Vol. 13 No. 40

"You can't turn back the clock. But you can wind it up again."

Bonnie Prudden

LIVE TO EAT, DON'T JUST EAT TO LIVE!

I have the wonderful opportunity to meet anglers from all over the world. I have the privilege to see my home waters anew through the eyes of new comers day after day. This never gets old.

Over the winter months we get e-mails and phone calls from past season's visitors. Some just want to keep in touch; others are looking for new bookings. Then others simply like to reminisce about the time we spent together. Over the years, I came to a realization that some of the stand-out memories clients and friends take away from their visit are the meals!!

ANT IMITATIONS FROM THE WILD BUNCH

A couple of years ago I started playing around with wild colors for ants and a couple of colors that are very effective and will more than likely will shock you. Remember, the trout is the final judge in matters that pertain to color and effectiveness. Sometime it pays to try some wild things.

A FISHING PHILOSOPHY

Years ago when JC and I were teaching fly fishing classes we told our students that fly fishing has a place for everyone. There are so many facets to fly fishing that there is a niche for everyone. Each angler need to establish their own ‘philosophy’ about fly fishing practice.

What attracted me to seriously consider the sport of fly fishing nearly 50 years ago was the technical aspects. I grew up in upstate New York on my parent’s dairy farm, and although I had an uncle that fished with flies, I fished the local brooks and creeks with garden hackle for native brook trout. In my early teens we moved to Michigan and I began to fish the various lakes around our southern Michigan home for a variety of warm water species with minnows and garden hackle. Occasionally I caught a few fish on poppers fished on a fly rod, but mostly I used bait. It was a few years before I was introduced to the Au Sable River.

AND THE WINNERS ARE

Actually everyone is a winner is this case. I just love to see kids fishing, and I do mean fishing, not just fly fishing.  Whatever it takes to get the kids outside away from the hypnotism of TV and the continuous hum and drone of modern electronic living (yes, even here in the wild west of Montana - it’s everywhere!)  It’s so invasive a person can hardly have an intelligent thought.

Sometime before 1995 when my husband Trav retired as a volunteer firefighter after 20 years, the Livingston City Firefighters took over the Kids Trout Derby which had originally been sponsored by the local Joe Brooks Chapter of Trout Unlimited. We don’t know why the Derby had folded, just one of those things. The firefighters picked up the ball and have been producing it ever since. I’m not generally in favor of fishing competitions of any kind, but this is different - or at least I’ll make an exception for it.

FIVE BY FOURTEEN

The itch was in full force again. I had accomplished all the things that needed to be done for the day and it was time for the line to go into the water. I had been looking at the swap flies I received. I was looking at some other flies also that I had not used or had not used for a long time. Time to see if they still worked or if it was time to strip the materials of and reuse the hooks. The flies went into a box, along with a few favorites. The favorites were insurance in case the flies did not work. Who wants to be skunked?

WET FLY TYING AND FISHING

Seldom has a new book, caught my interest as this volume has. There are few pages that do not have notes in the margins or hi-lighted passages. Like the work of my friend the late Gary LaFontaine, Roger Fogg’s work makes you question and think about what he has written. I can give no greater compliment to the author, than this.

SAN JUAN MIDGE

Awhile ago I was asked to submit some fly patterns for the “Old Flies” section of the website and I had to reluctantly turn down the request for articles because I am not a writer nor do I aspire to be a writer. I also don’t have that much to say and the research into “Old Flies” goes way beyond what my personal library holds in information. I also live in a small town and I personally know my “town” library is not stocked full of old fly tying books. There is the internet but that too is limited in finding “old” patterns and their histories.