Counting down

Much like a child awaiting the arrival of Christmas morning, I'm counting down the days.

There's slightly more than two weeks left to go for me on this project; once I arrive home, I'll be taking a break from work for six to eight weeks. Note I've omitted placing the words 'much needed' prior to 'break.' This past week is the first I've worked since leaving here on December 18th; I won't try to convince you I have it that rough...though the chaps in the picture above (part of my security detail) might suggest otherwise.

After arriving home in February, my lovely girlfriend and I will spend the next week sorting our belongings and packing what won't be sold, donated or tossed. Frantically, I might add.

I'll be attempting to replicate the packing abilities of minibus drivers seen here in West Africa, with assorted baggage, bicycle and fishing kayak towering several feet over the height of my truck's roof.

I'll admit I'm looking forward to this.

A lot, I might add, because it's just another step closer to us getting on the road to our new adventures on Vancouver Island.

And that's what I'm really looking forward to.

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Here are a few Vancouver Island beach flies I've tied for coho & pink salmon.

All are variants on fairly well-known (locally, at least) Pacific NW salt patterns. Changes to the original fly recipes were made not to add in a 'creative touch' but due to lack of availability of the originally-listed tying materials.

Ferguson Green and Silver

Pink and blue Handlebars

Cathy's Coat (or Kathy's Koat) variant

Bead-head Handlebars

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Playing with foam

Time/Date: 1900, 02-Jan-12
Location: F'ton

Seeing this is the first post of 2012, happy New Year, everyone! I hope all had a enjoyable & relaxing holiday season with friends & loved ones.

I'll be continuing with some posts from last month's adventure in Guatemala soon enough (like, tomorrow or the next day).

As a solid form of procrastination from doing anything overly productive (such as cleaning & organizing my tying bench), I tied up a few bass flies using some craft foam. Foam is a material I'll be diving into more over the course of winter for tying smallmouth patterns; it's quite versatile, comes in a wide variety of colours, and it's CHEAP!

This Sneaky Duck fly recipe, by Roger Duckworth, was in Fly Tyer magazine a few months back. It's a pretty quick & easy fly to tie.

Unfortunately you'll have to wait at least 104 days until I can give them a solid run-through on the water.

Here's some music: