"My name is Les and i'm a tackle ho."

Every time I receive a fly fishing catalog in the mail I feel dirty and scurry off to the bathroom to hide it from my wife who will surely try to throw it in the trash.  I received the latest Orvis catalog and as I sit on the jon I look at the pictures and descriptions while I quietly contemplate things I "need".

My latest needs seem to be looking for yet another vest, pack, or lanyard to stuff all my crap in.  I started out with an Orvis Battenkill Vest that soon became an Orvis Safe Passage pack.  I changed my thinking and bought a William Joseph MAG series Amp pack that I use as a shoulder bag.  All was right with the world and I felt like I could carry enough stuff for a day.  Now I am planning my March trip to Cherokee and I am feeling a little inadequate.  I want something bigger but like the shoulder bag configuration.  *sigh*  What am I to do?  I thought about a fanny pack but I am concerned that I might get it in the water when I wade a little deep as I like to do sometimes.  Well, that and I have too much fanny anyways.

I am looking to try the larger William Joseph Mag series Current pack because I want to carry a different fly box configuration and more flies.  Like I need more flies rolling around in my pack.  I really need to organize my fly boxes and set them up better for certain fishing situations.  But that's another post entirely.

My other need is a net seine so I can see what's floating around in the water.  I am trying to learn more about entomology and  want to see some of the bugs that I have been reading about in their natural environment.  I would also like to collect some examples for fly tying and the like.  What an nerd I am.

 I think I will retreat to my office and search the pages for more things that need buying.

2009 A year of fishing recap.

It has been a couple of years now since I dusted off the gear and hit the waters in search of trout.  2009 really marked a turning point for me in my fishing where the fundamentals all clicked and I finally began to catch some fish.  I'm not talking huge numbers of hog sized trout but catching some fish and making me think "Hey, I'm not wasting my time out here.".

I spent a lot of time fishing the Mitchell River in Dobson, NC.  It's a good place to go to if you want to escape and fish a little.  However, it's a little over fished and can be crowded.  As cheesy as it sounds I fished behind the hatchery truck there one day and had my first real productive day fly fishing.  It was no accomplishment, snagging shell shocked stocked trout, but it felt good to catch a few trout.  I had my first good dry fly take on a slow moving section and I was now hooked on dry fly fishing.

2009 was full of diversity for me.  I spent lots of time on the water in North Carolina and managed to return to Virginia to fish water that I had fished earlier.  I spent almost as much time on the Smith River in Bassett, VA as I did on the Mitchell River.  The Smith River was a source of much frustration with it's skittish brown trout and high pressure fishing environment.  I really enjoyed fishing the Special Regulations section and was frequently frustrated by my lack of success.   It all paid off late one afternoon when I finally landed an elusive brownie!  I felt vindicated and thought that I really had accomplished something.

 

In the spring I made a trip to the Cherokee area for a long weekend of fishing with my co-workers.  I have always wanted to fish this area and have been told tales about how the reservation waters are stocked to the brim and you can just walk out there and scoop them up in your net.  My Dad always told me "If it's too good to be true then it isn't."  My Dad was right!  We fished the Tuckasseege Delayed Harvest section on the first day where I caught a bunch of brook trout.  That was an awesome day because I had not caught a bunch of fish in one day and the Tuck paid off in spades! We fished on the reservation for the rest of the trip.  Unfortunately, the reputation did not live up!  We fished Soco Creek with a guide and only caught a couple of small rainbow trout.  Definitely not worth the $60 we paid.  I can "not catch fish" all by myself.  We also fished the Oconoluftee with a big fat skunk!  Overall, we had a great time in Cherokee.  This despite the fact that the reservation is dry and the drive to Bryson City is long for a beer.  Can't wait to go back in 2010 and wipe the skunk off!

Finally, we fished the new Delayed Harvest section of Wilson Creek.  I had a wonderful and productive time fishing this newly acquired stretch of public water.  I caught a lot of rainbow and brook trout on this trip and really felt like my fishing skills were coming together.  We camped overnight in the Mortimer Campground which was the first time I had been camping since I was a kid.  I think it will be a super fishing spot and I hope to fish it a lot more in 2010.

