Too Many Ways to Play

Seems like Summer has now become yet another season with too many possible activities competing for my scarce spare time. Hasn't helped that this Summer has been unprecedentedly (is that a word?) busy with work, family, and friends. So, as of now, my spare time could be filled with:

• Cycling - road and mountain bike
• Fly fishing - local warmwater rivers, trout streams up North, or poppers in local lakes for bass and panfish
• Shooting - sporting clays, handguns indoors, or rifles outdoors
• Canoeing
• Camping

Cross all these activities by weather conditions, work, and more and it ends up spread pretty thin. But that's OK, even if I'm not doing any one thing as much as I'd like it's sure cool to have all these possibilities. Lately mood seems to dictate activity selection, followed closely by weather. Going shooting on a 95 degree day seems far less fun than hitting the river with the canoe.

And people ask me if I golf. Now just when would I do that?

-Sean-

Simple Pleasures

Just spent a very fun weekend with friends on Lake Isabella, outside Mt. Pleasant. One of the highlights of the weekend for me was sitting on the front of the boat in the evening hooking an endless stream of bluegills.

As a kid, I spent many hours sitting on a dock someplace in Michigan chasing bluegills, sunfish, and rock bass. So this was a welcome return to childhood.

My 7 wt. Scott A3 with a Rio Clouser was a bit much for chucking tiny poppers, but I certainly didn't lack for distance casting! Took my a few minutes to find my groove. Meanwhile, my buddy Brian's already had three on with crawlers. But once I figured it out, BAM, pretty much a fish on every third cast. The rhythym was very cool. Cast, let it settle, twitch, twitch, strip, twitch, twitch. Somewhere during the twitch sequence was where I hit most of them.

An incredibly pleasant way to pass an evening. Best of all -- a cooler full of cold beer at my elbow!

-Sean-

Ski Tuning

Have started working on the marketing for one of my fave ski shops Sun & Snow Sports. The showed this video clip at this year's Warren Miller Ann Arbor movie. As a guy who tuned a boatload of skis by hand for himself and customers for years, I doubt I'd ever tune my own after watching this. Wow!

Gear

Spent some time re-organizing fishing gear last night. Despite an excellent organizing system, GEEZ there's a lot of stuff in my basement! I suppose that's because I don't confine my pursuit of fish to any one species, so you need a multitude of tools. And, since steelhead are my passion, that brings in another wealth of specialized gear.

I use one main bag for the gear for the current season. In the Fall I load it up for steelhead, and around the Trout Opener I swap everything over to trout and warmwater pursuit. The off-season gear goes into a dedicated plastic container. Last night in the steelhead bin I noticed 2 Ross Momentums, 1 Orvis Battenkill V (with spare spool, lined up), a Raven Matrix centerpin, 3 boxes of flies, 2 wallets of sink tips, 4 spools of centerpin line, and more. And that's just the hardware, doesn't even touch on the 87 layers needed to wade when it's 20 degrees outside.

Originally the off-season box was much smaller, but it seems to have grown, too. Once upon a time it was just a box of dry flies and my trusty Scott A2 6-wt. with Ross CLA 3. Then streamers were added, and a 7 wt. A3, with Ross Evolution LT and three spools (sink tip, intermediate, and floating lines) joined the quiver, along with a 4-wt. A3 with Ross CLA 1.5 for dries.

Funny thing is, I use all this stuff. If something's not useful, it gets sold. I can point to every piece of gear and tell you why I have it. And, fortunately, I've been able to find deals and used equipment in many cases, so the investment is greatly reduced. But man, what a bunch of stuff!

-Sean-

First Impressions: Old Town Penobscot Canoe

Got the new canoe out for the first trip on the Huron River yesterday afternoon. It's an Old Town Penobscot 16RX that I picked up lightly used on Craigslist. Although I'd considered several similar canoes from other manufacturers the Penobscot won out for two reasons. The first was weight - at only 58 pounds, the Penobscot was dramatically lighter than the 75-80 pound alternatives I was considering. I plan to paddle this both solo and tandem and wanted a boat I could easily get on my roof alone. Second, I was looking for a manueverable, responsive river boat. I have no delusions of a week-long camping trip in the Boundary Waters. I want to take 1-2 people, and some modest gear and still retain great turning performance. Modest rocker and a narrower profile were key.

The new boat delivers all of this in spades. The light weight made it super-easy to get on and off the roof racks. This also makes shuffling the boat and gear from truck to river simpler, too.

Best of all was the Penobscot's performance in the water. "Zippy" would be the best word I could use to describe it. The boat turns readily with minimal input. And just a moderate current had us moving at a nice pace. Despite this manueverability, the Penobscot tracks arrow-straight very easily. I've learned this lesson the hard way. My first kayak was a Necky that was super-responsive. Unfortunately that made it so twitchy I couldn't paddle a straight line to save my life! Even when paddling solo from the stern, a modest J-stroke kept things right on track.

My only compliant with this boat is completely silly -- no cupholders. Would be nice to be able to have a beer without having to balance it between your feet! I'm sure I'll find an aftermarket unit that mounts conveniently.

So, if you're considering a canoe and have needs like mine, I highly recommend the Old Town Penobscot 16RX.

-Sean-

Fit is It

A recent article in Bicycling magazine on the effects of bad fit on your body with road bikes set me to thinking. For the past two seasons I've ridden less on my road bike than in the past. Upon reflection, I realize that the sore neck and shoulders and numb toes are most likely a result of poor fit on my ride.

Stopped by my local shop, Great Lakes Cycling & Fitness, and talked to owner Oscar. Sure enough the do custom fitting by appointment, so I set on up. The fit process was pretty fascinating - in addition to a wide range of all sorts of body measurements, Oscar puts you on the bike on a trainer and watches your riding style. Based on measurements, observations, and a bit of help from computer-based fit sofware, he starts making adjustments.

Two items were immediately apparent. First, my Look stem was a good bit too long. Second my Serfas RX saddle belonged on Grandpa's upright cruiser, not my performance-oriented road bike. Funny thing is that I'd wondered if this saddle was part of my problem - being overly wide and overly padded. A shorter Giant stem and a new Selle Royal saddle were the first times.

Then the tweaking began. Surprisingly, the tweaks were all relatively small, but there were quite a few. It started with raising the seat height, sliding it back, and adjusting the angles. Then, after discussing my flexibility, or lack of it, the handlebars were rotated upward. The effect of all this was to shift my riding position rearward to more evenly distribute the weight load between handlebars and saddle. Previously I'd been riding with much of my weight supported on my wrists, causing neck and shoulder pain.

Finally he addressed the position of my cleats. This is both to provide proper alignment and efficiency, and to deal with the toe numbness I've been experiencing.

It's interesting I'd never considered having a pro do a fitting. Especially since discovering the HUGE benefits of a custom fitting for my ski boots (thanks to Rob @ Sun & Snow Sports for that!) last year. Watching Oscar work made me realize how little I knew about getting a bike to fit me well.

Are we done? No, not quite. I'm swapping the new saddle for one with an anatomical cutout. And there's still a bit of toe numbness lingering. But a few more adjustments today and we should be further along. Hoping to sneak in a ride tonight to see!

-Sean-

Thoughts of seasons to come...

Even though it's clearly Summer in Michigan, for a steelheader that means Fall can't be far off. Get your fix like I did with the excellent video from Capt. Jon Ray. Looking forward to getting crushed on the swing! Eager to learn to better use my spey rod in a few weeks at the Schultz Outfitters Spey School. There will be chrome in the Northern Michigan rivers before we know it!