Fly Rod Chronicles Logo

I got a call from Curtis Fleming about creating a new logo for his TV show Fly Rod Chronicles and of course I accepted the challenge. It has come along way from the original idea sketch and I think both Curtis and I are pleased with some of the final edits. Here is a look at one of them.

Turkeys to musky to carp?

How did a morning chasing turkeys, with a little musky hunting thrown in there, turn into this?

With the help of some good friends that are always "on call" for carp. It started with some tight-lipped gobblers that talked me into running up the river and throw for musky. Not that much excitement other than helping some guys on the bank locate a gobbler that I heard on the private land they were hunting. Their calling faded slowly in the background as I drifted downstream, and almost instantly my opportunistic hears switched to another sound I was real familiar with. That was mating carp in the shallows! The recent rain storms have all but polished off the lake level and did so in the matter of one day, the lake went from 91 ft to 97. That meant newly flooded vegetative flats that the carp have been missing for quit sometime now. They were home and you could tell they liked it. They were making up for lost time in some serious reckless abandonment. After some mucking around, I was able to get my boat in the 15 or so inches of water and began to rig up the biggest rod I had with me-a 7 weight. I thought it was a touch light, and couldn't help but remember the tip I broke off of this same rod on a carp two years ago. To make a long story short, even though they were more concerned with passing on their genes, I was able to land a couple of large fish.

Realizing I was a little out gunnned in this situation, I did the only thing I knew to do-call some backup. Marty, Coby, and Wood were down there soo fast I'm almost certain that some lies were told in such a short notice. We were wet, slimy, cold, and stinky, but loved every bit of . We got some 35 lb'ers and looked like the average was in the 15-20 lb range. When I woke up this morning at 5:00 am to go turkey hunting, the last place I thought I would be is there on the carp shallows at 1:00 am. But hey, its spring time with critters spawning and breeding so you better be prepared to take advantage of any opportunity. That reminds me, I better get my gun out of the boat before I take off up the mountain in the morning.

Whitey is back.........

in the river! The turkeys have been less than cooperative this week but I've been able to keep alive my innate urge to conquer all things wild by beating up on the white bass. I have been able to get on them earlier this year as a result of two things, lake drawdown and my new fishing kayak that my buddy JEB hooked me up with. It is the 10 ft Moken by Feel Free and it is soo fishable and comfortable. I would recommend this setup to anybody looking for a fishing kayak. I've managed in the past to get a turkey and a mess of white bass in the same day, which to me is the celebration of spring time, but this year my goal is this: big gobbler, spank whitey, AND catch a musky in the same day. Not necessarily in that order either, although that is the more likely scenerio.

Trout via Musky

Yeah, it was a musky trip. Yeah, we were throwing big swimbaits. Yeah, this joker tried to swallow one. I couldn't resist taking this photo of an 8 inch rainbow trout swimbait hanging from the mouth of very large and angry bow. Me, Landon, and Walker were all but just discussing the fact that none of us brought a light spinning rod to hit a short section known to hold trout when this slime ball t-boned Walker's plastic. They started getting leader shy so we went from 50# wired leaders to 30#.

Just got started on a new piece....finally. I've got alot of work to do on finishing it up, but it's the fun part of a painting........adding the detail. I caught this rainbow last winter and got Sara to take a picture for me. It was the dead of winter and the fish had the usual dull coat on so I've had to use my own imagination for the colors. I might even put a dry fly in the snout and add a few green leaves to give it a hint of spring.

brown troutz

Kestrel

It is about that time.......the dead of winter when days are short and I get stuck inside more than I want. Well, I got the itch to start painting some and did this Kestrel last night with some titanium white and payne's gray. It was nice to kick back and only worry about using two colors. I actually did this bird for the cover of a birding phamplet which will be in black and white. It was a good warm up piece for me and got me anxious to start on some paintings. I've got some good ideas for my paintings this year.......a bedded buck in snow, strutting turkeys on a steep meadow, and such. I'm going to give the fish a break and concentrate on some mammals instead. Check back in and maybe I'll have something to look at.

Illinois 2010

Just got back from the Land of Lincoln and it was good! The wind blew hard for 4 straight days but the temperatures stayed cool and allowed for some pretty good action. I saw alot of good bucks with most of them coming to the rattling horns, which makes it even more exciting. I was able to pursuade this buck that my rattling horns were more interesting than the doe he was cutting and chasing.

If you want to see what a true monster whitetail looks like then check out this buck taken by Adam Laverde.

It was a real gift being able to put my hands on something like this. It's not very often that you get to see something like this in person. Keep your eyes open because more likely than not you will see this deer again somewhere. Congrats to Adam for tagging a once in a lifetime buck!



Strokes of Genius 3

About 2 months ago I submitted artwork for the next edition of North Lights Book called Strokes of Genius 3: The Best of Drawing. Well guess what.......I got a package in the mail today and was pleased to find out that my "First Cast" scratchboard made it into the book. The book will be available in October 2011 and I can't wait to see my work inside along with the best artists around today. I wished I had sent more than one entry in, but figured I would save some money and just submit that one. I feel confident now that my artwork has reached the level I wanted it to, and I feel more comfortable now embarking on more artistic challenges. The book should be a great one and I would suggest buying one even without my artwork being in it. I will keep you posted next year when it comes out on the stands.

