Have you ever heard the saying “even a blind hog can find acorns once in a while?” That sort of describes much of my morning as I poked about the corners of the internet, although I take umbrage at comparisons involving me and the porcine aspects plus, my new glasses are a notable improvement over my prior prescription.
The web site of Hatch Magazine has an interesting article on Fly rods for beginner and intermediate anglers. On a good day I qualify as an “intermediate” so I was curious to see what the article claimed. For one thing, it recommends avoiding “fast action” rods unless you really know what you’re doing. That had me trying to remember if any of my graphite rods are classified as fast. Of course, I don’t remember but I was delighted to read, further on, regarding fast action rods, that:
Rather than moth-balling those rods, the folks who own them should try going up a line size with their fly line. A couple of my favorite 5 weights are actually fast action 4 weights that I fish with a one-size-heavier line. It won’t work for every rod — some models are truly beyond redemption — but utilizing a heavier line can indeed help certain fast action rods perform far better on the water.
Years ago I picked up the practice of going a line weight heavier for several of my rods for entirely separate reasons. It’s encouraging to find one of your practices validated for more reasons than the one(s) that started it. I was interested in getting a decent but short cast with my trout rods since most of the rivers I fish aren’t very large. Maybe we’re talking about similar results using different words but I can confirm that the combination of a 4 weigh rod and a 5 weight line often works well for me. Now, if only I could find a better way to label the weights of my lines so I can keep track more easily as I swap reels from rod to rod.
Over the weekend, more and more dismal news stories started me wondering [again] how we ended up where we are after the “Woodstock Generation.” I searched online to see if anyone thought they had an answer to that question. Did everyone sell out? One interesting article from a few years ago, What Happened to the Woodstock Generation?, concludes:
Because although we have new issues and causes to fight for: global warming, starvation and poverty around the world, wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, so many others, “the “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the West, getting universal health care in America (my own personal cause celebre)… we must “still keep up the fight.” Not give up “hope.” Not fall prey to the current diatribes of our political and religious leaders.
Woodstock lives! That’s what I say! Social justice. Peace, love, sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll forever!
What about you?
In the late sixties Sonny and Cher had a hit song titled The Beat Goes On. With only a slight modification, we have an answer to the question of what happened to the Woodstock, and every other, generation. It’s called evolution and aging, on and on, unless we make our home planet uninhabitable.
Woodstock
by Joni Mitchell
I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him where are you going
And this he told me
I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm *
I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm going to try an' get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it's the time of man
I don't know who I am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
back to the garden
********************************************
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Please be kind to each other while you can.
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