Settling Into Island Life

Our apartment is just a bit further north.

We're just about five weeks in since our arrival.

We moved into our permanent residence and turned in the keys to our kick-ass little seaside cottage at Alders Beach Resort last week. I can't say enough about how much I liked being at the cottage (I highly recommend it) but our new pad in Campbell River is arguably the nicest apartment I've ever lived in, and in a great location.

Now I just have to finish furnishing the apartment so I can get to that whole 'fishing' thing, considering it was a main, underlying reason for the move. I've only been out twice, with nothing to show for it other than a little more intel than what I had prior to arrival.

On the plus side, we've successfully avoided the remainder of winter on the East Coast, missing such fun as ~18 separate snowstorms with roughly 43' of snow accumulating (those, of course, are my estimates).

Sunny and 20°C here over the past few days, suckers...

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Though I haven't been fishing in water much, I have been fishing for intel by visiting lots of different fly shops & tackle shops in our wanderings in our new land.

Courtney at Nile Creek Fly Shop is a transplanted New Brunswicker as well, albeit he transplanted a lot longer than five weeks ago. He runs a great little shop in Bowser and was very welcoming & helpful. Nile Creek is also the go-to spot for stocking up on Clear Cure Goo for the central & northern parts of Van Isle...in case you're wondering...

The folks at Tyee Marine in Courtenay gave me a massive intel dump when I first arrived, and also saved me some money by explaining the inner workings of the provincial freshwater and federal saltwater licenses with their various stamps for salmon & steelhead.

If it weren't for them, I would've dropped a not-so insignificant pile o' cash on an annual, non-resident freshwater license and steelhead/salmon stamps that expired in three weeks. Instead, I held off with just the federal saltwater license for $22 until April 1st.

(shiiiiiiiittttt......that's today!?! I should be fishing!!)

Tyee Marine carries all sorts of fishing, boating, hunting product in addition to fly gear & tying materials. There's also a location in Campbell River, and the staff seem helpful and friendly. They're a stone's throw from our new apartment, so I'll be frequenting it once my tying 'office' has been furnished.

Campbell River is also home to River Sportsman, located on the banks of the river. It's big, with a decent tying material section. I've been in twice, but still haven't gotten a chance to chat with the fellas working, nor have I explored what's in stock. I'll remedy this in the near-future, I'm sure.

My lovely girlfriend and I did a day-trip to Victoria in our first week on the Island, where I rekindled my love of Fatburger, the Noodle Box, and Caffé Artigiano. These were some of my previous life's staples whilst living in Vancouver in '06-08. It was awesome, though I should note the Singapore Cashew Curry from the Noodle Box came back to the cottage for later meals, as I had stuffed my gourd with a delightful calorie-bomb from Fatburger shortly before. I don't want y'all thinking I'm a complete glutton.

We visited Robinson's Outdoors, located in downtown Victoria, which has a massive fly fishing section on their second floor. I'd argue this shop had the biggest tying material selection of all the shops I've visited, too. Robinson's also carries the Goo, stocked on a cool DIY rack one of the guys made from an unused sunglass rack.

On our way out of Victoria, I popped into Island Outfitters (weblink broken, FB page here), another general tackle-hunting-fly fishing shop (there's a few of those here on the Island). They had a decent tying material section, and seemed to have most of the well-known fly brands in stock.

I had a great chat with one of the guys working about the local fishing scene (including the seemingly epic smallmouth fishery), he commended me on my preference of Campbell River over Courtenay/Comox, and I left with a good impression of the shop.

We also took a day trip to VanCity, where we stopped into Pacific Angler. I had stopped in previously, in the summer of 2011 while passing through my old haunts on a work trip, but they had since moved to a new location further down to East Broadway. The new digs look pretty sweet, and seem a bit bigger than their previous location. As was the case in my first visit, the staff were friendly & helpful, and I left with a handful of cutthroat flies (my typical M.O. in most of the shops I visited).

