Saying goodbye

Jake and I became friends 18 years ago, during our senior year of high school. Over the years, girls came and went, addresses changed, our hairlines backed up, and our waist sizes increased, but we always stayed in touch. He gave the best man speech at my wedding in 2006, and I returned the favor at his wedding in 2008. He was my brother from another mother, and the only person I've known for that long that I've never gotten into a single arguement with. Jake, you were the best friend I could possibly have asked for and I truly miss you. Rest in peace.

Jacob Lee Burkett
10/10/1975 - 1/19/2012

Whoring myself out in an attempt to win

So, in case you missed it, there was a contest over at Tenkara Talk. There's a sweet net up for grabs that I'm in love with. Basically, you get a sticker mailed to you and you have to put it somewhere creative and then send them a pic of where it ends up. I haven't really been able to get out of the house with a new baby around, so I decided to stick it on a record and dust off my turntables. As a disclaimer, I'm about five beers deep (8.2% beers!), if that justifies this at all :)




On a somber note, stop over to Mike's gone fishing and offer your condolences if you get some spare time. He just lost a family member. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family, Mike. Sorry for your loss.

Somewhere, a chicken is crying.

Ghoti

Happy Friday.

It was a good day

I started out by going here:



And I left with this:




Then I went out to lunch with him:



and then for a nature walk.


I came home and tied up a bunch of these:






Also, there's only two days left in our Facebook fly giveaway contest. Looks like we have a three way tie so far! Share the link, post a pic, like some pics.

Scouting new water, a small milestone, and did someone say fly giveaway?!

I found a new shortcut back to my house the other day and slammed on my brakes when I saw this stream. When I found it, it was 25 degrees outside and it was NOT frozen over. This means it most likely has some spring influence with consistent water temps and could possibly hold trout. I took a pic of it so I didn't forget to go back and explore it. My god, it's taunting me. I want to fish it.

I might try to check it out tomorrow. I'll post my findings. In other news, we hit 100 followers today. I was pretty suprised by that, and pretty damn happy! Thanks to everyone for stopping by. You might also want to swing by and become a fan of Dub The Thorax on Facebook. Rumor has it that there might be a fly giveaway going on....

A small amount of time

I was on my way home and I only had a small amount of time to wet a line. The sun would be gone in half an hour so I had to act fast. I picked a spot closest to my house out of convenience and to save time, although I knew from scouting it on a regular basis that there were only 4 or 5 trout left in the 100 yard section I would have access to. They were rainbows that were still holding over from the stocking three months ago.

There was no time for waders, and I chose a small tan bugger. Stockies are stupid and will typically chase them across the stream.

I slid down a steep bank and hopscotched across some wet rocks to a spot where low hanging branches wouldn't annoy me. My feet got a little wet but there was no time to think about that. I stripped line as fast as possible and rocketed a cast. The bugger had a splashly landing about an inch from the opposite bank.

I started to strip line and I noticed a dimple. Then another. Then another. There were at least two, maybe three fish in the back corner of the pool, sipping on size 20 tan midges in slack water. I pulled the bugger in and started to string up some 7x tippet. As soon as I got a fly tied on, my phone rang. My son was sick and fatherhood waits for no one. I sulked away, back to my car, sadly watching those fish continue to sip. There's always tomorrow. Maybe.

Fly Fishing Film Tour? Yes please.

I'm pretty psyched. There is actually a date this year within driving distance of my house in Media PA! Any fellow bloggers wanna do a road trip?

Fly Fishing Film Tour 2012 | thef3t.com from The Fly Fishing Film Tour on Vimeo.

Black, white, and 59 degrees

You couldn't ask for a better day in January in Pennsylvania. It was crowded so the typical great holes all had idiots wading in the middle of the stream, but the trout I came across today absolutely loved that red midge from my last post. Now if only I would have noticed the trash stuck in the bushes before that last shot...

