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Much to be Thankful for...

11/22/2012

 
It's Thanksgiving day, 2012.  I thought I'd share on my blog what I'm thankful for since it has been so long since I've updated it.  (I copied and pasted this from my facebook page)

Today there is so much to be thankful for, I have a hard time knowing where to start.  
First, I must thank God, for without him, there would be no reason to give
thanks.
  My family.... My wonderful wife Meg, who has stood by me through good times and bad.  She's been more tolerant of my sometimes crazy ideas and
activities than I could ever expect from anyone.  She's the heart in our
relationship.  A loving, caring soul that is always thinking of others... she reminds me of this when I am caught up in the hustle and bustle of life.  She can bring me back to center when I get way out on the fringes.   
 Our two daughters have got to be the biggest blessing, besides Meg, that
have ever come into my life. They remind me of innocence, sweetness and the
beauty of youth. Their constant questions and action keep me on my toes.  My
desire for them to turn out the way I'd like them to keeps me honest, sober, and hard working.
  Also for true friends... They are the ones you can really trust. They arent afraid to give you honest opinions about things.  I can't think of anyone besides my family I'd share my precious spare time with. 
 And finally my Business.....It's the financial backbone of our family.  It's
truly my dream job and I've got the best customers I could ever ask for.  I am
truly living my dream right now, and for that there are no words to express the
thanks in my heart.

 And that friends, is truly how I feel.  Its hard for me to read the words above without a tear coming to my eye. I have been blessed more than one person deserves in a lifetime already.   


 
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Also, we've got a new logo.  Thanks to Long Nguyen for cleaning up my original sketch and putting in a great digital format.  Only a fly tier could have gotten it exactly the way I wanted it, and Long just nailed it!   We'll be coming out with some hats and shirts hopefully soon.  This will also be the logo we are going to be putting on the window of our new showroom....... (more on that later) 
So with that, Happy Thanksgiving everyone from the bottom of our hearts!
 

Fishing the Dry Line...

6/4/2012

 
Summer is quickly approaching.  (Well, not that quickly here in the Northwest). My yard needs mowing weekly (yuk), the days are getting longer, and the rivers are filling with fresh summer steelhead.   
 For steelheaders, its also that time of year to put the sink tips away.  Having been a die hard winter steelhead fly fisherman for years, putting the sink tips away has been a hard thing to do.  Still is.  I put them away, but not TOO far away.  
 This year I've got myself a dedicated dry line rod.  There's no sense in waving around a big clunky stick if you don't have to dredge up yards of T-17 all day long.  The new rod is a nice, light 12 1/2 footer  More of a "wand" in my eyes than a rod.  It makes casting the dry line effortless (and that's an important thing in my mind).  
 The "effortless" cast thing is important for me if I'm going to dedicate my fishing time to the dry line.  If I'm fishing the dry line, I'm usually fishing a dry fly (skater), which is great visual stimulation. If you are going to be doing something unproductively for long periods of time, you had better enjoy it (otherwise it's too easy to quit and try something else) I became hooked on dry fly steelhead fishing last fall.  It's an experience I have a hard time topping in the outdoors.  It's worth doing again, and again, and........  again.    
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Of course, if you are going to undertake something like dry line, dry fly steelheading, it's nice to get a little pep talk.  For me, that pep talk comes from Mr. McMillan.  The book "Dry line steelhead" is the bible on the subject as far as I'm concerned.  (hopefully we will have some used copies for sale soon)  Armed with loads of new confidence, it's time to hit the river.
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The river for me was a large Willamette Valley river with a good run of summer steelhead.   The fly of choice was my purple polar bear muddler, riffle hitched.  A nasy bunch of blow down and some sketchy braided channels would keep the boats away.  There were no footprints ahead of me in the trail.  Perfect.  Undisturbed fish, overcast sky, first water..... just what I wanted.  I made my way to the top of the run.  I lengthen my casts out until it was time to start stepping through the run.  I watch my little muddler plow its furrow across the surface faithfully.  The rod throws the line with ease, cast after cast.  A spunky native cutthroat comes to hand.  A great icebreaker and mental check.  I didn't react with a jerk, so I'll be ready for Mr. Big.   Another cutthroat falls for the mudder, not what I'm looking for, but a good sign. 
  I near the slower, deeper mid section of the run.  It only looks like borderline "steelhead" water, so I quicken my pace.  My line hangs down. Just as I'm gettin ready to strip in and recast....  Ker-flush...  A toilet bowl grab.  The muddler is gone in a swirl, the reel starts zinging and 5lbs of summer steel is in the air 30 yards below me.   The fish turns upriver and starts running at me.  I'm reeling as fast as I can, still reeling, still..... then I realize the fish is no longer attached to the fly.  Gone.  
  It was only 5, maybe 7 seconds of adrenaline.  But I'll be chasing that next surface grab relentlessly again, and again, and......

