Blue Skies and Coooooold

Deke and I got out just before Christmas for some river hunting.  It's been cold and our flat water is stiff.  We have been hitting the rivers and finding birds.  It was single digits.  When it's this cold, ice dust rains down on you and anything that gets dipped in water, instantly freezes, including waders and Deke.

The signs of success? Ice on the ears and a little red spot on the forehead

 Single digit temps never keep Deke from attending to his duties

4 hours

My company has a use it or lose it policy in regards to vacation.  I decided to use 4 hours and find ducks.  I found "a" duck.

Staaaaaay Deke, staaaaaaaaaaay.....

Really?  Can I go now?

Like water off a "dogs" back

Einstein Was No Fly Fisherman

Albert Einstein is credited with saying "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".  Apparently Alberto never stood in a river behind finicky midging fish.  As a fly fisherman, I will make the same cast, with the same fly, with the same drift, over the same fish until I finally match his feeding rhythm.  At that point, the results are much different.  Where as before it was skunk, the stink now comes off and I'm on the board.  The theory of relativity never comes into play with fly fisherman.  I can fish the same fly, with the same length leader, with the same size tippet, with the same drift, over the same fish as Sweets and never have success, while she picks up the fish and moves on.  I can switch rods with her and get the same results... now were talking insanity.

So Mr. Einstein, you can have your E=MC2, I'll take my F=MC93 (Fish=Midge x Cast to the 93 power). Pffft, Physicists.

 

Sweets on our very long hike to the watering hole

Ice, turning an ordinary rod into a Tenkara rod

Are you tired of us preaching Purple Power?  It works....

I'm not sure where he gets them done, but Gear Guide Wyatt has very nice nails

 Let's go fish...Genius!

 

Black Friday? Purple Friday!

Since wading icy rivers and slippery rocks seemed so much safer than braving our local Walmart, Deke and I set out to make a point.  Purple flies catch fish.  Since I have yet to train Deke with the ins and outs of a DSLR, you'll have to settle for self-fish-portraits.... but good enough to make the point.  Start tying.

 Purple Peanut...

 MK Midge

Purple Peanut, again.  I had consistent hits and hook ups using those two flies.  I even managed to hook Deke in the tongue..... yeah, we wrestled around on the ground and until I was able to get a hold of his tongue in one hand and the fly in the other, one strong pull and we had a clean release.  After taking a few drinks of river, he looked at me with a "Dude, WTF?" look.  Sorry buddy.

Purple is the new Black

I've been wanting to post this up for a few weeks.  A couple of posts earlier I mentioned how purple is the latest rage in flies.  Below are some of the patterns that have been sticking fish in Northern Utah waters.  The Purple Peanut has been exceptional (Sweets witnessed its effectiveness on Saturday... but that's another post). PLEASE excuse the lousy photos, I am no macro photog.  If you'd like the recipe to any of these, cast an email to richsprague at yahoo.

Redneck pumpkin smashing.  Can you spot some of the steel shot? (upper right corner of the pumpkin)

High Dynamic What?

You may never have heard of High Dynamic Range imaging, but I bet you've seen images that have run through an HDR process.  Essentially, you combine 3-5 images at different exposures and using software, combine the images to create dramatic effects.  There are some incredible artists online doing amazing things with HDR.  I am by no means an expert, but I thought I'd dabble.  Below is my dabbling. 

 In order for HDR to work well, you need high contrast images.  See how the sun is coming up over the mountains, but you can still see detail in mountains?  This is impossible to accomplish with normal metering.  Only in HDR.

Wellsville Mountains as seen from Cutler Marsh

 

Not HDR, but I had to throw in a Deke'r photo...

...and a fish photo

Falling Up

There's a chill in the air, the thermostat is up, and the colors are popping in Logan Canyon.  One of our favorite times of year.  The Waterfowl season has begun, fish are hungry, and there isn't a bad view no matter where you look.  It's panic mode around the hatch house trying to determine how to spend a Saturday... fish? hunt? pics?.... all of the above?.... yep.

Want a "misty morning" look to an image?  Breathe hot air on your lens and then take the pic....

  My kind of fall colors

See the duck....

....get the duck

Have you heard?  Purple flies are all the rage.

Yep, that's my fly rod.  Logan Canyon beavers are a little more than eager.