fishing for words

Sometimes it’s a good thing to take break for fishing to hit the “potty;” had three-year-old Alyssa not handed her pink Barbie fishing rod to grandpa, she might be swimmin’ wit da fishes. Catfishes that is.

That’s 32 inches of whiskered fish — almost as long as his granddaughter is tall and two inches longer than the pole. Look at the picture here and read the full story here.

This that a grimace of embarrassment that a $13.95 Barbie rod enabled the landing of a certified state record, rather than his six-foot rod with a more robust open-faced spinning reel?

I’ll be in Wal-Mart’s sporting goods department…

Finally took some pictures of my latest attempts at fly tying…

 

I’ll be at the fly-tying desk…

Scooped up my fully equipped fly tying desk — which eerily looks much like a little folding wooden TV tray — and plopped it between myself and the TV last weekend. Armed with a rack of threads, small and even-smaller hooks, a few tungsten beads and a diet soda, I set to tying a few simple flies. Despite no definitive proof that tying one’s flies saves money, it’s nice to think that idle time spent watching fly fishing shows on the boob-tube doesn’t always or entirely have to go to waste.

Not being a fly fishing crazy purist and intent on catching trout, I find no difficulty in lining my fly box with plenty of nymphs instead of dry flies. Before the fist show was over there were enough Zebra and Blood Midges to share with a family friend who’s expressed an interest in spending tons of money on joining the world of fly fishing. While simple enough to tie, they seem to work best on size 20 or smaller hooks. A size so small that a sharp inhalation could spell danger if one is bent over a pile of loose hooks.

Later that same weekend I upped the ante to tie some glass bead head emerger midge nymphs in both black and red. A made-up name to be sure, but a sometimes very productive pattern that’s also relatively easy to tie. Dropped one or two into the friend’s makeshift fly container as well.

Even learned something new, all on my own. Last Christmas Santa delivered via my stocking a small kit for tying a single fly. While this kit contained a less-than-impressive clip that was intended to act as a vise, the simplistic instructions offered just enough insight to prompt the tying of my first soft hackle wet fly¹. No doubt one of the more artistic flies I’ve so far tied. Maybe I’ll soon post a report on whether or not it catches fish.

I’ll be “sacrificing” a few flies on a nearby stream…

In between relaxing and hiding in a movie theater, I spent some “getting-to-know-you” time with CB. Armed with a few new slip-on connectors, a crimping tool and a somewhat faulty thinking cap, I lunged headfirst into the mystery of the only occasionally front brake-triggered taillight.

My highly technical jiggling of wires hinted at a bad connection. It was off with the old ones and on with the new. The classic-never-been-touched look on this 26-year-old Honda was retained by, of course, slipping the old sun-faded rubber covers over the new connectors.

…Sad to say, new connectors were not the answer to the problem. A bit of head-shaking and staring at the bike led to monkeying around (another highly technical maneuver) with things a bit more. The wire seemed to be intact. Giving into the “dark side,” worries crept into the grey matter…worries that this would have to be solved by a guy in greasy overalls who charges $80/hour.

That $80/hour inspired a move “upstream”…to the actual switch — a small, naturally unrepairable and self-contained device that uses a plunger activated by the depression of the front brake handle. A poke here, wiggle there and sure ‘nough, the quarter-century old switch apparently had breathed its last. (That’s a picture of the offending part to the right.)

Gratification quickly became mortification.

It’s an old part. It’s older than three of our four kids.

My heatbeat was restored to whatever resembles normal when a quick search of the interweb found that part #35340-MA5-671 widely used in Honda bikes and as late as 2005. Forking over about $10 was all that was need to have one sent.

See ya on the road in about a week…

Christopher will soon begin an adventure as he reports to the Universal Technical Institute at six-thirty Monday morning. He’s undertaking the Toyota Professional Automotive Technician program, and, hopefully, after sixty weeks, he’ll be on his way to into business of automotive maintenance and repair.