My Life My Way

The most amazing country in the world is celebrating it's 150 birthday this year, Canada! We may be a young country on a global level, but we Canadians sure have taught the old guard a few new tricks over the past hundred and fifty years! I am damn proud to follow in the foot prints of my fellow Canadians and call myself a Canadian! Happy Birthday Canada & Here's To The Next 150! One Of Many CANADA 150 Logos Created To Celebrate Canada's Birthday  In the 38 years I've called this great nation my home, I've ventured as far east as Toronto as far west as Tofino and as far north as the North West Territories. So keeping with the Canadian theme, we took our first family vacation to "Beautiful British Columbia," end point Kelowna and what better way to do it than as a family road trip.  So operation, "Slemko's Hit The Road," was set in motion to depart June 18th, 2017. With our SUV looking like a car Clark Griswold would be proud to

  I saw an interesting post on Instagram, about a year ago, talking about a new concept of adding "Wiggle Tails" to Pike Fly's for additional attraction. One of the posted comments that stuck out to me was, "When Does Your Fly Become A Lure?" Poses an interesting question, but seems to me like its the "Chicken & The Egg" question all over again. Regardless, here's my take on the post. Wiggle / Marabou Tail Fly  In some parts of Europe, mainly Scandinavia, the Pike fly fishing scene has been pushing the boundaries of this question for several years now.  This clan of fly tying extremists, seem to be adding anything to their flies to get a leg up on big Pike. Wiggle Tails, Rattles, grotesque amounts of Flashabou and articulated flies that push the twelve inch mark. Really quite brilliant! But has some "Trout" purists snubbing their noses at these anglers. I am not one of the "purists", I am all for innovation! Hence my f

  With another fly fishing season about to open, it's time for some of us April "Fools" to hit the water for the first time since putting the gear away for winter. In preparation of my first trip I dug out the gear bag and gave my kit a once over. Found some interesting artifacts from the last trip out. Included in these fair finds was a rather unsightly pair of socks, still damp from September 2016. Good thing they weren't my lucky socks as they went straight to the trash! Along with the socks, there were a few fly's tangled in a web of tipit and lies, provoking a response of (Insert Curse Words Here). Lesson learned for end of this season? Only time will tell, but likely not ha!   Next up in the process, restock a rather sad looking nymph / wet fly box. Some good early season fly patterns I gravitate to are, San Juan Worms, Prince variations and small bait fish streamers like a Bugger / Zonker. Plus a few experimental, like the "MOP" fly, literally a