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I’ve been thinking a lot about Earth Day and what it means?  The news is full of stories of global warming, contamination, oil spills, deforestation, and the disappearance of birds, frogs, bees and other animals.  Politicians are not the answer.  Politicians favor corporate America.  Industrialized nations are poisoning our water, air and land.  To speak against this is heresy.  Fighting industrialization is to fight the American way for the past 200 years.  Fighting industrialization is “unAmerican” according to most people.  Well, I refuse to believe that.  John Muir refused to believe it.  And I know there are millions of Americans who also refuse to believe it.  So I think Earth Day is a message of hope.  It is a day to celebrate people like John Muir from our past and a day to celebrate people like Lynn Henning in our present.  Earth Day is also a call for action.  It is not enough stand on the sidelines and declare that you love nature.  It’s not enough to rely on politicians.  It is not enough to rant about it on Facebook.  This week I learned about how to become a water sentinel.  This week I learned that there are ways (other than monkey wrenching) to make a difference.  So by this time next year I may be carrying more than just a fly rod to my local lakes and streams.  I may be carrying a test kit.  Gas Companies….I’m keeping you in check.  Gravel companies….I’m keeping you in check.  Industrial farmers….I’m keeping you in check.  You have a year to think about that.  Clean up your act.  This message was approved by Carolina Wrens for Nature.

The Tecumseh Art Walk is almost here!  It’s one of my favorite local art events of the year.  I hope you can make it.  I will be stationed at the new River Raisin Gallery (the old Great Ideas Building).  As usual I waited until the very last-minute to get started on cutting some wood blocks.  I decided to get started on a sketch I created a few months ago titled, “Blue Damsel Lotus”.  Wish me luck.

Buddhists say that expectation leads to disappointment.  Or was it Yoda who said that?  Anyway, I tend to agree.  For weeks I have been reading the river reports.  They reported excellent fishing.  But, I’m no rookie when it comes to fishing the Smokies in the Spring.  There are so many variables to consider from water temperature to flow rates.  And then there is the Detroit hatch to contend with.  That’s when automobiles arrive in droves at the first hint of good weather.  Good holes along the road…..forget about em’.  The nice lady at the fly shop told me I should try out the “Baptizing Hole”.  I’ve fished there before.  It’s a quarter mile upstream from a picnic area so I should have seen it coming.  Sure enough when I got there some chubby teenagers were baptizing rocks in the deep pool.  Time for plan B.  Plan B consisted of taking a short hike.  You’d be surprised how many people never venture more than 100 yards from their vehicle when they visit a National Park.  The secret to seclusion is to put on your hiking boots.  You might wonder why this wasn’t plan A?  Well, the lower sections were warmer and that’s where the good hatches were taking place…..but good hatches or not most trout dont like rocks pitched in their living room.  So, upstream I went and found a decent hole with typical Smoky Mountain characteristics…..no room for a back cast, fast pocket water, and the slickest rocks east of the Mississippi.  I tucked myself into a shadow among the boulders along the shore.  There were no hatches, but there were lots of black stoneflies crawling among the rocks around me.  I remembered someone telling me that if you see stoneflies crawling on shore you’ve missed the hatch.  It was a good time to test that theory.  But first I wanted to try some dries.  I started with a Quill Gordon (per fishing report)…which brought up two small ones but I missed them both…then nothing.  Time to rest the pool.  After a short time I tied on a smaller Blue Quill….had two fish follow, refuse and return to their hiding spot.  Rest the pool.  Tied on a Thunderhead with a small black stone dropper.  Had several more follows.  Missed one or two strikes on the dropper….too much line out.  Looked at my watch…three hours had passed.  Kayleen was going to pick me up at the trailhead in ten minutes…damn!  When I got back to the cabin my friend asked me if I got skunked?  I said “no”.  He then asked how many I caught?  I said, “none, but my day was better than what “skunked” implied.  I loved every minute of my time on the river.”  Buddha would say that now it’s time to enjoy a cold beer.  Tomorrow I will enjoy hike though the woods.  In a week I will enjoy fishing out of my kayak.  In a month I’ll enjoy casting deer hair poppers to Smallies.  God willing of course.

I did this quick sketch while watching U of M play Miami of Ohio in the NCAA hockey tournament.  So, please excuse the errant pencil marks.  This style is definitely my favorite.  I think it would make a great woodcut with the addition of cut marks.  The image would work sufficiently as a transfer image.  As a formal graphic image I would redraw it to sharpen up a few details.

This one is for my friend, Pat Deere, the very talented stained glass artist.

I’m still tinkering around with a tattoo-stim.  I hope to have that one done by the end of the week.

Blue Quill, size 18

For the Smoky Mountains

Picasso-inspired Stimulator completed very fast.  Fast sketch.  Fast scan.  Fast digital edit.  Short post.

Same fly, different style.  I call it Native Stimulator.

I created this by doing a very quick sketch in my sketchbook.  The sketch is scanned and then colored in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.  The colors were a tad too intense so I opened the file in iPhoto and muted the colors.

This is basically a brainstorming exercise to see how many different ways I can draw a Stimulator.

What’s a skelestim?  It’s the skeletal remains of a Stimulator Fly.  What else?