Royal Coachman and Beetles

One of our families favorite flies is the classic and very common Royal Coachman. It is a fairly easy fly to tie. The day after Christmas I got out the fly tying table and tied some up with the new materials that I got in my stocking. Santa knows how to pick out quality materials!The past few nights I have been busily tying nymphs and I wanted a break so I thought I would tie something fun and very different. Beetles. I had to put the in a box to take the picture because they kept crawling away!. It is nice to tie them because they are VERY simple and they are made of foam so it doesn't really matter how much the weigh! They will still float! Here are the little buggers.

Fishing Report

We went to Thistle to do some winter fishing and it was a great time. It snowed on us the entire time and we didn't catch a thing but we really enjoyed every minute of it. The snow falling and the gently rushing water was badly needed and helped us all realize the beauty around us even though it was about 10 degrees out. He are some pictures that we took . Thanks to all of our wives for letting us take off for a few hours and freeze our butts off and love it!Rigging up for the day.Daniel picking out a fly.Selecting a fly... so many to choose from.Nate Barker trying to remember how to tie an overhand knot... I had to show him or we would have frozen to death.A beautiful hole that we should have pulled a fish out of but no luck.Nate fishing.Both Daniel and Nate trying a different fly.Daniel has a nice cast. Most of the time I wish I could cast and fish as well as my brother.Daniel contemplating the next hole.Here I am tossing a line into the next hole. By this time my gloves were pretty wet and not doing much good for me.Nate and I standing in the river.

Christmas Haiku

Christmas is now here
Hope you have your shopping done
If you don't, too late!

Goin' Fishin'

Tomorrow Danny and Nate and I are going fishing. We are going to Thistle Creek and the forecast says snow so it should be a fun afternoon. In anticipation of fishing I tied up three patterns tonight. the first was a little local pattern used to imitate a midge pupae. It is tied with orange silk crystal flash and a glass bead head. In this case I used green because it is what i had.The next pattern is a Copper Nymph. It is a generic fly used to imitate a hatching midge, caddis or other insect.The last was a made up fly taht I came up with tonight. it is another hatching insect. Red wire, muskrat thorax and a green glass bead head. I call it Christmas dinner for fish!I will get back with you and let you know the results of the day of fishing!

P.S. One of these days I will get around to getting some better lighting for my photos of flies.

Response

In response to my brothers post HERE I am posting the following:

I know mom knows us both well and understands that you (Daniel) are emotionally fragile. She works hard to protect your tender feelings and takes every precaution not to make you feel less than you should. She sent you the ornament to make you feel good. In spite of this we all know that mom loves me more and therefor sent me the same ornament.
She didn't want you to feel bad so she sent you one too. I am sorry to be the one to break the bad news to you be we all know you are mentally imbalanced (As evidenced by your recent post about IV's) and you are not the favorite. If you would like to go on believing that then that is fine but I am posting this so that the rest of the world knows... I am moms favorite.

Snowshoeing with my Best Friend

Nate moved to Texas a while back and we have not been able to spend a ton of time together when he comes to visit. He has family in town that he needs to see. Every once in a while we get out and do something fun together while he is in town. Today we packed up the snowshoes and went up to Big Springs. It is only the second time that I have snowshoed up there and it is quite different from the time I spend up there in the summer.
The snow was deep and about half of the trail was either very lightly traveled or not traveled at all which made for some fun time cutting new trail! We were able to spend time talking about our families, goals, books, politics, the past and tons of other stuff. Nate made the comment that it is nice to be able to be away from each other for a long time and then just pick up where we left off. I agree and it is too bad that we go so long without talking to each other at times. For my Christmas present Nate brought me a bottle of Throwback Mountain Dew... our drink of choice and we enjoyed it when we got to the top. It has real sugar instead of corn syrup! If the stars align and everything works out right we will be going fishing with Daniel on Tuesday! Thanks for spending some time in the great out doors with me Nate!

Dad's Dinner Night

When I got home from work today I could tell it had been a rough day and Kris was behind on a project for a Christmas present. I did what every good husband would do and offered to make dinner. Now let me explain a little of what happened. Kris thought that was a fine idea and proceeded to tell me that we had chicken and beef that I could do something with. In my mind I was thinking..."Mac and Cheese, crab melts, salad, or any other easy thing that I could put together in 10 minutes or less." Well long story short, Lo and dad went to Smiths, picked up some chicken, rolls and potato salad. Instant dad dinner!

