Skip to main content

Summer Time is Outdoor Time

True to summer I've been fly fishing a lot.  Always looking for a better fly pattern for a specific creek on a specific day.  It always changes.


My fly of choice is shown to the right.  It's not pretty but it has qualities that the fish go for.  It's like a black gnat with grey wings but more importantly for the shallow streams I've been fishing, it's weighted with wire in the body.  This allows it to float in the water column for the fish to see.  I've tried nymphs but the fish appear to like my gnat way better.

I make bunches of them (I lose my share to trees and limbs) and I've been catching bunches of fish.  North Mills, Cane, Rocky Fork and North Pigeon.   All clear and shallow (1-2' deep) with fish laying in the ripples between the rocks.  This is not for deep pools but moving water where they just hanging out for the food to come by.

The main downside to fishing in these locations is that the fish can see you too.  So I fish upstream from behind them or let me line float down with the tippet and fly drift into the areas around the rocks.  The far side of the creeks are also out of sight for the fish so casting to the far bank is valid but the drift is limited with the current so pulling my fly away from the bank (yeah mending is a bit tough).

Heading back down to the North Mills river in a few days to again try my luck.

Summer time is easy.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Process

Once in a while I take photos of a work in progress.  This is for me as well as others as the work moves from stage to stage.  And it is done in stages with defined processes for each step.  On this walkway overpass up in Spruce Pine, I've done both an ink / marker and an Ink / Wash on the same piece. This is the finished watercolor of the work.  To start the process I did an ink drawing of it and then took a tracing from that.  It's the tracing where I did another ink drawing but this time on watercolor paper. Tracings of a work is done with standard tracing paper.  I get mine from CheapJoes.com and use the 8x10 size as that covers most of my needs.  The tracing is done with a 0.3 ink pen (Winsor & Newton Fineliner).  Once I have the tracing I can then use it for other paper or to do another work of the same subject. The tracing is just a start as I still need to get it transferred onto other paper.  For that you need a very bright light...
Post a Comment
Read more

Still Life

 Life is never still, at least I don't think you would want it to be.  That's why so many of us (i.e., retired care free people) travel.  Keep seeing new things and places.   Well the Hurricane so far inland was a new thing and one I would have rather forgone but life is what happens.  Life keeps moving. Except a still life is forever and captures a slice of time frozen in a painting.  This is from a wooden bowl of pears onboard our ship during dinner one nice.  Again, just thought it looked nice. Enjoy.
Post a Comment
Read more

3rd Try is a Charm

I've been trying to draw / paint these barns for a couple of years but never felt or got them right.  This time I think they turned out right. So What went wrong before and what's right now with this drawing?  This time, the light was right.  It's coming from the upper right and the shadows just looked right.  The other thing is the corn field on the left had to "be in season", otherwise it's just a plowed field.  I had taken other photos from different angles but they never felt right.  This angle has the road, power lines, corn field, etc. all leading to the right.  The shadows on the lower right helps fill in that corner (don't forget about the corners!).  The last part is trying to draw (ink paint maybe) the trees in the background.  Not so easy when they are kind of a blob is green shades. So yeah, it's composition that is king.  Many times I just don't see it until the drawing / painting is finished and when it's right it feels goo...
Post a Comment
Read more