Doing anything on March 12th?

Well cancel your plans.

That is, if you live within driving distance of East Peoria, IL.  (I'm looking at you Wolfy and Zack.)

Why, you ask?

Well you remember that post I put up last September about my first trout on the fly?  You know, at the Hooked on Fishing park?  The one where they usually don't let anybody fish so the trout are huge, dumb, and fly hungry?

One of the smaller ones of the day.  I know there's no size reference but he was probably 14-15".  The biggest had trouble fitting into this same net lengthwise.

Well they're holding another fundraiser.

For a $25 suggest donation, you get fly fishing instruction from pros the like of Jonn from Streamstalker and five hours of fishing these fly-dumb trout.  If you've never flyfished or aren't very experienced, don't worry.  When I went last year I had probably used a fly rod less than a dozen times and Jonn had me casting and catching fish in no time.

Big goofy grin guaranteed.

The $25 goes towards the Hooked on Fishing park, which offers fishing opportunities to the elderly and people who normally wouldn't be able to have access to excellently managed fisheries.  Check out Nate's blog for more info.  It's a great cause and honestly, people go on vacations and spend thousands of dollars to get access to fish that are smaller and much harder to catch.

Even if you're not interested in showing, try to spread the word.  It's a great opportunity to get someone involved in the sport, especially those who haven't flyfished or kids.  (There was kid who was probably 6 or 7 years old who was fishing while we were eating lunch last year and he was having a blast, hooking fish all on his own, if only for a few seconds.)

For more information, check out Lunker Hunt.  Clif has a bunch of photos and some awesome footage up from last year.

Hope to see ya there!

Say hello to my KSOs.

I love being barefoot.  Like LOVE it.

Don't know what it is but all my life as soon as I got home from school or work the shoes and socks come off immediately.  I used to wear flip flops whenever possible because I thought it was the closest thing to being barefoot.

I was wrong.

Don't let the leg distract you, focus on the shoe.

I found out about Five Fingers about a year ago and after saving up some spare money I bought a pair last fall.  They're not for everybody and they get alot of weird looks/comments in public and I get alot of crap about them from the guys but I'm hooked.  It's honestly like being barefoot all day.  The only real drawback I've found is they aren't good in the snow for more than about five minutes.  They make special neoprene ones for that but I just don't have the cash to get another pair anytime soon.

Anyway, my point here isn't to rave about them.  Either you love them or you hate them (most hate them) and any amount of my fanaticism won't change that.   My reason for bringing them up is that I've been searching for people who have waded in them.  Results were sparse, only turning up this post on Packs and Tracks Outdoors.  Basically, his verdict is they seem to work but to be careful.  (Side note, check out his blog, looks pretty sweet, got alot of fly fishing stuff up.)

So, not to steal Packs and Tracks' thunder but I decided that I'm going to try them out this year and post my findings.  I know there have to be other five fingers owners wanting to know specifics on wading or people who may be interested in buying a pair if they work better than an old pair of sneakers.

Sorry bout the crappy background/shadows.  I started taking pictures in the bathroom but the wife was asking too many questions.

I've worn them on gravel and while you can feel the rocks, it takes out the sting; so that's not really a concern.  The KSO namesake stands for "Keep Stuff Out" so I'm not worried about stuff getting in.

Not the best traction tho.

My only concerns are the fact that there is no ankle support and there have been a few times when they've been slick.  (Usually with an inch or less of snow freshly on the ground.)  I'll be sure to try them out in super shallow water a few times before venturing into a rushing creek.   We'll have to see how they perform.  In the meantime, check out Packs and Tracks review if you're interested.

I do know now that they're very comfortable in a gun range setting.  Back before all this damn snow, I wore them for a (about 4 hour) shooting session.  Even when on my feet the whole time in them, stepping on brass and having hot brass land them, totally comfortable and singe-free.

