Customizing Solomon S/Max Ski Boots At Home 17Mar21

While I had a great day in the tree and on Black Hawk, for the 1st time this season, my new S/Max ski boots made my feet numb in 8 runs.

I contemplated alternatives and did the dive on how to customize my boots at home. None of the great sites recommend heating these liners and customizing them. It seems this might just wear them down and take out some life. The recommendation is really just to ski them and they'll break is after several outings. Hmmm... but OK. These boots also have a graphite 3D core for a shell and are themselves customizable. The technical manual doesn't advise the home method but when do I listen to rules - they are guidelines. The center of the material must reach 176° F to deform well. So here's what I did... I preheated the oven for 200° and removed the liners from the shells. I then heated the shells in the oven for 10 minutes, during which time I assembled two 2" deep ice baths (to rapidly cool the boots after customization. I left the footbeds in the bottom of the shells while I cooked them - Solomon recommends that.

Get some gloves ready as the buckles are pretty hot right from the oven. When "cooked" remove the shells from the oven and on a stable floor, quickly but carefully, reinsert the liners into the boots. Step into the boots and buckle up & strap up normally. Take a skiing position for 5 minutes - don't move or walk around. Then, step into the ice bath and maintain a skiing position for another 10 minutes to cool the deformed boot down to "set it."

 

After the ice bath get out of the boots and put them in the fridge for another 10 minutes. Keep them upright if you can - but I couldn't. Once removing them from the fridge, they are ready for some runs on the freshies.

 

Field trial in new-fallen... what a difference a day and some customization make. I was more vigorous, more comfortable, more controlled and stoked. The new fit worked as needed without losing any feel or performance. I grabbed a bunch of runs on the 7" of new stuff @ Keystone. Spring conditions as the sun was out and the new snow got thick, but gr8 fun.

Gettin' Real With Eggs - Tying Otter's Milking Egg 14Mar21

I've now long used and prefer "squirmy worm" material to tie aquatic worms. My favorite is my two-toned Obi-wan variant of the San Juan worm. I randomly read of Otter's Milking Egg pattern, attended by some praise. It uses a similar gummy material for the egg as do squirmy worms. In search I found the exact team/company, in Denver, who innovated the tie, and bought the materials directly from them. I decided to go whole hog and tied the egg with a yolk/seed mimic as well as milking around the egg. Here I describe the tie with pics along with some tips for easing the task. First the finished egg.

 

Here are the ingredients for what I believe will be the more successful eggs in Colorado. 6mm eggs on size 12 scud hooks with Antron yarn for the whites and a tiny red glass bead for the seed. I used olive thread that matched the hook color.

I first pierced the gummy egg with a fine knitting needle at the spot where I'd plucked it from its string. Stay aware of the location of this piercing as you then need to set the red bead on the needle and use it to insert the bead into the egg. This is the fumbliest part of the whole tie ~ I dropped too many beads or they popped right back out. When done set this assembly aside with the egg still on the needle as you need to know that pierce location later.

Build a thread base in the middle of the hook, ending about at the bend. Select a sparse amount of Antron yarn and pull it apart and rebunch it so as to basically align the fibers. Tie the bunch at its mid-point to the back of the wrap and overwrap to make "2 tails" of Antron flowing backwards.

 

Apply a dab of cyanoacrylate to the thread base; then grab the egg assembly noting the piercing location and slide it over the eye all the way back to the Antron. 2/3 of the egg, including the yolk, should be on top of the hook. Move the thread forward to near the hook eye on the underside of the egg and wrap once.

Grab 85% of the Antron fibers (leaving a smidge of milk) and broaden/widen the bunch while you move them over the egg (covering ~180° or half the egg) and secure them with loose wraps. Compress the egg a smidge by pulling on the Antron forward and then tighten and move the Antron back as milking flow and tie tight warps. Whip finish.

Field trials this year will tell but I already sense that these are serious upgrade in realism for salmon eggs. Here I compare my classic egg tie with the new one and show the eggs and squirmy worms in the box. Browns tracking spawning 'bows in the spring and trout following spawning Kokanee in the fall will love these.

UPDATE 31Mar21... This is a field trial update as I've now used this "bug" on multiple outings. I need to make the milking Antron tighter to the egg on the top as it ten bunch into a single multi-threaded strand around the side and really appear just flowing out the back. Else, looks yummy and casts fine.

Back On The Spawn 10Mar21

Before snow-ma-geddon and 2nd jab jitters make it to the Front Range I hit the PT again. I awoke thinking 11 Mile but the 25° temperature difference sent me south. I still received a full onslaught of winds though - typically 20+ mph today - think wind knots and resultant rerigging, and streamers in your face. I ran the same play of midges in the AM and spey practice in the PM. Caught some nice fish on the Awesome Midge, including a fat 17"er, 18" escape artist, and a longer 19"er, among others. The cutbows are wild on the redds and it was difficult finding fish to cast toward. Gorgeous day again.

