white trash lunch

is also the best fishing lunch ever

if yer stuck at abe's and don't wanna pay $14 for some soggy fried chicken

go back to motel

heat frying pan add butter

slice tube steak open and butterfly

brown on each side

adding butter as necessary

open can chili w/ beans

dump into a warming pan

until popping

grate some cheese

present...

managed to eat that w/out spilling any

camp chair

it also a great place to relax with a cigarette

and a beer and a book

lean back into the pillow behind it's like a recliner or lounge

simple and versatile clever device

batenkill large arbor reel sack

well the battenkill was just too versatile a reel to be stored in this display case

it went into a more versatile sack

ross gunnison 8wt reel in here...

that 8wt never sees the light of day here in az

obligatory agate cheesecake

where am I going?

I love finishing up rods

as things occur I'm finishing three

I continued w/ the leather overkill

did all the prep work 

sans the stitching

as I don't have thread

it's got a cross on there

I dig it

I dig these too...

oh yeah I spent saturday night hanging from a hammock
it was delightful and I'll be doing it again tomorrow night
amazing how simple it is to hang the thing
I slept like a freakin' baby

still at it

I must be bored or something

actually I also put some finish coats of varnish on a couple rods

well butt sections

tips need thread tags clipped and another coat

more leatherworks?

stop looking at my shit

this is actually the project that got all this shit started

next up are a couple sunglass cases

and a couple reel housings

I've got some really shitty snaps though

or maybe I'm just shitty at setting them - that could be

hammock

jason sent me a pm - check the cooler in the bed of your truck

inside the stuff sack we have the makings of a hammock

hung in the backyard

comfy

so simple so sweet
thank you so much jason

photo dump con't

 winter's hope pinned to my wrapping stand

dig the blurred bamboo blanks in the background

 herbs

cilantro chives sage flat leaf parsley thyme basil

these two are nearly 3D

backyard

what up?

the bench is a mess

cleanup likely will be soon

I'm not really good at de-clutter

rods off the bench for wrapping

a couple cattanach tapers

it's been a slow rod building year/season

five blanks built

three of which will be finished

make that four

I've decided to finish up a 3pc 8ft 5wt thomas

it just wouldn't be right to go into the summer w/out a new rod to fish would it?

car camping

my backpacking daze are over

and have been for a long time

the convenience of car camping and excursions or forays from base camp

is far too comfortable

I do not have to sleep in a got am coffin sized tent

I set up a jumbo tent

I can set up two cots a camp table and two camp chairs

and still have room to move about

which is nice when the weather dictates yer confined to the tent

I love that

plus I like to be able to stand up in a tent

and w/ a cot I've got somewhere to sit while getting dressed or changing clothes

all that makes it a no-brainer for me

but...

this weekend at the ferry we didn't even bother bringing a tent

just two cots and a tarp

the tarp was stretched across one end of the shade structure as a windbreak

a little noisy w/ the wind

but I jrank enough to pass out and not notice the noise

we fully expected a miserable cold night

but it was right comfortable

this has me rethinking things a bit

at least for overnight burner fishing trips

a buddy of mine camps from a hammock

and has learnt himself how to build them and has built one for me

(he said you have a sewing machine you can make another and he's right)

photo credit to jason jones

we will be giving this a shot right soon

especially since the weather is getting nice again

(recent cold snap be damned)

shit happens

as the saying goes...

to elaborate...shit happens especially to shitheads

or better yet

what happens when you don't pay attention

to what day it is or the date

or much anything else for that matter

so last night one of my favorite bands was in town

and as usual I missed it

and a few nights prior I missed the truckers

now I'm not much of a concert goer these daze

but I've never seen either of those bands and really would have liked to

but I didn't

such is life...

get sauced

I am
and I have been making this for years

"gil's q shack's sweet heat"

made this batch for a rack of spare ribs

used it today for super burgers

works fine and dandy where ever you put it

plus it's a thousand times exponentially better than ketchup

cold snap

usually it's the heat that brings me indoors to finish wrapping rods

well I don't wanna work in the cold ass cave

I've got two commissioned rods to get the fuck outta my hands

and into the rightful owners

two blondes for myself that I swore I wasn't gonna finish

well, I'll do one for sure

maybe put the other on the market...who knows?

anyways,  I thought it was high time we got some damned bamboo on the blog

it's been a while, eh?

wrapping the last poore girl rod

note the absence of that shaggy mane that made me look like a felon
beloved wife made me do that...

wrapping chris' rod in (gasp) jasper!

