May I promote SwittersB a bit? Inside this addition, amidst all the visually, creatively stimulating materials is a humble little piece called Lost Opportunity by SwittersB. As you receive your visual fix, maybe drop by my little way station for a nostalgia fix? Thanks!
Have you noticed, of late, that this is almost the obligatory statement re women and the sport? I wonder if it is true? Oh my! Did I ask that? Well, I wonder. Most accomplished women I know are competitive and goal oriented. Apparently accomplished women don’t do well in the sport? Oh hell, I don’t know.
Just seems like a statement proffered enough that it is just accepted as a given to avoid the fall out/blow back. I will agree that the endeavor does give a sense of achievement and pride. I imagine men enjoy the same sense of enjoyment when they aren’t competing and quoting how many fish they have caught.
What is to be gained by raising this now? I just hate the stereotypical, lock step in any cast. Perhaps the fly fishing industry, women’s clubs and causes present this to enlist women and remove the perceptions of difficulty and male dominance?
Well, the more women the better, but seriously drop the silly ass kissing. Women can indeed often hold their own in fly fishing.
Also, how did Herbert get so eloquent? Obviously not a competitive, goal oriented bone is his body.
Watched the last 10 minutes of a Fly Nation episode with April Vokey, Andrea Charlton and guide, Dustin Kovacvich on the Skeena River. The episode centers around two hander action for Steelhead. What I enjoyed the most were the Steelhead rising/sipping Mayflies. The conditions seemed perfectly aligned for dry fly presentations. Here is a short trailer with only a little bit of dry fly presentation, but you will get the idea. Hopefully, you can see the entire episode on Fly Nation (WFN).
Andrea Charlton with Dry Fly Caught Steelhead on Skeena (Fly Addicts.Com)
Worse than anatomical envy is fish envy? As I perused FB tonight, I observed one pic after another of large steelhead and trout. Big fish, big flies? I mean it is so enticing, so powerful a draw. And yet, there I sit. Squinting even with my 2x googles. Bobbing back and forth to come into focus on a size 24 hook. Tying the simplest fly of a single strand of Krystal Flash drawn out to take the kink out. A simple tiny craft yarn was used for the thorax. Tying a small fly (midge), of late, has become a tying right of passage. Yet those slabs…… Fish envy is a nagging attack on your self worth. Look at April Vokey with yet another beautiful fish, then look down at the dime. Hmmm? Identity crisis and at my age.
Just in case you have been tucked away in a bat cave sans Wi Fi? I think in some parts (many parts) of the fly fishing arena you could say April and have the same knowing awareness as Oprah (tsk tsk)
SwittersB
Apparently, the tensions of the sport have prompted April Vokey to offer a reminder that is clearly honed down to the essence. In an era of incessant manipulation of class envy, I think this is often blue collar v. white collar for want of a better analogy (at least in my circle). The new breed of NW fly anglers are decidedly not white collar, so the conflict must stem from a technique/status angle not as familiar to me. Anyway, she said:
“For the truly great angler, whether they fish a fly or conventional gear, is proud to be an eternal student and strives to read every drop of flowing water and deliver every drift or swing with flawless presentation...Ultimately, presentation is key….Similar to the lengthy travels of these sea-run beauties, the aspiring angler will most likely take a metaphorical trip of their own. Facing obstacles of indecision and uncertainty, it is advancement down a long and endless road that I call…. “The Journey of a Steelheader”. FlyGal & April Vokey
I, for one, am fascinated by the ladies of the sport. Yes, yes, April is appealing as are the ladies that move in and out of her blog. But, every now and then, out of the fish porn, promotions and glitz, she and other women like Adrienne Comeau write about the sport in a different way. You read their perspective and notice a different angle, a different construction of thought that is refreshing.
Boyle parks his Ford Probe in the Holy Water parking lot and heads to the water with his float tube, fins and waders. His mission is to fish for rainbows rising in the calm, deep water beneath the dam’s spillway. Boyle ties a size 14 blue-winged olive onto his 3-pound tippet and fins into the center of the pool. Instead of trout dimpling the surface, Boyle says he’s alarmed to see an enormous creature stirring just beneath the surface. “It’s this monster sturgeon swimming upside down,” Boyle says. “I could see his white belly and his big, vacuum mouth right on the surface, swimming the backstroke and sucking on blue-winged olives.”
“I got him.” Boyle says he slips his landing net over the sturgeon’s nose — “just to make it official that I netted a sturgeon in my float tube” — and measures it. It was 10 feet, 2 inches long. More than twice the maximum legal limit. Mail Tribune
In keeping with another oddity for Sturgeon, this story from two years ago re Sturgeon at Bonneville Dam on Columbia R.
Lucky!
April Vokey, Adrienne Comeau, Camille Egdorf, Fly Fish Chick, Rebecca Garlock, Fisher Babe, Hannah Belford, K8 and all manner of hawt’s @ Moldy Chum, Troutunderground or Fishing Fury and beyond demonstrate an infusion of curves, natural beauty, energy and varying degrees of fly fishing sense equal to man’s varying degrees. But, there is a trend that I wonder about….the provocative. Am I to believe there is this random infusion of amazingly beautiful women that just happen to pickup a fly rod, or any rod for that matter?
FisherBabe
Is this healthy for the sport? Well, I imagine you have your opinion….I certainly do. If they pick up a rod and genuinely have an interest….then it’s all icing I believe….choose your icing….it comes sugar free, also, for the dietarily restricted. So far, not wanton.
Not wanting to sound like a gossip rag…so I won’t invade privacy too much. Sounds like positive energy met positive energy. Feels like the earth should tilt given the geographical pull. Damn Sooner’s…
Of course, just wishing continued positive energy….and success for Ms. Vokey and ‘the other man’. Thousands of men noticeably slumped upon the word of a special someone. Only one remedy for a broken heart men…
April Vokey
As the interviewer notes many FFer’s are familiar with the natural beauty of April Vokey. Since, I and most of you, will not be able to attend the Denver Trade Show this week to glimpse April, I thought I would re-intro this audio of Ms. Vokey. A good interview by Zack Matthews of an emerging talent within the ’industry’ and sport. A good listen of Ms. Vokey. Lots to learn about April, mascara, The Thompson R. and more.
Tube by Tony Muncy
