I was fly fishing on the Provo River, at the Provo River Access, when a bunch of Pale Morning Dun emergers started appearing on the surface of the water. That caused a bunch of previously hidden trout to come to the surface and start sipping feverishly. It was one of those adrenaline inducing moments for a dry fly angler when you can see trout making little disturbances on the surface of the water. I caught three trout in about ten minutes, then they stopped.
I hooked this beautiful brown trout and managed to bring it in, but quickly discovered the juggling act of solo fishing photography. Without a net, trying to hold a decent sized slippery fish with one hand while operating an iPhone with the other is nearly impossible. The trout slipped from my grip back into the shallow water, giving me just enough time to capture this shot before bringing it back in to remove the hook then send it back home.
I was looking at one of my prized fly fishing rods that was purchased by my friend Kenny, at Angler’s Roost in New York City. When I lived in New York, the small fly fishing shop was in an office building at 141 E 44th St, just off of Lexington Ave. It was a one man shop owned and run by Jim Deren.
Angler’s Roost was one of those places where the merchandise was scattered all over the place, packed to the walls, in seemingly disarray. Jim Deren probably knew where everything was. I always thought that if you moved something a foot away, he’d never be able to find it.
Photograph of Jim Deren at Angers Roost by picketpin52
Once I asked him about a fluorescent orange fly line I’d read about and I received a very stem lecture about the trout’s color vision and colors in nature.
Last July, I was fly fishing the Silver Creek, “A unique spring creek with abundant wildlife… one of the most spectacular natural places in Idaho.” (1)
I took the photo below with my iPhone 13 Pro Max while I was fishing.
Silver Creek, taken with an iPhone 13 Pro Max
I’ve been trying out OpenAI and DALL-E, “a new AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language.” (2)
For the prompt, I took some text from the Nature Conservancy’s description and added some details, “A unique spring creek trout habitat, Silver Creek in the summer is one of the most spectacular natural places in Idaho.” This was one of the results:
March 21, 2023:Image Creator from Bing was released today and I used the same prompt that I used for DALL-E. I don’t know why Image Creator by Bing made this super-saturated unrealistic image:
The last time I went fishing was on the Beaverkill River, a river that I fished for 25 years. It was in the late fall and I was wearing my Korkers boots with Kling-On® Sticky Soles. They didn’t feel that sticky when I was slipping on didymo (Didymosphenia geminata). Not wanting to spring for new boots with studs, I bought a wading staff. I still slipped, but did not fall and felt old. I noted that I should get some studs for my boots in the future.
My next trip is to Silver Creek in Idaho. Instead of springing for the $50-$70 for new Korker soles, I decided to buy some screws and put them in the soles myself.
I searched a few sites and saw that some people were using Kold Kutter 8-18 X 3/8″ screws, so I bought 25 pieces on eBay (I didn’t need 250 of them).
I first tried drilling a pilot hole in the rubber with a 1/16” drill bit but then I found if I just used pressure to force the screw to start, they seemed to hold very securely. The sharp point of the screws protruded through the top of the soles so I ground them off with a Dremel cutting wheel.
I’ll have to get in the water to really see how they work.
Addendum, July 24, 2002
I just spent a week fishing in Idaho on the Silver Creek and Big Wood River. After a couple of days on the Big Wood, a freestone stream, I noticed that my left foot was slipping on the rocks on the bottom. When I checked the soles, nine of the twelve screws that I put in the left sole were missing. The right sole was missing five of the original twelve screws.
Big Wood River, below Lake Creek Trailhead, Ketchum, Idaho
It seems that because the Korkers boots have interchangeable soles, the threads on the screws didn’t have enough material to hold. I’ve seen some people suggest using some kind of adhesive on the threads, but given the torque that the screw would endure, I don’t think that it would help.
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