People waitin' people tyin'...

I saw two carp on Friday. My grin was involuntary and long lasting. Very long lasting. I even did a two fingers to the sky bit, like Randall Cunningham did after every one of his 34 regular season TD passes in 1998. Dude, dude, YES, dude I kept saying while I watched those cold, hard bodies moving ever so slowly. I knew in the back of my mind though that while they were harbingers of paradise to come, they weren't leaders of any real pack at this point. Still too cold. I went out anyway for an hour yesterday - despite high winds, crappy light and cold temps. Never saw a fish. Went to liquor store instead of fishing for the second hour.

Further waiting begets further tying then. I cranked these out an hour ago while listening to So Much for the Afterglow.

Some version of the Beefus swimming clouser nymph. John Montana and I talked about this one yesterday. I didn't have the hen hackle so I played with other feathers - not as good as the hen hackle. Still catch a carp though I think.

Vegetation fly, from Carp on the Fly reference.

A cape that I use a lot has these cool little underfeathers that really have a lot of motion to them - almost like rubber legs with feather fibers attached. This fly is tied from a hook I found on a pier yesterday, DB eyes, thread, and the feathers from just that one cape. A nice rusty bit.

Finally, out the door...

Cool weekend with the kids here in the Driftless Area of glorious Southeast Minnesota. The weather is finally becoming mild and the boys are responding. Many waking hours were spent outside. Just the backyard for now, but that can be a good adventure in itself. DMW ate a lot of sand, rocks and leaves. He crawled through snow too... learned about it in direct fashion. The kid's motor is pretty amazing. He is going to be a tough one to keep track of this summer. Interesting contrast to his big brother.

JDW helped me rake a bit... and dinked around while we completed misc small jobs in the yard and garage. Mainly though he wanted me to chase him around the lot, and/or throw a tennis ball as high as I could possibly throw it and then catch it. At one point he said "Wait - stop Dad. [he stands stone still with his eyes rolled upward and to the side] I hear a wood pecker. I think he's pecking on a big, big, big, big, big, BIG oak tree right over there."

This is where we're at now with milk purchases. Brewed 16 miles south in Chatfield, MN. The only waste is the plastic caps, and we use those to make a memory game for Jimmy. Man, the glass keeps some good milk. We went back to some plastic milk jugs last week, and the family complained of the taste.

Took this road yesterday. There were no street signs.

Letter to my Wife

The DIDFORAS

This was inspired by the damselfy pattern in Carp on the Fly by Reynolds and Beefus. I paged through it yesterday and today while standing in front of our MPCA booth at the Midwest Fly Fishing Festival.

Damsel
In
Distress
FOR
A
Second

I thought about DIDFORAS-BATSSGHAC, which sounds cool and has an eastern european bit going. That stands for Damsel In Distress FOR A Second Because After Two Seconds She Gets Her Ass Crushed [by a giant buglemouth].

KLW made a visit to the great Southeast this past weekend. We didn't have a lot of time to get out, but I really wanted him to see the gem that is The Driftless Area. So we dunked a few flies for ~1.5 hours. Caught a few fish... nothing to major. The one interesting note: for the first time in my life, caught TWO TROUT SPECIES at once... both brown and bow - the former took the lead PS #18 and the latter took a AFD #20. That was pretty cool. KLW enjoyed the bit I think.

A Munchy-Ass Carp Fly

The head is underlain with non-lead wire wrap. I tied another that had wire under the entire body. I like the idea of wrapping just the head though, because it'll sink head down then, and the rubber legs will wave and flutter as it descends and continue to do so after it rams its head into the substrate. I'll have to play with it though - check out sink rate mainly.