Sporting Road

The author, Nick Sawyer, is the grandson of the great fly fisherman Frank Sawyer MBE. Black Gnat. The Black Gnat is deadly all year round but is at its best early in the season when there are few flies hatching. Grey Wulff. An all time classic that represents a large number of species. Can be used in larger sizes as a Mayfly pattern or as an olive pattern in smaller sizes. This dry fly is a must for all anglers and should be the fly of first choice if you are unsure on what pattern to use. Para Adams. The best pattern by some margin according to my catch returns. The Para Adams is generic and comes in the full range of hook sizes. The parachute pattern allows even the most heavy handed caster to present the fly in a delicate manner. I sometimes use a size 10 to represent a Mayfly but most often use sizes 14-18 in the summer to imitate olive flies. If you don't have this pattern in your fly box you are, in my opinion, lowering your chances of success. Fly Fishing With a Buzzer Nymph By Nick Sawyer  |   Submitted On May 03, 2010 There are a great many representations of buzzer nymphs available on the market. Some of them are very good and no doubt most of them will have caught fish at some time. As far as I know, there is only one bow-tie buzzer and that is the pattern designed by Frank Sawyer. Any others are simply copies of the original in just the same way as all weighted nymphs are developments of the Sawyer Pheasant Tail Nymph. Frank Sawyer spent a lot of his life teaching others

Seven Fires recipes to try: Skirt Steak and Fry Bread http://books.google.com/books?id=7pVMEdjh_ZcC&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq=skirt+steak+and+fry+bread+seven+fires&source=bl&ots=SGDB6jbjmx&sig=iWI0dqRjWuBGfbEMpCoRMYydH4U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Doi_T-35Ao-62gXAh4ScCg&ved=0CEcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Beef and Potato Pie http://books.google.com/books?id=7pVMEdjh_ZcC&pg=PA94&dq=beef+and+potato+pie+seven+fires&hl=en&sa=X&ei=a4y_T7_5JuPW2gWOzLmOCg&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false My new favorite cookbook is Seven Fires, which has gorgeous photos and great techniques. The author is a famous US/Argentinian chef named Francis Mallmann and he writes, “I believe that the ability to cook meat over a wood fire is inborn in all of us.” Another favorite is Canal House Cooking, written by Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton, who own a food studio called Canal House, in Lambertville, New Jersey. This is as unassuming as Seven Fires is overreaching.  I loved this book and recommend you add it to your collection.  It is filled with great Argentine recipes and photographs.  I liked it even more after watching a cooking show, which featured Mallmann in his rustic home/restaurant in Argentina, cooking these recipes for friends, neighbors and a very few paying guests, from the likes of the extremely small town he lives in.  This book is the real deal and is endorsed by our Argentine friends who even commented that it is the "only true book on the Argentine asado style of cooking" and it features it is a very simple, yet romantic and tasty way.  We love it! Mallmann describes la parrilla, the cast iron barbecue grate, and the la chapa which is a flat piece of cast iron over a fire, but a cast iron skillet will also do in a pinch.  Asador is a method for cooking whole animals, pig, lamb or goat, which are butterflied and hooked to an iron cross.  Every estancia has a caldero, a big iron pot, for feeding large groups on the ranch, including the gauchos out on the vast pampas. Mallmann

Equipped with a 9' 8-weight Sage Motive fly rod, a WF8F Rio Bonefish fly line, 10' 16-lb Rio Saltwater Leaders, Rio Fluroflex Saltwater Tippet 25Y16 lb. and the usual assortment of bone fishing flies, I have fished the Maui flats. More to come...

The Difference between Pure Silver, Sterling Silver, Coin Silver, Junk Silver, and Silver Plating Technically, silver is a metallic chemical element whose chemical symbol is Ag (Argentum) and whose atomic number is 47.  It is a precious metal that is used to make jewelry, tableware (silverware), and coins, among other things.  It also has many other uses which we will discuss in future posts. The millesimal fineness system is used to show the purity of silver, gold, and platinum alloys by parts per thousand of pure metal by mass in the alloy.  For example, if an alloy contains 92.5% silver, it is referred to as “925.” [NOTE: An alloy is a mixture of two or more metals to obtain desirable qualities such as hardness, lightness, and strength.] Fine silver (99.9% pure) is too soft to use in jewelry or almost anything else because it bends, breaks, and stretches too much. For this reason, manufacturing jewelers and silversmiths mix copper with it to give it some strength without discoloring it.  Copper is the industry standard.  However, some countries use other alloys as well. When you see “.999 fine silver” or “999” stamped on an item, it is considered pure silver.  It is softer and more malleable than sterling silver.  It is used in bullion bars, and is also known as three nines fine. Sterling silver (also known as standard silver) is what jewelry and silverware are traditionally made from, which is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper.  That is why you sometimes see .925 stamped on your jewelry.  In the U.S., only a minimum of 92.5% fine silver can be marketed as “silver.” Sterling silver jewelry is often plated with a thin coat of .999 fine silver to give

His last day was the sort of day that every bird dog would choose for his last day. A day in which I don’t think Bodhi could have been one of a million of bird dogs to experience. He only experienced it, because he had good friends, in good places. Most couldn’t arrange such a day, no matter their means. While some of us like to tell of how we would like to have our final day, our final meal, and where we would like to be laid to rest, Bodhi got to live his life to the fullest and met his final day fulfilling the dream that all bird dogs would like to live: his favorite place – blue grouse mountain; his final meal a trilogy of his favorites - corned beef, hot dogs, and whipped cream; his final day - hunting grouse and running in front of his three favorite humans. Bodhi hunted his favorite grouse covert and then was laid to his final rest in the spot in the very spot where he found his very first wild bird, some 12 years earlier – a dusky grouse. He was surrounded by his master, hunting friends, and favorite veterinarian. While my other dogs always shied from the vet, Bodhi sought him out, as his vet was his hunting buddy. Bodhi's full and registered AKC name, as a Brittany from field trial lines, was Bodhisattva. Bodhisattva is Sanskrit. A Bodhisattva does not seek “bodhi” (awakening or liberation from our worldly suffering) solely for himself (as a “yogi” does), but chiefly a Bodhi foregoes the path of enlightenment in order to assist in the freeing all other beings and aiding them into the bliss of

My favorite quotes from the book are: It's hard to change the way our families eat.  Although we know what we should be eating--more fruits and vegetables and as little processed food as possible--we don't do it.  or, even if we prepare healthy food, our children won't eat it. Ask my children what their favorte foods are, and the answer might surprise you (ours likes asparagus, sunny-side up eggs, and stinky blue cheese). French adults spend twice as much time as Americans eating, and they consume foods like butter, pork, and cheese in apparently uninhibited quantities, yet are less overweight (and very rarely obeses) and have lower rates of heart disease... French parents gently compel their children to eat healthy food.  They expect their kids to eat everything they are served, uncomplainingly. "Sophie is just like me... I hated vegetables when I was young."  "Mais non!", I was told, "she just hasn't tried them enought times yet.  When she's really hungry try them again.  Then she'll eat anything and everything." The word "education" covers a lot of ground in French... the goal is to procue a child... who is well spoken, well mannered and well behaved. The cantine [at schoo is the same for everyone, no choice].  "But what if the kids don't like what is being served that day?"  "They go hungry!"  "School is about learning lots of things." The French think that lunch should be the biggest and most important meal of the day... (by government decree) the hcildren spent a minimum of thirty minutes at the table.  The French system is a highly perfected peer-pressure-driven food diversification program. Parents schedule meals and menus.  Kids eat what adults eat:  no substitutes and no