Tool Case and Owner look alike contest

[Alan Barnard]

Ah, Ron, truly there is more than one way to skin a gerbil.

I prefer my trusty Gunck Ultimate ... every time I open it, all the tools are rearranged. It keeps life from getting dull.

I just now, out of morbid curiosity, opened the new Schaff catalog to page 89 and tried to remember why the blazes I spent $235 for this TCSO (Tool Case Shaped Object). The picture looks so good; so many tools so neatly peeking out of their perfectly fitted slots. And the written description ... why, who can resist such mots de commercialisation as "Super tough", "Ballistic Nylon", "Heavy duty", and ... it resists animal hair! Wow. No wonder I bit, mucho moocho macho man that I aspire to be. Ah, c'est l'erreur stupide. Véritablement, j'ai été suckered. Jamais encore, avec espoir.

Alan Barnard
Salem, MO

>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