01.04.23 Lola's moved on to a better place....

     Oh Lola. Such a good dog. A Yellow dog. They are the best dogs. They love to be active, as active as you let them be, swimming, playing, fetching, chasing, and then love being lazy, laying down at your feet in between meals, and the next opportunity to be active. I like them for thier lazy phases. One thing is for sure, boy do they shed. 

     We got Lola in 2011 after my sister picked up Lola's sister from a litter from a alleged reputable breeder. We got the runt of the litter, she was all that was left. A few weeks in she started showing a limp and we went right back to the breeder. "Historic bloodlines from European Royalty.......", "Hey, then why does my dog have a limp?"

     The breeder stood "behind every dog". So he said drop her off and we could pic any puppy from the next litter. Ok, sounds good, "What about Lola?". He said he would probably 'Take her in the back of the property and shoot her in the head"........ 'Okay, c'mon Lola let's get back in the car". He explained dogs are a product, for sale, and returns do have to happen, but he can't have a farm full of lame dogs". Mmmm....alrighty then. 

     So in short, we got Lola during my second marriage, so I lived with her from 2011-2014. So many good memories, so many trips she made with us, to Roscoe, to the Adirondacks. Loyal, fun, I've never seen a dog so happy to see me, she literally pissed herelf even as a puppy. She grew up

with the kids. Below is just what a fishing buddy dog does. It was shortly after Hurrican Irene had ripped through the two house on the West Branch of the Ausable River and I was working on some drainage stuff and there she was, right by my side. She was that kind of friend.  

     So yesterday Juliet and Erin notified me that they and to put Lola down. Erin met Cindy at the dog hospital and Lola was too far acutely ill to be saved. Cindy for years had managed her gait, her diabetes, and there were a few other things that required vet help. 

     Pets, from my own dogs now, to the chickens I re-homed a few months back, bring and incredible amount of love and joy to our lives. The rewards are great, but the responcibility and work it takes is substantial. And I mean like in being a really good pet owner. Like taking them to regular vet appointments, feeding them food other than kibble, taking them on long walks, more than once every few months, and not yelling at them to drop and squat on command because your late to go somewhere. That's kinda sounds like me.

     Lola was good for my family, and good for me. I am glad she is in a better place. It may sound a little macabre, but I only wished we treated our terminally ill fellow human beings with such dignity and respect when their time has surely arrived. From what I have seen personally and professionally there is no reason for people to languish in pain and without a quality of life just waiting to die. We are humane to our pets, but not each other. Money and politics, and big Pharma, keep us "alive" longer than, for some of us, longer than we should be. I wish we could all go in our sleep, or just put to sleep, when we become tired and it's our time to go. RIP Lola Falana

01.04.23 Just tied without thought...

     With back to school starting tomorrow at the college my time for fun, and recovering from the flu, is coming to an end. After yesterday's fly test I needed to just sit down and try and get into some kind of rhythm at the vice. No thought, not trying any known techniques, just load up a hook and grab some materials and tie. Above is a six-pack of Squimish flies that were the result. Some better than others but all fishy. My next round of ties will be those sloopy mops that caught really nice fish in the spring, like the McNasty, below.

     If I could mass produce one for the spring it would be the above. 9 inches from the hook to the tail. I like the color, I like the taper. There is a mono extension in there, belive it or not. Few things, I didn't keel them, which is something I feel you need to do with larger flies, fished in big river currents. With a synthetic material like Squimpish, I have found that this material, when tied long, can foul, one, if you don't stiffen it up a bit with Softex or Plasti-Dip, using the technique I learned from Steve Farrar, and two, necessitates carrying a small comb to comb them back if they foul or get eaten by a fish. You can see it below,

     These flies are all tied on Gamakatzu SL12S 6/0 hooks. There's something interesting about hooks, and especially about hooks and big fish, hooks and their points, and hooks and their ability to handle being sharpened. Every tyer has their favorite. Last year most of my flies were tied on Mustad 34007's, but the DT make, DT stands for Duratin, which is different than the 34007 in stainless steel. There's alot of hub hub about Ahrex, and their bluewater line. I am going to give those a go, but in the meantime I ordered a 50 pack of the 34007SS long shanks to get me by. I got them in 6/0, and I contemplated giving the 7/0 a shot. In December I saw a post by Joe Nicosia, a fly guy and tyer from South Jersey. 

He posted the above chart showing the inconsistencies in hook size among the bigger manufacturers. It is kind of like grains in fly lines. I remember way back talking with Ian Devlin about how he doesn't talk line weight in 9 or 10, but in grains, as he weighs each of his lines. He's that hardcore. 

