An Angler's Tale ~ Episode 4: DaiWHERE DID YOU COME FROM?

 Going to forego the banner for this entry since it's a quick little one.

So today, during work, I got to thinking about my fishing adventures and what sort of new gear I'd like to start it with. I'd already tried a spinning reel and wasn't too fond of how technical that made things, even if it felt great to use. Too much could go wrong, same with a baitcaster which I ultimately ruled out just by affiliation.

So that left me with the spin cast type once again. Tried and accurate, and while not the fastest gear ratio out there unless you're looking at the Zebco Bullet(which I was), there weren't a whole lot of options for those wanting to dance some of the more technique-based lures around.

Having spent most of Sunday browsing Amazon for something, I decided I'd just shop locally or stick with the Zebco Omega Pro that I've been using for the last few years. It's yet to let me down and get the job done, even if the retrieval speed is a bit on the low side.

But I wasn't quite done with my search just yet. I decided to give Dunham's a go on my way home from work just to see what options they had in my preferred reel type.

And low and behold, to my shock and surprise, tucked away behind a few spinner reels on the bottom-most peg was a Daiwa brand spincast reel that I had not once come across during my internet searches:

The Daiwa Silvercast 100B! 

To say that I got more than a little giddy would be an understatement! I'd wanted to convert to a full Daiwa setup anyways, but without importing one straight from Japan, options online weren't the greatest, and if something were to go wrong with the purchase, then, well, I was screwed.

But a lone Daiwa reel! Just sitting there amidst a sea of spinners and bait casters. If I had believed in fate, this would have been one of those "This is fate!" moments. I snatched that bad boy up and cradled it like it was a boxed copy of Mega Man X2 for $5 at a yard sale.

But I wasn't going to stop there, oh no. I had planned on buying some fluorocarbon anyhow, so I thought I'd just shop for it there at Dunham's while I was there.

To accompany my new Japanese-brand reel(and rod, come Wednesday), I picked up the Vicious brand Fishing Fluoro, which claims to be "100% Japanese Fluorocarbon". Why this is a thing that specifically needs to be stated on the box and how Japanese or any other country fluoro differs from each other is beyond me, but it was enough to get me to bite.

An Angler's Tale ~ Episode 3: Back to Nature

 

art by AWD

After a week of dealing with a major depressive episode, I forced myself out this morning as a mission: If I was going to continue my fishing adventures, I needed to land something today, regardless of size or species. 

I say this because I've been struggling to keep an interest in fishing as of late, which honestly probably had more to do with the mental state I had been in than my actual interest in the sport itself. That, and the extended heat wave we were dealt this summer has made not only getting out difficult, but catching stuff nigh on impossible as the fish were running deep. Any place that was accessible were typically crowded by others just trying to get a hook in, so that did an unfortunate number on my psyche when it, had I been feeling better, otherwise wouldn't have thought anything of it.

Introducing Level 1: Kerr Scott Dam Spillway!

FINISHED READING: The Spirit by Thomas Page

 

Finished reading The Spirit by Thomas Page yesterday, and while I'm stewing in the quiet period between books, I thought I'd type up some of my thoughts on the book. 

Open Spoiler Discussion

Missed out on some nice summer themed merch last year due to the status of my employment at the time. But with my being in management now, making $20+ an hour, I have a bit more Fun Funds to go around each check, so of course I am going to take the plunge this time. 

An Angler's Tale - Episode 2: Well That Didn't Go Well

So, between today and yesterday, I had managed to get myself back out to the water to finally spend some time with the Daiwa. The drive there was nice as always, and actually getting out was refreshing, fish or no fish.

I went to my usual spot on the other side of the spillway for some simple creek fishing and practice. Being new to the spinner reel, I wasn't about to go somewhere where people could see and watch me fumble with it. 

Things were going smoothly. I was getting familiarized with the casting motions, all the extra little things one had to do with a spinner in order for it to function properly. And while I had no bites, the rush of energy I felt as a thunderstorm crept up on me while I fished was great! It was almost totally dark when I and the couple that had perched themselves on the dock finally decided to leave.

That was last night. Today was where things went wrong. 

I tried a different spot, a good ways away from the previous and one that sees far fewer anglers than the spillway. It's one that I personally love for its secluded nature and abundance of wildlife. 

