... A Little Closer to Home: August 2016

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Fly of the Day

Elk Hair Caddis

#18 Hook
Tan Ultra 140 Thread
Small Gold Ribbing
Cream Dubbing
Brown Hen Feather
Elk Hair

These ride on top of the water and imitate a lot of different bugs dropping eggs or drying wings to fly. Great pattern for Iowa trout, bluegill and bass.

Monday, August 29, 2016

Fly of the Day

Light Yellow Mayfly Emerger

#16 u101 Umpqua Hook
White feather barbs
Cream dubbing, dark green dubbing
Tan Ultra 140 Thread

Easy. Just felt like this might work. Came out nice. Now to fish it to see.

The Big Picture

The picture above is Denali (the local name meaning "the big one") or Mt McKinley for us in the lower 48 states. I took this shot June 2007 on our trip to Alaska. We were 35 miles from the mountian and 60 miles in from the lodge in Denali National Park and our bus broke down. We had just encountered bears along side the bus less than a mile a way at the time.

A few days later I found a outfitter service in Talkeetna and flew up up to 12,000 ft around Denali. Worth every penny of the $200.

A good book on Denali is, "To the Top of Denali" by Sherwonit. Here is a quote, "On the mountian, you have to consciously make yourself eat, drink, and even breathe ... What comes naturally down here, you have to force yourself to do up there. If you don't, you'll never reach the summit."

I think these are good words for both mountian climbing and ministry.