 

I am hoping that 2010 is going to be a great year for trout!  Hopefully the rains of the winter will yield good water levels and insect hatches for the Summer.  I am just getting a little antsy waiting for a suitable day to get back on the water and do some cold weather trout fishing.  

Waters I hope to fish in 2010:

• Wautauga River, NC
• S Holston River, TN
• White Top Laurel, VA
• Jackson River, VA

Here's to 2009, it was a great year!

New Year's Resolutions 2010

Another year is on the books and I, like many others, reflect on my life and decide what I can do to make it better.  This is a list of my 2010 New Year's Resolutions.

1. Go fishing more!  You can't catch the fish sitting at home on the couch.
2. Work less.  Well, not sure what I can do about that one.
3. Loose some weight.  A yearly resolution that usually gets tossed five minutes after the ball drops.
4. Drink less.  See three.
5. Learn more about riparian entomology.  Maybe I will catch more trout if I learn about what they eat?
6. Learn fly tying.  It's a natural progression of the trout fishing sport and besides, imagine the fun of catching a fish on a fly you tied yourself.
7. Go Smallmouth fishing.  I really want to catch one of those buggers on a fly rod.  Like dynamite in a small package.
8. Stop cursing.  It isn't good when your two year old swears at the table.  It's even worse when he sounds like you.
9. Work on my casting.  My roll cast sucks! 
10. Catch more trout! Isn't that what it's all about?

Here's hoping that 2010 is a good year!

"A life well wasted......"

I have been playing a lot on-line, as most trout anglers do in the winter, and it seems like everyone has something to say and wants everyone to hear it. Why should I be any different? My wife would say that a Blog is the ultimate in narcissistic behavior and shameless self promotion. Once I would have agreed with her but after Facebooking for a while I found out that some folks do care what I have to say. (Well, maybe one or two.) I began writing notes about my fishing trips and found that I enjoyed it and it made me feel like I was writing for "Field and Stream", not that anyone really would pay for the ramblings of a pudgy kid scouring the waters for trout. It seemed like a good thing to do at the time, so I am trying it out.

Every story has a beginning. I went to the movies one day and saw "A River Runs Through It". I have never been a big reader so I had no idea who Norman Maclean was.   I just thought it looked like a good show and as I watched I became hooked on the fly fishing.  So I decided that I would buy myself a fly rod and teach myself the intricacies of this sport. A few hundred dollars later and a couple of trips to the Orvis store in Roanoke, VA and I was casting like a fool, literally.

It would take much trial and error but eventually I was able to get on the water and fish for trout. I fished mostly in Southwest Virginia around where I had grown up.  I managed to get my father and brother into it also and we had some fun learning as we did it.  We even managed to catch a fish or two. My brother's greatest catch was me, hooking my ear on a cold afternoon with an errant cast. Eventually, my brother moved away and my father got to where he could not wade in the rivers and creeks of the back country. So I put my rods in their tubes and packed my gear away until I lost interest. At the time it was probably more about hanging out with my family than it was catching fish.

Many years passed and I started to get the bug again. Surf fishing at the beach had wet my appetite for "pullage".  Unfortunately it got to be very costly to fish at the beach on a frequent basis.   Fishing had now become a passion and my passion knew no boundaries.  So I drug my rod tubes out and dusted them off of dirt and mold. I figured I could get back into trout fishing and save a little money, so to speak.  It felt good practicing a cast in the backyard. Kind of like the whiff of smoke you get when you are trying to quit smoking.  I knew that I had to get back into fly fishing and I now was older and a little wiser. The impatient young man I was now had a wife and child. So I immediately went out and upgraded or replaced my old gear. Older, but not wiser. 

I am fishing a lot of North Carolina and some of Virginia. I have really begun to slow down and try to enjoy fishing for the experience that it is. A chance to stand in the water and allow it to wash the stress and confusion of daily life away. I get better at it every day and I now have to use more than one hand to count the fish I have caught.

I once heard of fly fishing referred to as "A life well wasted..." I could not agree more.