Another stress relieved by the fly.

I like to release my stress with music or fishing and it appears that other people like to use these too.  My good friend just got married a couple of months ago and is already having some arguments with the wife.  He called me up and asked if I wanted to go for a fish with him.  We decided to go to one of my favorite spots on the middle provo.  We talked about what's going on the whole way there.  As soon as we got in the water he said he already felt better.  We ended up fishing for 4 1/2 hours.  By the end of the day.  He said he wasn't worried about the argument anymore and was going to take his wife out for dinner that night.  Its good to see that other people use fly fishing like I do to relieve stress and keep a good balance in my life.

Autotune

Some of you may not be familiar with this program.  Autotune is an audio program that helps users tune speech.  One can tune speech to make anyone sound like they are singing.  I have been learning how to do this manually with Logic Pro in a computer music class this semester.  The Autotune program is a little more user friendly and has a few limitations but is still amazingly fun.  One of the most popular celebrities that gets autotuned is Katie Couric.  Her reports work so well because she hits this monotone level of speech and spaces her words in a way that it fits lyrical formats.
Here is one of her better Autotuned reports.
Katie Couric - @ 1:20
Here is a good Obama Autotune.
 President Obama

Strawberry Reservoir Outing

This weekend instead of watching the U get crushed by TCU I decided to go fly fishing on the Strawberry Reservoir with my internship supervisor who is the president of a local Trouts Unlimited Chapter.  We headed out on the water in our pontoons around 11:00 a.m., it was a late start.  As soon as we got out I caught a 20 inch rainbow trout that made me think the day was going to be productive.  Well it was far from productive.  In the 6 hours that we were out on the lake I only caught 4 fish and my friend only caught 3.  This is surprising because trout in the fall are hungry.  They need to eat as much as they can and store up enough fat reserves to keep them alive in the winter when the lake ices over.  I managed to catch a 21 inch cut throat right before we called it a day.  All and all it was a beautiful day on the Strawberry and I learned a few new open water fishing techniques.

Cutty of the Day

Learning to master tracks

I have been taking a computer music class for my fine arts minor.  In the last 2 weeks I have been learning how to master my own tracks.  In the class we use Logic Pro.  With Logic I can master my tracks to add height, width and depth.  i especially like to add depth to my tracks.  One way I have learned to add depth is by inserting some reverb to some of my sounds.  By adding reverb it can make some of the sounds sound like they are farther away from a mic source.  Adding this reverb makes a track more unique than just all of the sounds coming from one point.  I also like adding some pans to mastered tracks.  Panning is making some instruments come out of the right or left speaker.  I prefer my bass to stay in both speakers and to have things like leads or fills come from either only the left or right speaker.  This adds width to a mastered track.  Using these settings can really make some great sounds.
  

Fish Shocking

This weekend I got to be apart of a trout research project on the Middle Provo River called fish shocking.  The study was being done by the Department of Natural Resources.  I fish shocking is what it sounds like, you zap the fish with electricity.  A pontoon boat with a generator, charged wires hanging off the back and charged nets to net stunned fish is pulled up the river with people manning the charged nets.  As we walked up the river the fish get stunned and float to the surface while we netted as many as we could in a 10th of a mile stretch.  We made 2 passes in the stretch to make sure we captured most of the fish species in the area.  Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout, White Fish and Sculpin fish were collected in the study.  We measured length, weight and species of the over 400 fish captured.  The DNR uses this data to tell what species are thriving and if some are under or overpopulated.  Some of the fish do not survive the study but in the area it is ok because the river is over populated and does not have enough food sources to produce a healthy trout.  I looked at this study from a fly fisherman's perspective.  I would rather catch a 16 inch fish that weighs 3lbs than a 16 inch fish that weighs 1lb.

Being able to be a part of this project was a real privilege.  Most anglers hope they get to do this some day but never get the chance.  I learned a lot about the river I fish so frequently and have a new found respect for the delicate trout population.

    

Fall Break

This last week was fall break.  I spent it in Hawaii at a wedding and in California surfing. No post about fly fishing or Dubstep music this week. Sorry.

Here is a new Dubstep song I really like though.

Got 2 Know

Mind Cleanser

The other morning I spent 2 hours trying to solve a problem I was having with one of my music programs. I was ready to pull out my hair.  I decided to drop what I was doing and picked up my rod and went for a fish.  I fished the same area I was at the day before where I had little luck.  This day was different.  I matched the bug hatch perfectly and crushed fish for the next 2 hours.  It made me forget all about my computer problems.  When I made it back to my computer I did a little research and fixed the problem shortly.  I can honestly say that the trout saved me this day.