Field and Stream Total Outdoorsman Challenge

The last thing I ever wanted to do was have to compete at a Field and Stream Total Outdoorsman Challenge regional qualifier in order to get my ticket to Dogwood Canyon in Missouri for the finals. Having placed 4th at the finals last year pretty much forced that hand I didn't want to play, but I was happy with the outcome at the regional in Nashville, TN this past weekend. I tied with 1st place, but ended with 2nd after the tie-breaker. This guarantees my ticket to the finals and a shot once again to reclaim the title. It's not going to be easy with the competition that the event is drawing, but with a little luck who knows. I've been really focused lately on the South Holston Flyfishing Festival where I will be the featured "starving" artist. I have been too busy to do any art, and for those hoping to see some, I'm sorry. You just might have to wait until this winter to be totally honest. How can I get all the good reference material unless I'm out there doing it? Hey, I hunt/fish then do art. Not the opposite.  

River Smallies

Not much to say here......except it's that time of year we wait for.

2nd Place at Delaware Trout Stamp Competition!!

I've got some good news for those who were wondering how I placed in the 2011 Delaware Trout Stamp

Competition. The brown trout above got 2nd place and the brook trout I did made it to the second round! I know, if you ain't first your last...but I was merely hoping to get a top 5 finish, and that in itself is tough considering the amazing works from very accomplished artists that enter each year. I want to thank Charles Craumer again, owner of 307 Outfitters in WY, for the reference photo. If you want to catch one of these big browns give him a shout http://www.307outfitters.com/ . I really wished I could have been there to see all the incredible artwork. I am really honored that my artwork was thought good enough to receive second place and the first place piece by Jeffrey Kleinfelter was just awesome. I have alot of respect for these great artists and I'm honored just to be thrown in the mix with them.  Now I must begin my ideas for the 2012 competition! I would like to enter the duck competitions, but I really enjoy getting reference material for fish.............if mallards start taking a clouser on the swing, then we will see.

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Here has been my spring in a nutshell soo far......the white bass run was good, turkeys have been better, and the best is yet to come-Roanoke river stripers. I got me a good bird on opening day and went the following Saturday with my ole buddy Walker. We didn't here any birds at daylight, so we proceeded to get that knot in our calves that all serious turkey hunters know about.  If you've never had it then you've either gave up too quick or your one of the lucky ones that live in the "flat country". I'm glad I had Walker with me this morning because I usually go solo and find myself rambling out loud about how I wished these turkeys were easier to get to, or how nice it would be to hunt down east on some flat ground. But there we were, barely able to talk after a rushed and long "ascent" to the top of the ridge chasing a faint gobble, when Walker stopped and made me aware of the amazing view that awarded us. Sure, I've been on that ridge before but I have always been soo focused on looking for unturned leaves, black football shaped moving bodies, and anything with the color red, blue, or white. So there I was this morning, soo thankful to be chasing turkeys in the mountains. I almost feel sorry now for those that have to walk miles on flat ground with no view to ponder and no mountain spring to quench your thirst. So here I am now, vowing to have a different perspective on mountain turkeys and taking more time to stop and smell the umm............... ramps! 

paulthompsonart.com

My website is finally done! I will continue to post updates on my blog here, but with warm weather approaching don't expect to get much out of me. I will be spending most of my time acquiring references for future artwork. By this I mean chasing musky, slinging flies at whitey, stripers, smallies, with a little shooting me some turkeys thrown in the mix. In the meantime go to paulthompsonart.com and have a look. I'll check back in to let you guys know how the trout stamp competitions are going.

Heavy Metal

I've got a long way to go on this painting, but I thought about posting it so you can check out the progress.
I'm going to drop a big heavy streamer in front of his face, hence the title "Heavy Metal". The streamer won't be stripped, but instead it will be on the fall head down like it just hit into the water.

Another Trout Stamp Entry

I've got to add the line to the fly, rework some bubbles, and add a few glazes to the background, but this is close enough to done for a posting. I'm going to submit this one and the brown trout to Delaware for their trout stamp competition.  OK- I finished everything on this one and and replaced the picture with the final.

Trout Stamp

I've been thinking about entering a state trout stamp competition coming up real soon and here is one that I finally got finished and might submit.

I've got to finish the one below, but I'm still thinking the one above will be what I submit.

 

Striper

This will eventually be a striper trust me. I know it kind of looks like some trash fish from your nearby power plant intake, but give it time. I'm going to try and put a silhouette of a boat above him and maybe drop a lure or something in the water.

I told you it would look like a striper. I was going for a 20 lb fish but it ended up looking like a schooly with out the school. Maybe I'll add 4 or 5 more of them? I've still got alot to do to it but at least it's started. I'm trying to get about 4 or 5 going at one time b/c if you don't you get bored with just one and end up rushing to get it done. A.D.D. doesn't help either.

Davidson River Brown

Walker and I started off to a bad start but we ended up catching some fish later on and I lucked into this one. I forgot my camera but ended up having this little pocket video camera made by Vado. It is the size of a cell phone and this was the first time I had used it on the river. I tell you what, I just might leave the camera at home from here on out b/c this thing does the trick. I highly recommend this gadget and it will be very useful for me getting good reference material. Oh yeah.... I don't want to get any e-mails from "that crowd" so let me state that I was not holding the weight of this fish by it's jaw. It was very well taken care of and took less time to reel it in than it took for me to get the fly out.

I was watching Jersey Shore last night and was inspired to do this. Your right...that doesn't make any sense and neither does the show. I wasted about 30 minutes of my life...actually an hour because I watched the next episode too. Are there not any fish somewhere near that boardwalk???