I could hear my daughters cries in our front yard. I rushed out the side yard to see what was the matter. As I ran up to comfort my crying daughter, the now ovoid hula hoop she clutched showed signs of some serious blunt impact. The neighbor girl stood close by with that deer in the headlight look, having just dropped a 4' plastic children's bench. She was shaking her head and tried to exit the scene without any exclamation. As my daughter's hysterical babbling ceased, the story started to unfold. "First she hit me with a flower, daddy..." wiping big sappy tears as she spoke. "then I chased her with the hula hoop, and hit her with it, and then," more incoherent babbling, followed by a hug, and then a calming moment or two..."and then, she hit me with the BENCH!!" (back into hysterical sobbing). "She hit me so hard Daddy, that my heart told me to quit breathing" (obviously a five year old's exclamation of getting the wind knocked out of them).... My mind could only flash back to my childhood, and watching WWF professional wrestling on television, and the likes of "Hacksaw" Jim Duggin, toting a two-by-four over his shoulder and occasionally using it to smack his opponent right square in the chest, as I'm sure the neighbor girl did to my daughter. Not just a little love tap, but a major league, wind up, swing, crushing home run blow. But, my daughter, like myself, tends to learn lessons the hard way. The neighbor girl had three years on her, and my daughter was seriously under-gunned....By now your probably asking yourself, what the heck does this have to do with fishing or tying flies? Well nothing really, other than it reminded me of my own philosophy regarding fishing gear.
I'm talking about carrying a big stick. My mantra has been "go big, or go home". I love to fish for steelhead, which are big powerful fish that can range from 4-30lbs. I like to think that I'm targeting fish in the upper 30% of that range (which is a total possibility where I fish in the winter time). I throw a 9 weight 90% of the year, summer or winter. This cuts down on the number of rods and lines I need, and when that day comes that the 30 pounder comes knocking....I'll be ready. I'm not going to be bringing a hula hoop to a bench fight....
I'm talking about carrying a big stick. My mantra has been "go big, or go home". I love to fish for steelhead, which are big powerful fish that can range from 4-30lbs. I like to think that I'm targeting fish in the upper 30% of that range (which is a total possibility where I fish in the winter time). I throw a 9 weight 90% of the year, summer or winter. This cuts down on the number of rods and lines I need, and when that day comes that the 30 pounder comes knocking....I'll be ready. I'm not going to be bringing a hula hoop to a bench fight....
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