Tiger Trout T-Shirt Design

Grab the Tiger by the tail and hang on.  Very few people outside the trout fishing community even know about the Tiger Trout and even fewer have had the opportunity to fight one of these beauties.

  This design is a hexfishing original and is only available at my T-Shirt shop.
http://hexfishing.spreadshirt.com/tiger-trout-A18124566/customize/color/16
Click over and check this sweet shirt out and many more designs for the trout and bass fishermen in you.
Not available in any store or swanky Orvis boutique, this shirt is an original by yours truly and I bet you will be asked where you got it by any fisherman than sees you wearing it.
  Show your love of hunting rare and unique trout with this Tiger trout graphic.

Enough of the hard sell???  Buy it - don't buy it, I don't really care.  I just love designing creative fishing shirts mostly for me and honestly make little if any profit off the few that I do sell.  Just like my fishing my flies, I just love designing and wearing them.

Pumpkin Seed Sunfish

  Not much to say other than I love these little sunfish.  Their colors always bring a smile even when
I'm frustrated that they took my fly before the monster bass.
  The river species of these beauties, even if rather small, are as brightly colored as any I have ever come across.

Pumpkinseed Sunfish
-  Pencil on Toned Paper
- 8in x 8in.
-Email of Facebook P.M. for purchasing cheap.

Sketching Birds

Blue Jay - 5x5in - ink, pencil, on toned paper.

    Sketching birds is not one of my usual pursuits but when one ties flies with their feathers it is hard not to occasionally pass the time finding beauty in their color.  Last week it looked like a few Blue Jays got into a fight in my front yard so being the fly tier I am, I took the tail feathers as future tools of the trade.  They also serve as a good inspiration for a sketch.

   I also enjoy watching the great Blue Heron troll the waters of my mountain streams.  They are ultimate masters in finding fish and a stocked stream I frequent is a perfect place for a few of these majestic birds to set up shop.  I will tell you that having one of these massive birds dive bomb you in the middle of a back cast is not an event you will appreciate.  In fact it scares the junk out of you if you are unlucky enough not to see it coming.

Finding Nature While Fishing In SC

Yesterday I took my Tenkara rod up to the foothills for a little trout chasing and found more than I was looking for.
  I enjoy all types of fishing as most of you know, whether it is fly fishing, spin fishing, and if the situation calls for it - even bait fishing, but as a rule I tend to enjoy casting a fly more than all the others.  Tenkara fishing is just another way for me to be connected to the fly in a more direct way and for fishing small streams it is, in my opinion, the best tool in the box to catch fish.  It allows ease of travel, with simplicity and a direct contact with the fly that a traditional fly rod and reel rarely can duplicate.

  So when I headed to the hills to search for trout, I was expecting to catch a number of browns - due to water temp - and maybe if I was lucky, a rainbow or two.  What I was not expecting was to get a hat trick of species completely disconnected from each other.
  Just after sunrise I hooked into a number of browns that eagerly took a Killer Bug made from my wife's knitting yarn but after the heat began to hit the water I hooked into a few sunfish and even an eager river bass that had some stunningly sharp coloring.

  The Sunfish however was the winner of the day for color.  As many of you can attest, a river/stream sunfish is one of the most brilliantly colored fish in fresh water.  They are by no means a big fish or one you want to brag about but they are magnificently colored.  Pictures rarely do them justice but if you appreciate beauty in nature than you must give the little guy his due.

   Another added bonus I discovered was the amount of wildlife that joined me on the river.  Below are just a few examples of the other colors in nature that astound me.

This Marbled Orb Weaver - that is its real name, I looked it up - almost became real close friends when I came inches away from planting my face in its web.  Only his bright coloring made me check my steps and for that I am thankful.

Countless butterflies refused to sit still for a photo but this guy - probably near the end of his life - cooperated.

By far one of the largest caterpillars I have ever seen.  I haven't looked it up yet but would love to hear your thoughts on what it would be.  I was thinking a Luna Moth but that is only because it is so big.  Any Ideas?

  Overall it was a good morning and as the heat took hold around noon, I packed up and headed home.  I love nature and all it has to offer.  Getting out to fish is only part of the experience and if you don't take advantage of all the beauty that surrounds your time in the woods than you are doing yourself a real disservice.