Rest Easy, Friday Night: Vol. 6: Vacation Edition

The Bay

Tomorrow morning,
Sara and I are heading for warmer waters.
Fly rod and box in tow
My mornings will be spent lurking the beach
Watching the water for shifting shadows
And tailing fish, a poker player with an obvious tell.

I've been a houseplant resting
By a poorly lit window
Trying my best to look green.
I've only been able to pull off
The pale shade of lima been.

Flies for The Trip.

Tomorrow, tomorrow
Soak up the sun
On borrowed time.
Drink the food
And eat the vine
For vacations last
Too short in time.

As I leave you all
To your own devices

I share with you 

Beautiful voices.

The tunes that fill my mind

As I walk through wards

And daydream of places 

blue and warm.

To start I want to show you
Something quite unique.
The Tune Yards are a band
You have to see.












Next is someone
I've enjoyed for several years.
Lisa Hannigan used to back up Damien Rice
But she's now out on her own for you to hear.

And lastly, is someone I found on

YouTube.

Zee Avi has an island feel

With an old school voice.

Enjoy.

Gray Skies, Brown Trout

Things are getting a little out of hand. The excuses to fish are becoming easier to find. The need to make these flicks is getting harder to resist. Oh well. As long as I can keep up with my other responsibilities, there's no harm in having a hobby, right? Right :)

I guess the question is, when is it a hobby, and when is it an obsession?

Gray Skies, Brown Trout from My Leaky Waders on Vimeo.

Music by Ray Lamontagne: "Repo Man"

My Window

The window I look through

gets dirty sometimes.

Cloudy, dingy, covered in grime.

I clean it with naps,

good food,

friends and exercise.

Clearing my view

to see the Sun shine.

New Trout Fishing Terminology: Peep Show.

A buddy and I went out yesterday to find some big browns. No big boys, but we did catch a few fish. Well, he caught a few fish. I just managed one in hand. Otherwise, I was geting flashed all day. It was like a peep show. I got to see a lot of action, but I never got to touch the goods.

We had a laugh about the analogy, but then I decided to make it known. That is my new phrase. You've got "tight lines" or "boom" or "what choo talkin' 'bout Willis?" Well, when you spend most of the day seeing nothing but flashes of silver and gold, you will have just experienced your first trout fishing peep show.

I hope you don't have to use these words. I hope you get the real deal. But if you need to, use the phrase. These words are not mine. They are for all of us to enjoy. Go forth.

Tight lines. Or Boom... Or

** I realize I'm probaly not the first person to use the phrase in this way. If you've already coined it, let me know and we'll give you the credit you deserve  :)

I heard somewhere January was fire month....

And what a month it is. The Unlucky Hunter has been going all Carrie on the month of January burning everything in sight.

That really was a pretty dress.
But she went a little overboard on the red makeup.

It is rather fitting as January tends to be chilly.

I, with about 30 other bloggers, was lucky enough to get a pack of Lightload Outdoor Towels from a recent OBN give away.  The free swag we accumulate from being involved in this outdoor online community is pretty amazing (see here, and here, and here), and these towels are really no different.

They look and feel like repurposed operating room towels. Very clever if you ask me as these tend to be extremely cheap since they are often bought in bulk to be used once, saturated in blood, and thrown away. However, you don't have to saturate yours in blood, but if you do, you don't have to throw it away. As they say on the package, you can use it as a diaper, towel, pot-holder, and (here's where we come full circle) a fire starter. And if you don't burn it, you can wash it and use it again.

Sara and I used ours when we went running the other night. After soaking up the sweat, I kept it in my pocket while doing some night fishing in the rain. I was nice to have to pad down my glasses and even the gopro plastic lens. I don't know if I'd recommend as a camera lens cloth. I could see how it would be scratchy.

I let the rag dry out overnight, and this evening, tested the fire starting theory.  It worked like a gasoline soaked gem. Sara and I had some fun with the photos :)

comes in a nice,  palm size, water resistant package

It seems a bit odd as a disc shaped sponge.
I think it is working. 