Tonights Fly

Lo and I went to Sportsmans Warehouse to get some fly boxes for gifts for people tonight. While we were there we were looking at flies and saw this particular pattern. It looked nice so I remembered it and when I put Lo down tonight I tied up a half dozen. He and I thought that they looked kind of like a Santa Claus fly even though I can't remember the real name. When I go back I will get it and update the post. So for now I present "The Santa Claus Fly".

Polar Express Haiku

The Polar Express
We must have watched it six times
Thank you to Logan.

Flies for the night

Tonight I started with Crawdad patterns. Man that is a long time just to tie one fly. I tied the one on the left first and realized that the claws were too big. the one on the right I used a different type of feather and it turned out much nicer. The eyes are two beads from a silver bead chain. I also tied Brassies tonight. It's an easy one to tie and always nice to have in your box.

The "Monica" Man

While I was on my mission in Brazil I picked up a harmonica and started to learn to play. Well the first 50 cent harmonica went who knows where and I ended up getting a couple nice ones, one from Brazil and one from the States. They had been tucked away for a while and we got them out a couple of months ago. Logan started to play them and he hasn't let go of them since. his Nana got him one for Kris' birthday and he LOVES it. Wherever he goes you can pretty much count on him having his "Monica" in his pocket or at least close by. We love to ear him play and he loves to play with dad in the evenings when dad gets home from work. Here is our "Monica" Man!

Going to tie more flies?

Tonight I was getting my fly tying stuff out of Logan's room before I put him down and he asks me "Going to tie more flies?" I have no idea where he got that but I guess he is really observant and he knows dad "Needs" more flies. The first are probably the closest thing to "bait" that I have fished in 20 years. San Juan worms. Not real but easy to tie and super effective! Plus you don't have to skewer a worm on a hook to fish with it!The next are a classic called the Royal Wolff. A pain to tie with squirrel tail but I wanted to be authentic. The last fly is a soft hackle called the Partridge and Orange or Partridge and Yellow depending on the color you use. they are fished under the water in a sweeping motion through a hole. Most people use it as a generic searching pattern.

Playing in the Snow!

Tonight Logan needed to get outside for a little bit. We got him all bundled up and went out to enjoy the white stuff. Here are some pictures. We started just playing and ended up building a snow slide in the driveway. I didn't get any pics but Kris said she would take some tomorrow so keep an eye on her blog for an update. Logan loved the slide and kept asking again and again despite already being so cold I thought his cheeks would be permanently red.

Apology

Sorry to Tamara
Never could spell very well
Can I make it up?

And the winner is...

OK, so this didn't go off as well as I had hoped and I only received 4 entries from 3 different people. However; the submissions that I did get were great. Here they are in first through third order:

Bright and shining lights

A glow across the rooftop

But there is no snow

(Sharon Johnson)

Fly kisses water
Drifting down with the current
Splash and it is gone
(Daniel Parker)

Light and ornaments
Tall evergreen with presents
Joy and love surround

(Tamara Parker)

Sharon can email me her request for flies. The haikuchallenge@gmail.com has been disabled so please contact me through my regular email! Congratulations and thank you for the fun Haiku's.

The Gift of the Magi

A long time ago I received a book from my Uncle and at the time it did not make a huge impression on me. After a while I started to read some of the stories there and contemplate their meaning. I liked the stories and they had depth. One of the stories that I liked the most is the Gift of the Magi. O'Henry was much more poetic and beautiful in the way he told the story than I could ever be so I am leaving it up to him to tell the story. Please read it here: http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/Gift_of_the_Magi.html I read it again last night and really started to think about my sacrifices for my family. Do I have the integrity to sell my most prized possession for my family? Can I do it for my Savior? I have resolved to say yes. I wish you all a merry Christmas and may you have the Gifts of the Magi in your homes, families and lives.

Nymphs

Tonight was Copper John night. I tied Copper and Red color and had a few extra hooks left for some bead head pheasant tails. All are size 16's.

Cushion Forts

It is amazing what a few cushions from the couch will do for a 2 year old! He had a blast building, climbing, and tearing down his forts for about 45 minutes!