Pacific Angler publishes a weekly fishing report, which is worth signing up for or checking out their FB page for if you're in the Lower Mainland & vicinity.

Though we didn't get a chance to pop in on this visit, I'll mention the Michael & Young Fly Shop, located on West Broadway anyway, as I had visited the shop previously, too. They had a great selection of product and a friendly staff manning the shop when I was in before.

And yes, while in Vancouver, we ate at Fatburger and had coffee from Caffé Artigiano. But I couldn't squeeze in a trip to the Noodle Box for takeout.

As you can see, all the tackle & fly shops I've visited so far on Van Isle (& VanCity) have left a pretty good first impressions on me. I've already narrowed it down to preferring a couple over some others, but that's not to say the others are by any means worse than the ones I'd rather visit on any given day. And, as always:

SADness

Yes, I'm alive.

No, I haven't been fishing...except for a few hours chucking fowl-sized flies for muskie. And no, I didn't hook (or see) any.

The vise was hauled out a few nights back, tying a few mid-sized ugly flies to refill the bass box for next season. But even that burst of spontaneous creativity was short-lived due to traveling for work.

It's -12°C here in Idaho (about 10°F in Yankee units), with snow on the way. I didn't bother to bring any fishing gear this trip for my post-work / pre-flight pilgrimage to the Boise River. Time constraints and such.

If you can't tell, I'm about three weeks deep into the winter blues and we're not even past the midway point of November.

I'm hoping for Sage to release a high-priced, angler-themed ultraviolet light to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder. I'll be one of the first to buy.

Only 154 days to go...

Note: my SADness is self-diagnosed and caused almost exclusively by lack of fishing. And probably not real. I'm sorry if people who truly suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder are offended at what they may perceive as insensitive humour. It's not my intention to offend, only to entertain...and whine...

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One thing that isn't 154 days away that I'm looking forward to is going to the International Fly Tying Symposium!

I'm going to help spread the word about Clear Cure Goo and its overall awesomeness, so if you're at the show this coming weekend, stop by the CCG booth to say hi to Brian and I...and buy some Clear Cure Goo!

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One of the mid-sized uglies I tied up the other night came out pretty good, if I do say so myself:

It's pretty simple, can be done in any number of colours, and only has seven ingredients including hook & thread:

• Hook: TMC 8089 #10
• Thread: black 6/0
• Tail: rabbit strip w/ Krystal flash above (long) & below (short)
• Body: Cactus chenille (black & copper shown above)
• Eyes: Medium dumbbell eyes
• Silli-legs

I used some Clear Cure Goo on the eyes & to finish the head, but any head cement could do the trick.

In the bass bug pictured, I used three legs per side (resulting in six legs/side), which, in the end, is a little excessive & a bit of a pain in the arsehole to deal with when wrapping the chenille. I'll only use two legs per side (four legs a-danglin') in the future.

This was the first fly in my new Bass Fly Philosopher's Collection, in which there are two components:

1. Surface flies: Sexy is good. Flashy is good. Precision is good. Think of deer hair bass bugs, hand-crafted foam & balsa poppers, so on, so forth. Care & effort is worth it.
2. Sub-surface flies: quick & dirty ties. Clousers, buggers and their variants that can be tied quickly, cheaply, and thus lost on bottom or structure without too much grief for time and dollars spent.

Most of my bass fishing is in a smallish river; hence, the majority of bass flies I use (and lose) are weighted flies I dead-drift along bottom or toss into structure. Because I'm one of only a handful of bass-on-the-fly guys in the area, the fish aren't all that heavily pressured by seeing a lot of flies. I don't need to antagonize over near-perfect appearance of crawfish claws to get some fish to eat.

For subsurface, simple is better. And cheaper.

The Ancient Greeks said it best, lamda phi balla ding dong: Keep it simple, shithead!

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A couple of notes about the TMC (aka Tiemco) 8089 bass bug hooks:

They are awesome. Big, wide gap & a good, stiff shank (that sounds dirty, huh?).

