Time Out

[Wetswinger]

I’ve been fishing at least one day a week this whole year. Being retired makes this a little more feasible as I watch the weather forecast and cherry pick which day I’ll go. It’s gotten so bad that I’ve turned into a mid-week snob. Fishing with the weekend warriors? Think I’ll pass.(lol) After not going for a couple weeks and probably not another one or two, according to the weather man, I can say it hasn’t been so bad. I’ve gone through all my gear and have cleaned and reorganized it, finally thrown out those stupid beat up flies I’ll never use again. I went and bought a bunch of fly tying material and tied dozens of new, can’t miss patterns. So this winter weather does have a silver lining. If I only had some heat in my garage I’d tackle some pram painting and maintenance. Hoping you’ve found some solace in this winter break..

 

[Roper]

I know what you mean about having your shop on hold during the cold weather. I have a half done project that I can’t complete because it requires glue up. So I decided to make some cedar planter boxes that are simply screwed together. Meanwhile, inside, I’ve been doing a lot of rummaging through my components for reloading. I’ve been hoarding stuff for a long time and it’s getting a bit overwhelming. So there’s no time like now to go ahead and reload and stock up for all sorts of shooting. I’ll be hitting the indoor range at least once a week. As soon as weather warms up a little, I’ll head to the island for some trap shooting.
There’s not much to do concerning fishing, as I have everything I need in place when spring comes along. Tim Lockhart has turned me into a bit of a minimalist.

 

[SurfnFish]

If have some basic skills, not difficult to install an overhead heater in the garage, just need a suitable breaker in the panel, amp matched wiring to an outlet for the heater to plug into. A quality 5000 watt unit can be had for a couple hundred bucks, breaker and wiring $50, want a wall mounted thermostat another $50. I've done them in several garages we've owned, never took more than a short day.

 

[Irafly]

The mid week good weather trip to avoid the weekend crowds might backfire on ya.

About 13 years ago I took some time off for the birth of one of my kids. I took advantage of the time to hit Lone lake midweek during a nicer weather day. I showed up and there were more guys there than I had ever seen before. Maybe a fly club? Nope, talked to a few guys, and they all said the same thing. They were all retired and they cherry picked the days they fished to hit good weather and to beat the crowds. None of them would even dream of fishing the lake on a weekend. When I explained that this was the busiest I’d ever seen the lake, they couldn’t quite wrap their heads around it! Most of us caught a lot of fish that day!

 

[krusty]

Aside from flytying in the winter I work on my bicycles in my easily heated small backyard shop. Occasionally go to the local indoor range to shoot handguns to remain proficient.

Outside, if it's snowy I head to a variety of locations to snowshoe (yesterday did Mt Spokane) or hike if snowless. Gotta keep moving....rust and atrophy never sleeps, even more so with age. It's a rare day I don't get in a few miles of walking.

Also heavily use my rower and stationary bicycle.

I downhill skied for many years but became more leery of doing so in my 70's after watching many of my contemporaries experiencing very long recovery times after accidents on the slopes...don't relish the idea of having an injury recovery impacting upcoming outdoor recreation.

Echoing @Irafly ....I've found that on most of the lakes I fish the weekend angler pressure isn't much different than weekdays (maybe because the huge boomer retired cohort now skips weekends, and an increasingly large number of working age people simply don't fish due to little available discretionary free time), a discovery made taking my grandchildren flyfishing during weekends because they're far more limited due to their school or worklife schedules.

 

[SpeyrodGB]

If have some basic skills, not difficult to install an overhead heater in the garage, just need a suitable breaker in the panel, amp matched wiring to an outlet for the heater to plug into. A quality 5000 watt unit can be had for a couple hundred bucks, breaker and wiring $50, want a wall mounted thermostat another $50. I've done them in several garages we've owned, never took more than a short day.
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I love my heated garage. Makes life much nicer.