I wanna go play golf for a couple daze
in the sunshine

fishing in the cathedral again

drove up to the ferry again friday afternoon

arriving about an hour and a half before sunset

we forsook unpacking our shit and setting up camp

to gear up and hit the water..two quick fish 

(and two misses) had me convinced that saturday would be great

and it was - just not as many fish as I'd like

it got rather windy - not unmanageable, just inconvenient

I had some issues w/ my shit

trouble rigging up led to trouble casting

led to trouble rerigging due to trouble w/ knots etc

seemed as I spent more time getting my shit together than fishing

I just might have been hungover

if the dead soldiers littering camp and the half empty bottle of bourbon

are considered evidence

nevertheless, a fine time was had

company was good and I did end up sticking a couple fish

mudbug hooked up...

again...

nice 'bow

when we got to the parking lot we ran into a couple guys from tucson
'bug asked if they posted on a local board...

marvin ( azmandella) and (not so) fat guy alex of fatguyflyfishing
he's hooked up...

admiring a pretty little 'bow

throwing a beast mode...

got ribs?

want some?

we've got it down...

last batch of pics of reel pouches

at least until we procure more material

or come up w/ further refinements

for my gunnison 8wt reel

reel pouch pt II

so I finished w/ design tweaks

and came up with something I much prefer

reel pouches

after suffering through hated neoprene reel pouches for countless years

I made these

my first effort was hasty

done at night using a sketched pattern

 resulting 

 in a slight "tit" if you will

so for the next one I broke out a compass

to do it right

I'm still working on refining the design

I'm not really happy w/ the flap design on either one

but they are bulletproof (intentionally dropped one from about five feet onto a tile floor)
and will last forever

next up one to replace the cloth drawstring bag for my hardy

and another for a buddy's 8wt  reel

why sedona still sucks

dude it's the vortexes

traffic circles (I wonder how many times I should repeat this?)

tourons

transplanted californicators

traffic on 89a

pedestrian traffic

shitty for the most part architecture

the cost of lunch

ridiculous green fees

red rocks pass - hey you fucksticks I live here and pay taxes

(not in sedona, mind you - in az)

figure fucking eight traffic circles

nevertheless I returned to fish there for the first time in what?  three years?

same as it ever was

two little brown trout to hand

I've fished it oh a couple dozen times with similar results

except the fish count would creep up to double digits on a good day

actually the only good fishing day I've had up there

was marked by a fat and lovely and hard earned brown

it was still fun

the company was good

and beautiful country

but someone should do something about that shit I mentioned above

because sedona still sucks

leatherworks

this weekend I delved into leatherwork again for the first time in a hundred years

made those yesterday

today I designed a leather reel pouch

built it too

it works just fine but the pattern I made was a mite sloppy because of haste

(I was in a hurry)

will try again tomorrow and get it right

bamboo putter shaft

this has been in the works for quite some time now

and it is finally finished...

putter head is a classic wilson 8802

ferrule is from an old beater bamboo rod

grip is hand formed cork
wraps are red and claret silk

it is for my brother

I don't wanna give it up

but I don't fancy that particular model of putter

and he does

AFA all the way live at nite

hahaha

yeah right

I do work at night

as well as most of the day

I know some twerp thought I toil away at a hobby

and it's not a job

60 hours or so a week says otherwize...

I wanna show some of my fish art

well not all mine but some I've got

that's a pic of one of my streamers
shot by schliske
now hangs on my wall

interesting pic w/ reflections and all

this one's a print of a painting of some strung up caught fish
also hung on the wall

some flies in a stained glass box
sitting over my terlet