Sea to Summit garage sale

A local outdoor gear company, Sea to Summit held their garage sale on last Sunday.

I picked up 8 pairs of Smart Wool socks at $5 pair at start. I got a few of these socks at the last year's garage sale, and I fell in love with them.  Feel soft and comfortable, so I got more this year.

I also bought a Smart Wool merino wool T-shirt for $20, but this was disappointing. Compared to my unbelievably soft, yet outrageously expensive "Seventeen.5 T" from iBex, it feels like wearing a piece of sandpaper. It is just too itchy for me to wear, so I might pass it to our dog who loves a piece of clothes to sleep on.

The T-shirt wasn't a good pick, but I am happy with a pair of merino bottom which I got for $30.  They are 3/4 length for some reason, and although I would preferred a full length one, a shorter length might be handy, if I am going to wear it on top of a full length merino bottom as an extra layer.

A few other goodies have been scored too, including a pocket trowel ($3) for going to toilet in the bush and a small folding kitchen sink ($2) to wash the dishes, vegetables and fruits, and of course a fly reel at a camp site.

As for the last year's sale, I am happy to picked up some treasures at such low prices.

Mysterious Circle on the river

We went to fishing in the afternoon, but the luck wasn't on my side.

I hooked up a few fish, but I kept breaking my tippet for some reason. I landed a small tailor first, so I suspect that they could be the ones nipping off my leader.

Then the sky turned dark, and the rain came.

As the rain clouds were passing and the wind stared blowing hard, we saw something strange on the water.

A small patch of a clam water showed up in front of us, and it was completely round like those mysterious crop circles appear on corn fields.

It might have been a portal to the underwater world, and I could have been able to meet with beautiful mermaids, if I had jumped into it.  Too bad, I didn't bring my packraft with me.

It was wet and cold today.  Winter is near, I guess

A little smelly slimy trumpeter

A mysterious circle on the water

A mysterious fisherman on the road

Lucky me, they weren't sharks

A pod of dolphins showed up in front of me on Saturday.

One came very close to my packraft, and it surfaced next to the raft in a rod length away (unfortunately, my waterproof point & shoot camera was fast enough to take a good shot).

I saw another dolphin crossing a meter in front of the raft, only its fin was showing on the water.  It was just like a scene that I saw in the movie, Jaws, and although I knew it wasn't a shark, I couldn't help hearing that theme music from the movie in my head.

Anyway, It was very exciting.


土曜日にパックラフトに乗って 釣りをしていると、１００メートル位先にイルカのファミリーが見えました。

どうやらエサの魚を追っているみたいで、どうやらこちらへ向かって来ている様子。そうこうしている内に、すぐ目の前まで来ました。

歩く速さしか出ないパックラフトを一生懸命漕いでイルカの群れの近くまでいくと、一匹のイルカは、パックラフトのすぐ真横に浮上してきました。

その後は、違う１匹が、船首から１メートルの所をフィンの先だけを出して通過。まさに、映画ジョーズで見た様なシーン。

サメじゃないと分かっていても、。正直、もしかしたらパックラフトをひっくり返されのでは？とビビりました。

On the river on my packraft

I have been paddling out on my packraft since I got it a couple of weeks ago.

I haven't caught fish from it yet though, but fish will come soon or later, I guess.

For now, I just love to float on the water to re-discover our local river.

The packraft allows me to see the river from a different perspective.  It is the same river that I fish every week, but it looks like there is a new world out there for me to explore.

Alpacka Raft makes a few different models of packrafts, and it was difficult for me to decide which one to get.

However, I opted for Explorer for two things at the end for two things.

First, Explorer has a longer waterline than other models which allows the raft to go bit faster track better on flat water.  

Second, it has a roomy cockpit to put extra stuff like my fly fishing gears.

Explorer has a spacious cockpit for fishing gears, etc

To fly fish for black breams from the raft (or any watercraft), I believe it is a good idea to drop an anchor to stop the raft from drifting, or at least slow down the speed of drift significantly. 

The bream often hits a fly when the fly stops moving, so it doesn't help, if the raft is being pushed by the wind like a piece of polystyrene foam.

I have tried a couple of different options for anchors so far.

One was an old drink bottle filled with sand.  It slowed down the raft, but wasn't effective enough to stop the drift (it may be different, if I use a bigger bottle).  It was bit awkward to put sand in it, and get sand out afterwards too.

The another idea was using a plastic bag again filled with sand.  The plastic bag was then placed in a cotton shopping bag.  

It worked very well in terms of stopping the raft from drifting.  However, it was a messy job to bring it back on board after pulling it up from a muddy bottom.

I look for something else this weekend.

I took the raft out on one evening.

I was just drifting with wind and  watching the sun going down.

It was very peaceful.