     I am glad the fly fishing show is coming at the end of the month. By then I'll need a reboot of tying materials, and I like picking and looking rather than just clicking online. What I am looking for is a solid big eye, like herring eye, tab eye. I have tried a few different things with different success. The flies above have nice eyes, give them about 20 minutes bouncing off the water, rocks, and concrete, and they'll be eyeless. 

    And then there's the jet boat. Cover was shot so I ordered a new one from Seal Skin. The saleman asked all kinds of questions about the boat, make model, year, trolling motor, and outboard. I provided it and waited for the delivery, which came yesterday. What a joke! It's about 6 feet too long, and six feet too wide at the stern. I immediately got on the customer supoort chat and 

complained and started the process of refund. They promised the will make it right and will send out "a perfect fit" replacement. I ordered through them after asking advice on a Lowe's boat owner group. This looks like it could fit my 20 foot Jones Brothers. 

 

01.03.22 Back to the vice....

     Funny thing about that fly tying, you'll never know how good a fly really is until you swim it. So with my strength coming back after this run of the flu I wanted to get out fishing. I wasn't making a drive anywhere so I decided to stay local. I checked the gauge in Lambertville and the river temp was just over 40 degrees. Now I'm learning there's more to the Delware than striped bass. Smallmouth and largemouth bass, walleye, all kinds of catfish, and then there's the muskies. Muskies are usually found a little north near the Delaware Water Gap in better numbers but hey why not give it a shot. Winter is a good to fish the fish, or so I have read.

     Before I left I checked into the NJ Dep website and renewed my fishing license as well as my NJ Saltwater Registry, now I'm all set for 2023. I even got a trout stamp just in case I feel like doing that one day. At the river I found a pink and chartreuse Deciever type fly that I hoped would get some 

attention. I found a nice run with a good seam and an eddy and what I would think a great place for a predator to lay in wait for a frozen Scooby-snack to go passing by. It was just nice to be out with mild air temps and before the rain that is supposed to arrive midday. I fished for about an hour before

breaking out one of the flies I tied last week. Like I said above, you don't know what a fly will do until you swim it. You can caress it, comb it, wet it, but wait until you swim it. In my palm the below fly looks fishy, and in a herring rich run it will get eaten by a striped bass, bu the horror! Now you

you can't evaluate a fly after you pull it out of the water, well completely. It's not undulating, key word, it's all matted down and compressed. But even above you can see how the fly, pretty good until the mono extension, looks good, until it doesn't. Laying in the water below you can see how the tail section is disjointed? and not a natural taper, and it's tending to kick down. Below is a short 

video of the fly in action, looks good, a little on the pale side, love the eyes, but at the end you see the "hanging tail", kind of like that "hanging chad", God, when was that, over 20 years ago? Jeez,

I've gotton old. Below are some pictures, a little exaggerated, of that mono extension, or failure thereof. What I'll probably do is just cut it off and be done with it. The other thing I need to work on is the bulk, fly needs to be a tad fuller, even though those river herring are streamlined for travel 

upriver. Below is a specimen that I found on the riverbank a few years back. I have to remember there are two types of river herring that enter rivers in the spring, alewives and bluebacks. Below is

shot of both for comparison. I think what we see mostly are the bluebacks, but I can't be certain of that. Either way, they are very similar, the alewife a bit chunkier, so I should tie both for the ready.

    If you love watching bait as much as I do then you'll love the below video, taken by a friend up north, where the herring are thicker and have better runs. I can just imagine predators lined up behind looking to snack on the sick, lame and lazy that drop back. 

     What I need to remember, I am no artistic fly tier, you'll never see one of my flies in Fly Tyer Magazine. My best fish came on bulky 10-minute fly I tied befoe heading out for the night. I preach the KISS principle to my students, Keep It Simple Stupid, I should heed my own advice at the vice. 

01.02.23 Will this be the new buzz fly for 2023?....But wait a minute...

 

     For years spin anglers have used a variety of plugs called "spooks" to catch striped bass. I kind of looked around on where they orginated from and it looks like Heddon started to manufacture them shortly after WWII sometime in the 1950's. They were originally translucent, and that is where the 

name "spook" came from. According to an article in The Dallas Morning News, HERE, the "Zara" portion came from the action the lure made in the water, as one customer stated, ...."it moves like the girls down on Zaragosa Street". And that is where the Zara Spook name was born. 

     Over the years they came painted, swaybacked, and were copied by others. What makes this lure so enticing to fish, and anglers, is the "walk the dog" action it gives. There is a learning curve and technique to fishing these type of lures properly, otherwise it's just another cast and retrieve type 

lure.