The Midge Parade

The older one wore himself out with tantrums. The younger one is in a bottle-induced coma. My wife is sleeping. As soon as the lights went out upstairs, the basement lights when on, the beer was cracked, and the Xbox started to hum. I got sick of dying 10 million times in Modern Warfare 3, so here's some midges I've been working on. Before you say "wow, those suck", keep in mind that you could fit a dozen of them on your finger nail. All size 22 and 24 (with a few 20s in the box just in case).First up is a variation of Al's Rat that I simply call "The Rubber Rat". This has been my most successful midge pattern so far this winter and it started from scrap material. I had some rubber leg scraps left over from hoppers this past fall. They were Orvis Sexy Legs which are a little thicker than regular rubber legs. They were a dark brown and orange mottled color and are pretty pricey, so I didnt want to waste them. The extra strength allows you to wrap tight and create a better taper. I kept the head just like the original rat with Muskrat dubbing.

Next, a basic thread midge with Flashabou ribbing. This stuff works great to rib, and definitely gives the midge a sparkle. I tie these with and without beads, depending on where I want to fish them in the water column. Jan Siman dubbing for the thorax. Feel free to try different types of flash.

Here's a variation of the Poison Tung. I tie these with a glass bead because I think it makes them pop a little more under the water, plus I don't like my midges to have tungsten. I kept the profile very slim, and I oversized the rib just a bit (Small vs. X-Small) just to have it sink every so slightly faster in the water column.



Finally, here's the midge that slayed them for me earlier this week. It's a cross between a Zebra and a Disco midge. Red thread, oversized UTC wire rib (same color as thread), and a peacock herl thorax. When tying flies this pattern, I like to whip finish behind the peacock so the red isn't sticking out like a sore thumb near the eye. It also helps keep your eye cleaner when trying to thread 8x tippet through it.

Also, here are a couple of newer blogs you might want to keep on your radar. Beertrout is anothing blog out of PA (Gotta represent the homeland!). I love the name so much that I won't make fun of him for having a can of PBR in a couple shots.

Another is Penn Sportsman. This one was just started by my neighbor and good buddy, Rick. This guy catches some huge fish from Stripers, to Steelhead, to lunker bass, so I'm sure this will be a good one to watch in 2012. He also has some nice patterns posted already. Tell him I sent ya!

Midges

Still going.....  Detailed pattern post coming soon.

Braving the cold and getting my first fish of the year

When my wife said that I had some free time from babyville and that I should go fishing yesterday, I packed my gear and was out the door in ten minutes. I immediately ran back inside and put on another layer of clothes. I didn't realize how cold it got. It was 16 degrees when I left the house, and 18 degrees with 25 MPH winds when I got to the stream. It was probably a dumb idea to fish, but it was over two weeks since I wet a line and my cabin fever was setting in big time. Thank got for my Orvis fleece gloves. I highly suggest getting a pair of these things. Your hands stay toasty, and they have the finger covers which fold back when you need to tie a knot or strip line.

I was very happy to see not a single other person on the stream. I figured that would be the case, because my nose started to run and was freezing on my home-from-work-for-2-weeks beard within a few minutes. After about a dozen casts, I remembered how much winter fishing can suck. The guide ice was awful, especially with the bad winds. The only good thing was that the areas that are usually a muddy mess were nice and solid.

I already had a bugger on so I started off with that but a I quickly realized it was a bad idea since the thing turned into an icicle pretty darn quick.

Switching over to midges, I no longer minded the cold. Fish came to hand one after another on a new red midge pattern I tied up the other night. I must have landed 5 or 6 fish in about an hour. My hands were too cold to keep taking pictures, but I did snap one of my first fish of 2012, a nice wild brown.

I didn't last too long in the cold weather, so I headed home to down a few beers and playing with my new Christmas present I finally picked up with all my gift cards, an Acer Android Tablet. After a few days of use, I can say that I do prefer the Apple interface better on my iPhone, but I'm still learning this and I look forward to all the open sourced tweaking goodness. Now I just need some new fly fishing apps for it (Hint Hint Orvis - I'd be happy to do an app review!)

A couple of beers later, the vise came out......

and eggs were tied with a quickness. (I always run out of hot pink and orange for some reason)