They're sharp as f**k (if you need a translation for that, here's a handy guide on understanding my people). I wasn't paying attention while palmering some rabbit hair, and, well, it really fuckin' hurt.

They are really big. Like, big. Don't think a TMC 8089 #10 is equivalent in size to some Mustad streamer #10. Because they are not. Not at all. I even did a little graphic for y'all on how goddamned huge these TMC 8089s are:

Yes, that's your standard Mustad 34007 saltwater hook. Like redfish, baby tarpon, snook-sized fly hook. The TMC 8089 #10 is almost the exact same size, albeit with a thinner gauge wire. The Tiemco engineers must've been huffing a little too much glue when labelling the 8089 series...

But still an awesome hook.

Project Salt

What happens when you combine:

• a love of saltwater fly fishing; 
• a loving girlfriend who shares a love of traveling; 
• a loving girlfriend who shares a disdain for Canadian winters; 
• a hoarding mentality for Aeroplan miles; 
• a new fishing kayak; 
• a job as an independent contractor?

Project Salt* happens.

* - Project Salt because Project F**k This Canadian Winter Bullshit was far too long of a title. But we can initiate #FTCWBS on twitter, if people want...?

Campaign #1 - Belize (mid-September)

Campaign #2 - Florida (November - December)

Campaign #3 - Location X (early 2013)

It will be a journey of learning: new cultures, improving casting, new fly tying patterns, seeing different fish habitats, spotting fish, paddling, eating fish and more (including my lovely gf getting her PADI certification).

And you better believe there will a trip or two to Disney...

I'm so excited I could pee myself. But I won't, because that's just weird.

Screw you, winter!

First casts: My CCI rig

Time/Date: 1705 AST, 04-Mar-12
Location: Fredericton, NB

I finally nutted-up to get out to cast my new 7wt setup I'll be using to practice for, and eventually take, the Certified Casting Instructor's examination (see related post Back To School here).

As a bonafide procrastinator, I have a litany of excuses to why it took almost six weeks for me to get out to cast this thing: -24°C temperatures, snowstorms, pinched nerve in my neck, three weeks away working in Mexico, etc, etc, etc.

But, with the mercury finally heading a little north of freezing (by three degrees), I headed out with rod & reel, tape measure and hi-vis pink rope earlier this afternoon.

My "lab materials" are the Loop XACT 790-4 and the Hardy Ultralite 7000DD, paired with AirFlo's Ridgeline Impact Taper (WF7F).

With a medium-fast action, Loop has made a (seemingly) nice, smooth-casting and lightweight rod. Unfortunately on the crusty snow, I didn't get too much in the way of surface tension when I started my cast, but it has a nice feel when the line loaded the rod on the backcast.

I really enjoy the feel of the cork-mix handle in my hand; until I can get on the water to give it a full test, the handle & the weight (103 grams) are my favourite aspects of this rod.

Only downside of the rod I've noticed so far is the small diameter stripping guide, but it didn't seem too problematic the few times I bombed out 70'-80' casts.

The Hardy Ultralite 7000DD balances out the Loop rod nicely. There's a reason why the Ultralite series took home the "Best of Show" award for freshwater reels at last season's International Fly Tackle Dealer expo; it's a high-performance reel at a very reasonable price. Bonus points for looking friggin' awesome, too.

I will be getting a spare spool for this reel and putting Sage's 230-grain bluegill taper on it for my 7.5', 7/8wt CGR fibreglass rod for the bass tournaments this summer. I just like this reel. A lot!

Unfortunately for me (and all of us east of the Rockies in Canada), snow-fish are not a prevalent species so I was unable to test the drag while fighting a fish...yet. Give me time, damn it.

From what I could tell, the AirFlo line seemed to cast and shoot line nicely as well, but it's one of those things that I'm unable to give more than a cursory "seems alright to me" review until I get it on the water. Since I bought two of these lines, one to practice with & one to take the exam with, I'm really hoping they end up being as kick-ass as other people have told me. Time will tell.

