season needs to open now

[Justice League]

Ok things in here have been to say the least gotten a little heated. Well Dr. Phil is here to fix everything. The problem is YOU GUYS LIVE IN TO COLD A CLIMATE! Here in South Carolina it was in the fifities today. We have no closed season. Our ponds do not ice over so you can walk on them. Redneck is a term of indearment. Our state university's mascot is an illegal cock fighting ring. We eat grits for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (sometimes with shrimp and hot sauce). Trucks with bedliners are for the rich. Everyone has a farmers tan including the girls. Ya'll can mean 1 or 5,000,000. Your sister can be your cousin as well. Fishing is not a sport but a lifestyle. We will keep anyfish no matter what the size. Fried foods are a seperate food group. Gravy makes everything taste better. Fly fishing means you just got through going off the back side of the boat and your "friend" just giggles because you forgot to zip up after and he can not wait to get back to the dock for everyone else to see. Boxers are considered bathing suits. Bubba is a proper name. This is what I live with everyday of my life. Here is the point I WOULD NOT GIVE IT UP AND MOVE UP THERE FOR ANYTHING! You guys are crazy! You guys will argue over the proper way to put a fly in a fly box and what type of fly box it should be and where in your fly vest you should put it and if you should be standing up stream or down stream while you are put the fly up. Cabin fever must suck! That or everyone up there is crazy. At least ya'll abide by that no shirt no shoes no service rule.


War Fly Fishing and Everyone Staring Because They Think You Are From That Movie With Brad Pit

[nighthawk]

Our seasons never close, we have some open water year round, you need to learn how to ice fish and you have no idea how it feels to pull down your pants and slide on the ice. Yes, we are crazy too. I like your post!

[DG]

I've only been fishing eight or nine times so far this year, with 150% snowpack, nights below zero... Didn't bother to blog yesterday cause the days are starting to blur...

Oh, wait, that is snow falling again. Forget it.

[flybinder]

J-League, GREAT post! Thanks!
After, today, I needed a post just like yours!!
And, you're right but it's not ALL this trash excuse of "Cabin Fever", I'm afraid. Most of the time, I'll see these SAME arguments in August, but, I agree they DO get a bit heavier traffic this time of year.
I've been getting a charge out of the fact, that currently there are what................ THREE............posted threads JUST on a the; "MY hooks are better than YOUR hooks!" going on right now at the same time!
"Private?"
"Yes, Captain?"
"Get, out of the saddle & OFF your horse!"
"Why, Captain?"
"Because. Once the horse, is lying on its side, Private, it means it's DEAD"!
Sorry, I digress, again.
Even though, we don't have grits, and THANK GOD NO SPAM, either........... we DO eat scallops, shrimp, clams and oysters, possibly 3 meals a day, here, at the beach and very often with red sauce as well!
Our small town, is very close knit, as you say yours is and in fact there are over 1,300 people in our local phone book. But.......... there's only 4 last names. We don't worry, if we get divorced, because we may have "lost a spouse" but we didn't " loose a sibling", which is nice!
During all this medical crap, I've been going through lately I managed to find out, in fact, that I'm my own uncle!
Granted, the sheep in town a tad nervous at times, but only during Homecoming Weekend. The "town fathers", recently okay'd a huge financial grant to the local high school, to replace the grass of the football field, with Astro-Turf. It's cheaper, in the long run, because now the cheerleaders will pay more attention "cheering" than they were when grazing.
We're expecting temps in the mid 60s, by this weekend and our lakes are all open year around for fishing any species!!!
I'll take the beach life anytime. We're not that picky about our hooks, as long as they'll hold garden hackle!

And, above all of THAT.................. WHY, do you think, FAOL is also based on the West Coast!!??!
Thanks, again, for the fun post!

[Joe Valencic]

JL,

Yes, many of us are crazy and have the papers to prove it (including yours truly). I live here only because my bride wanted to be close to her people, but now most of them have passed away except for two sisters and some relatives we only see at marryins and buryins. We don't count the kids as holding us back, because they'll find us no matter where we live (loans and meals).

I will say one thing about the changing seasons. You cannot beat it for its beauty. When the first flowers poke their heads through the last of the snow, you know the transformation has begun. The barren branches on the deciduous trees begin to show their buds, and you watch each day as the leaves mature and the canopy once again fills to provide a cool shadow for the warm days ahead. The splendor of the leaves changing colors in the Fall is so spectacular that people schedule their vacations just to drive through the deciduous forests and soak in the beauty before the trees once again fall back to sleep for almost six months.

Changing seasons give you something to look forward to, knowing that your entire surroundings will transform before your very eyes, and each season has its own special beauty. Yes, even the dead of winter you can find beauty in a wall of icicles on a river-side cliff, or a frozen waterfall on a backwater tributary. Its only boring if you allow it to be boring, because there is much to see and enjoy, you just need to get off your butt, bundle up and go looking.

I agree that some folks here get waaaaaayyyyyyyy to serious about fly fishing. I try to give them a wide berth, because that's the way they are about their lives as a whole. I have a friend that thinks it's heresy to put away a fly rod without going through a ritualistic cleansing and drying with special cloths and fondling prior to neatly rolling it into its chamois shroud and gently inserting it into its properly ventilated container of appropriate length (can't allow it to shift in the tube). I drive him crazy (intentionally) when I lay my rod in the back of the truck and head on down the road to the next fishing hole. I could easily slide it into its travel tube, but he feel so good about himself and his special ways of doing things after a day with me, that I just can't see depriving him of this unique pleasure. Besides, I don't believe in spending a lot of money on equipment, because it's ME that catches the fish, not the $600 rod or $500 reel. If the darn thing breaks I'll just build or buy another one. Ain't no big thang.

The winter Shack Nasties can get ugly on all fishing boards, and it's really kind of fun agitating the natives. I get a simple pleasure from doing this, and feel I'm doing my part to keep their blood pumping.

So much for my morning ramblings. Time to get ready for work.

Joe

[gzacckey]

JL,
Awesome post. I have been trying to get my wife to consider moving to SC or somewhere a little warmer. Greenville is actually at top of my list of places to visit for potential relocation. I can become a redneck if it means not cleaning ice out of my guides. My fingers turn blue just watching ice fishing on TV.

Thanks for the entertainment.

[JohnScott]

Justice League -

Yes, indeed. Very entertaining. Thanks for the insight into what life in S.C. is really like.

And it brought out the best of Flybinder, which, by the way, is not all that difficult, because he is always at his best.

Enjoy.

John

[rainbowchaser]

Ya had me thinking about going South until you brought up grits. There is a reason the Geneva convention prohibits feeding that stuff to prisoners you know.

[gutbomb]

Winter is winter, but the beauty of it is the annual experience of that first day of fishing in a t-shirt with a warm spring sun on your face.

[flybinder]

Ya had me thinking about going South until you brought up grits. There is a reason the Geneva convention prohibits feeding that stuff to prisoners you know.

So, true, so true! A lot of historians, not wanting to embarrass the Southern States, also made up a plethora of "economic reasons", why they lost the Civil War. Had they simply stated the REAL TRUTH in history books, (eating grits, sorghum and okra), they could have saved a ton of paper on the thickness of our books.
We could have also, quite easily, saved a bundle of defense money, had we only shipped C.A.R.E. packages to our enemies towards the end of WWII, containing cans of SPAM, recipes for grits and preserved Okra.