So my very first cast with my spinning reel reveals that somehow, during my trip yesterday, a large amount of string had somehow wrapped itself around inner parts of the spool, forcing me to take several minutes out of the trip to dismantle the gear and untangle it. 

Once that was done, I proceeded to fish and catch absolutely nothing. It happens, the water was dirty and that makes things difficult. 

But it was the issues I started to run into with the reel from that point on that just mucked everything up for me. 

It seemed like no matter how much or how little force I was putting into the throws, the worms were flying off in pieces, leaving small chunks behind the barbs on the hook. Adding in the fact that I couldn't aim anywhere near as good with the spinner as I do my casting combo was doubly frustrating as well. 

The final nail in my time with the spinning reel's casket was my first snag. As I did the usual motions to get it out, the line on the reel itself gradually began to unwind itself from the spool, which by time I noticed it I had already started to wind the reel, further wrapping the string around the interior and forcing me to lose a good lure. 

... 

Now that I have given this type of reel a good honest go, I can say with all sincerity that they just aren't for me. I like the act of fishing to be simple and straightforward, while the technical stuff lies with the gear, and the tackle and whatnot.

For me personally, there is just too much involved in keeping a spinning reel functioning on a cast to cast basis, and that takes all the fun and chill out of the sport. 

More power to those of you who can use these effortlessly, but for me, I'm going back to my casting reel, which now is going to see a new upgrade thanks to this whole debacle. 

Catch you next time! 

The Bed Upgrade

For years I have slept on a dinky twin-sized bed, and until recently I was content with that. But then something snapped and I wanted something bigger, something better.

So I paid a visit to the carpenter (Amazon) and bought myself a full size bed, the first I've had since I was a kid in the 90s.

An Angler's Tale ~ Chapter 1: A New Journey (An Angler's Tale 2)

 In the foothills town of Wilkesboro, there is a little urban legend that makes its rounds every so often. It revolves around the Kerr Scott Dam and its spillway. It is said that a group of divers tasked with doing routine maintenance on said spillway had once come across a catfish so large that the divers refused to ever return...

After getting the new job, then getting promptly promoted to management barely a year later, I found myself beginning to lose interest in fishing, despite the greater amount of money coming in allowing for more, varied gear and whatnot. Yet I still felt it slipping away, and I didn't know what or how to get it back.

But one day last week, I just happened to see a new upload from NW Fishing Secrets on Youtube and was almost instantly reminded of why I initially loved the sport/hobby so much to begin with: The adventure aspect! 

But I didn't just want to get my gear and head back out to the same tired old spots with same tired old gear. I needed to do something to reinvigorate the whole thing for myself.

And that is where the latest purchases come in:

The biggest for me is probably being a spinner reel. I've never had it in me to pick one up and actually learn on one. So after some extensive research and pricing, I finally rested on the Daiwa Regal 2500 spinning reel at $49.99 on Amazon. 

Admittedly yes there are extra steps involved in using these and it did kind of grate on me at first, but as the demo trip went on this evening, I found myself becoming more and more in tune with it, and the extra little motions becoming less and less of a bother and more just the natural flow of things.

That said, the rod I had paired it up with wasn't cutting it. It was a brand new 6'6" Ugly Stik GX2. It was horribly off balance and just felt wrong to use, so I returned it to the Wal-Mart I bought it at on the way home and promptly ordered the Ugly Stik Elite

It was also on sale for $49.99 and initially was the model I wanted for myself, but neither the local Wal-Mart or Dunham's Sports had it, so I settled on the 6'6" GX2 as mentioned above. And while I do have to wait for this lovely new cork-handled (something I've always wanted) to arrive on Saturday, I have some other things to look forward to tomorrow, which I'll talk about in another entry.

But the rod isn't the only purchase I have coming from Amazon, for in their big Prime Day sale, I was also able to get the KastKing boonie had that I've had my eye on at a greatly discounted price!

Sun Protection +9!! 

And because I want this new spinning reel combo to be entirely brand new, I also ordered some 8lb fluorocarbon to go on it once it got here, which I am excited to finally get to use.

So what is An Angler's Tale about? Well, with this new gear setup and a reinvigorated interest in the sport, I've tasked myself with the quest to Catch 'Em All! One of every fish species that can be caught here in my state, and then eventually elsewhere! 