Here's a vid of some action on the redds - if you can dig it...

In the afternoon, beyond getting whapped in the head with a cast, I did raise my spey casting success to ~20%. Plenty of work to do but my butt repair is solid. Man, when you do hit the spey cast right it can really cover some water. I got to 20% success by mimicking a lacrosse toss with my bottom hand-upper hand levering motion. Work to do but the rod feels sweet when I hit the note.

Alpha Male, Shit Spey Casts, Broken Butt And Two Flats 08Mar21

I hit the PT again today with intentions of fishing with flies (OK, the Awesome Midge) in the AM and then learning the spey cast with the Rodfather THMS in the field in the PM. On the 1st count, well done - I caught a number of fish on midges, mainly the Awesome, but the vinyl in grey too, on an overcast AM out of Nature Center. I did have a big fish day by landing a 20" alpha male from one of the of holes I could fish (due to crowdation). Awesome catch as I downsized to the Rodfather Cutthroat 9' 4wt. The SA Anadaro head flew through the guides and retrieve on the Redington Rise was smooth like butter. I'lll show just the a couple but a decent morning... messed up some of the pics, that's why there aren't more big broadsides

Unfortunately the PM session of spey casting was cut very short when my THMS butt end broke in two. I didn't secure the added on butt piece with a center dowel, so it snapped off in my hand. No problem... already fixed. To cap the afternoon though, when I returned to the house I was in the middle of having two flats on the Crusher. I was able to get to Discount Tire before closing and they fixed one and ordered a new one for the other. Right now I am spareless. Sheesh, I must've hit a nail perfectly to flatten two tires.

Lax Is Back And So Is Lehigh 06Mar21

Mid February the '21 college lacrosse season started on time so it seems that a full season will be played. This year my alma mater Lehigh is ranked for the first time in a while. Today they bested their nemesis in the Patriot League, Loyola, 10-6 for the first time in school history. Woohoo... bring on Army & Navy.

New 'Bows On A Field Trial & New Boots 05Mar21

I took the Rodfather All Blacks (10' 5wt) out for a spin on the PT today. Another gorgeous day with decent results, though I did not land any alpha males. The All Blacks crushed casting, mending and landing though it's designer did miss landing 3 hookups today. Again the Awesome Midge was the main tool though Purple Reign caught one. While a couple days ago it was all males, today I caught two ladies. It was fun but crowded again and just 17-19 inchers from about 1/2 the spots I might otherwise fish. Here are four of 'em - 2 males (left facing) and 2 females (right facing). I'm stoked about the All Blacks and used the fighting butt in my gut on one fish which took me to the backing downstream.

It is also time to update my ~15 yr old Solomon alpine ski boots, given it's nearing the end of the season so I can find a deal, and my current alpine boots are getting loose and have already had new liners & sole pads and footbed updates. I was able to find new Solomon S/Max boots in my size on the interweb (and fortunately they fit great even w/out customization) for less than 1/2 price! They were a top reviewed boot these last two years and known to fit a narrow foot like mine. These things actually have moldable shells (and moldable liners)... awesome baby.

Beautiful 1st Day Fishing In '21 03Mar21

What a forecast - what a day - 65° and no wind - today was my 1st day fishing in 2021 (I've been passing on the crowded Blue tailwaters) but the weather did roust up quite a few fishermen. While the flows are very low at <60cfs... the cutbow spawn is "on" and readily observable on the PT section of the Arkansas. The local grey brown midge hatch was the only bug I observed hatching. I caught a number of fish in the AM out of the Nature Center, all on #22 Awesome Midge. That included two nicer male cutbows of 18" and 20", among some other good fish. The longest one was toothy and spectacularly colored - I observed larger fish but couldn't hook up when they were off the redds. I encountered a young well-equipped spin fisherman casting right over and through some active redds > I mentioned that: "we don't do that; though it's a free country for humans and while you can choose to so do it, since the fish have no rights, they aren't interested in your 'food' there, just spawning, all you might do is snag one; we don't do that." I moved on and he kept casting over the redds - I thought I was clear and not too snarky. Finally a snafu to begin - while the Crusher Too got me there and back w/o issue, my keychain was devoid of the rod vault key; it had come off and is lost! I was all about the Rodfather lineup in my head on the drive down so it was disappointing to have to rig up the Sage X... but it worked well as always. I have a spare and opened the vault but sheesh, gotta get backup keys made.