Rod holders for your SUV...for 84 cents.

If you know me, then you know that I almost always keep a rod with me. You never know when you'll get a chance to fish. I hate to admit it, but my rod tubes and reel bags collect dust. I usually keep a rod strung up in my car, just sitting in the trunk broken down to two pieces.

 And if you know me, you also know I'm a cheap bastard. I'll do anything to save a few bucks here and there. I've been looking at rod holders for the car since I was sick of taking up trunk space and getting my rods banged up all the time from sitting in the back, bouncing all over.  Sure, the Sumo holders are nice if you're driving from spot to spot, but not ideal for my 45 minute drive to the nicer streams. I looked at those holders that allow you to mount your rod to the inside top of your car. My problem is my SUV isn't quite long enough for a 9 foot rod. It's poking the windshield. I was in Walmart the other day and came up with a solution. I found an 84 cent pack of generic Velcro, which I was originally going to purchase for brushing dubbing. It's called "Sew-On Hook & Loop Fastener" (Whatever the hell that means...)

I then had an idea.

I took the strips of Velcro, and stuck them right to the back of my back seats. They held perfect to the carpeted surface. I can now fit up to 4 rods in the back, and still have all my trunk space free. Problem solved for less than a buck! Let me know if this works for you. I think it's a pretty sweet and cheap idea.

DIY fly box for mailing flies, and holy cow, we turned one!

I didn't even realize it until this morning, but a year has passed since I started this blog. Hard to believe. I'm quite surprised at how many of you actually stop by to read and comment on my half-assed flies and sub-par fishing experiences. I started this thing to pretty much chronicle my fishing and tying, and it still surprises me every week that there are more followers, and I see my name pop up on more and more blog rolls. Thanks to everyone for following, stopping by to read, and adding a link on your site. Special shoutout to Mike @ Troutrageous. He was the first blogger to comment, and link to me and the traffic started flowing in as soon as that happened. I'm really surprised I made it this far. It seems like there are more and more new blogs out there every day and I'm honored that all of you stop by to browse and comment. Thanks again.

Speaking of Troutrageous, I got the mail last night and there was an envelope with a return address that simply said "T!". I opened it up and now I have some new stickers for my car and tying bench. Thanks man.


I also got something else interesting sent to me today from one of our readers via text message. He wrote a rap about my "Damn Lucky" post. (seriously, I can't make this shit up.) I'll keep his name out of this save him the embarrassment, but here's the message, exactly as I received it.

It was a cool black night and a clean white moon
Dub the T was on the stream, tryin' to pursue
Some trout for his blog or maybe a big carp
tying on his fly...headlamp in the dark

Just hit the east branch up in Perkasie
and his mission is the find that one big trophy
Seen a pool full of trout aint no need to tweak
all ya dudes know whats up with Dub the T.

So he hooks some fish on streamers and midges...
He casting on the banks and underneath the bridges
He lays down the line and say what's up
Then Lucky jumps in and now he's stuck.

I got this message while at work and I laughed so hard that I literally spit coffee on my desk. He said to sing it to the beat from Regulators by Warren G.



Anyway, here's something actually fishing related. I've been joining a few fly swaps, and mailing out some flies I sold and I came up with a good idea.

Remember all those cassettes from the 90s? You know you still have that Nirvana Cas-single, and House of Pain's first album on cassette. Now you can put them to good use.

1.Get yourself a empty cassette case. I would take out the Debbie Gibson sleeve, unless you're mailing the flies to Owl Jones. He loves Debbie Gibson.


2.Grab a pair of pliers and rip out the little plastic points that were used to go into the cassette holes. This is so they don't press down on the flies that will be on the other side of the cassette.



3.Measure and cut a piece of craft foam (yes the stuff you use for tying, and the same stuff you get at Michaels for .99 a sheet) so it fits where the sleeve used to be. Just coat the back of it with some superglue, and press it into the inside of the case.


4.Fill it up with the flies you were supposed to mail Cofisher for winning that contest two weeks ago. (Co- as an added bonus, I included one of the woven stoneflies tied by the author of the rap song above. I'm curious to see how it works out west...Oops, did I just give everyone a clue on how to figure out who our rapper is?!)


5.Close it and you're ready to mail it. These actually fit in regular letter envelopes.

A quick and easy tip for terrestrial indicators

I learned this in class the other night. We were tying basic foam beetles, just black foam, peacock body, and whatever you wanted to do for the legs.


It's a great little fly that will get the attention of fish in the heat of summer and into fall. The only problem with it is that it's a tough fly to see on the water. I've tied in extra foam indicators behind the head, but now I know that it's an un-needed extra step. Plus, there's a chance the fish can see it from the side.

Go to a craft store and get yourself some 3D fabric paint. The stuff I got was called Scribbles, and it was $1.19 at JoAnn Fabrics.


Just take a small drop of it and place it right on the back of the beetle. It should almost look like a miniature hersey kiss. Instant indicator with no additional materials to tie on!


The only thing I'll say is that you should be careful when using it. I got a drop on my nice pair of work pants on Tuesday night and I now have a neon circle on my right upper thigh. It doesnt come out of clothing at all. It will also take about 12 hours to fully dry. So tie them at night and let them sit until morning.

Here's a bunch of them with rubber legs. I kept one with a foam indicator so you can see the difference.


Maybe I'll get a chance to test them out if it would ever stop SNOWING! Seriously, it's April 1st. Mother nature needs to get over herself.

The Bench

No, not this guy.


I'm talking about a fly tying bench/station. Since I've been tying, I've been overwhelmed with the amount of real estate and storage containers needed for everything. About six months ago, my brother-in-law Nick (who is a carpenter) decided to design his own portable fly tying bench. His turned out to be pretty useful so I gave it a go.

I dont have pictures of the original, but it was just a very basic box with an arm to hold the vise, a few holes drilled in it for tools, and a couple nails to hold in some thread. And for the record, it was ugly as hell. I'm a Project Manager, not a carpenter. Cut me some slack.

It worked for a while, but now that I have so much more stuff, I felt like I needed to tweak it.

I added a bottom to catch all the garbage that accumulates under your vice. I shorted the arm to lock on the vise (come to think of it, I really want a pedestal now), added an extra shelf along the back, and added 4 inch aluminum bars for spools. Each bar holds three spools. Also threw in a magnet near the vise for a place to hold hooks and finished flies. I'm pretty happy with it now that I have my stuff in it, but I wont be able to really tell how nice it is until after I've used it for a while.

I think my favorite part is the little area under the new shelf where I can store my hooks. Once I have a final prototype that I like, I'll most likely buy some nice wood and beg one of my family members who is a much more skillfull craftsman than I to put it together. This cost me less than $6. The wood was from the culling cart at Home Depot and it was about $2.50 total. The aluminum bar was another $2.50.

Here it is, in all it's glory.



Here's the area underneath the shelf to store the hooks.


And more more thing...How the hell did a picture of Tila Tequila come up when I Google image searched for Johnny Bench?