Well, I created this blog to share information with all of you. I will be posting info on fishing and fly tying. If anyone wants to post something on one of my other interests, I'd be glad to hear from you on that too.
For me, this is the time of year that I get my personal appearances firmed up. One of my sportsman's shows in Portland, OR got cancelled, but I got an email from the fly tying coordinator at the rival show in Portland that the powers that be there want me to do demonstration tying and to tie on stage for them. So, that means one in Portland (Feb.), Seattle (Feb.), Albany, OR (Mar.), Camp Sherman, OR (July), and the FFF Conclave (Aug.). There are getting to be fewer and fewer sportsman's shows in the Northwest, but those that remain are just going to get better for consumer and merchant alike.
I have to find time to tie a lot of flies in preparation for the sportsman's shows. I have been concentrating on my writing and haven't been out in the fly shop for a month. I have decided to start next Monday and devote 4 hours per day to pumping out patterns right up to the first show, the first weekend in February.
The weather has been cold, windy, and rainy. I still went out fishing, however. Ken Lewis and I went to Battleground Lake with one of his kids and I brought along one of the kids of the Bishop of my church. We took Ken's boat out. His floating rain shelter has enough of a top that the we were all able to keep out of the rain for the most part. This public lake gets a lot of pressure from area locals. There is a huge, and I mean HUGE, poaching problem here. People are taking multiple limits per day per person. On this trip, however, we saw noone catching fish. We didn't even get a hit in 3 hours.
Ken and I went to Big Tree and Little Tree Lakes in the middle of a bad rainstorm. These lakes adjoin each other and are just gorgeous. The lakes are private water, with the access rights owned by The Oregon Fishing Club. I write a quarterly column for the club newsletter. I get paid to fish the fifteen or so private lakes and ponds they own the access to. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it. Heck, it may be a distasteful thing to have to fish all the time, but again, someone has to do it. We fished Little Tree Lake with our backs to Big Tree and the cold blustery wind. Rainsuits on, hoods over our heads, and backs to the wind made it bearable to fish. Pretty marginal for fly rods, so we broke out the spinning outfits. Eight or ten golden rainbows visible and a couple were large, probably five pounds or so. Ken caught one from the dock, then went around to the SE corner and caught four more, all Kamloops rainbows. I fished from the dock for the majority of our time there. I was determined to figure out what would trigger a strike from those goldens around the dock. I tried every lure in my box. Lots of follows and no hookups. I did get a large bass to come in fast for a Panther Martin spinner with a four-inch flexible plastic body on it, just to turn away at the last moment. I finally caught a fish across the creek where the park bench is at. A twenty inch rainbow took that same spinner casted tight up against a big tree. My only fish of the day, but a beauty. Ken's largest fish was a couple of inches longer and a bit heavier than my biggest. He got the first (1 point), the most (1 point), and the biggest (1 point). Ken took all the honors. My OFC hat is off to you Ken.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
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