The Winder..... the only knot tyer you will never need.

This is The Winder. You may have one. It you do, you probably have realized by now that you have just spent 20 something dollars on a product you most likely don't really need, and if you are like me, wont use. It is a neat gadget though.

If you have of these, you don't need a Winder.

And if you also have a pair of these, you really don't need a winder.

So, about 6 months ago I had a Amazon gift card for 25 bucks. I was perusing the fishing stuff and stumbled across this sci-fi looking devise called The Winder. "Perfect Knots Every Time!" It said. Wow, that thing looks sweet! Visions of magical knot tying wonderfullness filled my head. Stick some line in one end, twist this, pull this, unscrew this.... BANG! A Perfect knot! I had to see for myself, so I forked over the $23.95 plus shippings worth of someone else's money and waited for my new gadget to arrive and make life worth living.

One afternoon I heard the UPS truck out front and ran like a giddy little school to get my new toy. I tore the package open, and spent the next 10 minutes taking it apart, putting it back together and rattling it back and forth. I have to say it is a pretty entertaining little devise.

The first thing that bothered me was a lack of printed instructions. It did come with an annoyingly slow DVD instructional video. After watching the video I realized that the Winder was not a magic, after all. Bummer.

The Winder allows you to tie all the knots you most lilely already know but in a way that seems more complicated. It does have a handy feature that allows you to hold loops, tag ends, and hooks if needed, and makes wrapping knots like the Albright and Nail knot easier by being able to spin the body of the tool in your hand. The Widner also does help keep the excess tag ends to a minimum. But these knots are just as easy to tie with the help of a Fast Knot Tier (above), the end of a pair of hemostats, or even a nail.

In the end, I would say that if you fly fish, and know how to tie these knots and have a tool that helps you with the hard ones, you don't need a Winder. If you are new to knot tying, or have vision problems or problems holding line and tying knots in general this tool would help you. It does tie knots, and pretty well too, but I hope that people dont come to dependent on help for tying all their knots. There are only a couple knots that, in my opinion, are a pain in the ass enough to require a tool. And that tool shouldn't cost over 10 dollars and leave you stranded if you lose it.

Patagonia lake and fish that never see flies

I packed up my Jeep Monday and went to Patagonia lake for an overnighter just because I haven't been there in a few months. It is a lake that almost never sees fly fishermen so i figured I'd try my hand at throwing flies at these unsuspecting fish. My rig was a wooley bugger as an attractor fly with a green bead head hairs ear nymph behind it.

All the big bluegill came off of the bugger and most of them were on the nymph. And then I felt a tug that felt out of the ordinary, it was a good fight and swore it must be a bass until I got it into my net and saw it was a catfish hanging from my nymph. Weird, I thought and cast out again only to catch another one. I caught a bunch more bluegill and ended the trip by snagging a bass in the ass. it was a weird trip, but as they all are, a good one.
Aaron

South Platte River - face farts, ding dongs, wader beer and lots of garlic

We spent 4 days visiting Kyle at the YMCA ranch he works at in Deckers, Colorado. What an awesome place, not to mention that it was a 2 minute drive to the South Platte river.

The trip up was pretty uneventful, however I was partying with Dry Creek Eric the night before and didn't get any sleep and luckily I did not forget anything when I packed at a drunken 3am. This is something I will probably not do again for a long time, at least until I forget how much it sucked. Sleep is NOT overrated. I may sleep when I am dead, but I will also sleep as much as I can get away with while I am alive, as well.

We stayed in one of the big camp cabins that is usually made to sleep 20 something kids, and I tell you, it was barely enough to house the 3 of us. Between gear, the fat guys, and the amount of gas that was released, it is amazing that we survived the first night, let alone the whole trip. Aaron developed a new crop-dusting which involves spinning around to release the flatulence from your pants for maximum efficiency. It was brutal. Brutal enough to make Kyle almost puke twice. Thank Christ that the cabin had 15 foot ceilings. The River was running a little high, about 450cfs (cubic feet/second) and this made it a little hard to fish.
We mostly were nymphing with caddis pupas, emergers, tricos, RS2s.... real small stuff. We caught a couple big Rainbows, and a few small browns.

The River was awesome though. Its real nice to get away from the lakes for a while. I think we will have to take a trip up to the Black River and look for some smallies.

Kyle fell in the river and was almost swept away, Aaron also fell into the river, but he was not in much danger, however he did end up with wet-butt, which is always funny. He was quickly picked up by a shot of Jagermiester and was back fishing again. “You know what I don’t get about trout? Let’s say that there is a huge Tyco hatch or something, little tiny things. You should still be able to throw a big old stone fly or caddis nymph or something and catch fish. It’s like if someone told me that steak was out of season, and all there is is hot dogs…. If I found a steak, I will still eat it.” - Aaron.