Ho Ho Ho!

     While I have to admit that the fishing schedule has been rather "bah humbug", and that due to family commitments I have been reduced to dressing up our Santa for my fishing fix, let me just take a moment to wish you a Merry Christmas and a generally Happy Holiday season!  As it always does, this past year was filled with both happiness and losses, and I surely hope you were on the plus side of life's equation.  Of the 525,600 minutes that will have passed in 2012, I hope the invention of this blog gave you humor or education in ten or twelve of them.  Life can be awfully brutual and demanding, and so if you happened to have joined me for a few minutes of shirking other pressing needs, well, I am happy to have you.

     It occurred to me the other night when I was doing some tying that it has now been about three weeks since my last decent fishing slot.  I did the math when I was foraging the carpet underneath my tying desk, which now surely carries more fly tying material than Gander Mountain.  When I need a 1/16 bead for a #20, my rug is usually the best source for that procurement.  Vacuuming under the desk is typically a costly procedure and discouraged under penalty of "hey, I was using that!". 

     January is right around the corner.  That's the month where everything slows down and all of a sudden there is nothing to do.  No more "baby, it's cold outside" nostalgia, but rather it's "I've had enough of this $h!t".  That's ok with me, actually.  When all the rush has passed, that's the time where the devout angler can slowly work his or her way back to the river, without hampering the family schedule.  Nothing is worse than negotiating those hard December hours to break away- then you finally do, only to feel like a total ass and get skunked by the 36-degree water. 

     But I mean, come on, how many pheasant tails can you sit there and tie in December?  I'm currently out of beads, and out of #16 Tiemcos.  Neither my desk, nor my carpet has the inventory left. 

     There I go Bah Humbuging again.  Merry Christmas, and let's see if we can get out there on New Year's Eve for one last dip in 2012.