      I got an email around Christmas about an special offering from FlyMen Fishing Company. It was pre-release 3 pack of Spiral Spooks for $39.95. Remember, it was Blane Chocklet who designed and offered the The Game Changer through FlyMen a few years back and that was really hot that year and continues to be very popular, although to me, very diffciult to tie. So this Spiral Spook was designed by Chase Smith and will too be offered by FMFC. You can see some videos of the Spiral Spook below,

     These quickly sold out during the inital offering, and I can see why. Credit to Chase for seeing something, like the effectiveness of the Zara Spook, and designing a fly that matches it and can be thrown and worked with a fly rod. It has mono stinger hook out the back, weights inside, and the body is wrapped foam. Now, striped bass eat head first, but I guess if it's small enough it can eat the whole thing, but if not will you miss fish becasue of the location of the hook? Just thinking on paper. 

    Okay, now onto some business. Remember just a few short years ago when just about everyone was offended by just about everything? Well that crossed over to fly fishing. I'm not saying it was right or wrong, but it did. After you read some of the opinions it at least had you re-thinking some of the names of the flies that we had out there. You can read the blog post from The Caddis Fly which got things going HERE. In it they mention one of the current fly names up for discussion, the Sex Dungeon. Author Jay Nichol's set off a firestorm, and some much needed, realigning of some of the fly names being offered out there. Some critics thought the motivation was just a woke author getting caught up in the snowflake/ woke times we found ourselves in. 

     Around that time I made a blog post kind of referencing Jay's post and something about The Caddis Fly fly shop where he worked, HERE. A day before his post you could by a fly called PJ's Lynch Mob, a day after the post, the fly was renamed PJ's Mob. Now Lynch Mob isn't a good description for anything then a lynch mob. My post was just a reminder that before we call other people out, we better check ourselves. In the end it was all good, and might have brought some much needed awareness in the future when fly designers and tyers developed new flies. . But let's get back to the Spiral Spook. 

     So we have established that Heddon named the first Zara Spook around 1950. In an article for NPR in 2017, HERE,  author Leah Donella lays out the history and the other meaning of the word spook, "But as many of us know, it's also, sometimes, used as a racial slur for black people". She also goes onto explain when spook was first used as a derogatory term. It was during WWII, when the Tuskegee Airmen were called the "Spookwaffe". The German airforce at that time was called the Luftwaffe, so you can figure that out. There are many other historical publications that confirm that the slur was used and why. 

     Where does that leave us now? A fishing lure, developed nearly 70 years ago, and still made and used today. And a fly fisherman, Chase Smith, who in his love and passion of the game develops a fly based on that famous, and very fish catching, lure. One is called a Zara Spook and the other Spiral Spook. Will there be, or need to be, a renaming of this new fly by Chase Smith? Will anyone bring this up to FlyMen Fishing Co.? Some will say this is all ridiculous, where does this all end? By history, Mr Heddon didn't name his lure for any derogatory reason, and I doubt Mr. Smith did either. But, that said, we know how things happen, and quickly get "cancelled" in this day and age, maybe just a tad less than a year or two ago. 

    What I feel is this. We have to be aware. We have to be respectful. We have to communicate. But we also have to use common sense and not generalize or apply a meaning that was different from the original intent. We'll see how this progresses, if it goes anywhere at all. 

01.02.23 Maybe this teaching thing is good for fishing...

      When I look back at this blog over the last going-on-14-years there are so many cool stories of me running solo or with frineds or during the good old days with clients. Today I took a look at the "golden years", when I was guiding full time, meaning I didn't have a real job, and was giving it an all out push at making a living as a guide. I did that from 2010 to just about the start of 2015. 

     Rather than recap all of the stuff over the last 14 years, the boats, the houses, the clients, the presentations, the fish, and all the personal stuff that intertwined as I gave the guide thing a go, I'll just look at the number of posts. And that tells something in itself. 

     From 2011 to 2014 I was really on a tear. Lots of fishing and guiding, then a mix of the Upper Delaware and the Jersey Shore. Yearly post totals were 310, 337, 310 and 269. Then in 2015 something happened. I think it was then that reality set in in a few different ways. In Septmeber I was reunited with Theresa and started my journey back into nursing. It was a more consistent and stable job with actual income. In 2015 I was working at Monmouth Medical Center in the child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit and my blog post total was a mere 26. 

     In 2018 I was back in college at Monmouth University for my masters as a nurse practitioner and that years total post number was 79. It was also in 2019 that we moved from Red bank to Titusville and my fishing changed, now more river fishing then the beaches of the Jersey Shore. Trips to the Upper Delaware, which have gone down to about once per year, started about that time. After graduating and starting a private practice, and of course the covid pandemic, fishing was limited and the blog post totals for 2019, 2020 and 2021 were 199, 149 and 191 respectively. It wasn't until I started teaching in January 2022 did I get back into a good groove. They say teaching is more of a lifestyle than a money maker, and I believe that to be true. You work hard September to December, and then January to May, or maybe into late June if you take the extra semester on to teach longer. 

