Tool Case and Owner look alike contest

[Ron Nossaman]

> Barbara hit close to home with this one:  
> 
> "Maybe there should be a contest to see who looks most
> like their tool case...you know like people and their
> pets..."
> 
> Unfortunately, I resemble that remark.  A little
> overstuffed, a little confused, but (hopefully) ready
> for anything, if I can just remember where I....
> 
> The first person who comes to mind as a contest winner
> is Jack Stebbins.  He is a neat, efficient, trim
> little guy with a neat, efficient, trim little tuning
> kit.  
> 
> Greg Graham


Back when I was a kid, more distant in years than in 
intellect, I recall reading an article in (I think) Field and 
Stream about trout fishing. The premise then, as now, was that 
trout are at least as smart as anglers and considerably more 
cautious, and the best way to sucker them into being angled is 
to present a bait that most closely resembles what they are 
eating by choice, on this particular day, from what this 
particular stream's buffet has to offer at this time. The 
author had dissected a couple of trout, presumably dynamited 
into his possession, since he hadn't yet ascertained what to 
catch them with (this part seems to have been left to the 
reader to ponder), and determined from stomach content that 
they had been feeding on what was best described as a wretched 
mess. Thus enlightened, the author replicated said wretched 
mess to the best of his ability in a (mysteriously) dry fly, 
and proceeded to thrash the stream's waters to a foam in quest 
of the wily trout.

I regret that I don't recall if this approach proved 
successful in catching trout, but I've been using a very 
similar wretched mess approach to tool case management in 
field (if not stream) work, to some positive effect for many 
years. Persistent rumors, and some alleged evidence in the 
form of obviously altered photographs, as to the employment of 
unsportsmanlike explosives in the management of said tool case 
remain unsubstantiated and libelous in nature.

Ron N