Fighting butt, and some fish pictures

"Roger Ohlund" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I just thought I'd post on something that I was asked about at Penns.
Someone asked me about the fact that I had put a fighting butt on my 4
weight.
I think the reflection was that I wouldn't need one on such a light rod
and
that it was too short anyway.

Uhhh..not a bad idea to to have one just in case you do bump into a nice
one. This does happen...I can remember someone bumping into to one in an
unnamed location at Penn's Clave a few years back, and he could have used
all of the help he could get.

Actually, this might just be a good idea for any rod, without the notion
that you'd ever need it as a fighting butt.
I put it there simply because every time I lean my rod against anything
the
reel is bound to touch ground.
Scratch marks on the reel can seem as only a cosmetic thing, but if you
get
a scratch mark on the inside of the edge of the spool it will inevitably
affect the coating of the line. Scratched aluminium is sharp.

Yeah, but just go over the gear periodically and smooth out the rough edges,
not that I've had to from putting the rod down on the ground gently. I'm no
engineer, but I do find it difficult to comprehend how a significant scratch
can occur from leaning the rod up against something. I can see that it
would be nice to keep debris out of reel all together, so that in itself
would seem to be a good reason to do so, or the uplocking reel seat as Willi
pointed out.


Think about it, such a short fighting butt won't be in the way and it will
lengthen the lifespan of your reels.
AND, with the cost of those reels you'd likely want to expand the lifespan
on them.


I'm not really worried about the cosmetic appearance of my gear, as long as
they are in good working order. As for the life of the reel, it's been my
experience so far, that I tend to wear them out before anything else goes
wrong. I have some different experiences with Waders (need to get some of
those wader socks next time around), and rods themselves (only one problem,
and I couldn't control my buddy's driving..) but if I paid a lump sum for
one them fancy, dancy, reels that cost more then my mortgage payment, I may
change my tune just a bit.

BTW, I went fishing for Arctic char in the mountains with some friends. We
caught 14 and kept 2 for late dinner (2 am) by the creek (midnight sun and
all). This one was caught by me and was 19 inches
http://hem.passagen.se/alvsajtn/ransaran3.JPG and one of those that we
kept.
Here's a 20 inch fish http://hem.passagen.se/alvsajtn/ransaran1.JPG
(released) and a 16 inch one http://hem.passagen.se/alvsajtn/ransaran2.JPG
(also kept for dinner).
They're pretty fish the Arctic char, and tasty.

Nice looking fish, and checked out the picture galley, some cool stuff in
there also. May have to get motivated and come back your way to visit the
homelands of my recent ancestors, and to partake in some of your fine
fishing.

I didn't bring a camera to Penn's this time around, but the pictures are
still vivid even though no one else can view them. I think video would be
in order to record that precise long cast, or that late night ballad that
really was quite good (it fell on drunken ears..), but I should have had the
camera for some of the fih shots. Next time, maybe I'll have some from
Montana. I'll look Bruce up to see if he can contribute with some of those
Mayfly shots he shared.

Mike