St. Vrain Angler News & Muse October 25, 2005

Greetings!

It's another beautiful day in Colorado. The sky is blue and crystal clear and the trees are either full of color or lacking most of their leaves. Our front yard has a pile of leaves and last night Shan said, "Dale, come outside for a minute." She wanted me to traipse around in the leaves with her, which I did. Such a swishing sound.

This morning, when I was letting Max, the chowderhead, out I thought I saw a puddy tat. I did! I did! This shot seemed to catch something of urban fall, while the pictures Frank shared after a day with his sons on the St. Vrain are something quite different.

It is still time to go fishing, and go you must.

I know. All the duties of life, including marriage, parenting, work and so on, interrupt. And these are good, satisfying events that bring fulfillment.

Still, fishing is a good invention and must be done to be appreciated. It works as a foil, like quiet to noise, or softness on a calloused hand. Life is interesting because we sense contrast. Too much of one thing or another becomes white noise and we miss everything.

I did that yesterday, sitting at the machine working on the web page. I hope you like what you see, and I'd really like you to participate with me on this.

Here's what we'll read about today. Just follow the links, or scroll on down to read all about it.

On Thursday of last week I sent out an extra, extra to everyone. And I received many responses. Thanks.

The extra announced work I was doing on this site and ideas that I had to continue providing fly fishing solutions. As you know, I love writing this weekly column and have enjoyed putting the web page together, even though I really don't have any idea of how it actually works, and so on. I never understood how records worked, either, but I sure enjoyed hearing recordings of George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra play Brahms, Beethoven and Mendelssohn.

Here's what I'm attempting to do, and I need your help to do it. I'm assembling a Terms & Definitions set of pages to try to explain both basic and advanced fly fishing. To follow the links, begin at Terms & Definitions and go from there. I'd like any and all input that you will take the time to contribute, and I hope it will help all of our angling friends enjoy their fly fishing adventure.

At this time you'll find the assembly of links on the "Home Page Of Terms & Definitions" but only a few of them work. As I receive questions and have the time I'll populate the links. At this time, and this is because this was the most asked question to date, I populated the Flies page with pictures and names of flies.

I worked on the web page from 8:00AM until 10:30PM yesterday, and my eyes were blurred upon completion. Then, I didn't sleep much last night. You know.

I intend to continue working on the site at every opportunity and hope you, my friends, find it useful and entertaining.

Again, I'm asking for your participation. I'm also going to set up a St. Vrain Angler Forum to discuss various items and hope to include live sessions where we can interact, asking and answering questions about all sorts of things. One of the things I'd like to do with this is a live fly tying session, but I'm not sure how to do that. Does anyone out there know? I have a digital video camera; what program would we use to do this?

Thanks.

And while we're at it, I need to remind you of a few things. I hope you find them interesting, and perhaps will see my point. Again, I'd like interaction on this.

This week Wal-Mart announced plans to build another Super Center as well as a Sam's Club on the eastern edge of Longmont. They are nearing completion on a Super Center at the north end of Longmont and the new stores will be about five miles away. There's also a regular old Wal-Mart on the southwest corner of town.

A new shopping center just opened near I-25 and Highway 7, just south of Longmont. It has Sears, Dick's, Circuit City and lots of other unique, one-of-a-kind shopping available. Another new center at the northeast corner of I-25 and Highway 34, just north of Longmont, just opened. It has a Dick's, and other big boxes, once again offer unique shopping opps with helpful, friendly service that will answer any and all questions you might have about their products and services, as long as they are, "Where can I find?" or "How much does this cost?"

I see the point of these centers and the tax revenue they deliver to local communities. Cities and municipalities are trying to keep local tax dollars local in order to provide schools, public services, roads, water and so on. There are also basic, low paying jobs which provide good experience for young people learning to deal with the public.

I want you to know that we do not have lots of shop traffic; we don't sell stuff that folks would want, other than the things that you need to fulfill and practice fly fishing dreams. The time, energy and thought I put into writing this missive and working on the web page is a labor of love and compassion for life and people.

Often, folks say, "It must be great to earn a living doing what you love doing."

My answer has to be, "I love life, encouraging people and teaching fly fishing, but it would be nice to be able to pay the bills."

St. Vrain Angler needs your support. This is a very difficult time of year for us, but we still need for you to buy a few things from us to keep the shop going. Here are some options for things you might need or like to do:

Fly Tying: On Tuesday, November 1, 2005 we're beginning another Introduction To Fly Tying Class. This is fun, informative and interesting. The Class will be held on four consecutive Tuesday evenings from 7:00-9:30PM. Tuition is $70.00 and includes instruction, use of tools and materials, our award winning syllabus and the promise of a great time. Please join us! (Class size limited to 8.) Sign me up!

Tying Small Flies: This is an Intermediate Class and will be held this Thursday evening October 27, 2005 from 6:30-9:30PM. Dale will teach the use of materials when tying small flies, and we will tie the entire Dale's Midge family of flies. Tuition includes a great handout with tying instructions and all materials used during the class. A special Midge Tying Kit will be available that evening at a discounted price to anyone who attends. Tuition is $25.00 per person. (Class size is limited to 6.) Sign me up!

