The Heron

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?

Yesterday I attended the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo for the third year in a row with my friend Eddie.  The Expo is perfect for getting your fly fishing juices flowing after three months of winter.  I wanted to touch on the subject of “progress” in the fly fishing community.  I realize that progress can be defined in many ways.  We can’t live in the past.  The world is always changing.  Fly fishing is no different.  For example, Flashabou (sparkly plastic strips) is being used a lot more.  I mean “a lot” more.  Five years ago I think it would be safe to say it was only used to show a hint of flash.  Now flies are being tied that are 50 – 90% Flashabou.  When I saw this trend I had to ask myself, “what’s the difference between a flashabou fly and a Rapala?”  The only difference being one doesn’t use treble hooks.  Dont get me wrong, I’m not a fly fishing purist.  I’m as guilty as the next person for using spin fishing techniques.  But, that may change.  Like an alcoholic in AA I will probably always say, “Hi my name is Gregg and I’m a spin fisherman”.  But I’m going to try to move away from the so-called progress in fly fishing towards spin fishing.  That being said, my heroes of the day at the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo were the guys at the Hog Creek booth making furled leaders.  No, it’s not a new science in leader technology.  Furled leaders were first mentioned in Isaac Walton’s book, “The Compleat Angler” in 1766.  They were originally made with horse hair but these leaders were eventually replaced by silk, gut and then nylon.  I bought one for my trip to the Smoky Mountains this spring.  Sure I’ll have to take extra care with it.  No, it’s probably not perfect.  But this is the sort of progress that I like to see.  But that’s just me.  I’m the same guy who drinks Shlitz Beer because I like old things sometimes.  I’m the same guy who pitches 6″ Rapalas for Pike with my spinning gear.  I’m also the guy who knows the difference between fly fishing and spin fishing.  When I want to spin fish I’ll get out my Ugly Stick.  When I want to fly fish…well, keep your flashabou outta my face.  I’m fly fishing.