Before heading to TX for redfish with Rob I grabbed a gorgeous day at Keystone. I went over mid-AM to allow the sun to soften the snow as yesterday was very cold and windy. Mission accomplished - it was a stellar sunny day. My only real issue was that I screamed down Outback on one run and jumped 20 ft on the last bump - I didn't land too well and net a yard sale. Fortunately I just sustained bruises and skied off fine. Whew.
Well we do have tickets to the late spring Mysterines concert at Lost Lk in Denver. I am really looking forward to their first tour of the US (9 stops so far) as their show skills are notable. They will hopefully play their entire catalog of original material that's published (20 songs), and maybe some covers, but the show will focus on stuff from their recently released debut album, Reeling. Their first 4 songs were on an EP called Take Control, which was fantastic, and the pandemic EP was Love's Not Enough with 3, also very good. I actually bought the CD for Reeling and ripped it to .flac of course ~ I could not find high def stuff. There are songs on there that I had not heard from YouTube dives, but not many. The Mysterines have been decent at rolling out stuff from live studio visits or club appearances where I've been able to get the house feed - so the album is not all new to me. Just as for the EPs linked above, here's the full audio of Reeling on YouTube, just click though...
The Mysterines Reeling is getting strong grades by reviewers (81 metacritic) but here's what I think... since the beginning, their material has been consistently very good. With the 2nd EP and Reeling, they had a full time lead guitarist, and part time backup vocalist, and while that was vital, Lia's writing has been stellar forever. Reeling was produced by Catherine Marks (Wolf Alice & PJ Harvey), so yeah, very strong. This stuff is often gut thumping post-grunge, modern alt indie rock, with lead Lia Metcalfe's words sometimes dark. She's got the sultry growling lead voice and serves up her words earnestly. Sure, I focus on female leads these days, no question, and she is one who is out there. Mysterines stage presence is confident and the band's skills are sharp... this comes across clearly on the album too. Let's approach this track by track; as I've done before I'll add a recent live recordings when possible - but now I'm going to provide running critique & commentary too ~ for whomever cares.
I've been an Anais Mitchell fan since before the pandemic when I heard some tunes from her Tony-winning Broadway show Hadestown... she wrote the book and music; it's awesome. She's been writing and singing for much longer but this effort really raised her in my consciousness. Since then I've listened to her many other diverse offers including the folk supergroup Bonny Light Horsemen and her big catalog of "solo" stuff with studio musicians. I encourage everyone to absorb the material if you wish and appreciate the range of this mighty talent. Here are examples of her stuff, including the rarely mentioned debut album (the only non-live thing on the list).
We knew the book and the music so it was about the performance on the last day of Hamilton @ Buelle in Denver. Simply awesome. We'd waited through the C19 delay to get our 5th row seat and it was worth it. Prior we dined breakfast Tomeato Italian at the hotel. Kala and I had studied Lin Manuel Miranda's book and music and were prepared for the spectacular 2.5 hours of rap. But really since we had prepared we knew how good the book was, it came down to the Denver performances, sound and dance. Whoa - cool AF in all ways. The orchestra was "on" given the pianist's /director's last day; the ensemble was beautiful and timely - their moves from the wings and the turntable were gorgeous; the voices of characters were awesome ~ even given the 2nd and 3rd understudies in the show; choreography and dance were great; mostly, attending mates were beyond. We wanna hit Buele again - maybe Hadestown if we can score the right tix. So good.
I'm still building rods, and I've always had a thing for ultralight. I am still searching for the perfect small river graphite 2 weight. The Rodfather Headwaters is great but at just 6'6" it can't roll cast well and shoots pretty short. Enter the Rodfather Lightning Rod, a fast high modulus carbon fiber 8'2" 4pc sold to me as a 2/3 but measuring out closer to a strong 3 wt with a real rod number ERN of 3.6 and a very fast AA of 71°. All the materials cost <$90. So, it's very cheap but very light and smooth. It is probably more comparable to the Rodfather Brookie, my current go to 9' 3wt, but this rod is a full oz lighter and it's faster.
I wrapped out the rod in contrasting sunset colorfast nylon with some brown accents ~ this wrap matches the color in the wooden reel seat insert. Plus, for the 1st time for me, I wrapped some sections using variegated thread... this added funky moire patterns. The Lightning Rod is based on a new matte black Chinese blank weighing
only 1.15 oz. I chose a gunmetal colored
ultralight aluminum (w/ maple insert) reel seat weighing just .67 oz and a
TiChrome single foot guide set which weighs feathers. The guides needed to be ground a bit before mounting so that was an extra step but I really like the sturdy coating on the guide set. The net result is the lightest build out above the blank weight that I've done, just 1.53oz all up. I mis-marked the rod at 3.2oz but actual weight is a scant 2.67oz! The only lighter rods in my quiver are the RFSB1 8ft 1wt and the Sage 7'10" 1wt. So, wow.
The rod is mated to the Piscifun Sword 3.4 (or Lamson Guru II - weights are basically equivalent) loaded with SA Frequency WF3F line which loads the rod well and balances the system nicely to boot. I don't even take the original drc#1 out anymore, as it's a less handy 2 piece, and it measures out as a 4wt, so I could remove the Sword from it. The Lightning casts great in the yard, long and true, including mends and tight rolls, but proof will be in the field like on the upper Blue or Arkansas, and even the Gore. In comparing it directly to the SB1, Brookie, and Headwaters Rodfather rods, I actually seem to prefer the feel of the Lightning, it but I will do a more specific shootout in a future entry.
