Saltydog asked me to put this up...

[schoolie monster]

Nice looking fly... herring?

I'm determined to break out the flyrod some more this year. I did get my first stripers on the fly last year and I picked up some new flies over the winter. However, I ran into a problem last year when flycasting.

In college, I studied martial arts and over the years I've kept up practicing some... and over the years I've sustained 3 "boxer's" fractures in my right hand. I have a big calcium deposit in there and after several minutes of flycasting, my hand cramped up badly. I mean, bad enough that I had to stop.

I think I need to concentrate on loosening my grip a bit, but ultimately, I'd bet I may have to teach myself to cast left handed... which might not be bad 'cause I might be more apt to use & develop better technique... you know how you develop bad habits when you've done something for awhile.

In any event, I might even take a class one of these years and try to go southpaw.