To Bighorn

Very sad and unbelievable news from Japan......
Massisve earthquake hit one of major cities in northern Japan. 300 people got killed. Quake spread entire northern half of main island including my hometown. My family and hometown are usually disaster free but I get in touch with them before I hit the road tomorrow.
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Tomorrow, 12th, I will be off to Bighorn over a week. It's a guide training school hosted by Sweetwater Travel Company. I'm not worried about catching fish but am highly motivated to kick off a brandnew season as a guide (hopefully!)

Especially in Bighorn at this time of the year, we might see some dry-fly actions with midges but we most likely using scuds. I've already got my own killer pattern, Royal Ray Charles.

My personal little objective is the new indicator. In that sense, fishing with scud will be a good time to experiment. I've been using Thingamabobber for the last couple of years and it's been working really well. But only one problem I face is that my leader gets kinked due to how it's applied on. See the photo below. To make a contrast, I took a pic with white bobber and black thread. It may not a big deal if one owns a "nymph only rig" or one being a strict "nympher". Yet even that kind of angler has to check the level of kink and wear of the leader. And would end up changing a butt section and whole leader/tippet more than often.

For this coming season, I decided to experiment with Fish Pimp Indicator. It's made by foam but it feels much stronger than any predecessors. Combination of foam and rubber tube makes this indicator easy and fast to attach like Thingamabobber. Furthermore, with this Fish Pimp, one can choose a temporal/quick indicator rig or a permanent nymph rig to fish all day all in one quick decision and movement. I bought large ones and small ones. Large ones are obviously used for extreme nymph fishing, say, in Madison. Small ones will be useful when I have to nymph-fish with my little 4-wt and would serve as a micro indicator when casting tiny dry-flies in a distance and sight-nymphing.

As a soon-to-be professional guide, I will do my best so I can talk about any gears other than just catching fish.

I just heard there's wireless internet (tower, signal, whatever I don't know!!) available in a rusty town of Fort Smith!!?? I'll bring my laptop. But no Verizon coverage........that's funny......

Probably I'll be a bit too tired to do on-the-road posts every evening but I would try.