      Heading into 2023 I kind of like where I am, and where I landed. I am now able to just be an average angler. Long gone are the days of stress, and for me I mean stress, of watching the weather forecasts, trying to figure out where the days fishing will be, what float or where to go after launching the boat in the salt, and trying to give clients all that they expect when paying to go fish. Unless you have ever done it, for me, it is extremely stressful, and only after the day is over, after you counted your cash, and beat yourself up for what you did or could have done, can you exhale. 

     So now it's stress free. And I think the blog posts exude that. Yes, at times it's more like a diary or a book of one's personal journey thorugh life, but that's, to me, what fishing is really about. There are constants in life, ups and downs, new lives and deaths, new jobs, new houses, even new relationships, but the constant for so many of us is fishing. As you can see in the numbers of the blog posts over the years, they wax and wane, up and down, consistent with new responcibilities and challenges. But we always return back to the water. For some of us it's the sweetwater, others salt, for some a healthy mix. 

     I remember a few years back seeing the above image. Telling for sure. One day we will have to hang it up, and they say, as Al told me when he did, that he knew when that time came and he was okay with it. In the meantime, for whatever inert reason, we want and have to fish. I'm am not sure what my reason is, is it avoiding my own reality, is it a break from my own reality, is it to prove something to myself? I don't know, and don't know if I'll ever know. 

     I tip my hat to those who make their living in fly fishing. One thing I always marveled at was guys I know like Bob Popovic's and Steve Farrar never took a dime selling their flies. Yes, they made a few dollars off books and materials and designs, but their motivation, always, was teaching, instructing, and sharing what they had learned and their passion for fly fishing. I respect that greatly. 

     One day I'll have to hang it up, both fishing and writing this blog. If I croak today Leif has said he would continue it in any way he chooses to. I have to make it a point to sit down with him one day and go over how it's all done, otherwise it will be shut down forever. It's like a will, you don't know you need one until it's really too late. 

     So I expect 2023's blog tally at the end of the year to be about the same as 2022, about 275. If you take the lean months of January to March, and then the slow July to August months, you get just about 5 posts a week. I would really love to do more video, but if only knew how much work doing this with just still images is, you would see why I haven't delved in. That's why Troutbitten is done so well as I posted the other day. So expect more of the same. It would be interesting to see if we hit 800,000 in 2023. Get ready for the fly fishing shows, it's a lifeline for a lot of us until the spring. 

01.04.2010 NY State Guide License # 6225

Today I received my guide license badge and certificate in the mail. I can't wait to start guiding!

01.01.2023 Happy New Year.....

     Bah humbug. On Tuesday Theresa went down with something bad and by Thursday I was down for the count. She missed three days of work and I missed, well, fishing today for that New Years Day bass. We've been on our backs for days. To be honest I could give a rats ass about striped bass right now. Anyway, to you and yours, HNY. I hope it's a good one, but know there's always some part or several parts of each year that just absolutely suck. Just keeping it real. 

     So Theresa was Covid negative and I tested negative also, she at a lab and me with one of those government-sent-out kits. If it's not Covid, and thank God it wasn't as I would be dead, what is this? 

I was a good boy and get-it-or-your-fired compliant with this years flu shot. Remember that one, where I was in the hospital for three days after almost stroking out. I wanted to see how I could get

the flu this bad if I am protected against the flu. I had the Fluvaval Quad, one manufactured by GSK. In a recent press release from the CDC Director Rochelle Walinsky stated, "We look in real time as to how well we think the influenza match is to what's circulating. And right now, the good news is that it looks like it is a very good match". The CDC is reporting four strains of the flu virus this year, 79% is the Influenza A (H3N2) and 21% the usual Influenza A (H1N1), plus a few Influneza B cases out there. I went into the GSK website and looked up the efficacy of the vaccine. After looking 

pages of mild adverse reactions that were discovered and reported I couldn't find any mention of Influenza A or B,"only culture confirmed". It states a vaccine efficacy of 46.3% to 49.3%. So, as you can see bleow, I am glad I fell in line and got my vaccine, imagine what I would look like if I didn't. 

     So no big deal I didn't go this morning. Beautiful day with temps in the mid-50's and no wind. I think I have watched every murder mystery on 20/20, OWN, and 48 Hours and almst very type of sex crime on Law and Order. Thank God it's Sunday so at least I can switch to football for a while. 

     I hope you don't get this strain, or Covid for that matter, but rest assurred if you are vaxed and boosted against Covid and vaxed against the flu. They really need to come up with a different name for vaccines today, like maybe possible preventer. Years ago Polio and Measles were irradicated with vaccines, today, not so much. They first used DDT on kids by spraying it in their faces to try and rid the world of polio? But then they moved away from that and found an air tight vaccine. Maybe someone questioned the science? Happy New Year