leaders made not out of monofilament like most on the shelf at your local fly shops, but rather out of several pieces of thread twisted together, and then tapered much like a regular leader.  Cutthroat leaders is a local company from Boise, and man are they nice!  They have no memory, do not get wind knots, and made even an amateur like myself cast like a pro!  I'm sold!

As for the GoPro - I love it!  A sample of what it can do is included below (and perhaps I should have cleaned my windshield).  I also discovered that even when it no longer has enough battery life to video, it's 11 megapixel wide angle camera feature works like a champion! I hooked a fish in excess of 25" (which I would have broken off had it not been for my new leader), and the battery life would not allow me to video the catch.  Plan B: Put it in photo burst mode, set to snap a shot every two seconds, and viola - still able to capture a fantastic fish and quickly release him unharmed! With days off this good, who needs a job?..............

New Toy......

I fully admit to being a techno-tard.  However, I recently decided that I just "had to have" a GoPro Hero 2 HD video camera in order to capture various fishing footage.  It wasn't until I had a few beers that I realized it could have other uses.  Here's me playing around with the camera (and my take on a rather old fly pattern) after the kids were asleep..................enjoy.

Spring has sprung......

Although few seem to have acknowledged it to this point, spring appears to have arrived (at least in Meridian, ID). Sure, it still freezes at night - but with day after day after day of sunshine and 50 + degree weather, it's prime early-spring fishing weather. Add to that a new rod (see previous posts), and a lack of runoff from a mild winter, and you get one happy angler. Last week I hit eastern Oregon's Owyhee River twice, and the fishing was pretty good - as usual for this time of year, dry fly action came from midges - those tiny little flies that seem to able to hatch no matter how cold it is. Size twenty Griffith's gnats did the trick!  Naturally, I don't see the need to dig my camera out for every fish - here are a few that I made an exception for:

Workplace Oasis

This is an overdue post.  A few months back, I was selected to be a company commander for my job with the National Guard.  All that really means for this audience is that my hair will become (is already becoming?) gray much quicker than it normally would have, and that I will, at some point, get promoted to Captain.  However my incredible wife Bridgette, who has an amazing knack for gift-giving, got me this cool shadow box as a gift so that I could display some of my flies at my office. 

I spent some quality time around Christmas tying some flies, and she created me some very nice looking labels for them.  Several hours, one fish picture, and a trip to the craft store for some cork later, and here is the result:  It’s so nice to be able to look at my wall and be taken to another place entirely, and it’s very nice to be lucky enough to have a spouse who understands my addiction to fly fishing!  Thanks for the work oasis, Honey! 

the (4) weight is over....

The time had finally arrived for me to own and fish with a 4 weight - something I have not done in quite some time.  As usual, I decided to build rather than to buy, and boy am I glad I did!  This rod turned out great - not only does it look great, but it casts incredibly well.  The theme for this rod was subdued - matte blank, gun metal thread, dark titanium carbide guides and reel seat accented with a beautiful box elder burled insert.  Can't wait to take it to the water!