Farm gates

Farm gates tell there own story. We just need to decipher them, must be a Roseta stone somewhere which will unravel their ancient secrets?

How many seasons have they seen come and go, freezing winter, scorching summers.

sunset over the farm gate.

Night adder

Earlier on today, our deputy principal at school, got a frantic call from his daughter at home. There was a snake in the house. He rushed home, he lives quite close to the school, and found a small night adder in the passage. He scooped it up in an empty mayonaise bottle and brought it back to school with him. The adder was only about 8 inches long with beautiful makings. As he did not want to release it near the school he brought it to me and asked me to release on the farm.

Night adder (Causus-rhombeatus).


There are five different types of night adder that occur in sub-Saharan Africa. They don't grow very big, 60cm being average, up to about 90cm. Night adders are not very venomous and live mainly on frogs and toads. In spite of their name are quite active during the day. It was strange to come across one so early in the season, I would not have expected snakes to be active before September, looks like summer might be here sooner than we think.


I released the snake on the edge of the property. It took a few moments for realization to sink in that it was free, lifted it's head and flicked it's tongue out and took stock of the situation. Unerringly it made it's way to a jumble of sticks and dry grass a few meters away.


Looking at it glide through the dry grass I marvelled at it's perfect design, the grace with which it moved and disappeared.

Late Winter bass.

Walked down to the bottom dam on the farm to do some bass fishing. Spinning rod and soft plastic worm. Very slow retrieve in winter, often leaving the lure lying still for long periods.

This bass above took the worm on my first cast, in deep water.

After about 30 minutes of no action I moved to a shallower part of the dam, and my next cast produce this nice fish. Lean and hungry after their prolonged winter fast. My next cast produced another fish slightly bigger than the one above. Before I could get it to pose for a photo it shook the hook lose and flip, flopped down the bank and into the water.

As the days get longer and temperatures increase, bass will become more active and feed to prepare for spawning that takes place here end of October through November.

Fly tying.

The pleasures and challenges of fly tying 2.

The first thing you need to start tying flies is a fly tying vice. For centuries though, fly tiers used to hold the hook between the thumb and index finger of the left hand, for right handed tiers, and thumb and index finger of the right hand for left handers.  Just try doing it ,I have, all I can say is impossible, yet past fly tiers thought nothing of it. Below is an illustration of tying a fly by holding between the thumb and index finger.

Colour plate from "Rod Fishing in Clear Waters." (London 1860) This book gives detailed description of how to tie a fly while holding the hook between your thumb and forefinger.


Charles Cottons decription of tying a fly by hand is give in his contribution to Izaak Waltons The Compleat Angler, "Being Directions how to Angle for Trout and Grayling in a Clear Stream" Written in 1674, and published with Walton's revised The Compleat Angler 5th edition, in 1676. p308.

Pisc. This will not be long in doing: and pray observe then. You see how first I hold my hook, and thus I begin. Look you, here are my first two or three whips about the bare hook: thus I join the hook and the line; thus I put on my wings; thus I twirl and lap on my dubbing; thus I work it up to the head; thus I part my wings; thus I nip my superflous dubbing from my silk: thus fasten; thus trim and adjust my fly; and there's my fly made; and now how do you like it?  

Cotton certainly made it seem easy.

James Ogden , writing in 1879, comments that in the 1850’s tying vice were scarce but by 1879 were becoming quite common. The illustration below is of James Ogden’s improved fly vice.

Frederic M Halford in his book “Floating Flies and How to Dress Them,” published in 1886, recommended the use of a fly tying vice. I haven’t been able to find an illustration of the Halford tying vice.

The vice I use now is the first one I bought about six years ago, cheap, very cheap, but it works. The vice holds up to size 20 hooks with ease, and for large sizes up to about a size 6. Comes in a neat wooden case and is very portable.

Pages in the background are from Izaak Walton's "The Compleat Angler" 5th, edition, 1676, reprinted 1897.

The vice below is the vice I use for tying large flies.  It looks impressive but not a very good vice.

(Cat the cat can be seen sitting under the table)


The vice below is more of an ornament, paperweight on some executives desk to remind him what his missing by chasing filthy lucre!

It has a minute whip finishers, scisors, bobbin and hair stacker. The hair stacker is actually very useful.

My dream vice is the J Vice, handmade in South Africa. www.jvice.com. As you can see, impressive, and as prices go for a work of art, not bad. Click on the link, really worth a look. Hope Santa Claus reads this post.

Sources:


Ogden's improved fly tying vice; Wikipedia


Colour plate on hand tying flies: Wikipedia


Jvivce; www.jvice.com

Tranquility

Click on photos to enlarge.

Reflections of a winter willow on tranquil waters.

In two or three weeks time bass will be rising all over this pond at this time of the evening, and I'll be there casting a fly.