Attitude is everything!

12/13/2011

 
“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”

~Herm Albright, quoted in Reader's Digest, June 1995

I really love this quote.  I think it is so true.  I’m sure there are some people out there that have that one person in their lives that is ALWAYS positive.  I mean positive to the point it makes you sick.  I used to not really like people like that very much.  They used to really annoy me.

Then I read a story online about one of those annoying people.  He was restaurant manager.  He was the kind of guy whose employees always came to with their problems.  He could always find the good side to any situation, and cheer people up an make them feel better.  His positive attitude was contagious.  In fact his employees were so loyal that they would follow him to another restaurant when he changed jobs.  

One day, the unthinkable happened.  He had stepped out of the back door of the restaurant, and forgot to close it as he returned to the office.  An armed gunman entered, found him in the office and demanded that he give him the cash in the safe.   As he fumbled to dial the safe combination, he slipped.  The nervous gunman shot him in the chest. The gunman fled and left him lying on the floor of the office.  He was bleeding profusely but still managed to summons help.  The ambulance arrived and rushed him to the emergency room.  Having lost a lot of blood he was fading in and out of consciousness.  He noticed the serious look on the doctor ‘s and nurses faces.  He started to get scared, and realized for the first time that the situation might be life threatening.  One of the nurses asked him if he was allergic to anything, and his reply was “Yes, bullets”.  The tension in the emergency room immediately dissolved.  Doctor's rigid faces softened in smiles behind their masks, and nurses giggled. Right then, he had made the decision that things weren't that bad.  After all he was still alive, and he was going to fight as hard as he could to stay that way.  The operation was successful, and after a few months he fully recovered and went back to work at the restaurant.  He was even more positive than he had ever been.

So what does that have to do with fly tying, feathers and fishing?  Well, everything.  In fact it has everything to do with, well……..everything.   

Every morning when you wake up, you’ve got a choice to make.  You decide what kind of day you are going to have, and you decide what kind of attitude you are going to have.  I’m hoping that when you wake up in the morning (that’s a great thing, you woke up…it could have been worse. You could have been dead, and not woke up!) you will make the decision to have a great day.  I hope that when get in your car and head to work, you’re just going to let other people’s stupid driving not annoy you (you could be walking……).  I hope that when you are pulling on your waders and putting your rod together, that you are going to have an awesome day of fishing regardless of whether you catch anything (unlike the guy who’s out of work and wondering how he’s going to feed his family).  See how it works? 

Attitude IS everything.  

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Another book report of sorts....

11/28/2011

 
Obsessions…..  I  have one.  It happens to be tying full dress atlantic salmon flies.  This obsession enters into every part of my life.  If it wasn’t for the obsession, I wouldn’t be writing this.  It affects my spare time, time spent with family and friends, my work and even how I spend my money.  That’s what obsessions do, they rule your life.   

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 That’s why I was drawn to these books.   “An Obsession Called Pheasant”, by Jolan Durrah is about a man with an obsession.   The main character of the book is Dan, who even from a young age was captivated with pheasants.  They became part of who he is, and Dan was driven to all parts of the country to be with them.  The book is about his personal odyssey , and how they became an obsession for him.  Sprinkled with good doses of humor, it explains who Dan is, how he became obsessed with pheasants, and especially one breed of them.   It is an easy read, and anyone that ties these flies should be able to relate to Dan’s desire to learn as much as he can about these amazing birds. The book  gives you the background information about Dan before his big adventure.  It deals with the “why?” that causes Dan to leave everything he knows and travel to Borneo in search of the Bornean Peacock Pheasant.

