The Damn I'm Old Thread - Putting Up With Being a Geezer

[Lopez]

I really got into fly fishing around 2005

I've never fly fished, but I've done years-worth of freshwater spin-casting. I have the patients of Job, and can sit there for hours just watching the bobber hoping that something will grab the bait. Mostly, I've caught blue-gills and sun fish. When I want something more sporting, I go up to New Hampshire and use a Dardevil lure for pickerel. They can put up a heck of a fight. I'll only keep to eat one if it's over a foot long and weighs a good pound of so. Good eating fish. The best, though, are catfish, for eating and fighting. They are the hardest to fish for as they stay on the bottom. You have to let the bait sink to the bottom and just hope a cat comes by while it's vacuuming the bottom. More often than not, the hook snags a rock or a sunken branch.

[progeezer]

OK, someone tell me if there are ANY NYC Jews raised by Socialist parents in an academic environment that are into fishing of any kind.

[moecurlythanu]

Most of the guys I work with are in to huntin' and fishin'. Can't say I really get it, but people are different, as it should be.

[Jerjo]

Got lots of guys huntin' and fishin' 'round here too. We don't have fly fishing at all. Fishing means sitting in a boat or on an ice house for hours on end. I have about as much patience for that as I do watching paint dry. To each their own.

[spellbound]

"Fin."

I see what you did there.

And nice igneous rock in that pic...

That's gneiss, or it appears so. A metamorphic rock.

[Jefferson James]

I'm no geologist but I do believe the San Gabriel's are made up of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rock, not that I could casually identify any of them (except sedimentary). Apparently it's a very complex range which makes sense since it straddles the Pacific and North American plates.

[Jefferson James]

I've never fly fished, but I've done years-worth of freshwater spin-casting. I have the patients of Job, and can sit there for hours just watching the bobber hoping that something will grab the bait. Mostly, I've caught blue-gills and sun fish. When I want something more sporting, I go up to New Hampshire and use a Dardevil lure for pickerel. They can put up a heck of a fight. I'll only keep to eat one if it's over a foot long and weighs a good pound of so. Good eating fish. The best, though, are catfish, for eating and fighting. They are the hardest to fish for as they stay on the bottom. You have to let the bait sink to the bottom and just hope a cat comes by while it's vacuuming the bottom. More often than not, the hook snags a rock or a sunken branch.

Pickerel are cool, cool fish, I used to see small ones in creeks up in New Hampshire, I never caught one. Friends used to catch 'em ice fishing. I can't fish lakes or large bodies of water, or big rivers. They're too hard to read without gadgetry. Give me a bold, aggressive, splashy mountain creek and I will find the holding areas.

I used to go for catfish when I was a kid, just a chunk of Veleeta on a hook sunk to the muddy bottom and wait for the gentle take. Catfish can get freaking huge!

I used to use ultra-light spin gear and tiny spoons/lures but -- and please don't tell anyone -- when I switched to flies it was like night and day. My catch and release rate went thru the roof. It's SO much more effective and far less damaging than conventional lures with their overkill, ridiculous treble hooks (barbaric, pun intended, I hate those things, so unfair).

RANT: All you need is a single barbless hook and the skill to keep the fish on the line. And a landing net and gloves so as to never touch the fish directly. I cannot watch YouTube fishing videos because of how horribly 99% of the anglers handle the fish; imagine running 2 miles (ie the fish on the line is the runner expending energy) then you are plunged underwater for minutes at a time (you taking the fish out of the water so it can't breathe). It's brutal.

This is why I have struggled with fishing all my life; I go thru phases. Right now, it's been probably 7, 8 years since I really went out and fished, hard. I hate drought but it gave me the excuse to leave the fish alone.

Incidentally, I am talking about respect and protection of wild fish; if someone wants to fish a stocked lake, go ahead and use whatever gear you want 'cause you're gonna keep the fish anyway.

I'll keep you posted when I get out and see what some of the nearby streams look like after the crazy winter we had. Fish on!

[walt]

I'm no geologist but I do believe the San Gabriel's are made up of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rock, not that I could casually identify any of them (except sedimentary). Apparently it's a very complex range which makes sense since it straddles the Pacific and North American plates.

