BCS = bad, Fox+BCS = disaster

As one of the millions who love to watch college football (Go Hokies!), it is of no use for me to decry the BCS in light of a play-off system since every TV and radio analyst in the U.S. is already doing so. But I have not heard much about the TERRIBLE JOB FOX IS DOING FOR COVERAGE OF THE BCS GAMES!! It's honestly hard for me to begin to criticize the entire operation, but a couple of problems:
1. The NFL is not the measuring stick for every play, player, tradition, event, etc. that occurs during a college football game. Since these announcers primarily have experience with the pro's, most references made are comparisons to the NFL; and it comes off as if college football is lacking in its own richness. Many, many college football fans could give a flip about the NFL, and even for those who enjoy the NFL those references are very annoying and exhibit little respect for the game being played.
2. Way over-produced. Did you see a) the BCS selection show, b) the intro to the 2007 national championship? Holy cow.

To be fair, I like Fox's handling of the NFL (although they lost a lot when James Brown left), but stick to the pro's and leave college to Disney.

Fly tying, marabou nymph

I could post hundreds of links to more-complete fly-tying information (and eventually, I will give some of these I am sure), but for this blog, I will exhibit some of the things I do to create flies that catch the beautiful native and wild trout that inhabit SWVA waters.

First, I'm proud of the fly tying station that went up just this weekend!














Now, I would love to chronicle the flies that I tie as 'fly of the []' []=day, week, month, although I realize fully that the ambition I have now to do so will fade with time.... But for today, the 'Fly of the Day' is one I call the Marabou Nymph tied in olive in the photo below. I did not invent this pattern, but it was shown to me on the stream one day and it works. I caught and released native brook trout all day Saturday on the black version.
Marabou Nymph












Thread: 8/0 Brown
Tail: Olive marabou tips
Dubbing: Olive-died hare
Rib: Gold 'Ultra-Wire'
Legs: Clipped marabou
Hook: 12 streamer
Head: 5/32 oz. gold bead