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“Adventure in Borneo”  also by Jolan Durrah, takes off where “Obsession” leaves you.  Dan has a burning desire to travel to Borneo to see if his beloved peacock pheasant exists in the wild. He decides to leave all of his worldly possessions and travel to Borneo on a shoestring.  He gets more than he bargains for traveling through a strange land that was the recent jungle home of headhunters, giant hornets and questionable water quality.  This book is also filled with adventure, humor and a story that really defines who Dan is, and shows the depth of his desire to learn more about these birds.   If you  are the kind of person that  can’t wait until Christmas to open your presents, or would rather eat dessert before your main course, then get “Adventure in Borneo” first, and find out about what really drives Dan in “Obsession Called Pheasant” afterword.   If you like logical procession, then read “Obsession” first and “Adventure” next.   I feel that after you read both of these books you will have a greater appreciation for the feathers that we are so fortunate to have available for “our” obsession.  If not for the dedicated breeders and people like Dan we’d be left tying some awfully dull flies, and the future of these birds in the wild would be even more dire.  These books would also make great Christmas gifts for your fellow tier, bird lover or traveler.  You can buy them on my website here http://www.aaronmostojfeathers.com/books-tools-etc.html

Use it up, wear it out, make do or do without……

11/21/2011

 
That’s been a motto of mine for quite a while now.  If you’ve followed this blog, you’ve no doubt heard me talk about the pie that is my free time, and how thin the slices get while trying to accomplish all of my goals.  Well, along with the “time” pie, there is an equally important pie, the “money” pie.  It too gets divided into a lot of slices, and like my outdoor recreation time, my outdoor recreation money slices are the thinnest of all.

When my wife was pregnant, we decided that she would be a stay at home mom. (strike one against the budget)  This has required quite a bit of diligence on our part, and making the budget stretch has been a bit of an art form.  The one thing that didn’t change after my wife had our daughter was my vast interest in all things outdoors (strike two on the budget).   Keeping all of the gear in working order that is necessary for these activities has been a challenge to say the least.  Most challenging of all, was being a full dress salmon fly tier (strike three. You’re out!) .  If you tie these flies you know the volume of material required to do it.  Piles and piles of sometimes rare, often expensive, materials for flies that you are never going to fish. Trying to explain that to a spouse on a tight budget is almost impossible. 

So, enter this website and my materials business.  It allows me to skim off a few materials here and there for my own tying. But, the ironic thing about this business is, that I rarely get to tie anymore, because I am so busy keeping the materials in stock to keep the business going!  The other activities I enjoy are a little bit easier to keep going.  Shotgun shells are fairly inexpensive.  Canoes are expensive, but once bought, you’re set.  Backpacking gear wears out, and I replace it while I can.  Hunting clothes….. Read on.

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Mountain quail prints in the snow
This fall I was getting ready to grouse hunt.  Not having been as active as I normally am in the fall (too much non-physical work filling my free time), it seems that my favorite upland hunting pants had shrunk. ( Actually, I had grown! )  I sucked in, got them buttoned, and realized I could hardly walk to my car, let alone miles in the woods, they were so tight.   Crap!  These were no ordinary pants, these were a pair of Filson tin pants that I’d had for a decade.  They were bulletproof, waterproof and expensive.  Too expensive to replace at this time.  


As I was storming around my garage, I  noticed my worn out breathable waders from last year.  The neoprene booties had been aquasealed multiple times, and a seam failure in the heel finally did them in.  The light bulb in my head went off.   I rummaged around my workbench and finally found my shears.  I cut the neoprene booties off of each leg.  I now had a pair of improvised upland hunting bibs.  I put them on over a pair of light wool pants, loaded up my gun and setter and hit the grouse woods.   They worked great, in fact they worked well enough that I don’t think I’ll replace them with another  pair of Filson pants. Plus, I’ve got enough room to grow into them (Hopefully that doesn’t happen!).    

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Chasing Ghosts....

11/17/2011

 
Steep odds,  high stakes, big risks…. 

I’m not talking Vegas here.  Just my normal outdoor activities these days.  I don’t gamble with my money, but when it comes to my free time….Let em’ roll.   Every once  and a while I win.  And when I win,  It’s usually big (at least to me).

Let me explain.  Every person that engages in fishing or hunting usually goes through the same process.  Just the mere act of catching a fish or actually hitting your intended quarry gets you pumped.  You are so excited you can’t wait to do it again. As you become more proficient, the task becomes easier.  So easy, in fact that it is no longer exciting.  It takes harder and more difficult tasks to bring the same amount of excitement  you originally had.  You’re like a junky.  It takes more and more dope to get the same high.  You’re always chasing that elusive euphoria of the first hit……

I’ve experienced it myself.  Just catching fish was such a rush when I was young.  Specie did not matter.  Method did not matter.  Just getting that wriggling, slimy finny prey under my control was the objective.  As that started to grow old, I learned to tie files and fly fish. That added a whole new level of complexity to the task and it became exciting again.  When that became easy, I started specializing in species.  That made things a bit more difficult, and again….exciting.


