The Angler's Year- December

"Winter Storm to Intensify as it Heads Northeast!"

this time last year

So goes the headline.  Good for them I say.  Let them have a rah rah start to the season.  I live in a snow zone, and at this writing (Dec. 2011) we are curiously lacking in snow.  Mind you, snow has been leaking steadily from the sky for two days, as if someone forgot to shut the clouds off, and it's slowly drizzling down while still failing to cover anything.  Normally, we'd have at least a foot by now if not two, so I'm not complaining.  I'm looking around my yard to make sure nothing is out that I don't want buried til spring, checking the bed of my truck to be sure I don't lose any tools (or gear) to the ice and snow.

I try to be upbeat about the fishing opportunities found each month, they are to be had.  But when December comes, there's no pretending anymore.  The cold is here, and it wants to eat your heart.  There are no good days anymore, just the encroaching cold and darkness, short days, the icy grip of the longest season.  December is as bad as it gets.  Here in Michigan, a lot of streams are closed until the end of April, the fish have gone dormant anyways, and the weather is typically horrid- cold, windy, lots of snow.  By the end of the month the ice fishermen will be out in force, which doesn't bode well for the fly fishing prospects.

I am, of course, a fear mongering hypocrite.  After all, I've fished six of the last eight days, and caught a couple of small (baby) steelhead, and a bunch of decent trout.  All on egg patterns while fishing for steelhead.  If you ask me, the first two weeks of December seem to be just as good as the November fishing, but it depends on how cold it gets, how fast.   This year, it has been unseasonably warm.  I may yet catch my chrome siren.

oh sweet siren, how I love thee...

I've had my chances and haven't done my part.  I've hooked up on at least three good steelhead so far this month, and each has come unpinned in the first couple of head shakes.  I lost five in one day last December.  Or to be more accurate, five in two hours.  I'm feeling a little snake bit on the fall steelies.   Why do I tend to hook up on spring fish and not fall fish?  I'm fishing the same patterns.  I think I'm doing the same things.  Or am I?

Perhaps, perhaps I'm sabotaging myself, as sub-consciously I surrender to this most amorphous of seasons, like being devoured by a jellyfish,  its tentacles drawing me deeper into catatonic lethargy.  It would be very easy to just hibernate right now.  To sleep, just sleep, and dream of warmer, happier times.  I remember things- green scents, the whine of mosquitoes.  I remember warm sand on my feet.  I remember rising trout, and tailing carp.  I remember wearing a t-shirt outside, all day.  I remember clear blue skies, with those high, comma shaped clouds, like Nike swooshes visiting from another realm.  When was that?  Oh well, sleep is good.

remember these days?

All that is gone, and until then we have to survive.  And we will, we always do.  Most of you are so caught up in the holiday season, that fishing is an afterthought anyways.  When we get a break, we'll read our favorite magazines, books, and blogs.  This is the time of year we start to get serious about fly tying.  My tying desk is a mess right now, with too many materials packed into too little space.  I'll have to do something about that.  Maybe after I get some more fishing in.  I'm going to make it a point to watch as many videos online as possible, learn some new techniques, new patterns, broaden my tying horizons.

There's a couple of warmer days coming up, so hopefully I'll get back out there.  My favorite steelhead river freezes up so solid that the locals ice fish for them.  The other rivers develop extensive shelf ice, making the fishing challenging to impossible.  When that happens, I'll sit down at my vise, and start plotting for the time when the rivers flow free, the mayflies hatch, and the trout look up.

a fate I can live with

I had thought of including a winter to-do list here, but I don't think I can do any better than Alex Cerveniak.  In addition to his own blog, he now  is running jaysoutdoornews.com.  This post has an exhaustive rundown of what you need to do before next season.

Outdoor Profile: Andy Schmidt of The Granite Fly



Andy Schmidt photo

 Yes Andy is a good friend.  Yes, he's a family friend.  Yes he has a product to sell, a very good one.  One I own and it's my favorite piece of tying equipment.  I take it with me to all of the tying seminars and clinics I attend, not to hawk it, but because I never want to be without it.  It's my granite tying base from his company, The Granite Fly.  Take a look.

ahhh, my precioussss

It's gorgeous isn't it?  Wish you had one don't you?  That was the only blue one he had, so there.  Here's the thing- the base that came with your vise is either ugly as sin, or tipsy as all get out and probably both.  These bases are nice and wide and HEAVY- mine never tips, never budges.  It takes my reefing on streamers with 200 denier GSP, spinning deer hair, whatever it is you are fighting your base with right now.  They're compatible with most of the vises on the market, including the Renzetti Traveler, and my Peak vise.  They have little rubber bumpers on the bottom that keep them from shifting- the result?  A rock solid (no pun intended) set-up that is gorgeous to look at.  I love it for the aesthetic value alone.

"But Jason" you say, "I have one of those nifty, shifty clamps."  Really?  You want to tie on one of those ugly ungainly things for the rest of your life?  You are the tyer, your gear needs to work for you.  Why would you want to have to shift yourself around to be in the right position to tie?  Add to this that the surface of a granite base is virtually impossible to mar and that glue of all types and epoxies scrape right off with a razor blade without scratching it up?  Try that with an enameled steel base.  Let me know how that works for ya.

Back to Andy- I truly believe that he is one of the great innovators in the world of fly fishing.  Not that he has brought all kinds of great products to the market that you now use.  No, Andy is one of those tinkerers who can't leave a product or piece of gear alone.  If there is anything- anything at all, that bothers him about something, or that he can improve for his own use, he will work and work at it until he has modified it to his satisfaction, and trust me, that piece of gear is always better when he's done.  Gear manufacturers take notice- you need to be sending your gear to him before you ever bring it to market.  If there is any kind of bug whatsoever, Andy is going to find it, and rather than just complain, he's going to fix it.  I can't think of a single thing he owns that hasn't been given this treatment.  His drift boat, his waders, his tools, everything.
Here's another reason manufacturers should be sending gear to Andy to test.  Andy is truly a hardcore fisherman.  I know I've said some things elsewhere here about the notion of hardcore.  I also know, that this being my blog I sometimes make it sound like I'm Mr. Fisherman.  Andy is the next level plus several levels up, and one of the few truly hardcore anglers I've ever met.  He's a fly fishing purist, a great tyer, an avid steelheader, and a spey caster.  All I probably had to say was "spey caster".  They're all a little touched.  I learn volumes of stuff every time we fish just by watching him.  Andy has spent so much time on the water that it kills me that every time I fish with him, someone, usually a guide, walks up or pulls his boat up and starts talking and then it dawns on me that they know him and have for years.

Andy Schmidt photo

Here's a few more pictures of his bases.  He has them in a lot of different colors and types of stone.  Each base is "broken" instead of cut square or oval- what this means is each base is as unique as a thumb print.  He has pictures of each base up in the gallery sections on his website.  I was really torn between my blue one (the only one) and some that are an awesome green river rock.  What a tough choice.  Andy also has a video up that demonstrates the features of the base, so check it out.

Andy has managed to get these bases in the hands of some top notch tyers and guides, people like Matt Zudweg and Tommy Lynch.  I've been to seminars they've put on, and guess what, they showed up with their granite base they got from Andy, and then proceeded to tell the crowd why this was the greatest thing since sliced peanut butter.

So here's what I'm going to do- GIVE ONE AWAY! in this weeks drawing.  My instructions are very specific, so pay attention.  In the text here and under the sidebar to the right titled Friends of Fontinalis Rising, there is a link to his site, The Granite Fly.  Go to his website, view the photo galleries- (photo gallery I, photo gallery II photo gallery III) and  look at his bases- you'll see that each base, being unique, is individually numbered.  Pick out your favorite, then come back to this post and  leave a comment.  You must enter the words "base number" and the valid number of the base you've picked.  If you win the contest you can change your mind and select any base from his site, but you must enter a valid base number to enter.  I'm going to let this contest run for awhile, so it will conclude on Sunday March 20, 2011 at 7 pm.  Again, the drawing will be by staff member Lorin the Drawing Girl.  She's highly trained in fairness and her mother will be watching.

Note: I love Andy's bases and think everyone should have one.  If you would like to buy one please do- if you have any trouble whatsoever then contact me at fontinalisrising@gmail.com and I'll see to it that you get one.