One thing you should know if you're considering purchasing a pair is that if you don't spend alot of time barefoot already, you'll be very uncomfortable at the beginning.  There are muscles from the bottom of your feet all the way up your legs that modern shoes allow to atrophy.  If you go straight into wearing minimalist shoes, these muscles will hurt like hell, just like if you go from never working out to jumping straight into a heavy workout.  Even with me being barefoot alot before getting the Vibrams, my calves would burn quite the first few days.

However, eventually you'll find that you have less aches in your joints after awhile.  The human body has evolved to walk upright barefoot and your feet are designed to be shock absorbers.  I've always had knee pain due to being a big, tall guy and it has diminished greatly since my purchase of the KSOs.  I can't say for sure it's not a coincidence but I've heard similar reports by other users.

Whether you dig them or hate them, be on the lookout for some reports this spring/summer as to how they hold up in a fishing environment.

Disclaimer:  I have no association with Vibrams whatsoever. I'm always open to one though, if anyones reading ;)  I paid full price for my pair of KSOs and my thoughts on them are my own, developed by wearing them as often as my wife will allow me into public with them on.

Oh, by the way.  I'm taking down the Amazon widget.  I feel like a sellout with it up there and people keep spamming me just trying to promote their blog.  Noone clicks the damn thing anyway.

Hope you all have a good day one.  I get to try to drive my wife to work tomorrow and then try to not get into an accident/stranded on my 20 mile commute.  

-Mark

Who would I want to hang with?

OBN's latest writing prompt is to list a few fellow OBN bloggers you'd like to meet.  I would enjoy meeting just about any of y'all but there are a few who stand out.  Since the question was who you'd like to "meet", I disqualified any blogger who I've already met in person, which excludes... Clif.  Here are the couple that stood out:

Jay from The Naturalist's Angle.  It seems that since Jay found my blog, he has always had good advice, from choosing a flyrod to tips on fishing grubs on spinning tackle.  Plus, it seems like he prefers to chase warmwater fish on the fly, exactly what I'm hoping to be chasing this year.  I think we would have a good time and I would learn a bunch.

Dallas from Fishin the Ridge.  He and I have gone back and forth a little on our frustration over the reluctance of wader manufacturers to offer waders in big guy sizes.  It seems like although he might be more experienced than me in the areas of bass fishing and hunting, he's also a self-professed "fly fishing noob", just like myself.  His is the first blog other than my own that I'd found when the person was just getting into flyfishing.  I'm looking forward to reading about him learning as I'm learning some of the same things.

Ken G from Waterdog Journal/Four Season's Anglers Network.  I just stumbled across Ken's blog a little while ago, don't even think I've commented on any posts yet but I enjoy reading his posts, which seem to focus less on details and more on the experience of the day.  Pretty cool, check it out if you haven't yet.  I read he might be doing some guiding this year, maybe I'll have to schedule an outing.

So there you have it, just a few of the bloggers I'd like to meet.  Unfortunately I won't be able to make it to the OBN meet up this year so I'll probably have to wait awhile to meet most, but maybe someday.

Hope you all are staying warm, I'm currently in the midst of enjoying some snow-related time off. :)  Have a good one.

Wow

Had 648 pageviews this month.

That might not sound like much to some of you who get all kinds of traffic but I've only had 2,055 pageviews since I started the blog last May.  My biggest month before this was 261.

I guess what I'm trying to say is thanks for reading, I appreciate it.

I'm gonna go celebrate with a beer and wait for our 12-20 inches of snow we're supposed to be getting by wednesday afternoon.  Woo!

Powerton 1/29/11

View from the entrance.

I woke up a bit later than I had hoped so I scrambled to get ready and get on the road.  Got pumped up to some death metal and got into the mindset to go slay some fish.  (Slay as in catch, respectfully handle and release unharmed.)  Got to the lake about a half hour after it opened.

The way Powerton is laid out is the warm water discharge area is about a half mile from the parking lot.  So I grabbed my pole and tackle and headed out along the raised retaining wall, wind whipping the mist up off of the lake and over me.

