Is It Really Here?

The smells of spring are in the air. The very first of our trees are just starting to put out leaves, water and ground temps are on the rise, days are getting longer. Oh how I rejoice at the beginning of spring. The end of the dreary doldrums of winter, in with the renewal of life, including my own! The despondency of winter always wears me down. I become lethargic and lazy, not wanting to do much. Other than NOT be cold!

Well, I ain't cold now baby! I cut my grass today for the first time this year. I'm always much more excited about it now than I will be in October! I also finished prepping the garden for planting today. A little late, but not really. It was below freezing the night before last, so I'm not upset at all that we waited an extra 2 weeks to put anything in the ground. The frost free date for our area isn't until May 15, so mid May is when we put out our warm weather crops. On this weekends agenda; lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, onions, shallots, and taters. I'm so excited I can't wait!

Because of lack of hours at work, I've been able to almost completely clear my "6 week" to-do list! Only a few things still remain in it, so I should be able to finish it before mid April, just in time for the trout and smallies to turn on with the leaf out! I've been tying flies 5 nights a week trying to get them ready in time for the crazy days of spring. I've been knocking out almost a dozen a night, so things are looking good there also. Now I just need to get it all organized before Cat and I go on our anniversary camping trip, which will probably be next weekend.

The only big projects remaining are changing the brakes on my truck, which I'll do as soon as I can get the pads and shoes. And to start the work I need to do on the bike. I'm getting anxious about starting on her, with the weather getting nicer, the desire to go cruisin is getting almost too strong to bare. I just have to find out why I'm leaking oil and why she runs so hot. I'm shooting to have her road ready by May, but we'll see. Enough for now, time to tie flies!

Feeling Lost

Cat has left to be with her family after the loss of her Grandma. I never really spent much time with that side of her family due to "issues", but I did get to meet Grandma Lizz on a few occasions. And she was a wonderful person that is exactly where she wanted to be, in the hands of God.

Because of work, I stayed home. I should be in bed, as I have to be in at 6 tomorrow morning, but I never sleep well when Cat and I are away from each other. It's almost like I wander around lost when we are separated for one reason or another. I wish she were home. I know she is needed elsewhere by people that are important to both of us, but I can not help but be selfish about her. I can share, but not from a distance.

So, here's to three of four days of wandering around lost, not eating, not sleeping; in general, being miserable without the person who means the most to me in the world. She's been gone for 9 hours and I'm already out of sorts, this sucks! I'm trying not to be a big boy, but she is why I exist! Spring rains have showed up and trapped me in the house all day, which only made it worse. We so would have had a rainy day nap today! I miss you Wookie!

Procrastination Pays Off

I've been dreading turning the garden this year due to the death of our community tiller. Nightmares have haunted me since I found out that me and a mattock would be spending 2 or 3 days of quality time together. I've been putting it off, finding any excuse to avoid the labor of turning almost 1000sq ft by hand.

Cat and I were going to rent a tiller today and take advantage of the good weather, and get the garden turned before it started raining later this week. Last night,I was walking into the kitchen, getting ready to start dinner, when I thought I heard someone mowing my backyard. I looked out the window, and low and behold, it was Jeff bringing the previously dead tiller to the house. Yeah! My prayers have been answered. The nightmares can end!

I got up this morning and tilled the whole garden. It was also enlarged by about 2 1/2 feet along the longest side. I'm still working on setting the paths and will hopefully be laying down the mulch to cover them sometime real soon. The weather will play a big roll in that. But, I am very pleased that the garden is turned, its done and over with. Once the paths are set, the fun can begin. I'm guessing we'll plant early crops in another 2 weeks, with the main effort coming in the first week of May. Who knows, but there are rumors of seed buying going on this weekend!

So see, procrastination does sometimes payoff. I'd be ultra peeved if I had just turned 3/4 of it by hand, only to have the tiller turn up!

Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail

This is one of my all time favorite nymphs, something I would never be on the water without. If I don't have a Harey Moose tied on, it's probably because I have a soft hackle pheasant tail on. A variation of the pheasant tail, but more versatile in my opinion. This can be a moderately difficult fly to tie. Most of the materials are fairly delicate, which just adds to the difficulty of the pattern. Despite that, it's worth learning to tie!

