DancesWithHeadCement

I tied with C-clamp vises for 15 years, then spent the last 20 using pedastals. There is some small differences, but little when it comes to actual fly construction. On rare occasion tying a really big fly you may crank down hard enough to actually get the vise to move a bit, but that's more the exception than the rule. I switched to pedastals originally because I had a tying desk with a drawer in the center (under the tabletop). The C-clamp vises prevent you from accessing it - the pedastals will allow unfettered access to anything. Pedastal vises seem to travel better - meaning, you don't have to worry about how thick the park bench or motel room table is - or whether you'll mar the surface. Plunk the pedastal down and forget about it. On the whole there is little difference save the height the vise jaws can attain. C-Clamp vises usually allow the jaws higher because of the longer rod, pedastal vises are a fixed height. If you're a big fellow, that may be an issue. I think you'll like both styles.

...for a brief moment I asked myself the same question, "What would I catch if I didn't release it?" - shudder - As I was putting my gear away I saw two kids running off with their new trophy...

There's nothing quite like fishing near civilization... As a young lad I found out the California state record for Silver salmon came from a creek near Inverness, California - so I resolved to give it a try. Lots of agribusiness and farming in the area and coupled with the proximity to the ocean, the water was off color and greenish. I set hook on something and realize it's not a fish, figuring it to be a branch that come loose from the far bank as it's merely dead weight on the end of the line. I'm pulling it in slowly and out of the depths emerges this flesh colored object - it's still far enough away so that I can't make it out, but I'm thinking it's a drowned baby or a chunk off a corpse. I could see some small appendage looking thing - and I'm starting to get really uncomfortable - the last thing I want to land is a torso... I get it in close and its flesh colored but it doesn't look right, it's square and pink, perhaps a foot long - with a fleshy looking appendage hanging off the center. I get it onto the sand bar I'm standing on and toe it over with my toe... I had caught a sex toy ... a foot square facsimile of a human woman ...the part south of her beltline... I don't know what was worse, a dead child or what I caught ... I instantly resolved NOT to eat anything outta the creek.