Woody's Ramblings: PFF

Ahhhh, June - long days, good weather and summer break approaching. :-) It was a good month with one downside - we ended up on strike during the last two weeks! :-(

Darrell, my dad and me at the Father's Day Show n' Shine

Julie, Lucas, Alison, my dad, Wendy and Darrell

Sure," Ralph said, "you can bunk in my trailer." "OK if I bring Sadie?" I said. "You bet", said Ralph, "I'm bringing my Sadie, too." And so Ralph and I made plans to attend the Link Lake Fish-Out together with our Sadies - Sadie One - Ralph's Golden Retriever, and Sadie Two - our Sadie.

When I arrived at Link Lake Ralph had already been there for a day and I discovered that he only had his float tube with him. Sadie One was relegated to the beach while Ralph was out fishing. "Let's both fish in my boat with the Sadies so they don't have to stay on shore", I offered. Ralph replied, "Sadie's never been in a boat." "She'll be fine" was my response. I spoke too soon...

We'd only had Sadie Two for a couple of months at the time of the fish-out, and she had been in my boat with me a couple of times - her first rides in a boat as far as I knew. She was relaxed in the boat and she couldn't care less about me fishing or catching; she slept most of the time. Sadie One, on the other hand, was highly interested in the fish, getting very excited whenever one of us hooked one. Here are a few photographs to illustrate:

The two Sadies meet

They had a great time together!

Ralph going for a cruise on the outboard picnic table

Going for a boat ride!

Ralph on Link Lake

The Sadies highly interested in Ralph's fish. Ralph is holding Sadie One back.
Can you read his lips? "Nooooo!" :-)

Yup, she went in and she got one! This fish was still on my line.

Ralph and I also fished Hatheume Lake one weekend.

Nice little Hatheume rainbow

Ralph got a nice one!

One June weekend Wendy and I tried Heffley lake for the first time. As you can see, the trout were eating small green chironomids!

Heffley Lake rainbow

Limeys!

During the last couple of weeks of June I was walking the picket line every day. One day, after my shift, I decided to make lemonade from lemons and I went up and fished Gardom Lake for only my second time ever. It was worth the trip!

Gardom Lake chironomid-eating rainbow

Fat Gardom Lake Fraser Valley rainbow

Nice Gardom Lake Pennask-strain rainbow

One weekend at Tunkwa we arrived to find some owl babies hanging out in a tree near our trailers. They fledged and flew off soon after this photo was captured.

Fledgling owl at Tunkwa

The end of June brought Golden Friday, so we celebrated with some tasty treats... :-)

The New Year found me and Wendy on our way home from a fun New Year's Eve celebration with Kathy, Chris and friends in Winthrop, Washington. Of course, I couldn't drive down the Methow Valley and not wet a line in pursuit of a willing steelhead. It was very tricky due to lots of shelf ice and no steelhead were found. It was fun trying, though! On our way home we picked up an old aluminum boat that my pal Don, and I, plan to stash at a walk-in lake. Unfortunately, said lake winter-killed this year so we'll have to look for a Plan B for that boat.

Some of our Tunkwa pals went to Tunkwa to celebrate New Year's Eve. Our trailer is not well-insulated and, as you'll see by the photo of it below, it would not have been pleasant for us!

Alison tattoing continues to improve, and Barry is doing well working on a team designing computer chips ('tough to post photos of that!).

We enjoyed our annual Christmas dinner with a bunch of the FlyBC.ca gang at Olympia Greek Taverna. Gotta love flaming cheese!

During February I enjoyed a good indoor casting session with the Penticton Flyfishers crew at the Adidas Sportsplex in Penticton, and I'm continuing on for another year as editor of the PFF Journal. I also continued with teaching flytying at Trout Waters Fly & Tackle and at my school's flyfishing club, the Springvalley Fly Fishers.

Sadly, January 1 was the last time I went fishing until Spring Break - my longest dry spell for many years! Happily, I was able to get down to the Methow during Spring Break with Dean and Jack, and we got a few steelhead. The rock snot was bad, though; it was tricky to keep it off our flies. Success typically depended on achieving a drag-free drift with a clean fly.

I received an exciting offer in February, which I happily accepted: I am now one of the pro-staff for RB Sales (Sage, Redington, Rio, and Moby Nets, among others)! My first gig was the annual Michael & Young Spey Clave. I transporting a whole bunch of spey rods, reels and lines to Chilliwack for the event and I helped RB Sales' new Lower Mainland Associate, Scott Baker-McGarva, and Simon Gawesworth (spey casting guru and Rio line designer) set up, run, and take down the display, as well as helping a few novice spey casters with their casting. It was great to be able to give back! I've attended almost all of the M&Y Spey Claves as a participant and I've learned a lot from many generous people over the years.

One Friday morning in February, just as we were about to drive to work, Wendy went downstairs and discovered a flooded basement. Needless to say it was a tad stressful. Belfor Restorations came right away, removed the water, dried out the basement and basically gutted it. Thank goodness for insurance! The restoration is taking a bit longer than expected - it's still underway as I type this - but it's looking good and it should be finished soon.

Once again I traveled to the annual BC Boat & Sportsmen's Show at the Tradex in Abbotsford as a volunteer at the BCFFF Learn to Tie a Fly booth. As always, it was fun helping kids of all ages learn to tie their first fly and, hopefully, inspire them to take up the pastime.

Here are a few photos to highlight the first quarter of 2014: