so my first go round in a drake swap. fun times. lessons learned, deadlines are flexible. notes. if you get a shit ton of bullshit spring snow, tie em anyway. when you get em, take a picture cuz there's some really nice stuff in there.

[img]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad123/chadroc/may%203%202018/030EFE87-D85F-4BE5-A0AE-2C518018364B_zpsexbtij26.png[/img]so how does this shit work? we all go on our merry way and fish the flies? i've really enjoyed this swap and gotten to know a couple of you fellas pretty decent over the text messaging. i get it i get it. check my shit out on the gram. hit a like. its so easy. yawn. on so much gram.
aw man, this place is dead. but dead as it is, good deal to get shit better then bills in the mail. for a dead place, i get a bunch of shit in the mail and i like that. i try to send back.
get more out what you put in, try to be square. i got a bunch of flies on friday, perfect timing for a big bangin holiday weekend......so.......
friday afternoon i was supposed to mow the lawn or some shit when the mail call came through. i dumped them all out on the kitchen table and poked them around.
my daughter says: what flies you got daddy?
i got em from a fly swap. a bunch of guys all make em and we send em in the mail to each other.
ooooooohhhhhh. like valentines. i like a fly swamp. then my wife and kids went and did something.
then i looked around to see if anyone was looking but they were gone. then i stuffed the flies in a big ziplock bag. the bag was as well organized as my bass fly box. i left at once to hit a quick hit to a bass pond. it was a fine afternoon. when the wife asked "i couldn't get the lawnmower started". this was long past dark fall when she did so. fuck a lawn, hey.

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[img]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad123/chadroc/may%202018%20smalljaw%20shit/P5251157_zpsumju3w3x.jpg[/img]i clipped off whatever bullshit fly was on there and reached in the bag with my eyes closed. i came up with LAFlyguy's beautiful work. good enough.

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[img]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad123/chadroc/may%202018%20smalljaw%20shit/P5251168_zpsqejmqjak.jpg[/img]obviously it worked until it was unceremoniously bitten off by a pickerel. is there a refund policy? FNG, right? what a loser.

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[img]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad123/chadroc/may%202018%20smalljaw%20shit/P5251178_zpspwnmrken.jpg[/img]high and dirty thanks to this midget hooker. where the fuck is the 22. all yesterday's spring snow, all your flies, all new cover.

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[img]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad123/chadroc/may%202018%20smalljaw%20shit/P5251193_zpshurw42pr.jpg[/img]so yeah, fucking pickerel. reach back in the ziplock bag and grab a notner one. this time don;'t use 3x, use 12# maxima that came out of the ice gear. they line shy? well, you won't be delicately presenting nymphs to spooky rooting carp will ye? nah.
this fly is still tied to my 12# maxima as i type. but it ain't got no eyes left. no idea who spun this, but it worked like sixty up here. did a nice lap around the front pond.

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[img]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad123/chadroc/may%202018%20smalljaw%20shit/P5251222_zpskdgyr5kc.jpg[/img]went home, ate some food, had some drinks, reorganized my bass box. better.

[img]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad123/chadroc/may%202018%20smalljaw%20shit/P5251162_zpsmzs4m7lo.jpg[/img]my town does a nice job for memorial day. saturday i had to be jamming at our towns celebration. i volunteer for the little league and i'm a popular item at the dunk tank. i had to be done by 3pm to pick up my rug rats and head to the town fishing derby. my son has won this thing for four straight years. i been working on him as we fish to: set hooks, cast fly lines, keep rod tips high, and understand that this year in the derby he's up with the six to ten year olds, so the competition goes up.
you might not win, but you'll have fun. i told him.
we could try.....bait fishn daddy. like. you know. with a nother fish? and a bobber?
fer shure.
i knew that no matter what we'd be going fishing and catch some fish in the reasonably lame farm pond offered up for the festivities. he likes to fish, and he's proficient. he wins this damn thing every year and all i'm doing is baiting hooks. his advantage over the other kids is simple. a dad that takes him fishing, and a set of functioning zebco 33 classics i've obtained in the cabelas bargain cave. its a bullet proof push button that casts a mile and rarely fouls. when we're fishing the baits in the water. you got 2 rods rigged for live bait for him and her, and his big rod with a robo swimmer. they are cool baits.

[img]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad123/chadroc/may%202018%20smalljaw%20shit/7323FEE6-0F3E-41BC-94ED-E3272B546C1F_zpsdnesoegp.jpg[/img]on the way out the door at like 630 or some shit to do the little league crap, told the ace: i've fished that damn thing for thirty plus years and i never won it.
you never try, she said. your always baiting hooks and pointing out poison ivy and removing hooks from the kids clothes and stomping around in the mud netting fish. you bring like six poles. use one of them.
you know what. you're right. since we've had the kids i haven't really tried. you see, they got these carp in that pond........i mean, back in the day i sure as shit tried........but those carp in that pond.
she faded towards the coffee. i packed a shit load of the kids conventional gear for the fishing derby and went to volunteer at the little league thing. it was ninety three beautiful degrees.

[img]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad123/chadroc/may%2026%202018%20willington%20day%20n%20derby/4da900ec-db81-4a28-93d2-486266a1de5f_zpskw358m9m.jpg[/img]
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[img]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad123/chadroc/may%202018%20smalljaw%20shit/P5261495_zpshhfpxfbd.jpg[/img]i got the shit dunked out of myself. we ended up placed third in the frog jumping competition we were up against some tough competition and of our pet frogs, woody has the best legs.

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[img]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad123/chadroc/may%2026%202018%20willington%20day%20n%20derby/P5261389_zpsuuvdlus0.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad123/chadroc/may%2026%202018%20willington%20day%20n%20derby/P5261420_zps42ain1hd.jpg[/img]i got two surplus bottles of that hot sauce from my neck of the woods and three bonus flies each to go with em for whichever of you fly swampers wants to trade some shit in the mail.
get more out what you put in.