Year End

End of another calendar year.  Days are getting longer, and colder.  (Funny how that works).  Working to pay for my summer and fall semi-retirement months.  Counting down to Campeche (47 days and a wake-up), a mid-May quickie week (136 days), and the Ranch opener (166 days).  Baetis and midges whenever it warms up a little in the next 60-90 days.   Lots to ponder over the rest of the winter too.  Floating or sunk tippets? (No brainer, I tested it!) Do we need tails and shucks?  Soft hackle dries are the secret weapon.  So are furled leaders.  Should flies even have stiff hackle or stiff tails?  The real bugs don't, they are soft, fragile, and move.  Oh, I've got more hair brained ideas turning, and plan on spending some time at the vise on these and other such heresies.  Gotta have new or different bugs for the season.  Gotta organize all the boxes in a different manner for the new season.  I'm thinking there's really only 6 or 7 different "flies" for imitating mayflies.  They're all just variations of a few basic patterns.  "Life-cycle" variations.  Maybe I'll build another rod I don't need, for a different feel. 

One thought today to end the year though.  How the hell did I even catch any trout this season?  My truck is not even a fishing vehicle.  It was the outcast everywhere it was parked, and got stares from all around before being ignored as just a passing tourist.

Get this, I don't have one fish, fly fishing, or "brand" sticker on my truck.  Nothing.  No Sage, no Ross, no Trouthunter, not even a tarpon.  I do have a Henry's Fork Foundation sticker on the door of my trailer, so maybe that counts for something.  The truck is bare, and staying that way.

I also don't have personalized license plates like "Dryfly," "Fishon," or "Slvrcrk."  Suprised the truck even makes it to a river.  I think Montana has more personalized plates per capita than any state in the union.  I have "cripple," plates, but not in a flyfishing way.  Parking is easier though.

And, I take my two-piece rods apart when I leave, move, or store them until the next spot.  Must really look like a dork.  I don't have a rod vault made of PVC, metal, or other nano material straddling my truck and topper, covered in aforementioned stickers, so I can just put 4 strung-up rods inside like the cool guys.  Shit, it takes me all of about 10 seconds, at most, to pull my rod apart to put inside the truck, or in one of those short cases that holds the rod with reel attached.  It probably takes nearly 30 seconds to put the damn thing back together again and be ready to fish!  Losing all that time, its a wonder I got to the river at all.

Happy New Year.