The Heron

I’ve tied enough dainty little Catskill flies.  It’s time for some Bass popper mothras.  I love trout, but I was never very good at long distance love affairs.  Where I live…Bass and Pike grow big enough to scare the kiddies off the lake after dark.  I have to keep my Bass flies in their own box.  They like the taste of tiny little trout flies.  I do love fishing for the big boys around here.  It’s a whole different ball game.  I’m stealthy and quiet on a trout stream.  On Devil’s Lake it’s about the weaponry.  Make sure there’s fuel in the boat.  Is the battery charged?  Rig up two fly rods.  One for Pike and Bass and the other for Crappie and Gills.  Start the engine.  Run the bilge pump.  Check the live well.  Got the hemostats?  You better unless you want to lose a finger on a Pike’s tooth.  Where’s the net?  Are the lights working?  Got a headlight/flashlight?  Life jackets, fire extinguisher, throwable…check.  It’s a lot of work but it’s worth it.  Especially when you get out before dusk.  The waverunners are running home to mommy to make their curfew.  The water lays down.  The sunset is glowing over the marina.  A live band starts to jam at the yacht club.  You find your spot….out of the path of the pontoon parade….but not far enough.  They still come too close.  Inevitably a pontoon passenger says….”that guy is…..he’s flyfishing!”  I’m a freak show until the sun goes down.  I cast out over my favorite weed bed.  Gills slap away at it.  My hook is bigger than they are.  Jerk it once…wait.  Jerk it twice…wait.  Let it sit.  All is quiet.  Then suddenly, there’s an explosion of water….like somebody dropped a bowling ball from the sky.  Set the hook, feel the weight.  He jumps a few times.  I bring him in…slowly.  I grab his lower lip, remove the fly and lift him up to get a better look.  I let him go.  No audience.  No hurrahs!  Just me, my boat, my fly rod, the moonlight and another memory.

Tied the Red Quill tonight to represent the Hendrickson Mayfly listening to the Honky Tonk Tavern on XM Radio.  Considering the music I decided I better drink a Budweiser while tying this one.  I figured that’s about the most honky tonk beer there is.  Miller might be a close second.  Whatever the beer this is a fly you can tie with a few buds.  I don’t know if it’s cowboy tough though.  That quill body looks a little fragile.  I guess I’ll find out after I tie this guy on.  I’ll make sure to tell him to cowboy up before my first cast.

This is actually The Adams dry fly.  But in my opinion the name should be changed to the Brandon Inge Fly.  Brandon, my favorite Detroit Tiger is one of the best utility players in baseball, in my opinion….and a hellofa third baseman.  The Adams is sort of a utility player too.  It represents a wide variety of flies and can be pulled out when you just dont know what the heck the fish are thinking….which in my case is more often than I care to admit.  So the Adams is hereby renamed The Brandon Inge Fly.  Sorry fly fishing purists, but you had your chance to change the name for a long time now.  First of all, nobody really likes attorneys anyway.  Secondly, Charles Adams was a buckeye….ugh!  Lastly, he didnt even design the fly.  If anything it should be called the Halladay (the one who invented it).  So move over Adams.  Your day in the sun is over.  There’s a new sheriff in town and his name is Brandon Inge.

I love Winter.  I loved the skiing.  I loved the snow shoe hiking.  I loved the ice fishing.  But spring fever is in my veins now.  Every Spring we make an annual trip to Tennessee to visit Ma and Pa…..ummm, I mean mom and dad.  I love the Smoky Mountains.  I love the Little River.  I love the views from Mt. LeConte.  I love it so much I put away my blocks and cutting tools for a while.  I’m on a fly tying roll.  Time to dust off the fly rods.  Time to build some leaders.  Time to get out the maps.  What trails will I hit?  I don’t need more gear.  I don’t clean my vest or waders.  Stains and dirt are a like maple leafs on a football helmet.  All stand for glory days.  The more holes in my vest the better.  I don’t want to look like I stepped right out of a catalog.  I want look like I havent slept in days.  I don’t smoke cigars to look hip.  I smoke em’ to keep the bugs away.  No need for anything more than a pack of Swisher Sweets for that.  I don’t rush down to the river.  I sit on a boulder and observe.  The river is like a woman who needs some attention first.  Sit quietly and listen.  Admire her beauty.  When the time is right I step softly.  I go slow.  I make my first cast.  Usually my first cast ends up in a tree…..rejection!  I laugh.  I gather myself up.  I try again.  Suddenly I notice it’s dark.  Where did the last few hours go?  I would stay but I’m thirsty.  There’s a cold beer waiting at the cabin.  Dad’s probably smokin’ chicken in the egg….crankin’ the Tejano.  Better get busy tying flies.  That’s cold weather work.  I’d rather be sitting on the deck under the moonlight in Tennessee than squinting under the dim light of the kitchen wrapping feathers around tiny hooks.

