DFoster

Thanks Steve- our cabinets are mahogany that my wife had custom made when the house was built. I believe there is a special place in hell for people who paint over beautiful wood. Growing up in an old colonial house I can still remember my parents stripping lead paint to find gorgeous hardwood underneath. It took them years to remove it.

Looks great!

My wife has as much a passion for cooking as I do for fly fishing. She's a very skilled gourmet cook - for proof I offer my expanding waistline. And just like fly fishing good quality tools are an investment in avoiding frustration. To that end over the years we have upgraded most of our cookware with professional quality replacements. Our stove was top of the line when the house was built back in 1992 but it was now dying a slow death. For the last few years we struggled with it more and more but replacing it was going to be a difficult because it was a down draft design. This means the exhaust was vented in a 6 inch pipe down through the floor from our center island and running out side the house through 8' of the basement ceiling. Currently there is only one company producing a down draft stove and the reviews of it are terrible. The solution was to add a hood vent system over the island which would allow her to purchase any stove she liked. Problem 1) We live in a 2 floor colonial and the ceiling is finished above the island with hard wood floors in the hallway above it. Placing the new 6" vent pipe between the joist to the out the side of the house was delicate task. A lot of math was involve to avoid making a hole(s) in the wrong spot. This was critical because matching the 28 year old siding would be impossible. Fortunately I had a lot of help from my son in law who is project manager for a major construction company. Problem 2) The unit weights 95lbs so the ceiling must be reinforced between the joist to handle the weight. This required opening a hole big enough to work though but not so big it would show after the hood vent chimney was in place. My friend Steve was invaluable helping out with this. We also had to move the existing ceiling power over 6 inches and my wife matched the plaster and paint perfectly. Problem 3) The island needed to be moved 3 inches to center the stove under the hood. Not a big deal but because it has power outlets built in I had to rewire them to obtain enough power cable slack. Also the opening for the new stove was an eighth of an inch smaller than it needed to be so I had to cut it with a skill saw to make room. The whole project required about 4 weeks working on it here and there. My wife now has a working stove and I'm glad it's over with - besides the stress these types of projects cause it also cut into my autumn fishing! Below are some start to finish photos.

Wow Mark- that's a successful surf and turf trip right there!

LOL- for the record a lot of us are still angry with summer for murdering Frosty the Snowman Mike! Thankfully as Americans we are free to choose the climate we prefer (at least for now). A lot of born and bred Northerners will tell you they hate winter and by February I too have had enough of grey, white and cold. I usually get a call from my wife saying "Pack your sh#t were going someplace that has isn't frozen and has green trees and I don't mean Christmas Trees". Interestingly though roughly half of the people who move to warmer climates return. Despite having to clear snow in sub zero temps and generally high taxes there is no place like home.

A lot of people use the name "River Herring" but that actually can describe a few different species. According to our Fish and Game web site they are Alewife or Blue Back Herring or possibly a small Shad. There are several species that require a more trained eye than mine to tell apart. In our small local streams that I love to fish they don't get much larger than the one in my hand. They're a hard fighter for a small fish and are generally found in the same fast shallow current that Brook Trout and Fall fish are located. A lot of fun on a light tackle.

Paradise? Autumn in New England is Paradise my friend-

Pete for over 34 years I've worked weekends as professional upright bassist- until Covid hit. I have struggled with CTS on and off for years. It goes with the territory for musicians along with hearing loss which sadly I also have to deal with. There are threads on the bassist forums just like this one with the exact same advise. My symptoms come and go so I deal with them with braces and the same methods listed on this thread. There are some minimal risks with the surgery and I will make that decision if my condition degrades. Surprisingly it doesn't bother me during gigs but afterwards it will wake me with numbness or pain in my forearm and hands while sleeping. It's a strange sensation to have your hands numb and stinging both at the same time. With respect to fishing I've only noticed it while tying knots. Pinching tippet between my finger and thumb will cause numbness if I hold that position too long. I wish you the best with your treatment.

Welcome to the site! Florida eh? Here the view from my office on this beautiful Massachusetts Friday!

You have some beautiful Brookie water in Michigan. Last year my wife and I fished the Platt in Honor and it was a Brook Trout heaven! The funny part was that being June several home owners came out to tell us that the Steel Head were NOT running. I think they thought we were confused or they didn't understand why we would bother chasing 10" Brookies. There wasn't a soul on the river but us and we had a great time.

As a Grandfather of 6 (5 of them girls) I love to see littles with a fishing rod in hand. I have an 5' 9" 3wt small stream special and it's also a nice size to use when teaching small children. Plus it's inexpensive so I don't mind handing it to a crumb cruncher. A word of caution - I can't tell from the photo but please have her wear eye protection and you as well. A 4 year old with a fly rod is a threat to unprotected eyes. Then again so is a 55 year old. A few weeks ago a lapse of concentration combined with perfectly timed gust and I managed to bounce a fly off of my own cheek.

Wonderful documentary of the legend-

Thanks gents, fortunately we had some rain and it made a huge difference in flow. The Fly is an old English classic and is a simple tie using a a pheasant neck feather. At a size 12 with a really large, oversized hackle it's a giant compared to most of the offerings in my soft hackle fly box. Friday was the first time I used one and the fish were absolutely crushing it- Surprising since the river I was fishing is notorious for "small flies only". It floats like a cork and is clearly visible at a distance. I'm thinking it should be effective on any water where terrestrials are available, it really looks like a dead spider once it gets wet. Here's the link to Robert Smith's video.

Here are some Brook Trout I caught on a #12 Red Clock north country spider. I also was catching a lot of Herring between the Brooks.

Yep - same here, the bass like them but I have yet to get a trout on one.

All just a quick update. It took half a tube of Aquaseal and multiple attempts but I'm happy to report that I stayed dry after an outing yesterday. There's enough Aquaseal on them to make me question how breathable they are now- but they don't leak! The holes were fairly easy to locate and seal but I was still getting wet legs. After many hours of close examination and chasing leaks I could see areas with dime to quarter size "wear spots" that allowed water to seep through. Not a hole but enough to make your clothes damp. With a dozen wear spots and many hours in the water damp becomes wet which then becomes wet and cold. Up to this point I have always worn jeans under waders. I know, I know the experts told me not too, well it turns out the experts were correct. So from here on It's soft athletic or flannel pants under my waders.

Almost all of my nymphs are weighted as I prefer not to use split shot. So the few that are not weighted I keep together in an area of my nymph box. I'll usually fish soft hackles/spiders/emergers if the trout are feeding near the surface and save nymphs for bottom water fishing. That said I've recently been digging around in my unweighted nymph section due to the skinny water resulting from the drought here.

Nice fish and truly difficult to bring to hand with 6lbs tippet. That took some skill to land.

I've never even seen one-

I tied a few hundred flies on a Renzetti Traveler and it was as reliable as a steel anvil. I paid $180 for mine, tied on it for 5 years and sold it for $130. Great vise and probably the most popular $200 vise in the U.S.

Tough fishing these days here in Mass. I hooked and lost a Rainbow on Saturday while wrestling with drought conditions - my only take in 8 hours of casting. Today I caught a dozen or so small Fall fish Again on really skinny water. On the way out I snagged a nice bramble bush with my right thigh. Lots of new character for my waders. Time to forget 2020.

Because of the bramble infested small streams I often fish it doesn't take long for a brand new set of my waders to get "character". 😁

Yep that about sums it up. I added more aquaseal last night- we'll see how comfy I am this weekend.