Monthly Archives: December 2010

Q&A with Rise Fishing’s Amanda Switzer

11 Replies

Fly GirlsI had a chance to talk with Amanda Switzer of FlyFisherGirl, Guide House: Montauk, and now Rise Fishing Company fame. That’s right, Ms. Switzer has started a rod company, and I ingratiated myself in the hope of scoring some schwag chatted with her about a life in fishing, and a future in helping others make the cast. Here we go…

1) We can read your bio over at the FlyFisherGirl website, but that doesn’t tell me exactly who Amanda is. Why don’t you do it instead?

I spent my summers in East Hampton, and I can remember fishing the docks from the age of ten. I would hassle everyone for information, and was soon hitting the beaches, then later party boats and offshore too. In my early 20′s I bumped into this landscaping guy who always had a fly rod in the back of his truck. More quizzing, and I was soon sight fishing for stripers from shore.

After that I went on a trip to Belize with my boyfriend, and while I figured I should get some time on deck seeing as I paid for my ticket, I wound up sitting in the boat the whole time. The guy was just too impatient to teach me. When we got back I dumped him, then taught myself.

What I always wanted to be is a trust-funder who could travel the world fishing, and creating art nobody would ever buy, but my husband conned me into starting a rod company instead.

Continue reading →

Captain Joshua Slocum by “Kindlelight”

6 Replies

Twas two nights after Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring…except the dog, who was pacing around in the dark while I read Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around The World on my new Kindle. For free I might add, and by candlelight (though not of my own choosing).

I’d hear later that a station caught fire in Aurora, and while Xcel was quick to re-route power they forgot one section of the neighborhood, my block. It always happens that way, but no matter. I keep a stock of hand-rolled beeswax candles around for just such occasions (they burn slow, really slow), so I read the first person account of a man circumnavigating the globe on a sailboat he built with his own two hands. I couldn’t have been more absorbed by the story if I’d read it from paperback, and my impression of the Kindle is such that I probably never will.

Bother with another paperback that is.

MG signing off (to flick the power switch)

A total lunar eclipse in a thousand words or less

10 Replies

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Unfortunately my camera sucks. Mountain Standard Time applicable in all circumstances.

11:25 PM – There is moisture high, and it casts a hazy ring around the subject. Concentric circles of light blue, moving to faded yellow, surround the sphere. Facing directly south, the moon seems to have been thumped lightly on its side at about 80 degrees east. And I stole all these words off a link from the Huffington Post, just so you know.

11:40 PM – The poor old moon has clearly suffered from NASA’s recent experiments, misdirected aim at finding water on the rock that they were. Its eastern face is now chiseled away, and the devastation continues by the moment. More horrific, everyone knows nobody could ever land on the moon, let alone harvest its resources. A friendly reminder of the farce hangs in my office.

11:55 PM – The scribe grows drowsy, despite a belly-full of Lucky Charms reserved for observational sustenance*. Its just a lunar eclipse – they happen all the time. Why stay up? Ok, maybe this one is kind of unique, seeing as it’s happening on winter solstice. But I’ll live another four hundred sum-odd years to see the next one, now that I’ve got “free” health care coming, right?

11:57 PM – The moon now reminds me of that flat tire I had while I was out on that date with, uh, what was her name? It was so damn long ago I can’t remember. Or maybe it looks more like that Percocet I took a bite out of before handing it to, uh, damn…what’s her name? Ah, I remember now! The moon looks like my nose, right after I asked her to, umm…uh…umm…I think I need a teleprompter.

12:10 AM – This is Hollywood work, plain and simple. When ever there is some type of natural looking phenomena at play, you can bet George Lucas has something to do with it. Industrial Light and Magic has been behind every visually esthetic caper of the past two decades. The moon is half gone, and I’ll bet Darth Vader just blew it up for fun. Or was it Kim Jung Il? It’s certain that staying up after midnight, with boatloads of work on the plate the week of Christmas, isn’t such a gag.

12:15 AM – Did I mention the moon is half gone? It’s kind of like the US dollar’s value. Compared to yesterday.

12:18 AM – More than half gone now, which means just one thing: your suffering is more than half over along with it.

12:20 AM – The part of the moon that Paul Krugman bit off in a fit of anger over Julius Genachowski’s proposal that the New York Times cancel his internet column has now taken on a bit of a reddish hue. Like I said, anger. Just goes to prove that the moon isn’t so bad after all.

12:33 AM – There is just a sliver of the moon left. It kind of reminds me of that sliver of pie that will be left for everyone else after I volunteer for dish duty right after Christmas dinner. We’re doing a bring-your-own-favorite-dish this year. I’m going super classy with beef franks, sliced American, and Hormel chili over enriched bun. I never understood what they meant by “enriched” though, other than the fact that chili dogs certainly enrich waistlines.

12:50 AM – The moon is completely gone – all that remains is this red orb. Frankly, I think it looks quite lovely. I’ll bet that if the moon could pull this off around Valentine’s Day everyone would get laid. Even me. On second thought, maybe that’s pushing it a little.

12:59 AM – Nothing to see here folks (like I said, my camera sucks), so please move along.

MG signing off (to copyright the term “observational sustenance”)

Adventures in Fly-Fishing Retail – The Two Part Season Finale

Leave a reply

Director’s note: The final two episodes of the 2010 season of Adventures in Fly-Fishing Retail are brought to you back to back, and without commercial interruption.

Episode 3

“It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you look while playing the game.” – Anonymous Lifetime Fly Angler

In or around the halfway point in life, many people panic. They wonder where the time went, question their state of being, and morph into deer-in-the-headlights. “How do I play the second half?” becomes the overwhelming question, then they move to Palm Beach, wreck a red Corvette, a subsequently become a Phish roadie.

