Enough Already!

These "he said"/"she said" stories are only interesting when they involve hot chicks, and let's face it, neither Jay Cutler or Philip Rivers is a hot "chick" in the NFL. Both players are more than full of themselves. Living in Denver makes this really hard because everyone stands up for the classless Jay Cutler. Although extremely talented, Mr. Cutler makes an ass of himself consistently on and off the field. With his mouth he claims he has a stronger arm than John Elway (even if he DOES, which he DOESN'T - he needs to keep his mouth shut), trash talks Rivers to the media - but we never really know what Rivers said to him (so why don't you tell us that Rivers was telling you that you sucked - when you WERE! - the truth must hurt). On the field you seem to be a leader until you throw a dumb INT. The QB position is the most important on any team - you need to be a leader and win these games....but you don't.

Congrats on your Pro Bowl - I'm glad you think you deserve it. I've been lucky enough (I threw up a little in my mouth) to watch you botch a few games and sulk on the sidelines - you shouldn't even be within 5,000 of Hawaii when guys like Matt Cassell and Chad Pennington get snubbed (oh yeah, Chad will be playing next week - you'll have your feet up sulking I'm sure). Don't let the stats fool you, none of your even match up to Rivers - 24 TDs and 16 Ints are mediocre, 32 TDs and 11 Ints seem stronger, your QB rating is mediocre, and you did all this with better OL, wide receivers and TEs. So how did you earn your Pro Bowl again? I guess they had to have at least ONE Pro Bowler from every team - congrats again!

Rivers on the other hand takes the high road. Sure he is a little cocky - which he should be (he has the winning percentage to back it up - had it not been for Norv Turner and Ed Hocules he would easily have won the division and the Broncos wouldn't be smelling the playoffs after week 10) - but he brushes off the trash talking as merely part of the game (which it is - isn't it?). His stats are better, so that probably gives him some right to talk trash too.

Hey Jay Cutler, some advise for you - want to be a good QB? Rise to the occassion, look at the history of your franchise, learn from the class acts that John Elway and Terrel Davis were - and shut the hell up. Winning games is all that matters - and you don't exactly have a winning track record. You'll find out that your arm has a much stronger voice than your mouth ever will.

Oh, and karma is a bitch - when the Chargers get a second chance to right things tonight in SD, I hope the game ends on a controversial call that goes SD's way - this way I can hear all the Bronco fans tomorrow crying about how they were robbed. YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN BE HERE! Your organization needs an enima - get some youth in there, and a defense. GO CHARGERS!

Zach giving the Steelers some support!

 

 

Zachary Cole Edwards

Born 12/15/08 at 8:26am
7 lbs, 12 ozs and 20.75 inches long

Mom and baby are doing well.

Follow the Link to the Pics

From 121508 - Zachary Cole

$1.59/gallon gas!

Yep - that has been the cheapest I have seen it - although rumors abound that it might be had up on Santa Fe for $1.49!

Hockey 12/5 - Thursday League

First game of playoffs (I guess because there are only 6 teams we got a bye from the first game)
No points
Played against Dean and Chris the goalie
Not much to say
won 6-4

Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving today - did a ton of stuff and hung out with friends all day and are just starting to crash.

Jen started the day by working from 7am-2pm. Avi and I got out of bed around 8, she went over to our neighbors to play with the kids at 10am. A bunch of the neighborhood guys played some football at the park this morning for an hour or so - our first annual Deer Creek Court TDay game. We all had a blast - I wish I had taken pics.

I fried up a turkey after the game at my neighbors house - he actually fried up 4 of them in his driveway. That was a pretty interesting process. I peeled and cut our sweet potatos as well. Jen got home at 2.

About 4pm we headed over to Suzie's house for our feast. It was the normal crew and great food - good company as well - and good to see everyone. We just got home 30 minutes ago and put Avi in bed. Time to hit the hay myself.

I hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving!

$1.71/gallon

I paid $1.71/gallon for gas the other day - UN-BEL-IEVABLE!

