My mother left today on a business trip to California. I had to have her at the airport at 6:00 this morning and so missed church. I have the entire day to bum around, so I decided to post some fairly random thoughts.
Insane gave us a scare recently. He began having some unusual chest pains. He was scared he was having a heart attack. He’s only 27 for crying out loud! After several visits to the doctor and one trip to the emergency room, the general consensus is that he has acid reflux disease. He’s only 27 for crying out loud! Any way, hopefully this won’t impinge on any of our fly fishing, beer drinking, cigar/pipe smoking, or Johnsonville Brat eating habits. I guess the stress of watching Bama get pounded week after week on the football field was too much for him. Sorry Insane, but there’s no relief in sight. Auburn’s next weekend.
Insane casting for monstrous shiners and bluegills on the Flint River.
Last weekend, Insane and I fished for a little while on the Flint River. I hoped we’d catch a few bass as I wasn’t too terribly interested in catching the shiners that he and Katie found a couple weeks before. I mean c’mon, I like catching just about anything, but even I have limits. So I tied on a big lead-eyed zonker strip woolly bugger. Dewayne started with something similar, but eventually gave in to the shiner temptation after failing to catch anything during the first hour or so. He tied on a hare’s ear nymph. I stuck with the woolly bugger, and all it got me was skunked. Insane managed to catch several shiners and even a few good-sized bluegills. So much for principles…
The fall colors in North Alabama this year have been more stunning than I can recall, possibly rivaling even the New England colors. Perhaps the nicest scenery I’ve witnessed yet was on a persimmon gathering trip with Jacqulyn and her family. Not much better than a ripe persimmon, and not much worse than one that’s too green. I’ve included some photos. I did some Photoshopping on the leaf photo. I was intrigued by it’s interesting color patterns. You can click it to see a bigger version. My only regret this autumn is that I haven’t gotten to spend more time outdoors. I’ve got to get out of that office! Must…get…rich…now…
A persimmon tree absolutely loaded down with the fruit, near Bridgeport, AL.
The Meeks' little family farm with their old Ford truck parked under some fruitful persimmon trees.
This colorful leaf caught my attention. I did some Photoshop work on it to isolate it from the surroundings a little. I even like the old wooden table in the woods near where I found the leaf. The table serves to hold drinks, condiments and utensils for the Meeks family when they picnic nearby.
If you’ve paid attention, I’ve added a few links to the site. In the blogroll, I added a site called The Contemplative Angler. The author of this site, Reed Curry, is a very good writer, and I have enjoyed the articles immensely. Check out this short one on fly fishing nostalgia. He even mentions pipe smoking in it, which I find to be somehow connected to this fly fishing/bamboo rod/old fedora/love for the old things syndrome that I have. His best work on the site is probably the two-part series on the American Wet Fly. I plan to head out to the apartment steps and smoke some Frog Morton in a Peterson bulldog shortly. Thanks for the good writing, Mr. Curry.
I hope to get my disgustingly cluttered apartment cleaned up a little today. Maybe I can manage that and also get a few flies tied. I want a good collection of parachute royal wulffs in all the usual sizes. I don’t know why I want them other than that I find them horribly pretty. If I get some tied, I’ll post a photo of my work. My fly tying skills are still lacking, but I do manage to catch fish on what I tie (even some rather picky fish) and I guess that’s what matters most.
A couple of things you can look for from me in the next week: The next installment of The Novice Fly Fisherman series and a photo gallery. I added the first three parts of the series pretty quickly, but it’s been awhile since I posted one. The early material was just more entertaining and easier to write about I guess. The photo gallery will contain what we see as our best photos. We’ve had some folks ask for prints of a few of these in the past. If we see enough interest in that, we’ll offer prints for a small cost and make some free wallpapers and screensavers from them. We look at it as good practice for our future careers as famous photojournalists. I believe Insane and Drake will have some new material for you as well in the coming days, and Jacqulyn even mentioned that she would like to write an article for the site. It would be good to have a female perspective on this fishing thing, but she’s going to need a nickname. A must for web posting. Take care,
hawgdaddy
While you’re crafting flies, don’t forget to throw together a few Beetle Bug parachutes. My favorite all-around attractor fly, and a proven performer in Tennessee.
My brother caught quite a few decent trout in the Tellico drainage on a traditionally tied Beetle Bug a few months ago. I typically prefer parachute ties, so maybe I’ll take your advice and tie a few up. Thanks,
hawgdaddy
I knew you would eventually get bitten by the beetle bug. I know you don’t get a thrill from tying such a simple fly, but it’s better to have a few and not get skunked by little brother.
I think “skunked” is too strong a word. Maybe “temporarily numerically defeated” or something like that.
It’s not the numerals that are the problem. It’s the awful smell.
Oops…I thought I had gotten away with that one.