Woody's Ramblings: April 2014

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: