Life, Fly Fishing, Hellgrammites and the Pursuit of Ice Cream

   The number and frequency of blog posts are subject to this author's distractibility and amount of time spent fishing, tying flies or doing other things fly fishing-related.  Work and food also play their roles but are requirements to living & not to be mistaken with the aforementioned noteworthy distractions that give greater meaning & perspective to life.

   I am currently working on posts about fish surveys and the recent team effort between Iowa DNR staff and members of the Hawkeye Fly Fishing Association to survey fish species in a coldwater stream.  Since I have now used my new Bug Bond LCR torch, I will be adding a review of the torch to a current post about LCR (light cured resin) lights.  I will offer comparisons to the Loon light.  I have also received an Aquapac 28L Toccoa Daysack (waterproof) that I will review when I have had greater opportunity to use it.

   Hellgrammites are still on my mind.  Recently, it was suggested to me to tie up a few of these critters for use at a nearly-local quarry (where I go for hours to torture myself) containing finicky, tight-lipped smallmouth bass.  Having cruised the internet looking for pictures of hellgrammites and fly recipes, I proceeded to tie my own version.  It was decent but not good enough for my taste.  If I were a bass I wasn't sure I'd eat it.  After a couple more tips and a brief perusal of more tying recipes, I improved upon my original version and it looks larvalicious!  If I were a smallie and one of those hellgrammites was stripped-n-twitched in front of me, I'd soon be sporting a pierced lip.  So, I'm debating posting another fly tying recipe.

   First, I need to ensure my recipe is far enough removed from anyone else's recipe.  Only then can I call it my own.  Heck, the first gosh-awful concoction I tied -when I wasn't even good with winding a thread base on a hook- was the only 'fly' that I can claim to be a 100-proof original.  And if we are comparing flies and whiskey (and we are), then from the get-go, I'd already been influenced enough by others to claim only 50% as  being completely original.  So, we walk a fine line when we post fly recipes claiming them to be of our own creations.  Besides, I've only landed one, squirt-sized smallie with my improved hellgrammite pattern.  I was at that danged quarry where smallies frequently become the fish of 5,000 casts.  No proven track record of hellgrammite fly success has yet to be established.  I can just see anglers flocking to my hellgrammite recipe post to learn how to tie a hellgrammite that hooks onehelluvasmallsmallie after onehelluvalongtime! 

   Now here I sit and once again note that I've been distracted away from writing the fish survey post due to other thoughts about fly fishing.  Does anyone else smell the strong scent of irony?  So I sit and think, how did 1 quick paragraph turn into 5+ paragraphs?  What am I doing sitting here on a Friday NIGHT?  Is this giving me or anyone else greater meaning or perspective in life?

  Doubt it.

  But the reality is if I go out and listen to a friend's band with a bum knee, drink a couple of beers and try to dance (and I've already danced with a cast on my foot, so I would dance with a bum knee), I may not be in good enough shape to wade streams and climb their banks next weekend during our gal's annual fly fishing trip.  I would likely not be in top form at tomorrow's fly fishing clinic while teaching newbie anglers one of the most fun & frustrating parts of fly fishing.  I could even miss out on luring another innocent into the art and addiction that is fly fishing.  

   In the end, I guess the distraction wasn't so bad, and my perspective on life is intact.  The fish survey article can be completed after the casting clinic.  Now I think I'll go eat some ice cream.