Best of 2008 Fly Swap

I just finished up hosting a fly swap and posted the images in my Picasa Album.

Here are some sample pics:

From 112008 - Fly Swap

From 112008 - Fly Swap

From 112008 - Fly Swap

From 112008 - Fly Swap

Thanks to all the guys who participated!

Hockey 11/20 - Thursday League

1 goal, 1 assist
played with John the goalie and the kids
played D
won 14-0

the other team was yelling at us for running up the score - when in actuality our captain told us no more goals after 10 unless they are tip ins or long shots from the point.

Gas at $1.91/gallon? Amazing

I filled up yesterday and paid $1.91/gallon - it cost me $18 and I was more than 3/4 empty.  That is amazing.

That said, it was not all that unpredictable.  I mean, looking at the basic economic principals answered this question - supply vs demand - what had changed since last year? I mean, why would oil prices spike - and could they continue to stay as high as they were?

Demand

Since our entire country has put searching for alternative renewable as their top priority, I do not think demand (or future demand) for crude oil increased.  Any future demand increase would be offset by the increase in usage of alternative energy sources.  So it is safe to say that demand didn't change

Obviously there was some change in the supply of crude oil that sent prices skyrocketing - but was this actual supply or perceived supply? I mean, did any country significantly threaten to decrease they oil supply to the US or other parts of the world? When I think of the major suppliers of oil I think UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and then Iraq.  The first three countries have very good relations with the US - and they all are highly dependent on exports to fuel their economy - so no way would they threaten the largest importer of oil (the US) with reduced supply - especially when the US could easily impose their will with boycotts or sanctions. So that leaves Iraq - which certainly has had issues with producing oil and exporting it since the US has taken up the war. But their exporting capabilities were very very low to begin with - they actually have little infrastructure to export the oil - most of their oil stays within their country and the middle east.

So I guess what I am saying is, I don't understand how the ACTUAL supply of oil could have been changed all that much.  I think there was a perceived supply issue, but somehow that was blown way out of proportion and the end user consumer paid the price for over a year

Whatever this was all about - I'm glad the economy has straightened it out and I'm paying less than $2 a gallon!

MVPedroia!

Although this would seem relatively impossible for a tiny 2B to win the MVP - unless it was a down year for the entire league, Dustin Pedroia did it. The kid is 5'7" on a tall day and can't weigh more than 160 lbs - but every bit of it is heart. I love this kid - and I'm glad he has made his mark on MLB and the Red Sox. He is easy to root for and will be a Sox for many many years.

Also, I bought my nephew a Pedroia jersey for his birthday - I think it was a good choice!

Saturday, November 15, 2008 - FryingPan River

A last minute trip had Chad, myself and Matt headed out to the Pan late on Friday night. We arrived at a cheap motel around 9:15 in Glenwood Springs - grabbed the room key and then hit Village Inn for a quick bite. We were basck in the room at around 10:15 - had a beer or two, watched some Soup and then passed out. I was lucky enough to draw the floor - but hey, I controlled the heat in the room and kept the place at a nice 75 degrees!

We got up around 6am, hit the free breakfast at 6:30 and were on the river (after a nice 30 minte drive) around 7:15. The morning was, how do you say this nicely? Frickin freezing! Literally. It was 19 degrees when we left Glenwood Springs, and the Ruedi Canyon had to be about 5 degrees colder. We went straight for the dam - stopping at the bend pool. I fished the gage station to no avail - but honestly I wasn't all that upset since had I caught a fish I would have had to touch it and get my hands wet. The water was not the problem, as it was at least 34 degrees, it was the pain of having wet hands in the cold for even a few seconds. The water was emitting a nice little steam. I took this photo immediately when we arrived - it is the sun hitting the upper stretches of the canyon - this is probably about 800 feet above us.

