FFFP of the Day  

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We're kind of on a Montana theme here lately so here's another great one


Flickr Title: Fly Fishing, Lake Nelson, Bitterroot Mountains, Montana
Flickr Caption: T
im Wild fly-fishing at Lake Nelson, Motanana. The dogs (Lady Nelson and Brutus Thill) watched on. This photo was taken by me using the
Widelux Panorama Camera.
Flickr User: The Strand
Credit: Todd Strand

Home Dehydrating Food  

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From Simon's Blog comes a great post on dehydrating food. As Stage 1 is on a never ceasing quest to go lighter, farther, and cheaper, dehydration has always been a fascination. Dehydrating will not only allow you to go cheaper and lighter, but it will allow you to get out there faster. Having several day's worth of meal dehydrated and labeled will allow you to toss the amount you need in to your pack and go. No hitting the store, no searching for recipes and ingredients. It's right there and ready to go! I've been trying to find links and better information on the net, but haven't found much. Let us know what you have!







Simon's Blog: Home dehydrating food

Flyfishmagazine: Do you need an "Mancation?"  

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Via the Fly Fish Magazine Blog: MANCATION!!! I'm sure my wife will go for this! Yeah right!




Flyfishmagazine: Do you need an "Mancation?"

Video of Me Catching a Nice Cutthroat  

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Taken last summer at a beautiful alpine lake in Colorado.

Trout Recipe of the Week - Trout Almondine  

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Ok, ok, I know it's not "popular" to keep fish anymore, but there is a time and a place to do it. Just like other wild game, responsible harvesting is good for a populations of trout. As you probably know there are places where it's encouraged. The obvious ones are stocked waters where the state puts fish in specifically for harvesting. Others such as Rocky Mountain National Park where they were trying to clear out one species so a native species could be reintroduced without as much competition. So, without further ado: Trout Almondine.




INGREDIENTS




  • 2 whole (10 ounce) trout, pan-dressed

  • salt and pepper to taste

  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

  • 4 tablespoons butter

  • 1/2 cup blanched slivered almonds

  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice

  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

  • 8 slices lemon, for garnish




DIRECTIONS




  1. Rinse and pat dry trout. Season inside and out with salt and pepper to
    taste. Dredge in flour.

  2. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in large skillet over high heat until melted.
    Add trout and brown both sides. Lower heat to medium and cook for about
    5 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Remove trout to a
    serving plate and keep warm.

  3. Wipe out pan and add 2 tablespoons butter. Cook butter over medium heat
    until it just begins to brown. Add the almonds and brown.

  4. Pour sauce and almonds over fish and sprinkle with lemon juice and
    parsley. Garnish with fresh lemon slices.
Enjoy!



When the ice comes off of the stocker ponds around here, I'll put some pictures with these when I try the recipes.



Great List of Fly Fishing Links  

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Here's a GREAT list of links from Dave over at Fishing Tips 101

Bass and Fly Fishing Links (Fishing Tips 101)



He also appears to have a very nice site Glacier to Yellowstone, and another interesting blog that I haven't had the chance to peruse yet.



Some excellent bass fly fishing info too, for those of you close to warmwater fisheries.

FFFP of the Day  

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Spring Creek


Flickr Title: October 2004 1st Pics with D70 072
Flickr Member: Madison 76

FFFP of the Day  

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Grayling



Flickr Title: Montana Fly Fishing
Flickr Member: Uncle Bob's Outdoors
Flickr User's website: Uncle Bob's Outdoors

The Speed Clinch  

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Nice little video of a worth while tip from Dan at The Tattered Fly.

Fly Fishing is Sort of Like Playing Hockey  

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From the Albert Lea Tribune in the Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa area comes the article Fly Fishing is Sort of Like Playing Hockey.



Huh??



Author Dick Herfindahl (can't get much more Minnesota than that name, unless it was Ole or Otto) writes of fly fishing:

It is definitely a different type of fishing and one that requires a
little more skill than just putting a worm on a hook and throwing it
out. It is kind of like playing hockey — you can’t just wake up one
morning and be good — it takes plenty of practice.



While yes, it does require a little more skill than worming a hook, it isn't that difficult. I think it's impressions like these that scare people away from fly fishing (among other things, ie Orvis ads). Fly fishing isn't and doesn't have to be difficult. If you can throw a ball you can cast a fly rod. It does take practice and a little more than tossing a bobber, but not much to get you going in the right direction. Especially if you have a fly shop close by you can get up and going quickly. A couple of the fly shops here in Northern Colorado offer FREE casting instruction and beginner classes. Great for even the seasoned fly fisher.



As far as the hockey analogy...I've never played hockey (watched a few games), but I'm sure Dick is right when he says "you can’t just wake up one morning and be good". But I'm sure that getting a puck past Patrick Roy is plenty harder than catching brookies after ice out.