BH Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail

hook: mustad 9671 or equivalent 1x nymph hook
head: brass bead
thread: black
tail: pheasant tail
ribbing: brass wire
body: pheasant tail
thorax: peacock
wing: grouse

step1:
Slip the bead over your hook and push to the eye. I then place 6-7 wraps of weight on the shank and push the end into the hole at the bead.













step2:
start the thread at the base of the weight and begin wrapping it to secure the weight and wrap the thread to the base to the base of the hook. Now tie in the copper ribbing. Secure it good and wrap the thread back to the base of the hook.













step 3:
Tie in the pheasant tail to the base of the hook. The tail should be the length of the hook, if not a little bit longer. I personally prefer a little longer tail. Don't use too much pressure on the thread to eliminate excessive flaring of the tail.













step 4:
Carefully wrap the pheasant tail up 3/4 of the length of the hook. Wrapping the opposite direction, wrap the brass wire 4-5 times up to the bead and then secure.

















step 5:
tie three pieces of peacock herl after trimming the tips. Twist the herl into a rope and wrap to the bead head leaving room for the wing.














step 6:
Prepare the grouse feather by removing the fuzzy barbs on base of the feather, and all barbs on the inside bend of the natural curve of the feather. Tie in the grouse feather so that the side without barbs is facing the hook.














step 7:
Carefully wrap the grouse feather around the head of the fly, taking precaution not to let the barbs go everywhere. It's OK to cheat a bit by forcing the barbs to lay back by using the thread to hold it down. It's a bad habit, so try not to do it too much. I went through a lot of grouse feathers trying to tie them right!




















This another dynamite fly! I tie it from size 10 to 18, usually in a natural and dirty yellow color. It's a fairly heavy fly, so If it's used as a dropper, something pretty big will have to be used above it to stay afloat. I fish this fly under stimulators and elk hair caddis usually, or as a double nymph rig with a small nymph trailing the pheasant tail. This is also a very effective fly for fishing like a wet fly on the swing. I used to clean up on fish in tail waters by casting across a current and letting it swing up at the end of the drift and then retrieve in quick little twitches. In the end there is really no way to fish it wrong!

So Much To Do

Spring is coming and I still have so much to do. I sit here blogging when I have a million other things on my list that are so much more important, but i guess not really, seein as how I'm doin this instead. The hecticness of life has left me totally unprepared for spring, I had a plan and the plan was not implemented on time. I'm really tryin not to stress over it all, but I have a few things that HAVE to get done by a certain date. I'm not even ready for April fishing yet, one of my favorite times of the year to be on the water!

The weather matches my moods this time of the year. Some days it's really nice out and the next it's 40 degrees and raining. Some days I get a lot done, others, I barely want to get out of bed to pee. I'm sure my mood will brighten some as soon as we're out of this cruddy weather. I think I need to go fishin! Streams are still a bit on the cool side around here, but it would still be nice to get out for a bit.

When Worlds Collide

It sometimes amazes me that Cat and I can live together. I mean, it's like we're from different planets or something. Don't get me wrong, we have many things in common, but when it comes to personal taste, it's like we tried to find someone as opposite from each other as possible.

Let's take music for example. On any given day, I'll hear Cat pull up in the driveway with her stereo blaring Cindey Lauper, Madonna, cheesy love songs, or basically anything from the early eighties. Music only in the most literal sense, in my opinion. Over the years, I've been able to foster a love in her for 311 and there are a few other bands that she'll listen to that don't make me want to vomit. Right now I'm trying to get her into Incubus, but she's still a little hesitant about them. I on the other hand listen to a lot of metal (i.e. old Metallica, G-N-R, Foo Fighters), Alternative, bluegrass, Some classical, and for the big shocker... Gordon Lightfoot! He's the man! The first time she heard me listening to one of his cd's, I was mocked, ridiculed, and laughed at by my love that has such good taste in music. Within two years, she was making hotel reservations for us in D.C. to see him live at Wolf Trap Arena.
Canadian Railroad Trilogy is one of the most bitchin songs ever!

Another area of contention in our life is what we watch on TV. I'll admit, I'm one of the biggest TV nerds you will find. If we only got the Science Channel, Discovery, the History channel, History International, and the Food Network, it wouldn't phase me one bit. Cat on the other hand is a reality TV junkie. Anything from Dr Phil to Big Brother, and any other reality crap that catches her attention. Much to my disdain, it's should be about time to suffer through yet another season of Big Brother. : ( When she's not watching reality shows, you can find her vegging out on the couch watching other great shows such as Wings, the Golden Girls, or some distrurbing man hating movie on Lifetime channel. Needless to say, we argue over whats in the TV. To my distress, there are even a few shows I hate that she WILL NOT watch without me, because she loves my constant bantering at the TV.

