Fly of the day! Murray's Mr. Rapidan Dry Fly

After a long hiatus in the fly of the day series, we return today with one of the best in my box, Murray's Mr. Rapidan Dry Fly. This is another of the patterns developed by Harry Murray of Virginia fly fishing fame. The pattern is an excellent general dry fly pattern that is nearly guaranteed to produce on mountain trout streams. It does a nice job of imitating the March Brown mayfly and is an excellent search pattern. Best of all, the yellow hair wing is easily visible from as far as I can cast and does not blend in with flotsam as a white wing may. The fly is heavily hackled, and with the additional floatation provided by the hair wing and tail it will ride rough currents almost like a cork. I fish this fly in sizes #12-#16 from March to November.

Murray's Mr. Rapidan Dry Fly

Hook: Dry fly hook #12-#16
Thread: Brown or black
Tail: Black deer or moose hair
Wing: Yellow-died calf's tail, split to form separate wings (see below)
Body: Light brown natural dubbing (hare's ear pictured) mixed with sulfur superfine dubbing
Hackle: Heavily hackle using coachman brown hackle and grizzly hackle.

Little Stony Creek: Cascades Rec Area, 17 Feb 2007

With the cold temps and frozen precip of late, the conditions have made the well-known hike along Little Stony Creek in Giles County a wintertime treat. Equipped with our traction-enhancing slip-over-the-shoe chains, the treacherous trail was passable.



There were lots of folks there who did not have the experience of hiking this trail in the icy winter and paid the price by falling or resorting to hiking very, very slowly to avoid the fall. Natasha and I were particularly astonished at one 'hiker' just getting started who was wearing her designer hole-in-the-knee jeans and high heel boots. I can only imagine how far she made it up the two-mile long trail before turning around.

For those resilient enough, the views of the 60ft falls at the top of the trail were astounding. As we reached that point, a light snow began to fall and made the scene even more picturesque. The entire landscape is a sight to see, and the pictures below do not do it full justice.

Great read: Marley and Me

I just finished reading a book by John Grogan of the Philadelphia Inquirer, entitled Marley & Me: life and love with the world's worst dog. It is obvious why this book has resonated with so many people, just as it did with me--it tells a story of an unconditional love so many of us have experienced with four-legged friends and it does so in a style that was totally endearing to this reader.

John (after reading this very personal story, I feel like I am on a first-name basis) tells the story of how a family was formed around an irrepressible force of a 96lb Yellow Lab named Marley. Despite everything that he (and myself up until reading this book) had read and heard prior to getting Marley that Labs were the best-behaved, most-tractable, brightest, most-obedient family dog, Marley stands as a glaring example of how these labels may be over-stated.

I particularly empathize with that facet, as I experienced the same mis-information before adopting our beloved beagle, Billie. Everywhere I looked when I thought about getting a beagle, folks were talking about their gentle, lazy, good nature that makes them one of America's favorite family dogs. Unfortunately, I got one whose entire puppyhood was dedicated to sinking her teeth into any and everything. OK, so this is not so unusual for a puppy; but with Billie, everything included our hands, wrists, legs, ankles, pant-legs, and worst of all, the soft skin on the underside of my arms (or in the case of the photo above, my Mom's). When Billie was about 4 months old, she still had many of her baby teeth and I had nightmares of those needle-like protuberances sinking into my prone skin. In one of these night-time episodes, I woke up my wife to help me rummage through the bed sheets to look for a 'baby alligator' that I was certain had breeched the safety of our bedroom. When I 'snapped out of it', I realized that it was only the apprehensions of the previous weeks of relentless attacks on all my extremities that had triggered this reptilian to visit my dreams.

Marley's story is incredibly touching, amusing, and real on many fronts. John framed the emotions of having such a disobedient but constant companion in a most-succinct way that I will not forget for some time. As one of his chapters described the bad dog support group that came as a result to his journalistic ode to Marley's impact on the Grogan family, I also sensed this same support that came just from hearing his well-told story. Excellent read.

Photos: Top, Billie as a puppy attacking me for the camera. Middle, Billie attacking my mother in that particularly painful area I spoke about above. Below, Billie giving her new toy Frisbee hell with the spirit of Cerberus driving her actions. Bottom, Billie struggling with 'dominance issues' with my sister.