One of John McPhee's books about geology and plate tectonics(Assembling California) spends a few paragraphs describing the geology of the San Gabriels.They are complex, caught up in the San Andreas family of faults.They are fractured, sheared and generally messed up, which makes them not the best range to do rock climbing on.People die every year climbing the San Gabriels, hoping for a secure hand or foot hold on solid rock and sometimes finding that the rock is so fractured and incompetent that it gives way and down they go,sometimes, to their doom.

[Jefferson James]

One of John McPhee's books about geology and plate tectonics(Assembling California) spends a few paragraphs describing the geology of the San Gabriels.They are complex, caught up in the San Andreas family of faults.They are fractured, sheared and generally messed up, which makes them not the best range to do rock climbing on.People die every year climbing the San Gabriels, hoping for a secure hand or foot hold on solid rock and sometimes finding that the rock is so fractured and incompetent that it gives way and down they go,sometimes, to their doom.

You're not kidding. A noted Sierra climber and author was almost killed a number of years ago; this guy, RJ Secor, is a mountaineer and the San Gabe's f'd him up.

Being so close to LA there are dozens of news reports every year of "citydiots" venturing into the brush and getting into serious trouble or worse.

Respect.

[Firth]

One of John McPhee's books about geology and plate tectonics(Assembling California) spends a few paragraphs describing the geology of the San Gabriels.They are complex, caught up in the San Andreas family of faults.They are fractured, sheared and generally messed up, which makes them not the best range to do rock climbing on.People die every year climbing the San Gabriels, hoping for a secure hand or foot hold on solid rock and sometimes finding that the rock is so fractured and incompetent that it gives way and down they go,sometimes, to their doom.

The Japanese may take the pressure off CA[emoji6]
http://www.scienceworldreport.com/ar...cean-floor.htm

[NogbadTheBad]

So this thread has devolved into talking about ailments, fishing and geology? All we need is comments about how much better it was when we were kids and it'll be complete.

[Jerjo]

So this thread has devolved into talking about ailments, fishing and geology? All we need is comments about how much better it was when we were kids and it'll be complete.

Well the music sure as hell was better

[walt]

Yeah, and pizza was 15 cents a slice, and.....Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[mogrooves]

Well the music sure as hell was better

[trespass]

When that happens to me I internally cheer & go "YES"!

I've been told by enough people on PE that I look 62 instead of 72, and I've seen more than a few people at the pharmacy not yet 60 who look like my older sibling.

That's because they have been smoking cigarettes and meth for the last thirty years...

[Progmatic]

Not even nostalgia is as good as used to be


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[IncogNeato]

I'm 45, my kid is finished with university and has moved out, the missus and I are on our own (whilst paying for university), my hair is thinning, graying, and thinning some more, I whine about fuel prices, complain when drivers don't use turn signals, and wonder when kids my sons age (but not him, of course) got to be so damn dumb.

I. Am. Old.

[Vic2012]

Fuck. I wish I was 45.

[walt]

I have callouses older than 45.

[IncogNeato]

Now I don't feel so old.

[Jefferson James]

Now I don't feel so old.

You've got a lot to look forward to over the next 10 years or so, exciting times for you!*

*Me at 54 and wondering WTF happened. Please, God, just give me my 20/20 vision back ok? I hate carrying and wearing reading glasses!

[Yves]

"Sometimes my head hurts and sometimes my stomach hurts
And I guess it won't be long
For I'm sitting in a room with a bunch
Of people whose necks and backs are aching
Whose sight and hearing's fading
Who just can't seem to get it up..."

[Jerjo]

[Firth]

You've got a lot to look forward to over the next 10 years or so, exciting times for you!*

*Me at 54 and wondering WTF happened. Please, God, just give me my 20/20 vision back ok? I hate carrying and wearing reading glasses!

Dude just admit you have cataracts and get intraocular lens implants. I did, but still wear glasses but the distance vision without glasses is good, and means I don't need prescription sunglasses. Everybody has cataracts of some extent. When removed the clarity and contrast, plus color is awesome.

[IncogNeato]

I have to wear glasses for distance, I can't see up close with them. I also have trouble seeing in dim light now, and glare is a bitch when it rains at night.

My shit's fucked up...