I’m working on a new blog focused more toward fishing.

Let me know what you think.

http://artegoyo.wordpress.com

Before I started the Dirty Dozen Project I made a prior commitment to create a print for the Adrian High School alumni art auction.  This will be auctioned off at the Chocopalooza Festival at Adrian High School this Saturday, February 6th.

This print will never be sold since I do not have permission from Mr. Sendak (Where the Wild Things are).  His book was my favorite as a child.  So, I will donate one to AHS and I also plan to donate one to the Circle of Art in Saline, MI to benefit the Food Gatherers.

I finally got a chance to play around with color schemes this morning using my Autodesk Sketch software.  I have mixed feelings about using the computer to do this.  I find it a lot easier to manipulate color using watercolor than with this software.  And, if I’m creating “handmade” goods, does too much computer use “taint” a handmade piece?  Yesterday I got a chance to see the “Storybook Stars” exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art.  Illustrators from the past 50 years were represented.  Many of them continue to use tracing paper, charcoal, pen/ink, watercolor and gauche.  They are true masters of illustration.  But, there are many masters of digital illustration as well.  I know a few of them personally.  To answer my own question, I don’t think computers “taint” or should even be associated in a negative way.  What’s more important is the freedom of the artist.  I don’t think I should be constrained by my feelings.  I love making things by hand, but I shouldn’t be afraid to hop the fence to sample what’s on the other side.

I’m still tweaking this but it’s close.  I decided to go more deco than detail on this one.  To get this far I used a combination of tricks.  The original sketch was very loosely drawn in my sketchbook.  In order to get the top radius just right I drew that with my CAD software.  I also did the lily pad ellipse in CAD.  Then I sketched in the flower and the base.  I placed vellum over that and redrew the entire image, except I enlarged the fly and added double lines.  In order to get an exact mirror image of the fly I folded over the vellum and traced the reverse image of the fly on the right.  I put the circle in last and noticed it’s not symmetrical.  So that’s what I’m fixing tomorrow.  Then I’ll scan the image and open it with Autodesk Sketch to play with some color schemes.  My goal is to complete this sketch by Friday so I can start cutting this weekend.  I’ll be using carbon paper to transfer this image to my block.

The Blue Damselfly is one of my favorite nymph patterns when fishing Devils Lake.  I don’t know who invented the nymph pattern in this sketch, but it’s the one I use to take Crappies one after another in the Spring.

Process:  Made a few sketches on my lunch break.  Scanned them.  Emailed them home.  Get home from work.  Open a bottle of Pentamere Wine called Fireside.  Pour myself a glass.  Hop on the computer while dinner is cooking.  Open the scanned jpg image in Autodesk Sketch.  Add color.  Save.  Upload to blog.

Black Ant:  No 2 in the Dirty Dozen project.

Black Ant was an experiment using a Dremel Tool on Shina plywood.  This may be the fastest I’ve ever gone from a bare wood to a finished print.  I spent more time looking for a missing Dremel chuck than I did making this.  I dont think I would call this a successful experiment.  I believe the shina is a bit too soft for a a dremel, but maybe that’s just inexperience speaking?   On the plus side the dremel definitely allowed me to loosen up.  It also helped capture the look of fur, which was one of my goals.  If I were to do this fly again.  I think it might be a good idea to use both traditional tools and the dremel.  But, that will have to be done some other time.  Dirty Dozen fly no. 3 is calling.