Dick brings up another misconception about fly fishing:

As a youngster I always thought of fly fishermen as masters of the sport or “true fishermen” that I held in awe.



Fly fishers are neither masters of the sport (just watch me catch bushes on every third backcast...hmmm maybe I am proving his first point true?) or "true fisherman". We are no different than the bass fisherman in Texas with his trusty Ugly stick tossing plastics in to weed beds and sunken timber. A lot of us like to think we are the "true fisherman" of the sport, with our brand coordinated waders, vest, and hat, looking down our noses at the guy floating his spinner through our favorite hole. Understand this: WE'RE NO DIFFERENT!!! We just come at the same goals, catching fish, enjoying the outdoors, and the company family and friends, with different tools. No better, no worse, Ahhh the utopia of equality!



With that I will have to string up the old spinning rod with some eggs or worms and take the kids to the stocked ponds when ice comes off, just remember what it was like.





Spreading the Z-List  

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Being a new blogger, I thought I'd give this a shot:
Via Confessions of aFreeware Junkie.

I was checking my Tehnorati links, and I noticed that all of the sudden I had a few more links back to my blog than I expected! It was because of this post from Bhuvana Sundaramoorthy. This is kind of like a chain letter of sorts, but it is actually useful (If you think chain letters are useful, then you can have mine - I'm still waiting to be hit by a flying goat 3 days after I didn't forward that last one)!

From Bhuvana's post:

"It started with Mack Collier of The Viral Garden,
who came up with the idea of giving a links boost to us smaller bloggers, the ‘Z
List’."

Create a new post on your blog.
Copy and Paste the entire list of blog links below
Add any blogs that you want to include near the top of the list. (Optional)
Include the blog where you first got the list from, on the list in your post.
Do not include your own blog links on the list in your post.
Make sure that all links are copied intact (use the source, Luke).
Publish the Post.




confessions of a freeware junkie...: Spreading the Z-list blogs: Helping out the smaller bloggers!


Bhuvana Sundaramoorthy's Blog
eJabs
DragonLady’s World
Rob’s Blog
Another Opinion Among Many
CAUTION: girl underway
Webgrrrl
Dr. Mercola
Daily Cup of Tech
Blog-Op
Carols Vault
Blog About Your Blog
Monetize Your Blog
Cosmin PTR
Make Money On The Net
Make$ Money$
Successful Online Money Making
Turn One Pound Into One Million$
Work at Home Blog
Blogging For Beginners
How to earn money online?
Dosh Dosh
Money Money Money
Money Making Quest
Connected Internet
Mike’s Money Making Mission
Time to Budget
Can I Make Big Money Online
Blogtrepreneur
Flee the Cube
Blogging Secret
Blogging to Fame
Million Dollar Experiment heads Down Under
Quest to make money on the internet
Kumiko’s
Cash Quest

Calico Monkey
Internet Bazaar
Shotgun Marketing Blog
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim
Pow! Right Between The Eyes!
Billions With Zero Knowledge
Working at Home on the Internet
MapleLeaf 2.0
Two Hat Marketing
darrenbarefoot.com
The Emerging Brand
The Branding Blog
CrapHammer
Drew’s Marketing Minute
Golden Practices
Viaspire
Tell Ten Friends
Flooring the Consumer
Kinetic Ideas
Unconventional Thinking
Buzzoodle
NewsPaperGrl
The Copywriting Maven
Hee-Haw
Marketing

Scott Burkett’s Pothole on the Infobahn
Multi-Cult Classics
Logic + Emotion
Branding & Marketing
Popcorn n Roses
On Influence & Automation
Bullshitobserver
Servant of Chaos
converstations
eSoup
Presentation Zen
Dmitry Linkov
aialone
John Wagner
Nick Rice
CKs Blog
Design Sojourn
Frozen Puck
The Sartorialist
Small Surfaces
Africa Unchained
Perspective
gDiapers
Marketing Nirvana
Bob Sutton
¡Hola! Oi! Hi!
Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!
Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together
Community Guy
Social Media on the fly
Ken Savage
Run PC Run
ScriptingLife
Off-Hook
Purely Technical

Fly Fishing Flickr Pic (FFFP) of the Day  

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To go a long with the previous post Winter Fly Fishing


Flickr Title: Extreme Fly Fishing
Flickr Member: Chaddycakes
Flickr Caption: Me trying to fly fish in a snow storm.
Flickr User's website: Chad Saunders

Winter Fly Fishing  

Posted by Unknown in , ,

The REPUBLICAN & Herald - Winter trout trip whets appetite

Have to love it, if you can do it. I do it more or less to remind my self of why I don't do it more. I was able to make it to the Big Thompson River in Estes Park last Monday. It's probably the only open water in 150 miles. Caught one rainbow in 4 hours of fishing. Nice day too.