Lately, I’ve taken it a step further.  I’ve started chasing ghosts…  

You know..spooks.  Things that are so elusive, that even seeing them is questionable.  And if you did, who would believe you?   One of my ghosts have been native winter steelhead on the fly rod. Lets face it, steelhead fishing on the fly is a numbers game. The more casts you make, the better your odds of catching a fish.  There just aren’t a lot of them , and to catch them requires covering a lot of water.  Add in high water, cold water, poor ocean survival, logging, poaching, etc., etc…..and you get the point.  They become a bit “ghost like” .  Sometimes days, even weeks, can pass without a single strike.  I’ve even learned to tell myself that as every day passes without success, my odds are getting BETTER!  Yes, how perverted is that?  The longer I go fishless, the luckier I am getting?    “You catch anything today, Aaron?” 

“Nope, but you wouldn’t believe how lucky I’m getting.”  Ha!

I wish that thought process worked in other aspects of life. Maybe I can convince my wife that the less money we make, the richer we are getting!  

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Dirty little secrets.....

11/8/2011

 
I'm not sure I should even post this......

I'm donning my flack jacket as I type this.  I'm clearing out my inbox, preparing for the flood of feedback to come.  I may have to lock the "comment" button on this blog.  

I've got a dirty secret to tell.  But first, a little disclaimer.   

I sell feathers.  Mostly feathers for full dress salmon flies.  Flies that require alot of time and dedication to tie well.  I love tying those flies.  But, I've come to a crossroads of sorts with my spare time.  Do I pursue the tying, and neglect the research, and development of new product for my website?  Do I tie fine classic flies to fish with and offer less colors of pigs wool?  Arrrgggh!!!  

These thoughts actually DO go through my head.  You see, with a full time job, a family (currently expanding), and a website business, spare time is a precious thing.  I'd rather fish when I've got spare time than tie pretty flies.  I've found that the PIE that represents time in my life has got an awful lot of slices out of it.  The biggest slice is my "real job", next is my family, then my website, then I have a whole bunch of little bitty slices that represent fly tying, fishing, hiking, canoeing, snowshoeing, hunting, lawn mowing, gutter cleaning (thankfully those  last two are really skinny slices),etc. 

So what does that have to do with the secret?  I guess it's my way of justifying my crummy fishing flies.  I like to catch fish, and I've found that simple flies catch fish.   An old friend of mine proved that to me one day while I went fishless casting my superior (in my mind) "pretty" flies, and he just killed the fish with his ugly chenille and roadkill bugs.  The light kinda went off in my head.  "Hey, maybe I don't need pretty flies to catch fish?" .  I resisted.  I still had an abundance of free time at that point in my life.  I tied some sweet flies, and fished them.  I even caught fish on them.  Fast forward a decade, and you find me sitting at the kitchen table cranking out some ugly crap at 10:00 pm the night before a fishing trip.  "Good enough" will have to do.  I even use alot of chenille (a material I hate) because it's fast, and still buggy.  I'll omit fancy things like tips, tags and cheeks.  I even use what I'd call "dirty" materials like crystal flash, rubber legs, beads, you name it.  I'm not gonna preach purity here.  When it comes to fishing flies my boxes are about as far away from being  "pure as the wind driven snow" as you can get.  In fact, I'd liken them to a smiley face pee'd in a snowbank by some drunk teenager.  

"Why?" you might ask.  Why would someone with access to some of the finest materials available tie such cruddy fishing flies?   Well, if I had a choice,  I'd probably still tie and fish my dirty flies. The reason why.....They work!  Simple flies with flashy bits catch fish.  I like to catch fish.  That's why I fish.   I'm not one who will ever stand on my soapbox and proclaim that I'm doing something special when I catch a fish.  I just fish, and sometimes I catch.  I don't   care what anyone else does to catch their fish.  As long as you feel good about what you are doing, then do it.   I can appreciate a steelhead caught on a dry fly and enjoy fishing that way on the swing.  I can appreciate the guy deep drifting a prince nymph under a thing-a-ma-bobber, and I do that sometimes too.  I like to chuck spoons on drift gear for winter steelhead (talk about a "grab").  I really enjoy bait fishing for spring chinook too.   It's all fishing and it's all good.  