Saturday Fly Tying Clinic: This Saturday, October 29, 2005, St. Vrain Angler will host a free Fly Tying Clinic from 10:00AM until noon. The Clinic will cover "Hackle Basics", teaching fly tiers about various hackle types and how to handle and use them. Hot dogs and chips will be served at 11:30 with a free drawing for a hackle pack at the same time. Join the fun! Sign me up!

All week: We'll have a special sale on discontinued and overstocked fly rods and other fishing gear. For a list of the rods, please follow the link to Sale Rods 102005. We also have end-of-season clothing, wading shoes and other overstocked items. Please call 303-651-6061 for details, or stop by the shop at 418 Main Street, Longmont, CO. Thanks! Sign me up!

Here's another story and pictures from our friend, guide and instructor Frank. I hope you enjoy his outing as much as I.

Hi Dale,

Here are some pictures from last Thursday's fishing with my sons Dan & Tim. We headed down to the North St Vrain above Button Rock. Steep trail going in and really tough hike coming out. Not much happening in the main river but we found a little feeder stream about 4 feet wide and headed up it. Lots of sticks, trees, logs, slick rocks and brush. I fell in once real quick. Lost my net once and then found it floating down stream. It was a great time.

Really. Most important we all hooked up with some nice browns. Dan He climbed up on a log and flipped a cast in, got a good drift and hooked up on a fat brown. Beautiful fish in fall colors. Tim had a really nice fish come up and roll on his stimulator but did not stick the steel to him. He never came back. I was a good 40 feet down stream and when I saw this fish roll and I was thinking Oh my gosh that is one nice fish. We worked our way up the little stream until we had our fill and then headed back down hitting a few spots on the way.

Then it was time to hike back out. Two miles uphill and I mean really up hill. Didn't have a problem sleeping that night. It had been over twenty years since I have been down that trail. It was nice showing it to the boys and spending a day with them.

See you later in the week,

Frank

I am available for Private Fly Tying instruction or Private Casting Instruction. Please drop me a note with your interest and we'll set a time. I'm happy to help with any tying or casting dilemmas you find yourself horned on (on the horns of a dilemma, get it?) and will all I can to share tips and techniques that will solve fly fishing problems.

Private Casting is $100.00 and most sessions last for about one hour. Private Fly Tying will be charged at $75.00 per hour, or $50.00 per hour per person if more than one person attends.

Please drop me a line at angler@peakpeak.com or call the shop at 303-651-6061 to reserve your time. Thanks. Dale

In addition to the other, ahem, additions to the web page I've added a detailed instructional page for tying a woolly bugger. Please follow the link and enjoy! The buggers kind of like Halloween, don't you think?

St. Vrain Angler Woolly Bugger Tying Tips

If you have any comments about this page, please send them to me. Thanks.

I'm pretty sure I can trust you with this. It's very exciting news for the Darling family. It's also another in a series of what might be referred to as Right of Passage life events.

Last night Rachel called from Durango to tell us that Aaron Gordon had proposed and she had accepted his offer of marriage and life together!

Wow. How exciting is that?

When Rachel - and her sisters after - were born Shan and I began hoping and praying that they would find a soul mate who would love them as we've loved one another. There are times in our society - and many folks have said something like this to me while I've been raising, nurturing and mentoring daughters - when folks feel that chaos rules and there are not good folks out there for people to know and learn to love.

Aaron is a fine young man. He called me on Saturday to say he was going to drive to Durango and ask Rachel to marry him, and wondered if I would give him my blessings. Smart wording, eh? I asked him what he'd do if I said no, and he said, "I'm going to ask her anyway."

That was the answer I hoped to hear and I told him to go ahead, and that I was very excited and enthused about all of this. I asked if felt sort of weird for him, calling me to ask about asking my daughter to marry him, and thinking of getting married. He told me he'd been ring shopping and bought one, and that was another new feather in that hat.

He said, "This is sort of weird, but I've been talking with my family and seeking the counsel of people I trust. I thought about not calling, but this is the right thing to do."

Huh? How about this fine young man?

I encouraged both of then to get married sooner rather than later, and to enjoy the process. I also let Aaron know that this was all about girls, and he needed to learn to just say, "Yes dear." to Rachel, his mom, her mom and all of the grandmothers, sisters, aunts and so on involved in the process. He, his dad, his brother and I would be window dressings and could stay put as long as we didn't interfere in any way.

See, I am an expert on girls. That's what happens when you have a wife, three daughters and lots of exchange students who are girls.

Shan and I, and Brittany and Jessica will all wish Aaron and Rachel all the best during this process, and for the rest of their lives together. When we say "Yes!" to one person, we're saying "NO" to every other member of the opposite gender on the planet. That's cool doings right there.

I'll keep you posted.

Well, I'm at four hours of working on this missive and my eyes, after yesterday's web page marathon, are shot. I'm sending today's issue to you with best wishes, and hopeful that you will take some time to try to hook some fishes.

Ah, there's nothing like good poetry, and of course that's nothing like good poetry, either.

I hope you are well. I hope to see you in Thursday's Tying Small Flies Class and on Saturday for the free Tying With Hackle clinic. Please take advantage of our Fall Clearance Sale.

I'll talk with you again soon!

Dale Darling