Aaron has been found, but he's been acting weird. I found him down by the river fishing which is nothing unusual, but he was hooked in to a fish when I saw him...that's highly unusual! He's literally the worst at fishing.
There was a lot of fishing the rest of the day. No catching, but a lot of fishing. When you're in company the catching doesn't matter much. After seeing a few posts from others about the Wisconsin Inland Trout Opener, it was a slow day for all in the Driftless.
Bobby Nachos keeping a low profile.
Area Man watching Bobby Nachos work a streamer through some riffles.
Brown Trout and Bridge Beers Podcast.
Dirty Harry hero shot with a brown. Love this reel case!
All in all, it was a solid first outing of the new year. A fish was caught, Area Man was abducted then found, and I got out of the house and away from my computer. Cheers and Happy New Year to all of you out there! I hope 2020 brings you all the awesome!
Tuesday December 17th marked the last Bob Mitchell's Fly Shop Hops & Hoppers open tie night of 2019 at Lake Monster Brewing in Saint Paul. The turn out to these open fly tying events is usually good, and there's a lot of diverse fly Tyers that attend to tie flies, drink craft beer or soda, and talk about past and future fishing trips. It's also a great excuse to escape the house and shake off the cabin fever if ice fishing or winter trout fishing is not your thing.
Lucas Gluesenkamp aka Strange Bugs sits amazed that a ziplock baggie appeared on Jim's vise.
I cannot remember the last time I brought my vise to an open tie. I've learned over the years, that I never tie flies at these things, and I spend more time taking photos and talking to others. I'm okay with that. I prefer to tie my mop flies in the comfort of my own home, so, no one can steal my secret mop fly recipe.
All kinds of flies were being tied. Trout flies, musky flies, dry flies, and streamers. The only consistent thing I noticed on this night were the laughs. There were a lot of them. I think we all need to get out and fish.
Driftless Drew whipping up a bug the same size of a Driftless brown trout.
Armone Vang tying a chironomid that ended up in one of my fly wallets.
Looking forward to future open tie night, but more importantly, I'm looking forward to 2020.
Episode #12 of the Brown Trout and Bridge Beers podcast featuring guest John Piacquadio who is a fly fishing guide, and fly fishing artist out in Montana.
On the latest Remote No Pressure podcast Jeff talks with Dan and Ally Earnest of Whiskey Leatherworks about fly fishing and their journey as business owners.
On episode 148 of Anchored, April sits down and talks with Land Tawney of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, to learn about him and the Montana based organization.
Another great find at IFTD 2019 was the Tenkara Tanuki Pocket Ninja. I met Luong Tam when he asked if we were going to one of the after parties and if he could jump in the Uber with my friends and I. Absolutely was my answer. After talking he turned out to be a rad dude, and he has a rad new Tenkara rod coming out, the Tanuki Pocket Ninja. (Kickstarter link - CLICK HERE)
The Kickstarter went live for the Tenkara Tanuki Pocket Ninja on 11/15/2019 and it's already exceeded its goal. Having held this rod first hand, and even helping out filming a short little video of me putting it in a glove compartment of a rental car, I can tell you that this rod is a backpackers dream. It's light, responsive, and it breaks down really small!
This rod is definitely going on my wish list, because, it would be perfect for the Driftless Area streams that I fish, my local lakes for bluegill, and when I'm traveling and in need of something compact. I see this being the perfect rod for backpackers and people who enjoy hiking, but don't want to carry a big rod tube, etc.
The Paul Puckett Dirty Harry design is back! I remember when Vedavoo released t-shirts of this design a long while back. I still wear that t-shirt to this day. So stoked to see Dirty Harry make a return. Definitely going to need to pick one of these up.
Vedavoo Limited Edition Dirty Harry No-Kink Reel Case
Paul Puckett knocked it out of the park with this one!
Recently, I stopped by Ted Hansen's studio to pick up some stickers and a smallmouth bass canvas print I had ordered from his Etsy shop. During my visit we had a beer, ate some Girl Scout Cookies, spun some Hank Williams and Bob Dylan on the record player, and bounce around some ideas for this summer.
Classic.
During out chat, Ted set up a blank canvas on his easel and started to paint the entire thing red. I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes of that piece since I got to see it from the start.
Blank canvas meets Ted Hansen and red paint.
At the beginning of the year, Ted has taken up a challenge other artists have done in the past to invoke some new ideas. He has been doing a daily piece - Study a Day. After he was finished painting the base layer of red on the blank canvas, he grabbed a pencil and a pad of sketch paper (I think), and began whipping up daily study #97 of 365.
Working on daily study #97.
Ted Hansen is incredibly talented artist, and all around rad dude. You should totally check out his art, and give him a follow on the socials.
I sat down with the guys from the Brown Trout & Bridge Beers Podcast to talk brown trout. Per usual with me, it went off subject rather quickly and we found ourselves chatting and laughing. The conversation went from talking brown trout fishing, to whales, dolphins, mop flies, marabou, and I gave some tips on how to succeed out on the water.
Give it a listen to below.
Would love to hear some feedback.