So as you make your way to your favorite water this winter and you see the guy chucking roe, and the boat pulling plugs, and the guy with a spey rod throwing an indicator in "your" run, embrace them.  They're your fellow anglers.  They're guys with little itty bits of pie called fishing time.  They're guys not sitting in front of the TV on the couch, they all love to fish, and one of them might be me.   I've got a dirty secret, and if your nice to me, I might share it with you. 
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Canoe Porn.....

11/2/2011

 
 I really couldn't think of much to write today.  Instead, my mind kept wandering back to days spent canoeing this summer.  So, I guess if a picture is worth a thousand words, here's about 11,000 words worth:
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Paddles, we don't need no stinking paddles!
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So there you go....A healthy dose of all things canoe.  And even better, all things canoe made of wood. Until next time.............

My only chums......

10/31/2011

 
 Friday morning found me heading to the coast.  My original intent was to fish for searun cutthroat.  These ocean going trout can be a fantastic fishery, being very aggressive in their home rivers.  Arriving at a known searun river at daylight, fishing a known searun haunt, I found no love.  The river had dropped to summertime lows.  The only sign of fish were the dead carcasses of chinook salmon that had spawned a month ago.   The water was slow, deep and tannic stained.  I casted and stripped a black reverse spider half heartedly.  The wind was picking up speed, sending a shower of leaves into the river that fowled almost every cast I made.  Eventually the wind picked up enough speed to make casting the 4wt. all but impossible.  I knew it was time to admit defeat.  I trugged back to the car and decided to go for "plan B".
 Plan B was a small river in Washington state with a run of chum (or dog) salmon.  It had been over 10 years since I had fished for chums, and I was looking forward to doing battle with them.  As with most salmon fishing, timing is everything.  A week can make the difference between feast or famine.  I drove the maze of logging roads trying to find the turnoff that would eventually lead me to the head of tidewater on this small coastal river.  There was one problem.  I didn't recognize a thing.  As with most forestland in the northwest, things are in a constant state of change.  All of the ground I had driven through a decade ago (to fish this river) had been logged and was in various stages of regrowth.  Eventually I found the river, but I was a long ways above tidewater.  The fish were there, and lots of them.  But, the river at this point was very small and did not offer much in the way of sport while battling these large fish. Not knowing how far above tide I actually was, I packed my lunch into my fishing vest and headed downriver.  After a solid hour's hike through the dense coastal brush, I found the head of tide.  The wind was still blowing a gale, and the leaves looked like a yellow blizzard.  Fish were restless and rolling as the tide surged inland.  I tied on a simple polar bear winged, green fly and began the cast and strip routine through the murky tidewater.  Almost instantly I was rewarded with a jerking strike.  The large buck came to the surfaced and thrashed for a second before starting in a searing run. These big chum salmon really put up a fight, especially fresh fish on the tide.   After a hard battle I admired the faint maroon and green color of his sides and sent him on his way to complete his mission.  Luckily I would repeat this same scenario over a dozen times this day.  But best of all....... I didn't see another soul fishing.  Today my only chums.....were Dogs. 
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The Crud....

10/24/2011

 
That's what I've been fighting lately.  I guess I'm getting my Halloween "trick" early.  For someone that loves to be outside during this time of year, it's more of a curse than a trick, but that's life.  I'm sure other guys (and gals) with young children can sympathize.  We're only two months into the school year, and our family has been through two bouts of the Crud.  I'm not sure how teachers do it.  Working at a germ factory like that has got to keep your immune system in tip top shape.  
 On the bright side, other than missing work and having to stay indoors, I haven't really missed much in the rivers.  For an Oregon fall, it's been quite dry.  I'm sure the next big rain system we get will bring the late coho into our rivers for one of my favorite fall fisheries.  There is a magical time around Thanksgiving when you can catch chrome bright winter steelhead or coho, and if your lucky a rare late bright chinook.  
 Our garage and kitchen have been happening places since I've gotten back from vacation.  I've got a bunch of new product in the works to list on the "Feathers" page, once I get it packaged and photographed.  You can tell the fly tiers are starting to get the tying bug as the days get shorter, because the material has been flying out the door (thanks guys!) .  Keep your eyes peeled for the new stuff in the coming days.....AO

    Aaron M. Ostoj

    Feather pusher, hook tweeker, boat builder, fisherman, husband, dad.....

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