partsman

The older I get and I’m 66 years old now, but staying comfortable is of primary importance to me. Yesterday it was colder than I expected and I didn’t bring the right stuff, I was not comfortable and couldn’t get warm all day long. Of course after being up since 3:30 am and driving 2.5 hours north and fishing all day I finally got warm enough on the way home with the heat going full blast. Which of course lead to sleepy eye syndrome. I had to stop a couple of times and get out and walk around a bit and have a coffee. Getting cold really never used to bother me, now getting to warm I never liked, but I need to find some nice warm lightweight insulated underwear that breathes and feels good. I’m done being uncomfortable. Mike.

Very cool, your nymphs, especially the black scorpion are really cool.

Great score! I’m 66 years old and have been fly fishing for a lot of those years and I still can’t make up my mind which means of carrying stuff Iike. Maybe when I grow up I’ll figure it out.😉

Dean, yes I’ve been trying to things together, I also bought a bamboo fly rod blank that I’m trying to finish up. I read a article on making floatant that’s similar to fly Agra so yea doing that to. Mike.

I typically fish in the winter, I just pick my days when the weather and the roads aren’t to bad. My biggest problem was my feet, I wear size 9 1/2 shoes so I bought some size 13 wading boots and wear one thinner pair of wool and one heavy pair of alpaca socks and I’ve got room to wiggle my toes. This year so far no fishing , came down with COVID in early December and still dealing with some after affects. I do need to get up to Grayling soon, I purchased a bamboo fly rod blank from a builder up there and it’s ready for pickup. Mike.

I would suggest watching some of Tim Neal’s tying videos. His website is best value fly tying, but his videos are Michigan based flies, primarily parachute dries and emergers. While he uses mostly deer belly hair for his parachutes it’s not hard to make the jump to synthetic materials. I also like his style of wrapping the post, and his videos are pretty helpful. Mike.

Yup he’s going to like that!

I prefer the dental floss pulls, cheap and last forever. Mike.

Same to all of you!

Mark, that is cool! Thanks for the all work you put into the sbs! Mike.

Cool, looking forward to sbs. Definitely a smallmouth killer.

Nice! I love fishing on those kind of days. Mike.

Very cool caddis Flytire, thanks for sharing!

Nice, the sculpins are especially cool. Bluegills are such a blast on fly tackle! Mike.

Beautiful pics DF, I wish I lived closer to trout streams here, but I’ve recently discovered a local river has excellent smallmouth and pike. It’s only a few miles from home as opposed to 150 miles to my favorite trout stream. It’s really been fun fishing this river this late summer! I’ll add the Murdich minnow has proved to be awesome for these fish. Mike.

I’ve been totally immersed in smallmouth bass fishing close to home, during the warmer parts of August and September the Murdoch minnow was awesome, but cooler weather of late has certainly made things more challenging. I’ve settled on the red eye leech as good, but thought I might add some crayfish patterns. I hope these work, and I will try other colors. This is the evo crayfish pattern from nomad anglers, pretty simple, looks cool, I shall see how it works. Mike.

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

Oh wow cool! Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful pictures, that’s an awesome smallie. I’ve just gotten serious about smallmouth on a fly rod, there’s a decent river about 2 miles from my house that seems to have a good population of them, great fun! Mike.

If you type in dyeing in the search function you will find lots of post with info, especially look for all of ScottPs post, he loved to dye all sorts of materials. Mike.

Cool poppers!

Looks like a good time was had by all, and fresh Alaskan fish just can’t be beat! Mike.

Last year at this time I was down from prostrate surgery, so we bought a blue Ray disc player and I watched my favorite movies pretty much all day for a few weeks, The Searchers, Lawerence of Arabia, The Hunt for Red October, and my all time favorite True Grit. Sometimes one needs a diversion for what ever reasons and I’m thankful I was able to take my mind off the issues I had at that time!

My wife and I saw Sound of freedom yesterday, this is the first movie I’ve been to in years and I’m glad we went. Totally agree with Mikechell!

Sorry for your loss, my last lab passed about 3 years ago the hurt was so bad I decided at my age no more dogs. Mike.