So what will we watch together? Lost, Hell's Kitchen, Scrubs, Anthony Bourdain, to list a few, if not most. MASH ends up on the tube a lot around here, despite Cat owning the box set, of which she's watched every episode, in order. But we still watch a lot of MASH. A little secret, if Allen Alda wasn't all old and liver spotted, Cat would jump on him in a heart beat! I guess it's a good the she finds skinny, dark haired, smart asses so attractive!

So, what's the moral to this story? Differences create interest, diversity, and constantly causes us to push the boundaries of our comfort zones. Cat is a very dramatic, organized, goal oriented type of woman. I'm a very rational, spontaneous, let fate happen kind of guy. On most "big" issues we agree, but after that, all bets are off. Because of our differences, we are much more willing to do things we normally would not try, try different foods, and listen to different opinions. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Congratulations are in order for Cat on her 2 year "blogaversary" for her blog CatTails. While I did't think it was the greatest idea to uncap the crazy online, you've found an outlet for your thoughts (no matter how distressing) and an audience appreciates your unique perspective of the world around you. You Rock!

I Have A Sickness

I absolutely can not go into a fly shop without spending more money than was allotted to me by she that must be obeyed. To be obeyed except when I'm in a fly shop. :) I sure to be chewed about it later, but ya know.

So, I was supposed to spend like $10 bucks in Hunter Banks, which is just an absurd amount. I ended up spending $20 instead. Not too bad, in my opinion, but more than I was supposed to. So what did I acquire with my ill gotten gains? Some moose body hair, much needed brass beads, mallard flanks, grouse feathers, and some wader repair. Some of my most used ingredients for my favorite flies. Springs comin and I haven't tied hardly any flies, so it's time to get busy in the evenings!

It's convenient that I only fish maybe a dozen different patterns in about 3 or 4 sizes. I have leftovers from last year (yeah! no lost flybox this year!), so only my most used flies need to be replenished. Still some work to be done, but nothing like two years ago when I lost my main box and "had" to retie over 250 flies. Loosing that box still makes me want to vomit!

Another sickness is that I can't seem to ever throw away old fishing stuff. Occasionally, I find a use for something, a spare part for another, blah, blah, blah. This does nothing but further feed the beast. Today, I'm going to bring a old pair of waders back to life. Hence the purchase of the wader repair! So old becomes new... hopefully. The needed repairs will be attempted sometime this week, if not tonight. I'm sure updates will follow.

We'll, it's a little past 5, so it's almost time to start dinner and await the arrival of Cat. Hopefully she won't be too mad at me. I sure didn't get Clinique Bonus week!

Seriously! It's Water People!

So I'm standing in the grocery store last night with my most wonderful wife pondering deep things such as, why can't I have some Little Debbie snacks, when i found myself staring at an enormous wall of bottled water. Water bottles in every shape and size you can imagine, some from as far away as artisan wells in Chile. I didn't know they had artisan wells in Chile. One was even called something like Black Mnt Water, stamped with a seal declaring it drawn from the Asheville municipal water supply. Granted, we have one of the cleanest water supplies in the country, but, for real? Last time I checked, we were still in the grips of a severe drought around here. Water restrictions and the works. How does the city of Asheville sell something that really isn't theirs, that we need, to outside parties? I found the whole thing odd and I'm going to do some more checking on it to see what kind of distribution it has.

All this got me to thinking more, as tends to happens when the sawdust smokes! What kind of idiots are we, as the American public. Over 160ft of aisle space in one grocery store was devoted to bottled water. That doesn't even include endcaps and random displays throughout the store. How much of this water is any better than the average city's tap water? I, for one am generally not guilty of buying bottled water, but will on occasion or use it if it's given to me. That's why God brought along people smart enough to make something like the Nalgene bottle, something that's reusable.

Must be a hell of a margin on bottled water, because the competition is fierce! I counted over 25 different companies and about 15 distributors.... for water.... in a bottle..... I can just imagine some jackass commenting on how they prefer European bottled water over the American aquifers, or some other equally revolting crap! It's water! Not wine or not beer, water! Neither of those flow freely from our faucets, although that makes an interesting mental image. Hmmmm.... maybe all those "lifetime in a landfill" commercials are getting to me. More likely it's all the assholes buying something we already have at home. They're just too damn lazy to put it in a bottle! Just another symptom of a disposable society.

Wow, I almost sound like I should join PETA or something! : )

Happy 311 Day!!!!

Happy 311 Day!!!