 

I didn't catch a thing - I had switched from nyphing to streamers to even dry flies as the fish were hitting the surface on something other than a size 20 BWO. Matt had some luck, but spent most of his time down in the shadows - he said it took him 10 minutes to tie a single knot - so that wasn't much fun. The sun him the gage station first, so I was lucky enough to enjoy some warmth. Chad of course was catching everything, he had tons of luck on an 18 mysis pattern. This was a brown he fished out of hole just below the waterfall.

 

Around 11 am we moved down about 1/4 mile to one of our favorite holes. I started getting into a couple fish, but I did have a very large fish get off on me. I fished up and down this section with minimal luck. Chad and Matt headed down river and we met back at the car around 1pm. We moved down river again to one of Chad's favorite spots - a place where he had some great luck the last time we were here. He and Matt headed the opposite way again. I fished a deep channel with no luck. The water was way down this year - flows were about 70 cfs and that is very very low for this river. Avg flows are around 100+ cfs, and many of my familiar spots were very very shallow. Also, because the sun doesn't really get "overhead" in the winter the light was messed up, so you couldn't tell if the hole you were fishing to was 4 inches or 4 feet deep. That throws off a nymph fisherman pretty badly. I suffered through some slow times until I finally got the weight and indicator depth correct and then I picked up a couple of hits.

We moved down to our last stretch - it was getting "late" about 4pm. I could actually see CHad and Matt within eye shot. I was fishing this strange run that had a huge rock you could stand 10 feet above the water on, but the hole was practically unfishable due to a tree being down at the top of the pool, all the water pushed against the rock, and there were two or three large trees that were under water with branches make a deep nymphing style of fishing impossible. I floated my nymph rig through this section a few times, then said the heck with it - I put the rig right into the danger zone - and hook a pretty brown trout! The pic below is of the brown - he wasn't long (about 15 inches) but he was thick and fiesty, and his coloration was magnificent. He was almost an orange on his belly with deep blues and dark red spots. He had a small blue patch on his cheek - he was a really good looking fish.

 

I fished a few yards more down to the guys - who were picking up fish left an right on egg patterns. They were standing near each other standing on the huge red rocks that lined both sides of the river, casting streamers to hungry fish - I think they both caught 6 fish each in a half hour or so. It was about 5:30 and we called it a day. We stopped in Glenwood for Wendy's and then I made it home by 9:05pm. A long day, but it was gorgeous. Although the temperature may have hit 40 degrees in the canyon we were all chilled to the bone - I slept in front of an electric heater last night hoping to get the chill out.

It snowed last night!

And Avi had a blast!

Hockey 11/13 - Thursday League

2 games

first game
no points
Chris was our goalie
first game ended in a fight with 3:30 left
won 6-3

second game
no points
John was our goalie
won 8-6

Hockey 11/6 - Thursday League

2 goals, 1 assist (maybe 2 assists)
played with the kids and John the goalie
played D
won 10-2
+7, no goals against

Catch Magazine

I hadn't seen this before - but a new issue of Catch Magazine (Fly Fishing photos) is online - check it out HERE!

Sunday, October 2, 2008 - Chatfield Reservior

I'd say I fished today, but that would be stretching it. Really it was more of a kayaking expedition and shoulder therapy. I brought Cabo to Chatfield Reservior and made a few laps around the usual spots - however I didn't catch anything. It was a little windy out there, and that made dragging streamers tough - the yak would get all turned around in the wind when I stopped paddling and tended to the rod. The weather was beautiful - I was in a t-shirt the whole day.

I did some paddling and my shoulder throbbed - but it was the first real workout that I have had on the shoulder since the pinched nerve. When I finally anchored up to fish, the wind completely stopped and the water was like glass (kind of eery actually). On the way in I saw Tom Shyrock and his son fishing the inlet, but not having much luck either. The water level was down slightly. The west inlet was only 8 inches deep ro so - I was lucky not to drag bottom a few times - although if I had it would have just stirred up about 4 inches of muck.

Hockey 10/30 - Thursday League

1 goal, 1 assist
played with John the goalie and the kids
played D - only 3 defensemen, so played a lot (10pm game which sucked ass)
won 8-7

Hockey 10/23 - Thursday League

2 assists
played with John the Goalie
won 8-5
down 5-2 at the beginning of the third - scored 6 unanswered as the other team tired out.

