Thanks for the chuckle Dan

[Rainbowfran]

Hi Dan,
Thanks for the good chuckle this morning! [url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/lighterside/:70550]http://www.flyanglersonline.com/lighterside/[/url:70550]
I am still sipping my first cup of coffee this am and getting a good laugh to start the day.
Those pack rats are nasty.. had one chew a hole right through concrete to get at some Kraft Dinner in the camping cupboard of the garage! ( not sure what that means for Kraft dinner )Glad you found good use for one *L*
fran

[This message has been edited by Rainbowfran (edited 05 September 2005).]

[danbob]

Glad it gave you a chuckle, Rainbowfran! I did indeed tie the silly fly pictured myself, out of the ingredients listed. The blue husky dog dubbing is from my sweet old girl Kodiak (age 10):



Naturally curly Borzoi hair is critical for the wing to have the right twist. Here's Morwyn, the Borzoi in question (Borzois are always 'in question' as far as I'm concerned, I'm fairly sure they are half anteater) :



And, using naturally curly cat whiskers eliminates the problem of how to make the tail fibers split apart:


(whiskers were from the cat on the left)

Oddly enough, after writing the article and tying the fly, I'm finding that packrat tail outperforms squirrell tail, and I'm using it all the time. Stiffer, more water resistant, and helps the fly float longer. Just tied up a bunch of skeeters and elk hair caddis using packrat tail. If you clip from the right part, you get both white and gray lined up in your hair packer. I just told all the neighbors about my new $1 bounty on packrats. They are smart little buggers (the packrats, that is) and chances are only 50/50 of getting any available for sale here on FAOL.

Cheers
DANBOB

[danbob]

Oh, and some more fun fishin' info about the pic of my old dog Kodiak....

We are on top of Signal Mountain in Colorado, USA, about a 3 mile hike from my front door, in the Commanche Peak Wilderness. The NE corner of Rocky Mtn Natl. Park (the summit of South Signal Mtn) is just out of view on top left....we skirt outside the park boundaries since no dogs are allowed there, not even mountain dogs. Under the clouds is the headwaters of the Big Thompson river (North Fork), with Mts. Dickinson, Dunraven, Mummy, and Hagues Peak towering over (Left to right).

The little clearing right above Kodiak's ears was our campsite for that backpack trip -- it's the headwaters of Pennock Creek, which flows down towards the lower right of the pic. Fishing is strictly forbidden there, it's one of only 5 natural Greenback Cuttthroat recovery areas in our state--no stocking, breeding, etc, our state fish has always been in there. We saw them flickering out from under the grassy banks of this tiny creek on our way down it, to eat the grasshoppers and worms we tossed in from the banks. Just as much fun to watch as actually fishing that pristine creek!

DANBOB

[This message has been edited by danbob (edited 07 September 2005).]

[This message has been edited by danbob (edited 07 September 2005).]

[HideHunter]

LOL .. All that and we didn't get a picture of the *fly*?

I thought that kind of thing only happened to me.

[danbob]

Cheers
DRF

[drolfson]

DanBob;

One of those 5 creeks is one that our family used to camp on when I was but a lad. I learned to fish with my trusty zebco in the creek and caught my share of those greenbacks. While visiting my brother my Parents went back to see the old camp area and my dad was quite surprised that the creek we had spent so many weekends fishing was so off limits. Okay, he was a little ticked, as he was planning on fly fishing it.

Nice pictures! Thanks for sharing!

Don

[HideHunter]

Thanks Dan - nothing more fun than humor based on truth. Dang nice fly, too.

I make a fly with the tail clipped from the wife's Boykin. She has long, red curly hair and her parents don't know nuthin'. So the dog and the fly are called "The Chelsea"

[danbob]

Hey drolfson -- those pics are from June 2005. Interesting now that 'strictly forbidden' fishing means one tiny sign where folks might leave the signal mtn trail to go up Pennock Creek. All the USFS, NPS, and DOW did to forbid fishing was let that trail go 'natural' for a few years. It's absolute HELL right now -- downed timber like pickup sticks. We were 'trapped' in that little clearing because of lightning storms starting by 8 AM every day, and we couldn't get back over signal mtn where the dog pic was taken. We hiked down and out through that crick, and it took us 8 hours to cover less than 3 miles--downhill! My dog was ready to bite me from climbing over downed timber all day carrying her packs.

DAN

[drolfson]

Dang DanBob;

Now ya done got me all teary eyed remembering the 'dark' forests we used to wander through while bow and rifle hunting. There were some areas up around Yampa and Deckers that I would hike all day, thinking I was getting way out into the woods, only to discover I was only a couple of miles away from the truck once I hit the road again.

Nothing compares out here in the flatlands of Nebraska!

Don