Dedicated

Frank, ever fish from one of these?

Took this photo last spring on the Couer d'Alene River with a 400 mm telephoto so he was quite a distance from me. Never seen him catch anything but he was hanging tough when I finally gave up.. (Remember, click for a closer view.)

Ready for Northern Pike

Some are fur and glitz and some are maribou and glitz.. (Glitz, meaning some flashy fiber and some red flosss. The hook is around a 2/0, not sure, the box is old and the size is gone. The finished leader is 5 to 6 inches and is from coated 30 lb wire. I read somewhere on the internet how to form the loops by heating the twisted wire with a propane lighter to fuse the coating together. Works like a charm. No more crimping for me!

Alder Fly Varient

When I get three more of these made, I'll name this one the "Dirty Dozen."

Home Brewed Knives

Frank, your knife design/making projects stimulated this post. Pictured here is the first knife project made by my nephew. The blade is from a leaf spring from a car. The black line you can see between the walnut handle and brass bolster is a teflon lining between the metal and wood parts. The rivets are threaded brass. At 1/4" thickness, it must have required hours of grinding. It has always amazed me at the precision Dennis has achieved using only hand-held grinding. (He uses a 1 inch belt grinder.) The leather case was made by one of Dennis' crafty friends. I used it to dress out one elk and it held its edge very well. I may start packing it when in wolf country. :)

Feb 4, 2010

Skunked! First time out for Mountain Whitefish.. Fished nympths in several different holes from Falls Creek to Calder.. No other fishermen on the river. (Hmmm, maybe they know something I don't ?

The river is at its lowest point for the winter and I'm thinking we need some fresh run-off from the feeder streams to kick-start these fish from hibernation?

There were some geese flying, looks like they were enjoying the sunshine. They have started pairing up and bickering among themselves. Perhaps spring is on the way?

St. Joe River, February 3, 2010

The ice flow is jamming the river at the mouth of Storm Creek. Usually, after a normal winter, these ice jams can be much larger and often require explosives to break them up. No such problems this year. The road you can see across the river is the old river road and the current road going across the concrete bridge is built on the old railroad grade from Marble Creek to Avery.

The last photo is looking upstream. It shows how the ice is holding to the stream edges with the deeper current breaking through the middle section.

Avery, again...

Top: A view showing the rim of ice hanging on to the south shore of the river. You can see that some of the residents don't have far to go to wet a line.

The middle photo depicts the backbone of the municipality. (The railcar is from the old Milwaukee Line that used to run through Avery. It was here the steam engines unhitched and let the electric powered engines haul the cargo and passengers over the hump into Montana.) The other two pieces, jail and fire engine, represent law and order and emergency services.

Of course, we can depend on the Trading Post for a bit of recreation, no matter the preference.. you can probably find it or catch it here..

Avery

There are two deer in the top photo. (Lens was 400 mm, distance to the deer was approximately 1/2 mile.) Click to zoom.

All fishermen up and down this "Wild and Scenic River" are greeted with similar signs.

The bottom photo shows downtown Avery, the hub of the first cluster of civilization west of Missoula, MT. :) (Along this corridor, anyway.)

Back to the Drawing Board

Top fly has 4 glass beads interspersed with light dubbing and turkey wing on a #12 caddis hook.

Bottom fly is on a #14 hook with turkey wings, peacock herl body grizzly hackle and the tail and antenaei are fibers of golden pheasant feather.

Would like the Woodrats to name these for me?

(Click to enlarge)