As things stand, I like the entire rig; rod, reel & line...so far. I'll definitely be writing a part II of this review once the snow & ice melt and I get on the water.

42 days until season opener. Can't wait.

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I purchased all of these items at Fredericton Outfitters & Anglers with my own (slightly) hard-earned cash; I have not been given these products or any financial reward to review them. I have principles, not prices.

That being said, any tackle companies that would like to give me financial rewards and gear to test & beat the living shit out of, get in touch. I fish whenever & wherever I possibly can for any and all species of fish available to be caught, I travel to all kinds of environments, and I'm a soon-to-be tournament angler on the New Brunswick amateur bass circuit...using fly gear.

Confession of a Southern Wannabe

Time/Date: 2035, 30-Jan-12
Location: not the South

Today was a good day for receiving the mail, even though the repeated banging on the door caused Awesome the Dog a few freakouts.

All in the same day, I received my FFF membership package, the new Orvis catalogue (even though I requested not to be sent it; I work in an authorized Orvis fly shop), the new TFM redfish hoodie, and a cap from Southern Culture on the Fly.

My Southern apparel collection grew a bit today...

Some might ask, "Why would you get a redfish hoodie & a hat from some southern fly fishing e-mag? You're from Atlantic Canada."

An easy, and partly true, response would be, "I respect what they do & wish to support them."

But really, the whole truth is...I (not-so) secretly want to be a Southerner.

That's right.

I'm a southern wannabe.

This goes beyond my affinity for hot sauce & chicken wings, people, so why don't y'all just grab yourselves a tasty mint julep and set yourselves down & hear me out?

My main issue is this little tidbit right here.

It's called weather.

Here's the weather here at home for the next few days (note: I converted from Celsius for y'all):

Fredericton, NB

And now a few selected locales in my wannabe-adopted homeland:

Charleston, SC

New Orleans, LA

Islamorada, FL

What you don't see in the extended forecast for Fredericton is a stick-figure with a noose around his neck on Wednesday.

Then there's the whole fishing thing.

I'm not necessarily shitting on the fishing scene here in NB. I mean, it's alright. But the season opens April 15th (May 1st on lakes/ponds), and closes Oct.15th...or Nov. 30th on tidal water, if you're brave enough to handle it.

And if you break it down into some sort of spreadsheet-thingy (Table 1A), the scales tip a little more to fishing in the South.

Table 1A: Ummm, yeah...it isn't that bad here...

And it's not like I haven't been there before; heck, I even brought some reds to hand before some of your own have (you know who you are...):

It was only 3 days, and it left a serious impression on me.

I've been calling myself a semi-retired country gentleman for almost two years now...how much more epic would it be if I could replace 'country gentleman' with 'Southern gentleman?' That's almost worth the price of admission right there.

Other random positives about the south:

• Open liquor laws: here in NB, get caught with open booze, it's a fine of over $85. From what I saw in NOLA, the police officers cheers you.
• It appears the Antiques Roadshow comes through regularly. This would make my lovely girlfriend quite happy.
• Going to see if Hazzard County really exists sounds far more appealing than visiting the Shivering Songs Festival (no offence to Shivering Songs, but 'shivering' doesn't sell me).
• Barbecue is a way of life & state of mind. Here, barbecue ranges from common novelty (summer) to ordeal (winter).
• My blossoming bass bug skills would be appreciated more there than here.
• Running from a hurricane sounds more fun than sitting through a blizzard.
• I could use being there as an excuse to listen to Willie Nelson more often.

So, my southern readers, I'd be properly honoured if y'all would consider harbouring a northern illegal alien...and his lovely girlfriend...and his adorable dog...and quite possibly a few other northern refugees that might pass through next winter....

This northerner wants to wage a war of aggression...against being cold, bored & fishless all winter...

And I even have the southern rock thing down...sort of...  Enjoy the track:

PS - Mom, Dad, I'm not really moving to the south. At least, not yet...