Good Service

I'm lucky to have some good fly shops within an hour~ of home.  Two that are within 25' actually.  I enjoy going to these shops and checking out what's available and being able to really look at materials I need or want for tying.  Heck, the first "fancy" fly fishing reel I got, was in middle school I think, when my dad went to the Lower Forty Outfitters in Worcester MA and got me an early Lamson.  Amazing gift, and 25-30~ years later the reel still works (good example of buying good gear - it can last a LONG time).  Concord Outfitters is a newer shop, but the help and gear on hand is awesome.  Likewise, Eldredge Bros Fly shop near York Maine is great as well.  As I said, I'm lucky to have great shops near by!  There's even a shop I have yet to get to - which is a shame because all reports are that it's great and it's only about 40' from home called the Evening Sun Fly Shop - it's on my list to make a reason to go up and check this shop out soon!

That ability to go in, shoot the breeze and enjoy the "family" that is fly fishing is awesome.

That said, some times, you just have to order things online for whatever reason.  For me, it's being busy.  For others, distance.

Traditionally my online business has been The Bears Den, or J Stockard.  The Bears Den being here in MA tends to get more of my business... plus I've had the fortune of going to the shop - I make it a point any time I'm in SE MA for work or pleasure... It's the largest fly shop I've personally been in, and wholly smokes do they have just about anything you could want, or want to touch.  Plus the folks who work there are very knowledgeable and friendly.  I'm always amazed with Bears Den, how you make your order, pay for shipping, and when you get the note letting you know the order was processed (which is typically quite quick), you also get a note letting you know they adjusted shipping.  What I mean is this: every time I've ordered, they have reduced my shipping charge because the amount was beyond what was needed to get the items to me on time.  I don't know that this would be the case if you lived in Ohio or Nebraska or Wyoming etc... But it's a nice touch for sure!

Recently though I've ordered about 50% of the stuff I've ordered from Performance Flies.  By recently, I mean the last 2-3 years.  They seem to specialize in euro items... which is a soft spot for me.  My love of cycling and endurance sport has made European things interesting to me since before I knew fly fishing was a big deal over across the pond.  Maybe that's what got me into the stuff they have at Performance Flies... But the thing that got me to make a post like this, was that I ordered some things from them at about 3:45 yesterday and got a note this AM in my email letting me know the items were shipped already.

That's awesome service - especially since I didn't ask for "fast" shipping.

And that's the way it always seems to be when I do order from Bears Den OR Performance Flies.

I own a small business, I want people to "shop small" and "shop local".  Get out and get into those local fly shops.  It's vital to knowledge transfer in our sport.  It's vital to our sports culture.  But if you cant go to a shop, or for whatever reason need to order vs purchase locally, check out Bears Den and Performance Flies.  Both are fast, great with questions and great with service.  AWESOME options!

Will

PS - I have NO affiliation with any business noted.  This was a post that just came to mind after getting the "order shipped" email this AM.

No fishing, but good eating for sure!

Several of the fishing blogs I follow post food pic's.  Some times it's during fishing, like the posts of Chasing Blue Lines http://chasingbluelines.blogspot.com/... Others it's a combination of delicious comfort foods and fishing feasts like Alan over at http://smallstreamreflections.blogspot.com/ or Mark at http://fishingsmallstreams.blogspot.com/.  All of those folks seem to have tasty eat's down to an art form...

So, while I was preparing for the deep freeze we are scheduled to receive over the next 4~ days, it seemed fitting that I should make a big vat of venison chili... and copy those great bloggers above by showing off my tasty version of this timeless dish!

My chili is based on two things: 1.) years of making chili to a specific recipe as a teen and through college at the Petersham Country Store, and 2.) like my fly tying, I'm not really good at following recipe's so this has steadily evolved over the years and probably will continue too...

That said, my wife the foodie who does not like chili traditionally really enjoy's this version, so it's got to be good eh :)! Ha!

The items used are:

• 2lb of ground venison (straight, not cut with pork fat or beef fat)
• 1 jalepeno
• 1 chili pepper (the real deal)
• 1 sweet onion
• 1-2 orange or red sweet peppers
• .25 cups organic molasses
• 1 can organic tomato paste
• 3-4 diced tomato's
• 1-2 can's diced tomato's
• 2-3 carrots diced
• 1 large can chick peas
• 1 large can black beans
• salt and pepper to taste
• about a tsp of chili powder
• about 1-2 tbsp ceylon cinnamon

You can play with the amounts of each based on volume... That said, Ive found this ingredient list works well for a low meat (my favorite) option that only has 1lb of venison... While my wife loves the high meat version (2lb venison).  Just noting that for reference.

Here's a few pic's:

Just getting started a little butter in the pan, and simmering onion and peppers (don't have all of them in yet in this pic) until soft.

Just added the meat - it's starting to cook, hence the very light pink color - venison is a lot darker when raw.  I was lazy and dropped it in frozen today, so it extended the process compared to using thawed meat... It's a lot easier with raw v frozen :)

Ready for action... Almost.  It needs about 4-5 hours of simmering, but even with that, it will taste better tomorrow and the next day than it does today... 

