Last of Christmas Swap pics and a little story

[vicrider 0]

First a story about my very early steelheading up in MN, WI, and MI. I was a raw rookie on steelheaading in streams and was taught by the experienced that the only way to catch them was with carefully tied fresh spawn bags. This made the first hen of the season in high demand for eggs. In tying them we used various items like sheer nylons the wife had runs in, wedding veil dyed orange, and an OTC material too expensive. To start tying them in the evening you'd very carefully put 5 or 6 eggs in the sack, tie it and trim it neatly. This would get carefully shook in Borax and stored ready to fish. The thing is, by the time you had tied a dozen or two neatly you'd get sloppier and sloppier and pretty soon you'd convince yourself a big spoonful tied the size of a ping pong ball would be fine. Your fingers would be stuck together, the Borax was in blobs on the sacks, and we'd say, Good Enough. In our defense we gradually graduated to yarn flies and rubber eggs and releasing the unclipped native fish. Took a few years but we all grow in time.

Now what does that have to do with this swap. Well, the first 20 or so packages I keep track of what's going where, what kind of flies, and pack some extras I think will work for that person. Well, I admit by the last dozen or so I lose track of what's going where, end up with two to Joe and none to Pete. You will find some of the packages with tops opened and taped and that's part of the reason. There are NO boxes a person shouldn't be happy to get and if you get flies for New Zealand and only fish panfish, put it on your bucket list and make plans.

I have been harping about Pirate Ship for shipping packages. It was time consuming to type out all the labels, print them and stick them on the right packages (note some of the cut open tops) but after all was said and done doing this saved $54.70 over just taking them in to PO for processing as I've done in the past. This, and the generousity of some members, means I will be able buy some discount packages when available to be ready for next year's Secret Santa Swap.

[cphubert 0]

No one thinks being an elf is easy😁 I'm also sure everyone will be happy with what Santa sends. Those are all very nice boxes.

[niveker 0]

Thanks Nick for the photos, appreciate all the work you do for this.  

Another plug for Pirate Ship.  I picked up a digital scale on Amazon for just under $20 about a month ago, already saved more than that in postage fees going through Pirate Ship.  One extra bonus is I can just put the envelopes in my mailbox for the postman to pick up, no more special trips to the PO to drop them off.   

[vicrider 0]

19 hours ago, cphubert said:

No one thinks being an elf is easy😁 I'm also sure everyone will be happy with what Santa sends. Those are all very nice boxes.

If I ever bitch about any of this swap it's with a grin. I love it when it's started and happy to take 3 boxes of stamped and sealed envelopes to PO for them to do their bit. Health allowing I'm going to make better  notes for next year and start setting stuff aside for it. I just wish I could watch people as they open the gifts...well, most of them. WWKimba getting that lump of coal with some feathers glued on might be  upset.

[gillage 0]

7 minutes ago, vicrider said:

 WWKimba getting that lump of coal with some feathers glued on might be  upset.

Hahahahahahaha!