RIP Pap

Saturday, November 24, 2012 my grandfather passed away.  He had been suffering from cancer in his abdomen that had ravaged his organs before it was discovered.  I am thankful that in the grand scheme of things he didn't suffer too much.  I am also thankful that during his last month I was able to get up and visit with him several times and be with him on his last day alive. 

My Pap was a great grandfather to me who taught me so much during our time together.  He took me fishing and passed on all his secrets.  I started out with spinning gear and he showed me how to rig up to bounce nightcrawlers, and powerbait when it came out, along the bottom of the stream for trout.  Thanks Pap.  I still use this method today when I decided to break out the spinning gear.  He taught me how to read the stream and find those barely visible back eddies that trout love to hang out in.  And most importantly we just went fishing.  We'd get up early in the morning or head out after school (and eventually work) and fish.  He taught me how to fish spinners and gave me his deadly Panther Martin with a wooden body (try finding those now) and I slayed the trout with it until I got it stuck on a log and it broke off.  If that happened now, I probably would swim out and retrieve that spinner, but I was 10 and I had to just let it go.

My Pap and I took fly fishing lessons together at the Little Lehigh Fly Shop.  Over a series of lessons, we learned about stream entomology, casting, the fly setup, and it eventually all culminated with us catching trout on tricos during a prolific hatch when they still went off like that.  I was hooked.  We put away the spin rods and focused on fly fishing and trying to catch trout like that.  It wasn't long and I was interested in tying my own flies. Pap got me the tools I needed to get started and made me a deal: he would buy me the materials I needed to tie flies as long as I kept him supplied with flies.  I can live with that deal.  Once I started working and making my own money, I bought my own supplies but I kept Pap stocked with flies up until the day he passed away.  Thanks Pap.

Pap, thanks for taking me out to fish.  Thanks for spending time with me.  Thanks for getting me started with fly fishing.  It is a lifelong pursuit for me now and I'm not sure I'd ever get to this point if it wasn't for you.  Thank you for going to all the fly fishing shows with me and showing me the true worth of those shows is all the included seminars.  They can't take your education away from and never stop learning were two phrases he uttered often.

Thanks Pap.

The family that fishes together...

 

Took a drive on Sunday to the beach after we were done with church.  Hit up the bait shop to get some finger mullet first.  Then found an opening on the sand.  Action was good with lots of smaller blues hitting both whole mullet and mullet chunks.

We caught a bunch of blues like this one with two coming home with us for dinner the next night. 

The excitement of the day came when I was checking out some small taps on the smaller rod.  I picked the rod out of the holder and BOOM! that hit bent the rod down to the handle.  The fight was on as this was a smaller set up to catch smaller blues in the wash.

After some drag pulling runs, I was able to land and see what I had hooked up with. 

My first red fish.  It was definitely a satisfying day on the sand.  Can't wait to get back there next weekend.

Sunrise

When you get to the boat ramp early,

you get to see pretty sunrises.

Worked our spots, caught a bunch of fish: croaker, black bass, dogfish, kingfish, and a flounder that taped out at 18 1/4 inches.

Thanks to Capt. Bob for a great day on the water!

Hollow Fleyes

I've got the itch to tie again.

Some Hollow Fleyes for the surf this fall.

Cabela's Is Coming To Delaware

It was recently announced that the outdoor superstore mega-giant Cabela's is planning on opening a free-standing store at the Christiana Mall sometime in 2014.  Reading the initial announcement, I was excited.  I mean who wouldn't be?  I would now have an awesome outdoor store within a 15 minute drive of my house instead of the hour and a half it takes me to drive to the Cabela's in Hamburg or the Bass Pro in Arundel.  Where else can you go and buy anything ever made in camo,

 see some awesome animal mounts,

check out their aquariums

and then have lunch without ever leaving the building?

But then I got to thinking.  What is going to happen to the independent stores that we as an area and I as a consumer depend on now for our goods?  Will people continue to justify visiting the smaller shops that may not have what they want in stock when they can go to Cabela's and get what they want and maybe even for a lower price?  I know that I will continue to visit the independent shops that kept me going before Cabela's was around and will hopefully continue to co-exist with Cabela's in the future.  It is up to you to continue to visit your local independently owned stores and continue to give them your business.  Just remember who was there for you when you starting out in your endeavor and didn't know anything about the sport.  Who showed you the different equipment available and what your different options were?  When you wanted to tie that fly you bought at the fly shop on vacation who helped you come up with what materials were needed to replicate that fly and the steps required to tie the fly?  When you wanted information on a local (or not so local) stream who gave you advice (location, flies, directions) when you asked?

Keep visiting your local, independently owned shops.  When they are gone because everyone visited the big box store, they aren't going to come back.

One final shout-out to Terry Peach owner of A Marblehead Fly Fisher in Centreville, DE, my local fly shop.  Terry has always gone above and beyond for me whether it was tying supplies, supplies for on the stream, equipment, and lessons.

 

http://www.amarbleheadflyfisher.com/

Vacation in Lewes

After attending to some business on Friday, I loaded up my truck and headed south to Lewes to meet up with my wife and daughter who were already at the beach house with my father-in-law and brother-in-law.  We went out and had dinner when I arrived and made plans for fishing the next day.  My father-in-law had his 17' Sea Pro Center Console with him and we had plans to put a hurting on the flounder.  The catching had already started Friday morning when BIL caught a keeper flounder.  With that fish in the fridge, we headed out Saturday morning to add to it.  I managed to put a keeper in the boat Saturday at about 22". 

Posing with the Captain who put me on the fish.  Thanks Chi-Chi Bobriquez!

We fried those fish up along with a keeper sea trout for a delicious dinner Saturday night.

Sunday I headed out with my wife and a buddy and his nephew on a head boat for some drinking and fishing.  Not too much to report.  I was way outfished by my wife and my buddy's nephew...I didn't even put a keeper anything in the boat.  I caught a dogfish and a short sea bass.  My wife caught a mess of croaker.

Tuesday we headed out again early and found some nice keeper flounder.  My BIL and I were both able to boat two keepers each measuring around 19-20".

Thanks to Chi-Chi Bobriquez for captaining the boat for us so we could catch so many great fish.  We had two great meals of fried flounder and I have a nice bag of flounder in the freezer for another meal. 

Costa Del Mar Blackfin 580P

I had been looking around for new sunglasses, I wanted something I could wear everyday but also use for fishing.  After trying on most every pair offered under the sun and finding nothing that would fit my unusually large melon, I tried on my brother-in-law's Blackfins.  That was a mistake, because they fit.  And the optical clarity they provided was awesome!  After trying them on, I knew I needed to have a pair for myself.  So I did my research on the lenses options available and settled on the 580P in Amber.  The frame color wasn't even a choice as I had decided long ago my next glasses would be tortoise shell.  So this is what my glasses look like.

I have tried these glasses out running the trotline for crabs in a tributary to the Chesapeake Bay and I was able to see deep down in the river as the trotline was being retrieved.  I have used these glasses fishing for trout on a limestone stream and I have been able to see trout lurking all over the place.  I have used these glasses driving around town and I'm disappointed when I go inside because I take my glasses off and I'm stuck with what my eyes really see.  No matter the application, these glasses make everything clearer.  I have no trouble cutting glare when I'm in my truck, when I'm on the boat, when I'm wading a stream.  These glasses are the shiznit!

Also, the frame has some sort of rubberization where it comes in contact with your face that gets tacky when you sweat.  This means glasses that don't slip around all over your face.

I haven't been surf fishing yet (that's coming soon), so I want to see how these glasses respond under the different conditions I can throw at them there.