Hopefully where ever you are, the snow drops are starting to bloom, or it's just plain hitting spring now.  But for any of you in the deep freeze like me... This will definitely leave you warm for a while :)

Have a super week
Will

The ice... It's broken

With abnormally warm weather, I've been itching to get out, but time just has not worked out well.  I've had a few short trips, with some taps, or nothing at all... but today, I guess the temps got warm enough or I got lucky.

Tried the little brook across the street, figuring I could put in 20' and scratch the proverbial itch.

I fished my favorite little section, from just above the corner in the pic, to where I stood taking this shot.  The corner pool I finished at was looking pretty different.  The wood jam in the corner seems to be getting compressed and maybe sinking a little, and there is some new wood at the root ball the causes the stream to scour the 2 foot to 4 foot (when the water's really flowing) deep hole mid pool.  Today no fish seen or taken there...  But at the first little run I caught 2, well, 1 to hand and 1 that I touched only to see it instantly fall back to the stream and swim away.

Got one more in the run almost dead center in this picture, where the limb enters the stream from the right and the current is some what on the left, just before the stream turns right.  Typical of this stream, the fish were fairly blue in tone with amazing blue halo's.  I managed one pic today.  The chartreuse bead black and peacock bugger was the ticket.

I was amazed at the trash in the log jam (you can see though why lots of trout make it in this stream - there is at least a foot of water (more on average) below that jam - all the way back to the bank!  Sad that it's littered with bottles, cups, foam bits and bubble wrap.  a few hundred yards up stream the brook crosses a state road, maybe a mile from the center of a small city of about 35-40K people, and flow's next to old plastic factories for about a half mile before getting into a wooded area all the way to it's origin... The river it flows into, 50-60 years ago literally changed colors from red to green to purple daily based on the color of paper being made - that's a mile at most down stream (if you count the undulations of the little stream).  Some how, these fish scratch a living though.  Amazing testament to what they are capable of.

Couple more warm days and some serious rain wednesday, then slightly more temperate conditions on the weekend.  If things dont get to cold, we could be in for a really mild winter!

Be well

Will

Super Glue

I'm hoping to spin up a few bugs tonight, and I've been making a little list so I can reload a few items I like to use when I go to the Fly Fishing Show Friday.

But something that hit me, was a trick I learned pretty recently.  Maybe 5 years ago.  When doing flies with smallish heads or beads and hidden whip finishes behind the bead (seated into the dubbing or other material so the finish is not real visible), put super glue on your thread over roughly, the 1-2 inches from the fly towards the bobbin.  Now do your whip finish.  The glue saturated thread seats nicely, and by the time you snip the thread, it's completely set up and not coming undone.

This can be done with other glues as well - they just don't dry as fast.  For example, normal thread cement works - and then you never worry about filling the hooks eye with cement.  Thin UV cure products have worked for me doing this as well - things like CCG Hydro.

Maybe the coolest trick using this approach, I saw the guys on the fly fish food blog discuss a while back.  Tying a parachute, they saturated the thread with super glue as I noted above, but then just over wrapped the hackle on the post a few times, gave it a couple seconds to set up, and snipped.  Served double duty by creating a great durable hackle on the fly but also made what for me at least, is the hardest part of doing a para fly - finishing it neatly.

Any way, that little glue trick was on my mind and I wanted to lay it down for others.

have a super day -
Will

New stream and a favorite fly

A friend of mine works for MassWildlife, and in talking about streams that have been sampled for cold water fish, he noted one surprisingly close to me, that, embarrassingly, I'd passed many times but never thought to fish or explore.

This is the time of year to check it out.  It's a short stream running into a reservoir, and a good chunk of it's short run is through a pretty nasty overgrown meadow/swamp.  After my quick recon mission Saturday, I can see that there are three times of year to fish this stream: mid-late fall, winter and early spring.  

It's sort of fishable in summer, but cross referencing mental images of the area in full bloom with the foliage types I found... ooph, not going to be enjoyable come summer.

That said, it's a great looking little stream.  Mostly 2-6 feet wide.  gravel bottom.  A bit of weed in places, lots of woody debris making deep scoured out holes and cover AND lots of great undercut banks.

First view of the stream.  A nice run.

Here is where the stream shifts from woods into that swampy overgrown area.

Hemlocks - always seem to be around wild char streams!  The side I was on had a bit of an undercut and good depth - maybe a foot.

Many of the deadfall - and some standing dead spruce in the area were just choked with amazing lichen.  Super pretty - my pic does not do it justice.

After my walk on the stream - and skunk number two of the year :) - I hung with the kiddo's and we all made a home brew Pizza for dinner.  Always good to see 4 year olds build anything, but especially something they get to eat.  Ha!  Once they went down, I pondered flies that I had to restock.  With school starting up again, my vice time is likely to get short here for a while...

