Saturday, April 24, 2010

Three Generations

When I was a young boy there was an act so heinous, so foul, so unthinkable that it would invariably cause my father to prune a hefty switch from one of the back yard fruit trees. As an environmentally conscious parent, a flailing from Dad was always 100% organic. Apple wood was preferred for its smooth acceleration, but cherry came in a close second due to aesthetics. The goal with the latter was to achieve a pleasing color match between the deep red bark and the offender's behind.

What could twist a man never given to strong drink into this unholy Johnny Appleseed gone wrong? Why, the unsupervised fondling or use of Dad's prized possession: A fiberglass Fenwick fly rod (7 ½ feet for a 6-weight) equipped with a classic Pflueger Medalist reel.

Fenwick Glass

Fenwick & Pflueger Medalist

Medalist and Wulff

These days Dad has lost a fair amount of top-end speed, and if I come out of the starting blocks just right I can usually grab the Fenwick and outdistance him somewhere in the 3rd kilometer.

Having gotten my hands on the 'glass this weekend, it occurred to me that I had 3 generations of fly rods in my tying room. Grandpa's old bamboo rig with some type of reel that appears to have been forged during the Bronze Age, Pop's Fenwick, and my plethora of mostly graphite affairs.

I thought it would be fun to capture this using a vintage look.

3 Generations of Sticks

Grandpa's Reel

3 Generations

Grandpa was born in 1911. By all accounts flappers were his center of attention in the 1920s. I've never heard of that fly myself, but he used to mention that they were considerably effective attractor patterns. In the years since, many a loop has been thrown by this collection of sticks. Here's to many more.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Eye of the Tiger

"April is the cruelest month;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust."
-T.S. Eliot

Who knew that T.S. Eliot was an ice-off musky fly fisherman? Certainly not I, but how else can this quotation realistically be explained?

Thick plates of ice render stillwater useless to lint flickers, yet we know what lurks beneath in the darkness...

Wicked souls.

With the retreat of hard water, hope springs forth in a cruel form. Lines can now be cast through the crisp Spring air, but in cold water musky often adopt the personality traits of couch potatoes. Languishing in the aquatic equivalent of Barcaloungers, the demon torpedoes mimic the average man during the NFL playoffs: Consuming only that which is placed within effortless reach.

Slim chances aside, those who are consumed by the freshwater Jabberwocky go forth and give chase. Today, teeth gnashed.

Eye of the Tiger

Snaggletooth

Sage Xi3/Nautilus NV on the Prowl

Finz

Musky Mugshot

Once Bitten

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

MIDCURRENT²

I am appreciative of being featured for the second time on MidCurrent for my fly fishing work. The Photography section showcases images from all over the globe and is a must-see. Thanks to Tim Romano for his assistance with round 2.

Click on this image to see the page:

Midcurrent Featured Photographer

Images added:

Brook Look

Angled Tarpon Scales

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Sold up the River

"I don't take away 5,000 miles of public rivers often, but when I do I prefer to give them to private interests that include my brother-in-law. Stay wealthy my friends."

- The Most Mysterious Governor in the World


No Access

I penned the above satire today after confirmation that Utah Governor Gary Herbert (R) signed HB 141 into law. This legislation flies in the face of Utah's outdoor heritage, which has roots in over 100 years of history.

Wilford Woodruff, the man who oversaw Utah's statehood, was a fly fisherman circa 1847. He took to nearby rivers frequently, and recognized the importance of water in a desert landscape. The State's constitution was drafted with specific protections, explicitly proclaiming that water resources were owned in their entirety by the public.

An easement allowing recreation to take place on the public's waters - even where rivers and streams cross private land - has been upheld all the way to the Utah Supreme Court (Conatser v. Johnson, 2008).

Wealthy private interests (including Governor Herbert's brother-in-law) stand to profit from the privatization of these valuable resources. By wielding influence, back office politics, and the all-mighty dollar HB 141 is now a reality.

If you live in Utah and do not own waterfront property, your rights have been sold up the river. I urge you to review the voting records and determine how your representative voted. Individuals voting "YEA" sided with the money, and have placed Utah's $700 million recreation industry at risk during the biggest recession of modern times.

FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVES

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 141 VOTE

SENATE 141 VOTE

Monday, March 29, 2010

Run Silent, Run Deep

SOFTWATER....AT LAST.

Length & Girth

Hitting stillwater after the long winter is as close to Nirvana as I can imagine. With a new season, I decided to experiment with a few new techniques. This image was captured by wetting the front element of my housing.

Green Shores

A deep breath after seeing the light of day...

Deep Breath

Mass = Having weight & taking up space...

Strongman

Another rainbow is homeward bound:

Going Home

The leopard submarine:

Submarine

When Shaggy isn't on the set of Scooby Doo, it is a little-known fact that he puts fly to water with reckless abandon. Cody applied hook to lip so many times on the trip that we had to begin using exponential notation.

Zoiks! Shaggy & Rainbow

JayMorr captured a healthy dose of images from the trip as well, so make sure to pay his blog a visit and continue the story at FlyFishermanForum.com.

JayMorr Bugslinger

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

iCarry 2 Much

Last weekend I traversed a river carrying what onlookers initially thought to be an adolescent pachyderm on my back. In actual fact, it was my photo pack carrying 2 camera bodies, 3 lenses, 1 strobe, spare batteries, various filters, and a full size tripod.

While staving off compression fractures of the L1-L5 vertebrae, it occurred to me that I should lighten up. Literally.

As an exercise in enjoyment, once in a while this season I am going to shoot on my iPhone. Using a measure of creativity and a layer of abstraction to overcome the technical limitations of the camera, smart phones can be powerful tools. Even better, many offer applications which can perform basic post processing, also eliminating the need to download and re-work images later.

iPhone Sage VT2 & Galvan Spoke

Float like a butterfly, and sting with 3G.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Defrost

Winter really steams my olives. The seemingly interminable combination of short days and vast expanses of hard water get me feeling more bound up than a wheel-of-cheese diet. This morning dawned crisply enough to freeze my rod guides solid, but the sun was out and I was itching to flex the new Sage VT2 that I’ve had in hibernation the last 2 months.

VT2: Photo & Post on iPhone

Kind of a fun image - this was captured and post processed entirely on the iPhone. I will be posting some product photography and more thoughts on the VT2 down the road.

It was more of an exploratory venture today, checking out a piece of water that was entirely new to me. Fishing was slow but I enjoyed unfurling some casts with the new stick and putting fly to water for the first time this year.


Hatch² Revisited

Thanks to JayMorr for showing me some new stomping grounds. Check his blog over the next few days to see more imagery. This shot is courtesy of Jay, which I “cartoonified” in Photoshop.

Photobucket