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flytire

I'm not as good as I once was ....

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it takes me longer to thread a 7X tippet thru the eye of a 24 midge .... its virtually impossible. even with corrective eye surgery and cheater glasses.....

a wading staff is truly a life line ....

 

its apparent that my waders are getting tighter than they were last year ....

Im just happy to catch one fish ....

my overloaded vest shrank to a sling pack......

 

carrying a bazillion flies in a vest to cover every hatch imaginable is pointless.....

 

:)

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I used to walk to the pond near my house, spend all day walking around it fishing and having fun.

Now, a good day is when I get close enough to see the water. Then I go home, take a nap and dream about fishing.

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My world, exactly. Many times I'm standing in the stream tying a tippet and just when I think I have it tied, I look down and not only is the knot not tied, I no longer have the tippet in my fingers.

 

steve

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This was the first year that I dumped a few flies into the stream in the process of 'tying one one'. Ah, _ _ it happens! We all got to deal with it and move on - or... we can become bitter and disgruntled and take it out on others? Ah, I vote for tying another one on! (I'm fond of ambiguity ... sometimes)

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HAHAHAHA... I'm still young suckers!

 

Not really actually. I'm starting to creep up on 33 and I feel the effects of getting older some days. I am not as well balanced as I used to be and it hurts when I fall now, go figure. My hands are not as nimble and they hurt when it is cold and it is a lot harder to loose weight. Most years I would have lost the ten pounds I typically put on over the winter and this year its really hanging in there. I actually don't really think that I took off last winters weight last summer either. But i guess that's life.

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33, I have fly tying material older than that! I still do not use a wading staff but I was never a real bold wader anyway, just never athletic or tall enough to wade real tough places. I have had to use a magnifier on my had brim since I was in my mid-40's but mostly for when I am using smaller than say 4x tippet and size 18 flies. The last five years I have had to use readers when tying. Still, my vision is not that bad considering and I while I am heavier than I should be I do keep myself in some shape. It does get harder as you get older.

 

Steve

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Thats funny Steve, I'm not saying I'm a crippled old man at 33, I'm still in better than average shape for my age I think. I'm just saying that when I was 25 I could take a 30 mph bike crash or a Iraqi home made antipersonnel mine and carry on like nothing happened and now if I slip and fall on my ass in the stream I feel the bruises and move a little slower for a couple minutes. I am very thankful that my vision is still good, its something I hold very dear I dread the day when it starts to slip.

 

I do use a wading staff, not because I'm certainly going down with out one (although it does helps prevent a spill) but because I do get a little too brave wading sometimes and it makes a good measuring stick for my next step and I also find it helps me move a little more quietly than I can with out it my feeling things out ahead of me.

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Thats life! I'm 41 & have to thread the small fly out of the sun so i can see whats going on, get panikky while your looking at a fish rising, thats when you notice you've crowded the eye & need a nother hook to open it up a bit & thats also when some A hole will come & start flogging the pool with a weighted woolybugger = game over! Damn all those young guy's in there 20's that decide to take a year off work, sell their flat or rent it out & go chase the fly dreams on the otherside of the world! But also goodluck! Flyfishing is a healthy hobby & better then joining the junkie juckpile this world is starting to be full of!!!

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I have tying materials and tools older than wsshmitt3's dad and yes I have been feeling the years for the last 3 or 4 years. Weaker, slower, less balance, and I can't figure out where my stamina went. I won't even talk about the eyes. I have yet to understand the golden years. I would much rather swing a 6' rod than a 9' one and these 2 and 3wt outfits are a godsend. Only my doctor worries about the 10# I gained over the winter.

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I'm near sighted & can still see up close fairly well, but a couple years ago had to have bi-focals added to my glasses. My biggest issue is arthritis in my knee's. Hell, I have it in every joint most likely, but my knee's give me the most trouble, so that makes wading difficult sometimes. As long as my hands & fingers don't ache too bad I can still tie flies & a tippet to a fly. I don't think I ever tried tying anything smaller than an 18 to a tippet anyway in my life. Fishing for bass & in tidal water, & the larger flies I like using, I don't have many issues with seeing flies or tying to the hooks fortunately. unsure.png

 

I too have tying stuff older than wschmitt3 ! happy.png

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here i am at 49.5.....

 

i keep a pair of them in my fishing bag. i ended up going home early one day last season because i forgot them.

 

i need a wading staff

 

somewhere around 35, i woke up one morning, couldn't fit into my 30" jeans, and in that moment became a fat old man, lol. it was around the same time i stopped bouncing when i fell.

 

if the day is right, i don't even need that one fish :)

 

i gave up on using a vest years ago. i now have everything i need to fish whittled down to a bag that stands alone as a hip pack when i'm working a stretch of water; or as a chest pack strapped to the front of a back pack.it is a modular system to converts in seconds at the riverside.

 

i carry two C&F fly boxes and a small flat foam one and two C&F's. the small one holds midges and nymphs, and the other two hold my O.S. pike flies, and the other one for everything else (bass and carp).

 

awe, naps, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

 

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