Fatpacking  

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Fatpacking: Weight Loss Backpacking Adventure Vacations and Hiking Trips

I wonder if they do fishing trips?
Then I could get rid of this:






Hammocks -  

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In the never ending quest to cut some weight on backpacking trips (in order to carry waders and boots without killing my flabby self), I tried out a hammock. A Hennessey Hammock to be exact. In stead of packing in my 2 man tent, I went for the ultralight backpacker a-sym . It weighs in at a paltry 1lb 15oz. I'm not sure what my el-cheapo 2-man tent weighs, but it's got to be creeping up on 6lbs.

I hiked in to the Encampment River Wilderness (Wyoming), to fish what else, but the Encampment River. The trip was in June 2006. So the weather was comfortable and didn't really test the hammock out for it's weather resistance. I've heard/read a lot about how hammocks get cold, especially on the bottom side. Apparently this is due to insulation compression. While the temps dropped in to the 40's I never had a problem with getting cold and slept comfortably.

All in all it was pretty good. I did miss the room a tent provides (no sitting up and playing cards with your fishing buddy in a hammock). I purchased mine through REI for about $200.

Here's some good hammock links:
SGT Rock's Hiking HQ : great info, reviews, and tips. Stop here First
Clark Jungle Hammock : another camping hammock, compare to the Hennessey
Speer Hammocks : another camping hammock, compare to the others, the guy that makes these literally wrote the book on hammock camping
Risk's Ultralight Hiking Page : great info and tips, extensive references on other ultralight tips


I will post more on hiking lighter and trimming down or replacements for heavier equipment. My backpacking is all about getting to better fishing and fewer people.

Colorado Opportunities for Trophy Trout- Part 1 - A Fly Shop Clinic Report  

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First off let me tell you I'm no trophy hunter.....a long ways from it. I like to fish where the people aren't. Usually that means tiny streams and alpine lakes. A big fish for me is 10-12 inches. In fact one of my favorite experiences is when I caught a 6" cutt from a stream that you could literally put one foot on each bank and not end up in the hospital with groin pull. It took me over 30 minutes to catch that fish from a 5' pool. He would spook every time I raised the rod up to present the fly....and I was laying on my gut behind a rock to cast. I'll post more about that trip later.



Colorado Opportunities for Trophy Trout was a clinic hosted by The Great Western Fly Fishing Company of Loveland Colorado on February 10th. It was put on by Colorado fishing guide Landon Mayer. A little about Landon from his website:

Landon Mayer is a native of Colorado who finds his passion in the sport of fly fishing through fun, teaching, learning, and sharing his knowledge with others. He has spent the past nine years guiding on his home waters of the South Platte River, as well as abroad.



I didn't go to this clinic to find out where the big boys are, but to pick up tips on how to fly fish more effectively. To my surprise this was, in fact, a good portion of the clinic. Landon presented the clinic in an organized format, starting with four main Colorado rivers (South Platte, Taylor, Yampa, and Frying Pan) for finding trophies, how to fish them, and techniques. I'm going to cover the water briefly and go over the techniques a little more in depth. This will be a multi-part post.



Next: Colorado Opportunities-Part 2-The South Platte River





Welcome to Stage 1 of Fly Fishing  

Posted by Unknown in ,

Welcome to my new fly fishing, backpacking, and personal finance blog.



Huh!?!? What kind of combination is that! The first two fit, but personal finance?



Let me explain. First about me, this will help to set the stage for the reason for this blog. I have been married for six years to my beautiful wife. We have twin 3 year olds. We both work. I work 4 ten hour shifts and have an extra day off. My wife takes care of the kids during the day and then goes off to work when I get home, not to return until about 9PM that night. Which brings me to this blog. I have precious little time to fish, let alone blog about having little time to fish, when I could be doing something fishing related.



Now how personal finance fits in to this. In order to maximize time available to fish, as well as the spousal units willingness to let me fish, I need to manage my money and time accordingly. We live on an average income, sub 6 figures. So to not work more (thus eating up fishing time) and to not feel guilty about having a time consuming hobby, efficient management of our assets is key. We just recently got out of debt (except for the mortgage). No credit cards, no car loans, no personal loans, NOTHING!



This blog is about getting the most out of fishing time, fly fishing where the crowds aren't (back country fly fishing), and getting in more fly fishing. The meaning of Stage 1 of Fly Fishing embraces this philosophy.



Here's what Stage 1 of Fly Fishing means:



Stage One, John says, is when you fish from dawn till dusk without a break, get quickly drunk on something cheap, spend the night wrapped in a wet blanket, eat cold beans from the can and don't even notice, let alone care. At the end of a Stage One trip, you'll drive all night and show up to work without sleep and half and hour late. You won't care about that, either, although your boss might. But if he fires you, it only means you have more time to fish.



John Gierach: Standing in a River Waving a Stick