$2.79

I just paid $2.79 a gallon for gas, that is amazing. Less than $40 to fill my tank. I can't wait to fill up the 4Runner and see how much that costs - imagine a tank of gas for under $70!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 - High Mtn Fishing

I took the day off from work to do some fishing while the bosses were in SF doing the Quarterly Business Review - my job was done, so what better time to get away from work.

I'll be honest, after hearing the wind whip up all night and that it was snowing like crazy in the high country, I wasn't interested in spending my day at a lake around 10,700'. But I went anyways. I was hoping to kayak this lake and try to get into some big Macks. I tied up some huge size 4 streamers on Tuesday night - in black, tan, white and chartuese - and was ready for some pigs.

The ride up got sketchy even before I hit South Park - it was a slick road and the temps were below freezing. This is about the coldest day we've had so far. The mountains were beautiful with a fresh coating of the white stuff. South Park wasn't as windy as normal and the sun was in and out in stretches - so it looked like a good day.

I saw this beautiful horse on the way in - he was with another pack of 3 or 4 hiding in the bushes.

 

As I increased elevation, winding through dirt roads and beaver ponds, the snow started getting deeper and the road got harder to see. When I got to the last road that headed up to the lake, I was the first set of tire tracks on it at 9:30 am - I took the road slow and at the top parking lot the snow was about 8 inches deep and there were some rather large drifts on the far sides of road where the wind slowed and the snow collected.

 

This un-named lake is a haven for bait chuckers and fish keepers - and there are many posts and pics on the internet of rednecks with stringers full of macks from this lake. I guess I shouldn't be bitter about people actually keeping fish legally, but I am bitter about all of the beer cans, egg containers, powerbait jars, cigarette butts and other garbage that seem to follow bait fishermen to far off places like this. Coincidence? I think not.

The parking lot was empty and the wind was kicking up to 40 mph, so I decided not to take out the kayak. Which sucks because I brought the sinking line and wanted to troll the big streamers along the bottom. I hiked my way about half way around the lake and nestled myself just around a small corner to avoid most of the wind. I pitched the streamers for about an hour and a half - with little luck. I did have one hit right in front of me about 8 feet out as I was about to pull the streamers our of the water. It hit late and kind of surprised me - I saw a huge flash of an under belly that was about 18 inches long (or so). That would have been a nice fish.

 

I nymphed a bit and had a few wacks as my indicator dropped below the surface briefly and when I gave it a pull there wasn't anything there. The fish actually kept attacking my balloon indicator - which was kind of funny. I switched to a big dry fly, but they weren't interested any more. The weather was hazardous to say the least - I dressed in (I'm not lying here), a turlteneck, long sleeve t-shirt, turtleneck sweatshirt, 2 hooded sweatshirts and then my thin waterproof LL Bean fishing jacket - I had a face guard and a hat on as well - with fleece pants, thin fishing pants and waders as well. I wasn't cold except my hands once in a while, and the wind in my face was annoying. I called it a day at around 2:30pm and then the sun popped out and felt nice. The wind however, never let up.

 

I got skunked, but I'm not upset. It was better than working and I enjoyed this new lake - next time I will get a better opportunity on a much better weather day!

Red Sox Lose!

Yeah, that's right, I'm blogging about the Red Sox losing. Why? I ain't hanging my head, I ain't ashamed of thos team, and I'm certainly not impressed by the Devil Rays. I think it is laughable. Laughable that the Sox could beat the best team in the AL, the Angels, and then fall behind a team that has the worst bullpen in the history of the psot season and then lose. But hey the Rays won the series - and the Sox are going home - but why shouldn't they? This team has so many injuries and so many holes that they shouldn't have even gotten this far in the first place. I mean, come on - no one was supposed to go to game 7 after getting killed in games 2-4. But we did, we faught down to the wire and we almost did it. This team was missing a few pieces - and Ortiz bat, a Lowell bat, Ellsbury pulling an 0-fer, a hurt Beckett, a mediocre Lester, a sucky Wakefield, (dare I say it) no Man-Ram bat behind Ortiz, and no production out of the bottom of the order - but hey, imagine getting to game 7 of the ALCS with a dump of a team we had in the last 3 weeks! Amazing. I'm happ the season is over - time to patch some holes and continue our dynasty.