This time last year, Cat and I were chillin with some friends in New Orleans rockin out to 5 hours of live 311. Hopefully we'll be down there next year doin the same! I leave you with this... one of my favorite lyrics from Plain:

stress is the enemy
it's not a friend of me
one thing I see is to be easy going
flowing
knowing
life is but a dream

Peace

Whats Happenin Now

It's 74 degrees outside and has been for the past few days, this being the reason that I haven't posted in a few days. The doldrums of winter have seemed to have passed and I'm getting back into some sort of groove. Chores are getting done, projects are getting good sized chunks knocked out of them. Man I love spring! But alas, I fear it has showed up too early.

Early trees are starting to bloom, crocus and daffodils are coming up, but it's getting too warm too quick. This time last week the high was in the 20's and we had 8" of snow on the ground. Hard freezes have a tendency to come here as late as April, even in early May on rare occasion. On very rare occasion, as much as 40" of snow have fallen in late March. Accuweather is showing a couple of pretty cold nights next week, lows into the low 20's. Depending on other factors and how warm it is until then, it has the potential to decimate the wildflowers. Happened two years ago. I hate to be pessimistic, but it's just too warm too soon.

I was able to get out and fish on Friday in the nice weather. I headed above Canton to the DH around Burnette Siding. I fished for a bit, wrestled in maybe a 1/2 dozen fish before I came to a realization. I really don't like fishin delayed harvest waters. I don't fish the same way that I do for wild fish. I tend to fish trash flies and frankly, I don't like sharing water with other people. When I can see someone above me and below me, it's time to go somewhere else. I headed up the road and went for a hike to check out some streams I'm wanting to fish this year. Adicus and I ended up going for about a 6 mile hike and checked out two streams, both with great potential. Being all excited about the spring fishing season, I came home and made a realistic list of streams I want to fish this year. I probably won't be spending a huge amount of time in SMNP this year. Instead I plan on focusing on the Pigeon river watershed almost exclusively this year. It's close to home, has some awesome opportunities, and I can always take Adicus with me.

Needless to say, I'm excited about spring finally rearing it's head around hear. Even if winter still might make another appearance. I still have alot of things to do around the house before I go fishing crazy, so the weather is all good. I'm having to rustle up a tiller to use in the garden this year (the community tiller seized up), so things are progressing very slowly in the garden. If any of you local readers have a tiller, maybe we could make a deal of some sort for a weekends use? Just shoot me an email, if someone is so gracious! Well enough for know, Cat's snoozing on the couch after having her root canal this afternoon. I need to cook dinner and get a few other things done.

Is It Spring Yet?

We still have snow on the ground in the shady spots, but rumor has it that it's supposed to hit the 70's this weekend. The license is up to date, waders will be patched (again), DH gets stocked Thursday, I'm off on Friday..... I think I'll go fishin and enjoy this mild break in the weather.

Dreams of fresh veggies are again dancing in my head. The garden plan has been finalized. (over complicated as is my style!) Cat is working on her seed and transplant list. Now if the ground will just dry out, I can finish turning the garden and get the beds set. As usual, I'm already dreaming of fresh 'maters and corn! A lot was learned last year, with more to come this year. Hopefully we'll get some rain this summer, it will make things easier. Gotta go, supposed to be doing chores as per the chart....

Time Warp

In an effort to stem the chaos know as our lives, Cat and I have agreed to a set routine, or "schedule" if you will. Anyone who knows me, knows I reject almost any and all form of routine. I am a creature of spontaneity, a free spirit of sorts. I do most things as they come to me, stress is not a friend of mine. My most wonderful wife on the other hand, has gone schedule nuts! Last night she handed me my life on an Excel spreadsheet. Needless to say, my enthusiasm waned.....

I get up at or around 4:30 on most mornings, it's on the schedule. I tend to get home around 3 or so and work on projects around the house, this is also now on the schedule. My "play" time is even scheduled. (I've been assured this is the winter schedule and that the spring schedule will reflect the required fishing quota!)I think you get the picture. I must say, I feel some pressure to make sure I'm where I should be on "the schedule". Overall, both of us REALLY need this right now. I just have a tendency to reject structure and what not. I have a 6 week to-do list that is absolutely insane, so the scheduled time to do it is a must! Right now I'm in battle with the basement, updates in the future.

On the topic of time and such, I was watching the Science Channel last night, much to Cat's disgust. I was watching a show on time. Try to describe time. Seems pretty simple, but what is time really? Something that dominates all of our lives, yet is different for each of us. Some days at work fly by, yet other drag on for what seems to be an eternity. Wanna watch 30 minutes fly by, get on a stream unprepared with a hatch peaking. Can be the quickest 30 minutes of your life! Sometime these types of things will occupy my mind for weeks and I can't seem to get this one out of it. Seems proper that while I'm trying to wrap my mind around time as a force, I'm also trying to learn how to manage it in my life.