stormy monday

A woman was taking photos and when I came to the parking lot she was waiting to get my number so she could send it to me. Very nice of her!

Similar last night a little south of there. I could see a lot of diving birds over in NH, there was bait on the surface where I was but nothing on it that I could see. Nice night out though;

Equitable funding for education seems to be a great reason for the poor, non-white people to relocate to these states! Interesting things they could add to this study might include; in these equitable states what percentage of students go on to college versus the non equitable states? How is the education funded in the states (equitable or not)? In both the richer and poorer districts what percentage of students attend the public schools versus home school or private school? Are there non-white people in Vermont? As it is though the study is kind of click bait.

I tried this yesterday with my little 7 1/2 glass rod - I was surprised at how well it worked! All but eliminates the situation that still bugs my elbow - thanks!

A few guys I play tennis with have these and like them. I had a neoprene one with straps above and below the elbow which did alleviate pain enough for me to continue injuring myself lol. As with off balance roll casting I've found that just identifying bad mechanics then correcting or avoiding them works best for me. That and avoiding over tightening Jorgensen wood clamps which actually gave me the worst case I ever had.

I found this too to an extent. I had hand surgery years ago and have a good bit of scar tissue on my bottom 2 fingers. It influences my grip in casting as well as tennis. Using a Ritz grip is more comfortable to me and when I build grips I also make them a little oversized. I've even built some ugly foam grips on rods while searching for a good fit. I also use a tennis grip one size over standard as well for the same reason.

So don't do that. Great line, and one that gets me thinking as I ice my elbow. I've fought tennis elbow for over 20 years, originally from tennis which I still play several times a week. I got it doing something intentionally that was not good technique and paid. Fast forward I started fishing this year in January for tidal browns with no issues, but as spring turns to summer I'm feeling some pain. Unlike past encounters though, this time it's in the early stage and I'm spending more time thinking about what I do. I recall others having this issue so I thought I'd share some things I've learned. I always thought I was hurting my elbow chucking 10 weight lines into the wind at the beach. I thought wrong. Even now with a tender elbow I find I can go out there and cast straight into the wind with no issue at all. So why the pain? I blame it on the damned brookies. Yep a 25" fish on a 10 weight no problem, but a 10" stocked brookie is raising hell with me. As I thought it through I realized the small streams where I fish don't allow a standard one hand cast. They're small streams but you're casting from the bush and usually all you can get is some abomination of a roll cast. Bow and arrow isn't quite enough. And in the bushes sometimes that roll cast is more of a sidearm thing - the line will get out, but like a bad backhand the arm position puts you in a vulnerable position. Learning that I also found that if I cast that 10 weight from an arm slot approaching sidearm the same thing happened - too much leverage on my elbow. So the rule that you can use any angle as long as you bring it straight back and forth might work for the line, but not for my arm. In real bad spots I'll sometimes roll cast across my body, very similar to a (very bad) tennis backhand and I can say for sure this triggers that pain. Just bad mechanics and actually it was this cast that causes me the most pain. So I won't do that anymore. In the end I decided to skip over that kind of location, but I also stopped roll casting to pick up line in the salt because once I hurt my elbow that became painful. I switched from a full intermediate to the floating running line Wulff BTT and replaced the roll cast with a water haul - no pain. And as a byproduct significantly less line twist than I usually get. Everyone's body is different, as mentioned I have prior injuries so improvising on body mechanics is not a good thing for me. YMMV, but if you find yourself having any elbow issues before you run to the shop to buy a new arsenal of 2H gear slow it down and look at what positions your arms are in in various situations. Might be as simple as "don't do that". Cheers!

and back to small streams this morning. I take said dog for a daily mountain bike ride every morning which conveniently has a stream next to it. If I run her hard enough I can let her sleep a bit in the car while I grab a few casts with the old Phillipson

This is my newest fishing buddy yesterday. The second I set the hook she was in the water to "retrieve" the catch. She is rather prey driven. So I'm trying to work the fish away from her and into shore as she is cutting off the angles. Finally just as I pulled it up she jumped and snapped my tippet. I love her, but she's a work in progress as far as fishing goes lol.

Funny I've fished just gurglers now for years, then this spring I found this in a box I'd tied for a covidus interruptus tarpon trip, juvie tarpon in PR. So I tried it for LMBs and damned if they haven't been slamming it all spring. Just a red zonker tail and root beer estaz body. Going to try it on stripers tomorrow...

Well that's pretty much my max lol and I had to wait for lulls in the wind to get it. It's funny, I can throw 80 all day (full Mainstream line + leader) but to get that extra 10' I need to be having a really good day.

I fish LMB on weekends at my camp. For me it's 98% gurglers in all white, partly because white mayflies always seem to be on our lake and the bass gorge on them. Although the last 3 weeks I've been throwing a simple fly of a red zonker tail about 3" and a body of rootbeer estaz and they've been pounding that pretty good too. I don't use anything I can't tie in less than 5 minutes because I lose so many flies in the trees.

Really healthy so far. I've had to put in some time to get them in our southernmost river but once they get into that current they pull well. This guy was only like 23" but put me in the backing 3 times (but I had to cast about 90' to reach the little rip he was in, so it didn't take much to get me into the backing I guess)

Never. I spend a lot of time arranging songs for a few bands I play with and I find if there is music playing my mind goes right into that mode. Once that happens power tools become a bad thing. I need the separation; no drinks until we're done playing music and no music till I'm done doing a job. Never was any good at that multi tasking thing.... In high school I worked on cars in a garage that doubled as a polka record store, polka blaring for 9-10 hours a day. That might be subliminally why I need it quiet now come to think of it.

I told my wife if I was going to pay $700 she'd have to sleep with me after the show. Somehow my wife did not find this amusing...