The sad part is that MLB is headed into the worst rated World Series ever, and no one will watch any of the games. The Rays will get spanked in Philly when they have to bat a pitcher, and can't move guys over. They will get killed at home when Howard, Burrell, Rollins and Utley bat around inning after inning in that tiny ballpark. And the sadest thing? When Tampa Bay and Baltimore are battling it out for 4th place in the AL East in 2009 again and no one remembers who the loser of the 2008 World Series was. But hey, good luck Rays!

Pedroia - I love ya, and see you next year, you are the MVP this year and I can't wait to see them give you the trophy!!!

11/16 Hockey - Thursday League

nothing
playes with the kids and John the goalie
won 13-3, I left with 6 mins left to see the rest of the Red Sox game.

Sox down 7-0 in the 7th, come back to win 8-7. Absolutely amazing.

Then Avi was up all night every 40 minutes or so puking her guts out - 1 hour sleep and a full day of work today. Fun Fun.

Frost

Woke up this morning and the deck had a layer of sheer ice on it - poor Cabo was slipping and sliding all over it! The rain last night really wreaked havoc on the cars and surfaces that couldn't absorb it. I had to actually scarpe my windows off this morning.

Winter is on the way!

October 11, 2008 - Cheesman Canyon

I got a chance to get out and fish with Chad this weekend - hit Cheesman at 6am. It was slow going this morning because the fog was as thick as pea soup. The morning was slow fishing for me - but the late morning heated up. Caught 6 fish or so on a grey size 22 RS2. 3 of the browns were nice size - about 16 inches. It was a strange weather day today - the weather was actually better in the canyon than at home here. The wind was cold, but it did not start sprinkling in the canyon until just before I left. Rainy and crappy here in Denver though. The browns are really fiesty and active.

 

 

 

 

Hockey 10/2 - Thursday League

New season

1 goal
played D
played with the kids
played against Brian, Dean and Chris the goalie
won 11-6

Fishing in Granby

 

 

 

Stoned!

I was at the fly shop this weekend and saw some really cool stonefly patterns - of course I don't think I can tie them - hotwire, 20 inchers, turkey biots, on and on. So I've done some research on the net and come up with a couple of cool patterns. Please feel free to send me links to a few more.

Black Stonefly



Rubber Legs




Black Biot Stone



Yellow Stone



Hotwire StoneFly




FlackBack Brown Stone




Brown Tubing Rubber Legs Stone

Awesome Possum by Wapsi ROCKS!

I'm not much of a dubber, actually I own very few types of dubbing - mostly just antron and a few other various flavors that just get me by. I found a fly pattern on the internet that I really liked and couldn't tie the pattern with the antron dubbing crap I have - yes, I had the right colors, but it wasn't "stringy" enough - it needed more "guard hairs" (I found out what these were called) too make the pattern look much more buggy.

I wasn't exactly sure what to look for - I knew I needed to hit one of the fly shops in my area - and I knew that the best shop in the area was Anglers All on Santa Fe in Littleton. So Avi and I headed over on Sunday to check them out - they have some of the best selections of Awesome Possum by Wapsi dubbings and so much more.



Avi loves playing with Bridger the black lab, but he was away on vacation in BC this time - so I had to bribe her with a fruit snack to be good. She played with the foam bodies and checked out all of the fly boxes (as usual) - and she did well not to get into too much trouble (or hurt herself). I found the dubbing and in the perfect colors for the new fly. The fly is known as the Orange Caddis (a BlueAngler pattern).




