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3. Anyone have size 48 hooks and 20x tippet?, Page 2

Very well put, Jonathan.

-Shawn

Don't know if I'm really proud of it, Shawn, but I certainly wouldn't try to deny it. ;)

Just to follow up on Jonathon's point:

On the morning of Sept. 11 (yes, that one), a buddy and I were setting up to float the West Branch of the Delaware. A couple of other guys pulled into the lot at Balls Eddy, and they came over to ask if we'd been listening to the radio. We said no (ironically, we'd been listening to tapes of Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead on the trip to the river--no kidding!). They told us what they had heard and said that they weren't sure they were going to fish. "Seems kinda crazy, now," the one guy said. "Or maybe it's the only sane thing to do," I replied.

We fished, and I'll never forget the beautiful clear blue sky on that day, but the fishing seemed unusually bad, perhaps because I was unusually distracted (not a problem I can ever remember having before while fishing).

Proud? ... Defensive maybe, at times.

My wife (mad at me the other night) blurted out, "Who else would spend HOURS writing in a fishing journal???" That's ... weird!" Glad I have you guys, although it would help a little if the number of posters were larger.

My mom, referring to me, once said, "There's nothing better than a good fanatic." It was meant to be a compliment.

Yes, we must appear odd to our wives. Last night my better half called me up from my basement tying room (little bigger than a closet) and said, "What were you doing down there for hours?" I just shrugged. "Tying up some nymphs," wouldn't have meant anything to her, no matter how it were explained. We talked a little, she went to bed, and I went back down to finish.

Her next thought was probably, "Why doesn't he just go buy some worms?" or "If he gave me all the money he spends on fishing, we'd eat surf and turf every night."

I don't think bait fishermen are equally misunderstood.

-Shawn

Actually, I've known some pretty intense "bait fisherman". I think it's a personality trait, and the natural world is just big enough to really suck some of us in.

Guys, I am quite proud of being a little "off". I've known it all my life and I have no problem with it. Why be "normal" and "average"? That's freaking BORING. Sorry, but I'm NOT "Joe Six Pack". Get over it, world. If we were all the same, our society would stagnate! It's us oddballs that move things forward and shake things up.

I am planning a 4-day backpacking trip to Isle Royale National Park, an island in Lake Superior, for Labor Day weekend. (Of course I'm taking at least one fly rod, and you can all expect a fishing report after I return.) I will be going there with the President of Alpena Community College, who's been wanting to go ever since he read a wonderful book about backcountry adventures on the island (he leant it to me recently). Well, he thought for some reason that my teaching schedule was Monday - Wednesday and he planned the trip acordingly. Turns out, as I had suspected, that I teach Tuesday - Thursday, and that if we left on Wednesday I would be missing my second lecture and first lab. After informing him of this, he suggested that I find a substitute teacher or make some other arrangements. Consulting with one of his vice presidents, who I had met earlier this summer, he got this response:

"As you know, Jonathon is quite unique and I'm not sure anyone else could handle the lecture or lab in quite the same way."

I took it as PURE compliment.

Jonathon

Are these the same "ants" or river wasps that Rene Harrop writes about? In his book Reading The Water he says he's a bit concerned that they could have a parasitic effect on other aquatic life, but he's uncertain. Similar to Zebra Muscles, I wonder if these little guys could multiply to the point where they would wipe out other bugs.