For the devoted fly angler reaching the same period there is no decision – A River Runs Through It made that choice for them. They’ll drink fish even more than before, and hope that one of the young film bucks is passing by when they hook that trophy. They won’t have to write a novel to be memorialized on DVD. Easy, now all that remains is gearing up – after all, you don’t want to look bad for the camera.

Concerned about your appearance as you should be, I suggest stopping by Trout’s Fly Fishing. This establishment is at the forefront of fly-fishing fashion (hereinafter referred to as “FFF”, and not to be confused with the Federation of Fly-Fishers, which has since changed its acronym to “FOFF”). You singularly worry, looking like a top-shelf angler regardless of your skill set, will be quelled immediately.

Case-in-point: Fly shops have recently been reporting that women have shown a growing interest in fly tying, having seen increasing purchases of hackles from the demographic. At Trout’s appearance is Job #1, and the team saw this trend for what it really was – pretty hair. That’s right folks…much as flies can be dressed up with hackles of all varieties, salon workers are being sent out on scouting missions for their clients. Hanging grizzly from thy natural locks is the new in-thing, as model Rick Mikesell demonstrates…

The shop has a fresh shipment of Whiting Eurohackle in stock for fly anglers undergoing mid-life crises the extra fashion conscious.

Continue reading →

Adventures in Fly-Fishing Retail – Episode 2: Holiday Sparkle

7 Replies

It takes significant inspiration to rise early on a weekend morning and go fishing. The night before your outing you contemplate your target, and draw up a plan of attack. Choose the rod, spool up a line, and rummage through boxes to find the right flies. Last minute calls to compadres sew up meeting place and time. Anticipation of what’s ahead, and lingering questions, will keep you awake until the wee hours.

The conditions are perfect. Who will be the first to request a bathroom stop? Should I start the day with streamers? Will anyone give me gas money? I hope there are fresh Krispy Kremes at the Conoco.

Making your way to the fly shop on a weekend morning during the holiday season also requires physical and mental preparation. Unlike fishing trips, however, you need clean clothes (albeit they don’t need to be pressed). You’ll probably grab a shower, something you can also pass up when headed outdoors. Browsing through a few fly-fishing magazines, paying particular attention to the ads and destination chatter, doesn’t hurt. And you’ll sleep like a baby, subconscious thoughts notwithstanding.

I have to finish up that fly sorting. Will I sell a rod and reel tomorrow? That shipment of new Lamson reels is due in any day. Will that cute blond come into the shop again? I hope there are fresh Krispy Kremes at the Conoco.

Trout's Fly FishingIt’s the fly-fishing lifestyle. Living the dream. Loving the sport, and understanding the sport. Conveying the knowledge to customers with a smile on the face. Spreading holiday cheer.

Or, now that the owner’s out, and his drool-prone dogs are out with him…

Cleaning windows.

MG signing off (confident the glitz and glam is right around the next bend)

Apple’s services security goof

4 Replies

Apple‘s OS X operating system is, in this user’s opinion, a bastion of security. It all boils down to its UNIX roots, and it’s that fact, not the famed usability, that won me over. Considering that, you’d think Apple could apply some similar know-how to the fortitude of their services, but alas my iTunes account has been disabled. The situation could have been easily avoided too.

I’ve been receiving these notices intermittently for some time…

Apple security

Continue reading →

Adventures in Fly-Fishing Retail – Episode 1: Back To The Roots

18 Replies

This much is certain: fly-fishing has entered a new age. The quiet sport is now rock n’ roll extreme, and it won’t be long before anglers are swooping into canyon tailwaters via parachute. Vin Diesel is bound to be Orvis’s future spokesperson, and I wouldn’t rule out white label video games with John Madden’s voice for narration.

It’s all about the marketing. But you already knew that.

What you very likely don’t know, however, is that my first retail experience was undertaken during my junior year in high school. Back then I worked as a stock boy in a women’s clothing boutique. This job had quite obvious benefits, a discussion of which is beyond the scope of this post. But let’s just assume I felt myself one lucky bastard at the time. Fast forward and the idea of a fly fishing bum wannabe working in a fly shop, even in the very limited time frames for which I have been proffered, should also seem like a boon. But it took just one day to realize that fly fishing retail is much more than just fun and games.

See, this Tucker Ladd guy (a.k.a. the Boss) has heard the tale: I’d caught plenty of salty and/or warm watery fishy creatures before I ever set eyes on a trout. It’s the exact opposite path to that which the majority of fly anglers take, but the Boss doesn’t forget anything.

Did I sell a dozen high-end rods and reels my first day? Take potential purchasers out all afternoon for casting demonstrations? Help female customers in and out of the Goretex waders I insisted they try on over and over and over again?

Nope.

Like any other retail business, to sell product you must display product. And display properly. Hence, the low man on the totem pole spent the day moving, sorting, and organizing flies. Mostly saltwater flies, big ones, with extremely sharp hooks. Fancy that. No gloves allowed either.

Trout's Fly Fishing

My fingertips are still bleeding. Those are, however, some darn sweet flies.

MG signing off (to find a workers comp claim form)

Rises forming at noon

4 Replies

Hot off the PR wire, the long awaited Rise Forms online literary magazine is on the way:

Dear Angler,

Announcing the arrival of Rise Forms: Fly fishing’s literary voice. We are proud to let you know that at noon Mountain Standard Time, the premiere edition of the magazine will be live. Please visit http://riseforms.com to read the magazine. Please look around the site, especially the upper right corner where there are some drop-down menus. There is a note from the editors and a book giveaway. For those of you who prefer to read the magazine as a pdf file, you will find a link to the full version from those menus (we’ve given you the first several pages of the pdf file in an attachment to this email as a teaser).

Happy reading!

MG signing off (in anticipation of high noon)