Then a fly hit me squarely - the Telico nymph.  If you have never used this little Appalachian creation, you should.  I've tied simpler versions using peacock colored wire vs peacock for the rib, and using nymph skin for the back vs peacock, but either I dont have as much confidence or pleasure in fishing them... or they dont work as well as the original.  Regardless, this fly is awesome.

Decades (ouch) ago, a friend introduced me to this fly when we were fishing a local pond that was home to some wild (it's a centuries old stone dam on a stream which has wild trout) and stocked trout. He was fishing the fly and catching, and gave me one and I started to catch fish as well.

Since I've always carried them, and fished them.  They have caught trout, small mouths, all kinds of sunfish and chubs for me.  Plus, the fairly dense body, sinks pretty well even in unweighted versions.  I've tied it in bead head for larger sizes and that's worked too.  In the end, it's just a great little fly worth adding to your arsenal.

This is a little one, #16 standard nymph hook (Tiemco).  I most often fish 12-16, but carry a few long ones - #10's or 12's but on 2-3X long curved nymph hooks (think heavy stimulator hook - but any longer hook would work).  I have not fished a "big" one on a small stream, but on a few larger local rivers the big ones work great.

Have a super week!
Will

What's bad about skunks?

Let me say that I don't have an issue with the skunk.  It happens more than I'd like to admit.  I'm fortunate to have good water near by, so it's not constant... but I definitely get visits from our white striped little friend often.

And what's wrong with that?  Nothing!  I'm a huge believer in process focus.  Life, or performance in any of the the venues you enjoy, certainly feels better when you focus on the process vs the outcome.  An easy example is research on happiness showing people who spend "extra" money on experiences like trips or meals etc are happier than those who spend money on fancy items - like that new Scott Radian that looks so good at the local fly shop ;).

Fishing is absolutely about the process for me.  Fly tying as well.  It's that chance to just be there.  To hear the water and the environment around it.  To feel myself experiencing the situation and required actions - the process.

Because of that, fishing trips like my lunch time sojourn today, which was a skunk show, are just as rewarding as the day's like one to a major stream about 45' from my home last spring where I had to have landed over 50 browns and bow's over 13".  It was crazy!

So, while I didn't even have a tap, today's trip felt great.  Fun to see the stream in a pretty darn frozen state, and to see how a new pearl over pink floss and white marabou streamer I've been playing with looked in the water.

Here's the scene...

Dead center is the stream.  The snow was frozen solid, I really wish I'd had worn my ice creepers!  Amazing to think that 6 months from now, you cant see 20 yds right here the leaves are so thick!

My favorite spot on this stream.  A great corner pool... the leafy debris from fall still has not washed away despite a few decent rain events... and now, most of the pool has a skim layer of ice.  That log in the water dead center... Awesome spot - when the ice allows access :)

Not sure what Ill name it.  But, this fly is super simple and feels good.  White marabou, pink floss tag with a pearl body that has silver rib.  Moves great in the water and I suspect it will work well... But today, it just shared it's shimmy and shake with me.

Hope your 2016 has started out great!

Will

Starting Young... And Happy Christmas / New Years to all!

Last weekend, after doing some grocery shopping we were about to do some final Christmas shopping, but the boy really wanted to go home... We had to go by home to do the rest of the errands, so he and I stayed home and the girls kept shopping.

We started out playing catch with a football.  Then tag.  Then Will wanted to see how the circular saw worked.  So I hacked up a 2 X 4 real well... Then he saw the chain saw.  We had to do some pruning on a spruce that blocked a walking path around the house, so I gassed up and let Will hold the blade cover and wear the big hearing protection (and stand well back) while I trimmed some limbs.

After all that fun, He leads me back in the garage and see's my 6wt BVK.  I don't know how many of you have cast one of TFO's BVK series... But wholly smokes - they cast like an 800+ dollar rod and cost about 225.  Great rods.  Any way... Will remembered trying to cast it once before, and asked if we could go cast...  So we did.

First we went all Lefty Kreh and I stripped out about 20 feet of line (meaning 20 feet beyond the tip of the rod) and he just had fun making it move horizontal to the ground - swinging the rod left and right.  Then he started sort of roll casting on his own.  He liked the "loop" so he started just trying to make the line swing round all silly.  In the pic, you can see the line is caught up a bit in the apple tree in our front yard...

He'd have me make loops and then he'd make some.  Then he realized that if he tied the leader to the apple tree, he could jump over the line when I held the rod.  That lasted a few minutes until I lifted the line before he could jump, and thus he "missed".  Now we had a new game and we'd go back and forth taking turns lifting the rod so that the other couldn't jump the line.

All in all, it was about 20' of the 4 year old playing with fly casting.  It was awesome :).  Maybe some day he will find satisfaction in this activity just like I have...  Up to him.

Not sure if everyone who may see this celebrates Christmas, so if you don't, happy holidays!  But if you do, enjoy Christmas eve and day.  And happy New Year to all!

Be well

Will