Knives’.

Click on photos to enlarge.

A well crafted knife is a thing of beauty, a piece of art. The knife above was made by Leroy Gericke of Estcourt. Leroy engraved the blade for me with "Piscatorial dementia," fishing madness.

Several days ago Gorges of Gorges Grouse Blog, posted a piece about knives,(A Country tradition), http://gorges-smythe.blogspot.com/2011/08/country-tradition.html,  the usefulness of knives and the memories they kindled in him. As with all Gorges post, well written and a pleasure to read.

After reading his post I commented that as I boy I also took a pocket knife to school, so did all the other boys. At school we compared knives, discussed the merits of different knives, as only expert school boys can. We all had theories as to which was the best knife, but most of us agreed that a Joseph Rodgers, knife was the best. We thought of our knives as tools, you were lost without your knife. Any way what would your mates think if you didn’t have a knife.

Today if a boy dared bring a knife to school he would be in big trouble. As in call the police trouble! Our school, indeed the Dept. Of Education, has strict rules regarding knifes at school. Today knives are seen as weapons not tools.

Things have changed, violence, and the use of knives in this violence has become an everyday occurrence in our schools. Two or three years ago, a high school pupil in a school near Johannesburg, brought his father’s Samurai sword to school, and decapitated a fellow pupil. How come things have changed so drastically? Fifty years ago you could trust boys with knives at school and today you can’t. Why?

I have my own theory as to why, some might agree, some might not. The whole foundation, Christian Morality, on which Western Civilization was built has been removed, or at least severely undermined. How many children in the West are still taught the Ten Commandments, with “Thou shalt not kill," being one of them. Not only taught them but taught that they were given by the ultimate lawgiver!  Instead of the Ten Commandments at school we teach them so called, Life Skills, be nice to one another.

Life is not sacred any more, children are taught at school that humans are no more than highly evolved animals, life happened on earth by chance, it is not a gift we have received from God.(I'm a teacher and that's what we have to teach them, "The Theory of Evolution," only a theory but taught as unimpeachable fact!) I tell the learners straight, "it's a load of BS."

We have replaced the Commandments with the NIKE slogan “Just do it.” One of the popular soft drinks in South Africa has the slogan, “Break the rules.”  When the rules are broken everyone is amazed.

So now we spend our time treating the symptoms. We think that passing laws against the carrying of knives and guns will prevent people killing each other. When Cain killed Abel he most likely used a rock to bash his brother’s head in. Maybe governments will pass laws against rocks next.

I own several knives, how can you go fishing without a knife, how do you get through a day without a knife? Below is  photos of two of them.  The top one is a pocket knife I use almost every day, especially when I go fishing. I don't take it to school, against the rules even for teachers. The bottom one is a sheath knife made by a friend of mine, here in town, to my specifications. Perfect for cutting biltong (jerky).

I have had the brass loop added to the handles of all my knives so that I can attached with a lanyard to my belt or my fishing vest. That way I don't leave them lying on the bank of some stream or lake after using them.

handle of this knife made from one of the antelope species, bone.

Fly tying.

The pleasures and challenges of fly tying.

When I started fly fishing about seven years ago, I bought all my flies, large, clunky things.  Back then I really thought bigger was better, bigger flies, bigger fish. As I was mainly fly fishing for large mouth black bass, it seemed to work. (If a bass ever went to a MacDonald’s, fast food restaurant, he would order a double Big Mac with everything).

Then I started reading about fly tying, to me it seemed that only the most gifted and artistically talented people could tie flies. Mere mortals like me could not even dream of tying anything like you saw illustrated in magazines and books on fly tying.

The “experts” were tying tiny flies, size 16, 18 and just imagine even size 20’s. Size 16 seemed unimaginably small never mind size 20.  Today on the web I come across tier’s tying size 32.

Then I found, in a second hand book shop, John Veniard’s “Fly Dressers Guide.”  4^th edition printed 1977.  This book cost me a small fortune, but it was worth every penny. This book slowly started to reveal the secrets of fly tying to me, mastery of technique, and mastery of materials and very important, proportion.My first flies were big, size 8, 10 and 12 being the smallest, they looked like nothing on earth unravelled, sank like a stone when they were supposed to float, floated when they were supposed to sink. I never realized that there were hooks for dry flies, a different hook for nymphs, merger’s, you name it there was a special hook for it. To me a hook was a hook. I have a very large plastic container full of my first attempts at fly tying, no self respecting fish would give them a second glance.  One day I need to unravel them all as there is a small fortune in hooks involved.

Slowly I’m starting to get the hang of it, right hook for the right fly; I have even become reasonably proficient at dubbing, a skill I thought I would never master.

Above is a small selection of flies I tied recently, all size 14. One or two of them look as if they might just fool a fish.