Where you can find the guys of Brown Trout & Bridge Beers:
Hello all of you beautiful people out there who still visit. I am still alive, and I assure you that I have no intentions of ever throwing in the towel here. Like Stella, I just need to get my groove back. While I haven't been writing/sharing over here, I have been writing/sharing. I had a short Q&A session with Matthew over at Vedavoo not long ago, and the interview has been posted.
Click on the link to be brought over to the Vedavoo Workshop Journal to read the interview.
One of my friends saw that I was on the Carf #icatchsmallfishtour2018 and invited me along to go fish some of his favorite brook trout waters. In typical CARF fashion I forgot the reels to my 3 and 5 wt rods, so, I had to borrow Cody's spare 5 wt reel. It seems I'm always forgetting things. This one time my friend Jim flew up from Chicago for work a day early to fish, and when I picked him up from the airport we immediately went to the trout streams. I told Jim not to bring anything but his waders and boots. Well, I should have told him to bring his fly box, because, I forgot all of my flies at home on my desk. Ha! Enjoy the short video, and be on the look out for a longer version of the video by subscribing to my Youtube channel.
Let me know what you think of the video in the comments on the Youtube page, and don't forget to give it a "thumbs up" because it really does help in letting me know if it was good or not.
Looking for some new gear to use for the 2018 year. Vedavoo is offering 20% off their products until April 17th. That's a helluva deal for some high quality American made products. While you're on their website filling up your shopping cart, don't forget to read up and donate to the Reel Service Project to donate to an extremely worthy cause...oh and your donation gets you a raffle ticket to win a one of a kind custom messenger bag.
If you do not have any winter activities, and the cabin fever is starting to settle in just remember to Keep Calm & Tie Flies. A message I received from Partridge of Redditch hooks that I just wanted to pass on to all of you.
Minimum Cowbell: A fly.
If you don't tie flies, then I suggest you start learning. It's a great way to stay fishy, flex your creative muscles, and refill your fly boxes for Spring Summer and Fall fishing.
If that still doesn't do anything for you, order a pizza. Pair that pizza with an adult beverage of some sort, a sports game on T.V. or a classic trilogy like Indiana Jones or The Naked Gun, and you'll be happy...until the next time you order another pizza.
After fishing all morning and only coming up with 1 brown trout brought in by the illustrious Jim. We (Grant, Jim and I) decided to take a walk down Main Street. Here we are, 3 guys in waders carrying fly fishing rods and walking the streets of a small town in rural Minnesota, and we come across a fly shop none of us had ever been to - Root River Rod Company.
Shop owner Steve Sobieniak whipping up some lunch time bugs.
The shop was clean, bright, and welcoming. The shop owner Steve Sobieniak was very informative letting us in on what the local fish are keying in on this time of year, and was even nice enough to whip us up some fresh flies for our departure back to the river.
Jim supports local business, but also knows how to get info.
Jim just couldn't leave without making a purchase to support the local business, but also being a resident of Minnesota, you can never have too many quality gloves during winter. Jim was also excited to see a whole section dedicate to Root River Hackle, and he proceeded to rave about the quality of the feathers.
Jim's purchase also bought us some extra information, in the form of a hand drawn map. Unfortunately, after Steve completed the drawing, we all learned that we could not take the map, because, it was kind important to the shop, but that's what camera phones are for, right!?
Steve discovering the map was on something important. :)
Stoked to get back out on the water with some local intel we stepped out of Root River Rod Company, and saw a watering hole across the street. It's lunch time, and we deserve a drink for all of the hard work we put in on the water during the cold winter morning.
Sitting at the bar in our waders, tossing back a $3 personal pitcher of beer, and enjoying the locals at the end of the bar cheer on Godzilla (We later learned it was King Kong) as he destroys New York City was one of the better lunches I had in a while.
After the bar we set out to wet some lines with the intel Jim acquired with his glove purchase. After a short car ride and Grant showing us how to properly jam out to some Always Be My Baby by Mariah Carey, we found our destination.
The spot had some great looking water, and looked promising. We just didn't have what the trout were after that day, and with the sun setting at 1 PM (Kidding - It just feels that way) we had to make the drive back North.
I hope you all download this for your next phone background.
Not a bad day in our books at all. Brushed off the early shivers of cabin fever, new water was fished, 1 trout was caught, cheap beer was drunk, Godzilla (King Kong) destroyed New York, and a new fly shop was shopped.
"Ain't that somethin'? She falls down a well, her eyes go cross. She gets kicked by a mule. They go back. I don't know." - Cousin Eddie
What a fun time of year to see all of the creative and fun flies around on social media for all of the Christmas fly tying contests. I've just entered one with my homies at the Fish Porn podcast who recently invited me to be a guest on their show. Check out episode 9 to hear the guys and myself bullshit, tell bad jokes, and drink beer.
My entry for the contest is a mop fly Christmas tree. This is a fun fly to tie. It's super simple and according to +Mel Moore of The Bluegill Bug on Facebook, it's super effective. I could also see trout eating these, because, it sort of resembles a big cased caddis, too.
What do you think??
To all of you out there that read this, I would like to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas, and I hope you all get some time off of work.
Side note: I posted this with the year 2018 in the title and was called out by the man, the myth, John Sherlock. I will not update the title of this post, I sincerely hope you all have a very Merry Christmas in 2018. :)