I tied up a handful on Sunday night while watching football and really like how they look. I can not wait to try them this weekend. Hopefully I will get into some fish this weekend - as I have a day off and some of my buddies are able to come, I think I am going to do a full day trip up in the the Granby/Tabernash area. We should see some browns and maybe a Koke (if we hit a different area). Should be a good time.

Week 3 - Steelers lose to Philly

What a miserable game - absolutely bad. No other way to explain it - the offense just could not get any momentum and the OLine sucked. When Willie Parker can't get 2 yards a carry - that is s very bad sign.

The obvious problem with the game was teh offensive line that allowed 12 or so sacks - it was just stupid how poorly these guys played and the fact that we couldn't change the protection at halftime has me a bit concerned. Yes, I agree that many of those sacks are on Roethlisberger - due to him moving around and stepping into defenders. It makes it very very hard for an OLine to create a pocket around the QB when the QB is constantly moving.

I'm not sure what the Steelers coaches were game planning - when you have pressure like that on blitzes, just dump the ball off to the blitzing side - but Ben just couldn't do it. And they kept getting eaten up - which is dumb, because the Eagles didn't change their defense all game. That is a bad sign. A winning team knows how to shift their skills to take advantage of changes in their game plan and coverages mid game. We obviously are not that team. It seemed like Tomlin was just waiting for the Steelers to do something on Defense and win that game.

The defense played very well - holding the Eagles to 13 points and numerous turn overs and big stops. An offense has to be able to score more than 15 points every game - or else you should expect not to win.

I was not impressed with the D as much as I probably should be - Woodley played ok (although I caught him taking a play or two off on runs to the other side), Polamalu played well, Ryan Clark played well too, Timmons played well in spurts, but he kind of disappeared. The run defense was decent. But, they couldn't stop the screen plays - which is unacceptable with the LBs we have.

The offense was pitiful - Heath Miller was a bright spot I guess. Other than that they were sh!t.

I'm disgusted just remembering this game. Oh, and Philly fans are horrible - I heard crickets a few times in that stadium during the game.

Steelers beat the Clowns

Ok, I still like this team - although we weren't as impressive on Defense in Week 2 against the Browns. The Browns are better than the Texans, they have more offensive weapons and seem to play the run a little better. That said, the weather really slowed the Steelers down - wind and rain played a major role in the low scoring game.

What I was impressed with:

Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes are great receivers - and they make Ben look good.

Ben makes a lot of good decisions - but he still holds onto the ball a lot. I will never understand how he holds onto so many balls when he is getting smacked and tackled.

I still love Heath Miller.

Jeff Reed is money.

Casey Hampton looked good.

10-0 vs the Browns!

What I wasn't impressed with:

Where were the LBs today? No pressure on the QB - that is bad news.

Polamula can't jump - two balls he should have batted away after the receiver caught the ball - but instead he jumped for the ball instead of playing defense and batting it away.

Our Fullback (Carey Davis) does not impress me at all. When Krieder was here he would make 2 or 3 pancake blocks on some LB during each game - we don't have that anymore.

Where is Nate Washington? Where is Dallas Baker? Limas Sweed? We have more than 3 receivers.

Mitch Berger waits too long to punt - I'm nervous about it.

Sodded the Yard

Took Friday off and sodded the back yard in 2 days.

Friday was rainy and crappy, but I started anyways - kept the bugs down which was nice. Sod cut the whole thing and moved it to the curb/side of the house/hill where Cabo runs. John the nieghbor helped me move about 30 wheel barrels. Paul showed up at 3pm and started on the sprinklers. I spread 30 barrels full of compost - only about 1/4 the pile in the driveway. I stopped around 7pm.

Day 2 - started at 9am, the boys were waiting for me. They started moving dirt while I helped Paul finish the sprinklers. About 10:30 we started spreading the dirt to thin and level it out. At about noon we started laying the sod - Eric/Dan/Steve/Johnny/Paul and me - done around 3pm. Clean up wasn't much fun either. I have 1/3 a pallet of sod left and a huge mess in the front yard for them to throw away. Let's hope they take it on Monday when they come and pick up those bags.