0/234 Fish Species Caught!

The Wulphelk; He Who Lies Beyond the Blink (Short Story)

 *Gore Warning*

Main Street, Wilkesboro. 

Sheets of rain, a stark contrast to the forecasted light drizzle, pummeled the sidewalks, obscuring most, if not all, visibility. The weatherman had predicted a week of occasional sunshine, but the reality was heavy, overcast, and thick, grey skies.

The sun had not breached the cloud cover in days.

A thick layer of grey had obscured the blue summer sky ever since the week began, with the rain beginning to fall shortly after that. Increasing in intensity with every passing hour until it fell with a velocity that seemed unnatural at times.

Traffic had slowed to a crawl through the main street and all across most of the North Carolina foothills as the unexpected deluge slowly moved through the state. Major highways were lined with damaged or abandoned vehicles, most hydroplaning against the thick, ceaseless flow of water that washed over the pavement, causing inconvenience and distress to travelers just trying to celebrate the holiday.

Highway 421 heading to and away from Wilkesboro had seen lighted signs erected every few miles warning, not suggesting, that drivers decrease their momentum while weather conditions persist. 

Lower-lying areas had seen catastrophic flooding in the storm's path as rivers overflowed and breached their banks. Pastures flooded, and livestock and the farmers that owned them's livelihoods were lost. Many houses and trailers were washed away in the flooding, with one family having reported their infant, still nestled in their crib, having been swept away along with their double-wide. The family simply was unable to get into the child's bedroom in time to save them and their chinchilla, a tragic testament to the scale of the disaster.

No matter the number of weather-related deaths, however, accidents, or property damage caused by the mysterious storm, they would all be relegated to mere footnotes in what would be the paperback-length police report filed by the Wilkesboro Police Department that week...

Breath of Fire 2 = Beaten!

 

Breath of Fire II ReCollection here!

After what was probably around 50-something hours, thanks to the endgame grinding, Breath of Fire 2 is now once again in the bag! I had replayed this a few years ago when it came to the SNES app on the Switch, and I had made it as far as the final dungeon, but dropped it then for reasons I can't quite remember. 

The final dungeon still sucks, even with the fast-forward feature in Retroarch. The penultimate boss is still a pain in the neck to take on solo, so I just didn't try even at level 83. 

Now onto something a bit newer!

Last of the Wild Days unfortunately wasn't registering with me

Update: Because I now want to read a ton of horror stuff I found, I'll put these back on hold until the start of the new year, post-Stormlight Archive 5)

As the title says, I couldn't get into it. There was some neat ideas being thrown around that I have no doubt probably expand in cool ways, but the overly long chapters (it should not take me 90 minutes to read a single chapter, I'm sorry) and droning of the author made it feel very Tolkien-ish, and there no quicker way to make me lose interest than to explain every. Single. Thing a character is doing.

So that said, I dropped it and started looking for something else. Then I remembered the Coldfire Trilogy was still on my TBR. I had trouble getting them loaded into my Kindle before, but after a little tinkering, I managed to get them send and installed! 

Early 90s dark fantasy at its best, or so I hear. 

ReCollection: Breath of Fire II

 

I felt that, seeing as how I'm currently making my way through Breath of Fire II again a new ReCollection entry might be due. Playing older games like this, especially ones that stand out vividly in my memories for one reason or another, always causes those data banks to reopen for a bit, giving me the occasional wash of nostalgia as I make my way through.

BoF2 is probably my second favorite game in the series, right behind Breath of Fire 3. Yeah, it suffers from all the hallmarks of an early RPG, like copious grinding, slow walking speed, and high random encounter rate, but these things as a kid just felt normal. It's not until years later, and the genre develops and grows, that these quirks are seen as knocks against a game. Some outgrow them and can't return to these classics without some sort of modernization or hack that alters certain aspects.

And then there are people like me who see and play the games for what they are rather than wishing they were something more.

Redwall, but for an older audience

First new book I've bought in months. As much as I enjoy Redwall, I was really hoping that someone would eventually pick up the reigns and write a more mature take on the concept. 

Last Tail is basically Hey Arnold! meets Final Fantasy VII, but with an all anthropomorphic animal cast.