Tyson Attempts Fly Tying

        Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that asking me if I have any hobbies can turn into an all day conversation. I undoubtedly have dabbled in way more hobbies than any sane human being should, that being said, spreading myself that thin doesn’t lend itself to mastering any of them. I hope that fly tying will be the exception, to me it seems a useful skill and almost a form of relaxation and meditation… at least I assume it would be relaxing once its no longer frustrating. 


        Since I finished university I have been paying back my student loans steadily, diligently… and unfortunately. As encouragement I am rewarding myself at certain increments. The most recent was treating myself to a fly tying kit to help pass some of the down time at work. For approx $100 I bought a box of life long addiction, also known as a starter kit. It contains: all the basic equipment, a tying manual, a fly fishing tips book and some tying materials.
Everything I need to get started


            I first read both books cover to cover and then made a plan to tie my first fly. As suggested by the book I opted to try tying a nymph.

Well I tried and that’s what counts!

         It wasn’t pretty and it definitely did not look like the picture, but I was informed that when it comes to flies, especially nymphs, fish are pretty comfortable with flies that are a little rough around the edges. I was relieved to learn this. I then tried again.

Looks a little better if I do say so myself


       Tying my first flies I realized my kit was not quite complete. I had nothing to use to apply the necessary glue to the heads of the flies.

Points for creativity and ingenuity? 

     Having “mastered” that nymph pattern it was time to move on to the woolly bugger.

It looks sick and/or hungry 

              I tried again a few times until I realized I was using the wrong materials. Two shortcomings of this kit are that none of the materials are labelled so sometimes it comes to some internet searching and a best guess, secondly the materials are all in rather strange colours so it makes for some interesting patterns.

Maybe it will work on a nice pike

       Once I had gotten my material sorted out my woolly buggers started to look a little bit better. I posted some photos to instagram and someone asked if I could make them into earrings for them. So at the very least they’re pretty right? Well I am yet to let being bad at something stop me from doing it, so I’ll keep working on it and anything especially good or bad I’ll put up on my Instagram. I still can’t seem to figure out dry flies…

Everything I have tied so far


   This week I got an Instagram account going, come check it out for more pictures more frequently. Just look for “TysonGoesOutside” 


Posted in Fishingwith 2 comments.

Big Week

So… let me start by apologizing for not posting on Thursday like I normally do. I have a strange feeling it didn’t exactly ruin your week though. Anyway here is the tale of why I failed to post at my regularly scheduled interval. 


     It all began when I asked for a few days off from work to go see The Edmonton Boat and Sportsman’s Show. I work out of town and to make it worth while a replacement was sent out to relieve me for a little over a week. I made the long drive home on Monday followed by a long drive the next day to my mother and step fathers farm. While there I was able to get in some much needed archery practice… it had, in fact, been a long winter for me… it was reflected in my archery skills. I also did some snowshoeing but that’ll come up in a later post I promise. The most important thing I did was eat good food and catch up on sleep.

Thursday I drove back home and did a whole lot of not much. Friday is when the fun began. I went to the show and was there when the doors opened. One of the first things I saw was the line up to meet Jim Shockey, I looked around and figured it was doubtful the line was going to get any shorter so I stood around wondering what to say… and what I could get him to sign. Lucky for me they were selling some of his DVDs so naturally I purchased one. He was kind enough to sign it for me and we chatted a bit, it was nice to see that he took time with each person to chat a little instead of “Whats your name? Great. Keep hunting. NEXT!” In my excitement unfortunately I failed to get a picture of us together, which is unfortunate because if this blog ever really takes off it would be a neat thing to have (OK either way it would be cool to have).

It is also just a good DVD

After that excitement, I wandered over to meet/re-meet Cody Robbins. I go shake his hand and usually buy a shirt every year just because hes a pretty nice guy and hes probably my favorite hunting show host (I hope I never have to choose between him and Jim Shockey). While there I picked up this beauty of a shirt.

Its super soft and I like the lace up

I aimlessly wandered around the rest of the show seeing what there was to be seen and then I discovered this game changer.

New favorite beer

That’s right folks a beer geared towards hunters. I know not a lot of hunters drink beer (haha) but I really like this idea, and as an added bonus 5% of profits go toward conservation in Alberta and BC. I then exited the show and drove to the nearest liquor store that sold this beer and promptly purchased some for further “sampling.”

Next thing I knew it was Saturday morning, about 5 AM and Erin, Jason, and I were headed to Lake Louise, them for skiing, me for an attempt at snowboarding. The weather on the hill was amazing and I was really starting to dominate that bunny hill.

Spent most of the day like this

I ran a few green runs and before I knew it the day was gone.

I’ve wound up worse places on a Saturday

We then met up with some friends for dinner and drinks at the local hostel. The hostel restaurant was much better than I could have ever expected.

Every part of my body is sore in this photo

The plan was to get up the next day and head home, but we had a lovely surprise. Nearly a foot of heavy wet snow had fallen during the night. We opted to hit the slopes again and drive back later that night.

Guess who had to sweep all that off of the truck
The hills were everything I had dreamed they would be. A tonne of fresh powder meant an amateur like me could really let loose and not worry about falling down. That being said, the heavy sticky snow was rather tiring to plow through.
Lucky for us there was a chalet half way down the hill
        As the day progressed I got a increasingly sore but also increasingly brave which naturally led to a rather interesting crash or two, luckily the hill was kinda busy that weekend so the humor was not wasted. The afternoon came and we decided some of us were too tired and sore to continue, others simply wanted to  be on the road before it was too late. We made it home late that night and I was given two days to recover before I was sent back to work.
I just like this photo. Also my hat got a surprising amount of compliments on the slopes.


Posted in Hunting, Snowboardingwith 2 comments.

Pike On The Fly

           If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times… I am an amateur. This video of my first day fly fishing for pike clearly illustrates that point, especially “Take 1”. This is one of my first videos so I’m aware its a little rough. That being said I am certainly open to and would appreciate; comments, suggestions, tips, and ideas.

 


Posted in Fishing, Videowith no comments yet.