What's your favorite fly fishing book?

"Allen Epps" wrote in message
...
In article , Doug Kanter
wrote:

"Allen Epps" wrote in message
...
In article , Doug Kanter
wrote:

"slenon" wrote in message
om...


In retrospect, he says he learned one thing: If he ever joins the
armed
forces, he'll insist on being part of the smallest possible team, or
kill
himself. :-)


You're beginning to make me regret volunteering to teach the FF'ing
merit badge this year!

Memorize this, for when the military wannabees wander over to turn your
activity into a committe-based affair: "Would you like an up-close
demonstration of what fish see when we're throwing streamers at them?"

My nearly twenty years in the military have been dedicated to keeping
morons out of my cockpit so that, along with your guidance should work
well!

Allen, where the hell do these people come from??? :-)

Don't un-volunteer for teaching the course. I agree with others here who've
said that any scout troop is only as good as the people who share their
time. Maybe in the future, even if some kids don't enjoy it, at least a few
will remember learning to fish from some guy whose name they'll forget by
that time.

I'm not sure how my son and I ran into 3 bad troops in a row. Perhaps we
were already predisposed to NOT fit into organizations whose chief purpose
is cluster-fu**s. My son's the same way, and until recently, I worried that
he wouldn't be able to work well in teams. He was great at baseball, but
decided he liked skateboarding better. Some people view that as a solitary
sport, but he always does it with a friend or two, and they end up helping
each other learn new things. When school projects involve just one or two in
a group, he does really well. Bigger than that and he has no patience for
the nonsense.

Hmmm...I just realized something. His attitude comes from fishing. He's
learned you should spend more time fishing and less time cutting bait.

Greg Pavlov:
One of the most important things I learned
about was left-handed monkey wrenches.

I learned that lesson by watching someone else search. Ditto, 50 feet of
shoreline, striped paint, and sky hooks.

--
Stev Lenon 91B20 '68-'69
Drowning flies to Dark Star

http://web.tampabay.rr.com/stevglo/i...age92kword.htm

Doug Kanter:
much snippage
For the doubters, here's a bit about our scouting adventures. There is no
exaggeration here.
more snippage

OK, you've got a kid who at least equals the statistical norm, possibly
exceeds it, and you've managed to teach him some outdoor skills. Well done.

As for your three nightmare encounters with scouting units, I sympathize and
commend your restraint. As Mr. Epps and the rest of us have said, the
program is greatly changed from what it was in our youth. More's the pity.
I don't think there's any replacement or substitute program out there.

--
Stev Lenon 91B20 '68-'69
Drowning flies to Dark Star

http://web.tampabay.rr.com/stevglo/i...age92kword.htm

"slenon" wrote in message
om...

...there was a magic of its own in our program, a
real sense of discovery of nature, history, and self....

very nice (if monocular) description of the scouting experience snipped

As a small boy I had a burning desire to be big enough and good enough to be
a Boy Scout some day. I wasn't very clear about the limits of either of
those requirements but the ambition was strong nevertheless. I used to do
all the things I imagined they did.....I climbed tress....I,
um....ahem....set things on fire (I'd never actually SEEN the manual)....I
ran over the jumbled and uneven blocks of limestone that formed much of the
Lake Michigan shoreline as fast as I could, thinking THIS must be what they
do! Well, painted wings and giant's rings......... I never
did actually become one of the boys in green (well, olive drab,
actually......hm), though I was a Cub Scout (not at all the same thing) for
a couple of years and, in high school, was also heavily involved in the
Exploring program (not at all the same thing) for a couple of years.

As an adult, I've never exactly had a hard-on for the BSA, but there have
been and still are a few things that really bother me about the
organization. Having been in the rather schizophrenic (though not
necessarily always unpleasant) position of being active duty military and
involved in anti-war activities simultaneously, I eventually acquired a
strong distaste for saluting, marching, insignia, oaths, mottoes,
regimentation, orders, and all things martial....well, o.k., there was
kickboxing with all its attendant mystique and paraphernalia, but that was
recreational, right? I mean, as far as I know, nobody has ever side kicked
an entire village of women and children to death, o.k.? Anyway, there can
little doubt that the BSA has raised entire generations of cannoneers.....as
well as cannon fodder.