Oh, I see, it unfolds.

Wow, that's a nice towel.

It really gets in there and dries your face. 

It's okay towel, you'll be fine. I promise....

It lit without hesitation.

Happy Fire Month!!!!

Cold and Lucky: My First Tenkara Outing

Even in the last two days since the first tenkara outing, I've learned so many things about what I could have done to catch more fish. I limited myself to the soft hackle fly thinking I should try what I thought was "traditional," but I  now I think I was wrong to place a limitation on the rod. I could have easily dropped a scud with a red midge pupae using an indicator and split shot to get down to those hunkered down, January trout (Remember, David, just because your fly is by the fish doesn't mean you'll catch the fish). Instead, I stayed true to one tactic. Luckily, the sun came out on my second day and brought with it a few midges to the surface of the water. The fish were soon to follow.

I also realized watching tenkara casting on film is about the most boring thing in fly fishing video. This is simply because the action of casting is much more subtle, not because the fishing is any worse. There are just less moving parts to watch. Therefore, I tried to limit those shots in the video. I hope you get a sense of the fun trip I had out to western Virginia. It was wonderful to get a taste of the fresh water again after focussing so much on the salty fish.

Oh, and so far, I can already tell you my favorite thing about a tenkara rod. You really feel the fight of the fish.  The running fish doesn't pull your drag, it pulls you. Pretty cool.

________

When you head out by yourself to fish new waters, there is no telling what can happen. I locked my keys in my car (while it was running), dropped my phone in the water, and still managed to catch a couple nice fish using my new tenkara rod. Looking back, I'd do it all again.

It may have been cold, but I got lucky.

Music by Max Tennone: Jaydiohead: "Change Order"

Cold and Lucky: My First Tenkara Outing from My Leaky Waders on Vimeo.

If you are interested in any of the waters I fished, check out Mossy Creek Fly Fishing's site. The guys at the fly shop run a great operation with great reports and instructions on some of the Virginia trout, bass, and muskie waters.

Rest Easy, Friday Night: Vol 5: Sufjan Stevens

A friend made a CD for me of his favorite Sufjan (pronounced like the comment below:) Stevens songs and it hit me like a rock. He is pretty mellow, but the lyrics and melodies are spectacular. Now a lot of these songs have a similar sound, but I enjoy each of them. 

 I've got some plans to fish this weekend in western Virginia. Old Man Winter won't be stopping this guy. Fish or no fish, it should be fun and I hope to bring you some good photos and/or video. 

Until then, I give you Sufjan Stevens.

Do it Yourself Tenkara Line and Case: Go Furl Yourself

For Christmas, I got a tenkara rod. I'm pretty excited to try it out in the Virginia trout streams, but until then, I'll probably try to find some sunfish and maybe bass.  It is fun to learn different ways to fly fish, whether it be spey casting, double hauling, fiberglass, bamboo, carp, tarpon or tenkara.

I flippantly forgot that the line is an additional thing to buy. Ironic that something so simple (tenkara fly fishing) would require something so specific that I, a fly fisherman, didn't already have. But my grumbling was immediately stifled when I came across this awesome post from Tenkara on the Fly. It is an awesome step by step process showing how to furl your own tenkara line. 

Not only did I make the line, I fixed my own nifty, durable, lightweight case for the line. 

I'm excited to take the line out on a test run. Happy weekend everybody!

Running on the Beach

I've noticed that the sand on the beach gets hard and packed the colder it gets. This makes it easier to run on. I try to jog as much as I can. Growing up in Minnesota, I used to enjoy running in the winters. Especially at night. The moonlight and streetlights reflect off the snow creating a warm ambience.

The other day on the beach, I started to notice similarities to winters in Minnesota. The cold, biting air blowing off the water. The sand even begins to look a bit like snow as it is blown in the wind day after day.

The white, rabid-dog-frothing-water even creates little pseudo-snow piles. 

Cheers to snow and running in it.