A Bow and A Book

It has been a bit over a week since my last post but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy.  I have been working on a new piece for a client but since it is a gift and the recipient of said work might happen upon my blog and recognise the picture, I have decided to whip up a small rainbow trout painting instead.

This watercolor is not very big (6"x9") and was done quickly, just dropping in color where needed and adding a few spots to finish it off.  I do a number of these small studies while I am on the road so I can experiment with thee color and flow of the water and see how the pigments react to the paper.  All these small little paintings - although they lack the quality and refinement of my larger paintings - allow me valuable practice and study.  They also give me material to post.

On the fishing front, I took the kids fishing the other day with my trusty Tenkara rod, to fish for blue gill) and a rigged up 6w for those lunker bass that have been alluding me.  As you can see - no pictures of the outing.  Why, well three hours of dinking around two ponds close to home only yielded two smallish bluegill.  It was enough to excite the kids between tossing sticks and pine cones into the water but it wasn't enough for me to break out the camera. 

I was reallyhopping to put my newly gained knowledge from my recent read -Bassin' With A Fly Rod -by Jack Ellis but alas no bass decided to show.  The only knowledge I got to use was something Jack mentioned over and over in his book, and I paraphrase - A fly fisher only owns the top 5 feet of water when fishing for bass, any deeper and your in the spin and bait fishers back yard. 

By the way - if you are looking to do a bit of bassn' with a fly rod, pick this book up.  It might boarder on sacrilege to a few purists out there with the suggestion of using a rubber worm on a fly rod, but it is a great book with great tips.  When the water warms a bit and the weather evens out I hope to put a few of his ideas to work on my SC water.  I think I will skip the worm though and stick with rabbit strips and mouse tails.