We tie on Monday nights at the Beer Grotto in Dexter. It's a way to pass the winter.
Might as well be called the bear grotto.
Wednesday night in the spring will see "casting night" at some local retention ponds. It isn't the fine facilities of the San Francisco Casting Club but then it's Dexter, Michigan. Snake roll, single spey, the parachute, the steeple. It's a way to get some folks out with rods in their hands and maybe practice some skills that matter in the sorts of places we fish around here.
The all-purpose early-season twin-hackled Jingler.
This Jingler has a sliver of closed-cell foam lashed to its back then wrapped with pheasant tail. Should float all day in dry-dropper rigs.
I tied these Monday night on size 13 and size 15 barbless hooks. This early season version is drab though the rust soft-hackle does a nice job. I'll dub olive and light olive bodied versions here shortly as well as a coachman style afterbody.
We'll see. I tied too few of these last year. I'll tie five dozen this winter.
Even Beargirl thought these were pretty good. At camp, they'll be a huge hit. It's a ham sandwich breakfast style. Goes great with coffee.
Biscuit porn.
Fifty here on Thursday. We'll see if any of the ice on the Huron breaks. My bet is it won't.
Prost.
That fly, caddis I hope. It will draw some attention.
ReplyDeleteThose biscuits look awesome. I guess I have to turn the oven on.
The biscuits are worth it.
ReplyDeleteI'm back to the Driftless with a big crew this May and last year, I found that I'd have three or four guys standing around my campsite drinking coffee as soon as I made it (amazing how coffee aroma travels in the pre-dawn when you're camping on a river). I'd make a quick french press batch in a GSI field-grade press from boiled water while the 2-gallon camp coffee at the camp kitchen proper was still trying to come to a boil, if the cooks were up.
A couple mornings, the cooks were at my campsite for their coffee before getting the main kitchen going!
Thus coffee at Spike's then later, breakfast proper. These biscuits take about 25-30 minutes with coals and if you cheat and mix some briquettes in your morning fire, you've got coals for cooking just about the time you've washed-up.
I'll make these at camp for the dawn patrol guys. They'll be a hit though most folks will probably split them with someone else -- first breakfasties and all.
With luck, I'll have a leftover or two for my field bag lunch. I'm going to pack into some water in the Wildcat Mountain park. It's May. There are lots of folks out and about. I've got the maps. I've got legs.