Here are some pics.

Hockey 9/11 - Thursday League - Championship Game

Game 3 of the playoffs
I've been in 4 championships in hockey and lost them all
no goals, no assists
the kids were amazing - we were down 5-0 to start, we won 8-6

my first championship in inline hockey - I got a t-shirt

referees were HORRIBLE as usual

Hockey 9/11 - Thursday League

Game 2 of playoffs
no goals, no assists
played D
played with the kids and John the goalie
we lead the game 5-2 quickly and then we were losing in the third 7-6
but we won 8-7
1 penalty for "kicking" although the ref admitted he wasn't sure if "kicking" was even a penalty
we played at 9 for the championship game

Foam Biot Emerger

Hey Scott - I figured I'd make a post for you on one of my favorite patterns to tie - I haven't had a chance to fish it yet. Someone gave it to me in a fly swap and I liked it a lot - I tie it slightly different with wire rather than a biot - but it is essentially the same thing.




I tie these in multiple colors - olive, grey, brown, tan, black - might even try red. I mix and match the color of the body and the the color of the antron. For instance I might use an olive body and white antron - or olive body and brown antron.

I assume you would fish it behind a dry as a dropper, or you could fish a couple of these unweighted as nymphs.

Send me your address and I will send you a few to try - my email is brandon722@yahoo.com

Steelers look good!!!

I'm impressed - simply impressed.  The Steelers looked amazing - offense was super efficient, while the defense was stifling.  The hits were hard, whether it is the offense slamming into guys or the defense slamming Schaub in the dirt - the team played smash mouth football. 

These are my observations:

Heath Miller - I have so much man love for this guy - he catches everything, and he stretchs out the defense because they can't handle him.  Ben has so much trust in him that he knows Miller will catch anything and get the first down.  Oh, and the guy can not be tackled by one tackler - he carries two or three guys with him.

Aaron Smith - it's great to have you back. Seriously - the guy was filling holes and in on a lot of pressures and tackles. I saw him sprint out on a screen and disrupt the play as well - nicely done. Welcome back big guy - we missed you.

Ryan Clark is a hitter - he slams into the run and whacks receivers constantly.  He went out hurt in the game, but came back to bitch slap a guy later on.  Yes he got a penalty late in the game, but it would have been a TD had he not.  We missed his presence last season.

The OL was tough. Mario Williams beat Smith once but MW is awesome. Williams was invisible after the first quarter though. The OL got better as the game went on. 

The LBs are unreal. We will easily lead the league in sacks - although I think they didn't try rushing all the time.  The pressure is amazing - the LBs were everywhere and physical.  Farrior is an animal - and Woodley will be the AFC defender of the week.

Ben had only we completions and 137 yards - but he was money. No mistakes, nothing fancy, accurate passing, don't do too much. Smart smart smart.

ST were good - no mistakes, nothing fancy.

Hines Ward is amazing.  He got a BS penalty on a PI against a LB who was grabbing him.  But he did manage 2 TDs. He just keeps smilin'.

FWP is simply an amazing back - somehow he had 130+ yards and 3 TDs.  He had a nice 30 yard run at the end of the game - then he came out and Mendenhall came in. 

Mendy looked mediocre - but I'm gald he got a chance to play. He'll give FWP a nice rest.  I would have liked to see the Steelers throw him (or any other RB) a pass.

I feel bad for that rookie left tackle for the Texans.

Reed is money.

Tomlin is money.

1-0, bring on the Clowns.

Flies to Tie this Winter

These are the flies I have to tie this winter:

RS2

Killer Midges

Mercury Midge

Black Mercury Midge

Black Beauty

WD40

Chironomid Bomber

Zebra Midge

Pheasant Tails - with legs

Copper Johns

Skinny Nelson Flashback

Scud/Czech

Baetis Emerger

Ultra Prince

Tricos

Hare's Ear - Olive

Green Machines


Larva

More to come....