Today I was cleaning lines from last season, among other preparations, and was surprised to find the the RFBK (9' 4pc 3wt), my go to 3 weight, had lost the slick zirconium ring inside the spinning guide. This was not an expensive guide set, but still, it should last beyond one season. However, to be honest, I did crash with it climbing down to the Blue @ Jurassic on snow & ice in 2020 - maybe that's contributory. Who knows - I had inventory of an effective chrome replacement spinning guide and repaired the rod. I cut off the old guide and cleaned up the spot (pic is pre-cleaning) and wrapped and epoxied on a new guide. Good as new... maybe better, who knows. It's ready for the lightweight shootout.
The Nature Center section saved the day as my AM was bountiful on the Town section, just without any prodigious sizes. I caught a dozen before 1pm in Town; all cutbows but all <15". Flows have been rocked on the PT recently but it had several days of stable 120cfs or so. Despite the 40mph winds ~ resulting in 3 rig rebuilds in the morning ~ I headed down after a dusting at Blodgett last night. All the bugs worked today in Town (egg, blood midge, black MH zebra, awesome, purple reign) but just fooled smaller fish. Perhaps it's my (lack of) familiarity with the town section, or the crowds, or my dogshit casts in the wind.
At 1pm I stepped out of the river and spoke to a guide in camo neoprene whose clients caught modest fish too - but with similar sizing. I guess the spawn and accessible bigs have moved upstream so I did too. At the Nature Center section I was nearly alone and headed straight to the farm and stream opposite. I slayed some nice fish in both of these spots as well as at the hook weir. Despite the added heft of the Mirage III and 6wt line, the setup allowed sharp accurate casts and mending to dead drift well ~ I've found it's niche: wind & big fish. The best was the 21" alpha male @ the farm; he was resting and feeding behind a rock in the 'hood... but there were many others.
'Twas a nice day, though windy, on the PT @ Nature Center. Flows are still winter low and clarity is pristine. I did decently with 7 fish registering strength and mostly 18"-19.75"... pics are representative. I only raised one in the farm and none @ the hook weir but elsewhere in haunts did OK. It was kinda crowded and I ranged among just three good spots immediately above the big weir. I still haven't posted a >20"er in Mar22... grrr. The NC fish were like these and taken on midges including Awesome, Purple Reign, and Blood. I saw two mayflies today but some others may have come as I saw a #18 spinner and some sipping later in the day. The fish are moving all over the redds now so targeting is not on them but in nearby waters... the Rodfather True Five continues to be handy.
Bonus Segment - The Ross Evo LTX is awesome. I have the 4-5 on my light 5 weight rod. I've been using the RFT5 quite a bit and the reel mate is the platinum colored Ross Evo LTX. Drag and drag engagement is smooth AF. The reel is also super light but with plenty of capacity. I got mine for much less than the current $445 ask. I haven't banged it around yet the way I tend to do with reels - so can't speak to resistance to bends and such yet. In almost any case, this reel is highly recommended.
Kala & I arrived in Summit between storms; we hit ORB to grab a 4 pack and enjoyed their latest. The mid-week storm then put Bro Brown and his kid Molly and his GKs in a hotel for Wed night; this did not deter them from some ski days in Summit Co and they charged through. Kala & I enjoyed seeing Molly and her kids again when they stopped at the Nest for some appetizers & margs ~ perhaps James wasn't as pleased with the whole thing but he and Claire loved our many hiding spots. :) I at least got one day of rest (and sub-zero temps) from the 35K ft outing with TAW before DaveS picked me up for an onslaught at Vail. We had a great 20K ft day there in chilly, but sunny & still, weather with soft snow. I'm showing us in front of the rugged Gore Range and in front of Mt Of The Holy Cross. We skied all over the mountain and made it back to the Nest to learn how broken the Primes are, and fraudulent with naked shorts ~ this exposed decently in the documentary Gaming Wall Street. Always good to hang with Dave.
Tom & Leslie joined us at the Nest to facilitate Tom's One Day Epic Pass and do some stuff. Tom & I enjoyed a gob of runs @ Keystone on a chilly and snowy day. We arrived early, skied long, and left late. Tom loves a good value when skiing his one day a year. A fun time with plenty of bombers on all three peaks. We stopped for a brief snack and warm up mid-day in the relatively empty Outpost atop North. The day's outing was sufficient to put me at the top of the vert captured leaderboard when I left Tom around 2pm (the 42K is from a prior day). I posted ~35K ft of vert. At Steep, the leader at 4:30pm gets a free beer... which likely would've been me or Tom, if he'd load the app or wanted a beer. Nonetheless we left the beer on the table and departed around 3:30pm. Tom & I hit the spa before finding our table at the new Bistro North. Happily our meals, while not cheap, were very good - I especially enjoyed my chop with bacon jam laced risotto. We closed the eve with a fun game of Ticket To Ride, new to T&L. Also a fun note of the day was Yoho indicating it was chilly in Ahwatukee for he and my friend Steve Gordon playing golf @ Foothills.