Got down to the discharge area and found about 20 anglers already set up, all baitfishing. (I assume for catfish, as the big draw for the lake is giant blue cats.  Didn't see anybody pull anything in in the couple hours I was there.

The mist was usually much thicker than you see here, it was like a scene out of a viking movie.  A big wooden boat pulling up and commencing pillaging wouldn't have been out of place.

I started out tossing a silver rattletrap that Grandfather-in-law Tom gave me for Christmas.  I worked down what parts of the shore I could, first burning it really quickly and then knocking it along the rocks on the bottom.  Didn't get any bites.

After about a half hour to forty-five minutes, I lost the rattletrap on the bottom.  At Clif's suggestion I tied on a white twistertail grub with a white jighead and started tossing that.  I felt like I got a few knocks on it but I missed every hookset.  Are you supposed to set the hook immediately with a grub or wait until you feel the fish pulling?  I was automatically setting the hook as soon as I felt something so that may be why I wasn't able to hook anything.

Another hour and a half later I decided to call it a day.  Cold was starting to get to me.  Even tho I didn't hook any fish, I didn't come away frustrated like I have in the past.  I attribute it to a couple things:

First of all I put all my gear in my backpack from last semester.  It wasn't much today but it was alot easier to just strap it on and forget about it than to have to pick up a big tackle box every time I wanted to move.  Alot less tiring too.  I think this'll help when I make some hiking trips to less-pressured water at Banner Marsh or Snakeden Hollow in a couple months.

Secondly, I brought a spinning rod rather than the baitcaster I used most of last year.  No dealing with backlashes or having to remember to thumb to reel before the bait hit the water.  Really simplified everything.  I let "being like the guys on tv" get in the way of just having a good time and fishing last year.

Finally, I was happy to just get out of the house.  A nice little walk and wetting a line was just what I needed. 

Don't think I'll be fishing again until the temps are up over 50 though.  Just too cold, it's distracting.  I'll try to get some shooting footage up soon, I have a few empty milk jugs that need exploding.  :)

Zombie...

As in, I feel like one.

Another week at the call center down, semi-annual performance review in the books.  It's been gray and cold out.  I didn't win the Hook & Hackle rod building kit contest Owl Jones put on. (Which means I'm in the market for an 8' Eagle Claw Featherlight in the next two months, let me know if you hear of any deals.)

I've been either in the house or at work 100% of the time for the past week and I'm over it.

So I'm heading out to Powerton, a local warm water discharge lake tomorrow.

Don't think I've ever pulled anything bigger than 4 inches out of there but a couple years ago it used to be a smallie hotspot and they stock stripers so I figure I'll toss some crankbaits and little plastic grubs just to see if I can pull in SOMETHING.  I'll give an update tomorrow afternoon on how it went.

Also, I took the advice OBN gave awhile back and just started a Facebook page for the blog.  Click the link on the left to "like" it if you'd like to hear my outdoors.  Right now myself and my beautiful wife are the only fans, it's a little lonely at the moment.

Have a good weekend, be looking out for a report tommorow!

Blogroll

I usually don't do blogrolls as most of my regular followers have been in the blogging scene alot longer than I have and I've seen y'all's pictures as followers on other peoples sites.  However, I have a couple blogs I came across with just a couple followers and I thought you guys would be interested to hear about.

On the River with the Viver:  This is my uncle's blog.  He's a pro walleye fisherman and he just started up this blog to "document the ups and downs of competitive angling". Check it out, especially if you're a fellow walleye fisherman,  I'm sure he'll have some interesting insights as to pulling up some big 'eyes as well as going pro.


R-Dub Outdoors:  Rory and I have had some conversation back and forth about that new show The Wild Within so I checked out his blog.  He's got some good reviews up on all kinds of different outdoors equipment.  Scope it out.


Well that's about it.  It's too damn cold to do anything but sit inside so I'll be just chilling and watching some UFC tonight.  Hope you all have a good weekend.