Now that I have your attention, we will discuss sexual exploits - of the bluegill.

It is pretty well known that I target big bluegills with some regularity. This includes fly gear, ultra-light spinning tackle and through the ice. I often refer to the fact my fishing partners and I rarely harvest mature, male (bull) bluegills. I am sometimes asked, "Why?"

How many times have you heard of fishermen who claimed they took their wives fishing one time, and they declared they would never go again? Every year I see men out in the boat fishing and their wives sitting on shore reading a book or watching the kids having fun in the water. If you are one of those fishermen maybe it's your fault your wife won't join in you fishing fun.

It was a beautiful fall afternoon. There was a gentle breeze blowing and the sun was out. My wife had said that she would help on a project at the church, and she is going to be gone for two hours. She asks what I will be doing and then states that the question was already answered.

We all hold within our memories those special fish in which we've either caught, or for some, lost. They are ours to keep and enjoy for a lifetime. Never to be erased, at least in the case of fish caught. And for the ones lost, most often they remain until we either successfully land a larger fish, or at least one "as nice as that one we lost." With that catch the negative memory of a lost trophy thankfully tends to fade pretty fast.

This caddis pattern is a great guide fly because it's fast and easy to tie and if it's fished properly very effective. I fish it as a trailing fly tied about 12-18 inches behind a dry fly like a; Korn's CDC Spent-wing Parachute Caddis, X-Caddis or a hopper. This is my go to fly and it works just as well in the East or West.

In part one I explained the effects of the unusual weather cycle that Montana endured in the winter of 2010/2011. To give you a better understanding of how strange the weather was, it wasn't until the week of June 21st to June 27th 2011 that we had air temperatures into the 70's, prior to this week the air temperatures range between 58 to 64 degrees, which is most unusual for late June in Montana.

Much has been written about how to fly fish, how to tie flies, what equipment to purchase, how to cast a fly; fish with nymphs, identify the bugs, ad infinitum. Writers wax eloquent over this fly or that rod; they describe how they caught the big one with a blow by blow account of the battle, and they make us salivate with eye popping pictures. However, at the end of the day, when the rods are cased, the waders are hung to dry, and the anglers are kicked back on the porch digesting their evening meal its less about the gear or even the fish, it's really about the memories of the time and the place that remain.

I'm told publishers really aren't interested in the old "me and Joe" fishing stories we all grew up with. You know, the ones featured as well in Field and Stream and Sports Afield. We learned most of what we knew about outdoor sports from those stories. I don't read those magazines anymore; I suppose I get whatever fishing adventures I need from reading the Bulletin Board reports on Fly Anglers OnLine. There are a couple exceptions to that, I do read books, in fact I just finished Death of a Riverkeeper by the late Ernest Schwiebert – really a modern classic, which if you are fighting cabin fever will surely transport you away from that rut. Another exception appeared in our mailbox recently. To be fair, the author, J.Wilfred Cahill did send me an email asking if I'd like to read it and I agreed.

Sometimes fishing equipment is given up for dead.  

Men of good will hate war, but, like it or not, wartimes produce inventions like no other periods, because it's important for your side to have better things with which to bash in heads. Fiberglass is such a product. Made from individual glass fibers, combined with polymers, fiberglass comes in a variety of forms, resists burning, and will not decay, stretch or fade. Glass fibers are either continuous fibers, such as that used in textiles and rods, or discontinuous shorter fibers, such as that used in insulation.