The Boy Scouts of America has throughout its history been both a politically
and socially conservative organization, thus reflecting the common
perception (if not the actuality) of the broader society within which it
exists. Now, there's nothing intrinsically and irredeemably wrong with
conservatism per se, but humankind has yet to invent a single political
viewpoint, religion, philosophy, societal structure or weltanschauung
sufficiently nutritious to maintain (let alone grow) neurons or synapses. A
large part of the problems faced by the Boy Scouts, as well as most other
entrenched institutions, is directly attributable to a sort of psychic
atherosclerosis or, to put it in the vernacular, brain dead conservatism.
Oh, and lest anyone should think I betray a slant toward one political party
or another, the meathead Democrats are as guilty of it as are the bonehead
Republicans.

The BSA, like all other social, political, religious, and economic
institutions are desperately in need of a memo stating clearly (and in small
words) what century we (or most of us, anyway) are now living in.

Former Boy Scouts, almost to a man, will testify (and do) that they are
better men for the experience. I beg leave to remind them of the advice
given to his son by John Andrew Holmes:

"It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling
exception, is composed of others."

Wolfgang

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

...no exaggeration here...

My, my, what an exquisite load of horse****.....one of the three or four
best I've seen in my years here. Um.....you DO know your brain is diseased,
right?

Wolfgang
just smile and nod and back away reeeeaaaalllll
sssslllllooooowwwww.......um.....where are those flak jackets?!!

I have "Selective Trout" by Doug Swisher and Carl Richards. Terrific
book. I attended a fly casting seminar by Swisher in Rochester, MN and
had him sign my copy. I have taught a few friends to flycast using the
short rod/long yarn strand method he showed us way back then. It still
works.
Sully

Kevin Vang wrote:

In article ,
says...


Anyone got a favorite book which explains tippets, knots, casting ideas,
etc?



When I was a 14 year old, give or take, myownself, I spent hours
and hours reading "Trout Fishing" by Joe Brooks. It's still
probably as good a primer on trout fishing as any. It's out of
print now, but I just checked Amazon and they have used editions
starting at $2.88. If that ain't a bargain, I've never seen one.

Kevin

On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 12:15:44 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:

In my case, I read the lovefest in a previous session, and, had I not
put a lock on it, I'd have had no clue what you were talking about as
any unlocked messages go away when I sign out of my reader.

Agent doesn't offer hierarchal threading of messages, as in OE or
Mozilla/Netscape?

Yes. Note my paragraph. When I exit my newsreader, all the already
read messages go away unless I want them to stay and put a lock on
them. I set it up that way on purpose.

Hierarchal threading means nothing when the messages have been
deleted. I read a whole bunch of newsgroups. I save comparatively
little, except here and rec.backcountry. If all my newsgroups saved
every message until my ISP scrolled them, I'd have way too much space
taken up by them. My ISP has minimum of about 14 days backup for
everything. Maybe much more. My sysadmin is a newsgeek.
--

rbc:vixen,Minnow Goddess,Willow Watcher,and all that sort of thing.
Often taunted by trout.
Only a fool would refuse to believe in luck. Only a damn fool would rely on it.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli

"Sully" wrote in message
...
I have "Selective Trout" by Doug Swisher and Carl Richards. Terrific
book. I attended a fly casting seminar by Swisher in Rochester, MN and
had him sign my copy. I have taught a few friends to flycast using the
short rod/long yarn strand method he showed us way back then. It still
works.
Sully

I ran across the book at the library yesterday. This could get really
expensive, really fast, and I don't even own a fly fishing pole/reel yet.
:-)

"slenon" wrote in message
om...
Doug Kanter:
much snippage
For the doubters, here's a bit about our scouting adventures. There is no
exaggeration here.
more snippage

OK, you've got a kid who at least equals the statistical norm, possibly
exceeds it, and you've managed to teach him some outdoor skills. Well
done.

Hey....I'm not saying he's a genius, although at age 14, it's hard to tell,
what with the frequent blank stares I see on his face when he can't find his
shoes. But, our knowledge is directly proportional to what we're exposed to,
right? Perhaps the BSA should set up two distinctly different programs. One,
for kids whose existence has been dominated by 98% electronic pastimes, and
another for kids who know the difference between a spider and a tomato
plant.

"Wolfgang" wrote in message
...

"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

...no exaggeration here...

My, my, what an exquisite load of horse****.....one of the three or four
best I've seen in my years here. Um.....you DO know your brain is
diseased,
right?

You think it's exaggeration, eh? What do you base that belief on, Wolfgang?