Tuesday, February 24, 2009

...and now for something completely different.


So, something suitably exciting has happened to warrant my first-ever blog post. My girlfriend and I have secured teaching positions in the caribbean. I think my brother Mark may have been more excited than I was when I told him we had received job offers in this tropical paradise.

For at least the next two years I will trade in my pursuit of trout and other freshwater species for Tarpon, Permit, Bonefish and other assorted saltwater sea monsters. Mark and Adam are already saving for plane tickets and new 10wts, as they know that they have our couches to crash on for as long as they can afford.

I've got a fantasy in my head of living within walking distance of some flats, taking a used boat with a small outboard and a poling tower to any of the 45 uninhabited islands that comprise the BVI, a screaming reel as a tarpon heads for the horizon and hoisting permit upon tarpon upon bonefish out of the water on a regular basis.

I will keep this blog updated on how that's working out for us. In the meanwhile, I've got to teach Stacy (and myself, for that matter) to drop a fly in a 2ft circle from 70ft away.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Thursdays...

After a full week of getting owned by organic chem and cell bio labs, I find myself pursuing what I’m actually attending school for…Aquatic Entomology. Thursdays are dedicated to the research of aquatic insects. Thursday mornings consist of collecting...cough…Fly Fishing, haha. The rest of the day spent in the lab identifying.

While Mark spends his time writing lesson plans, I’m reading journal articles and writing research proposals on territoriality of predatory stonefly nymphs.

Typical Thursday in picture form…

Transportation...

"There he is..."


Lab

Acroneuria

The Drake...Ephemera

Maccaffertium


This is also my first ever blog post...hahaha...weird...

Monday, February 9, 2009

That Time of Year.


With the weather at or near record highs across the east coast and it being February, I thought I would reflect on a forgotten insect that emerges during warm afternoons in January and February, the Little Black Stonefly. I have been fortunate to be on the water when these tiny stones are emerging, often crawling up onto the ice and snow along the edges of streams and rivers. Many times, fisherman overlook the Little Black Stonefly, while those that don't are rewarded. I have caught many a brown trout imitating these small stones and it is a delight to match a hatch in the dead of winter.

Well, Hello Beautiful...

We Are Talking Small...

I often tie Little Black Stones using size 16 to 20 extra long nymph hooks, with black turkey biots, pheasant tail, and some black paintbrush bristles. Using the biots as the abdomen makes a very slim profile, and the paintbrush bristles as tails and legs add to that design. I use the pheasant tail or peacock hurl as the thorax for a little glistening but other than that its a very simple pattern that produces.

Yellow Breeches Brown on a Little Black Stone.
January 2008

Hickory Run Brown on a Little Black Stone.
February 2008

I would like to thank Moldy Chum for this sweet link to watch A River Runs Through It online for free. Im sitting in the University of Delaware's library writing this post and about to bang out some lesson plans for student teaching with the adaptation of Norman Maclean's words ringing in my ears. Nothing like getting your daily fix in, anyway you can.

"How the hell do you help that son of a bitch?"

"By taking him fishing"

http://crackle.com/c/A_River_Runs_Through_It/A_River_Runs_Through_It/2410847

The Best of Signs.