What's your favorite drink?

[capecodtele]

Really like me some Knappouge Castle 12 especially for the price but my favorite Irish is Green Spot and/or Redbreast.
Scotch, well there are too many good ones to pick a favorite so I'll go with my Clan's scotch, The Dalmore 12...readily available, relatively decent price, with a great sherry finish
There are so many beers out there now I try to go local...the Devils Purse Brewery in Dennis is putting out some great beers...especially like their Pale Ale and Table Beer for the summer.

[benny]

The current offerings in IPA's and NE style DIPA'a are really pretty awesome. And I also, despite my efforts the contrary, have not learned to like sours.

Recently, I've been dabbling in hard cider. There are some super dry ciders out that are beaucoup refreshing. Stowe's High & Dry has changed my view of cider.

[Go Fish]

I'm in to this thread late so I have to catch up.

I would be a much better skier and biker if I didn't like booze so much. It is not about being drunk while trying to ski or bike, it is about having a big ass because of the booze.

Right now my summer favorite is a gin and tonic variation: 2 parts barrel aged gin (Old Tom style gin), 1 part Aperol, and Yuzu for citrus. I build it in a tall glass with ice, pour in Fever Tree tonic and put a basil leaf on top. My wife calls it the sunset G&T. It is killer.

Beer is always good. Around here (Metro West Boston) Jack's Abbey is my favorite. They only use lager yeast. Post Shift is my current favorite. It is light, crisp and perfectly hopped. When it is cold out I love Framinghammer. It is an 8%+ double IPA style brewed with lager yeast that is nutty, thick and satisfying.

Bourbon is my favorite anytime...Blanton's, Angels Envy, Buffalo Trace, Larceny, Noah's Mill, regular plain Jane Jim Beam...the list could go on forever.

I'm having a lot of fun with Japanese scotch. It is just like cars. They sent people to Scotland to learn and after they brought that learning back home, I think they may have perfected the manufacturing process. Nikka Coffee Whiskey is one to try.

Small batch gins, wine from the old and new worlds, tequila, grappa, fruit brandy from all over the planet...I need a drink...

I currently have 9 chickens of various cold hardy breeds but none of them give a crap about me unless I'm dishing out dried meal worms. I do, however, protect them by judicious use of high speed lead poisoning. My go to is a tricked out Ruger 10/22. The neighbors can't hear it over the chicken noise when a predator is in the hood. The last fox that went nappy showed up around 8:00 each morning so I took the screen out of a garage window and waited for it to show up. At close range .22 is quite deadly...

[Go Fish]

I should add that fox under fur is spectacular dubbing for hare's ear style flys and the tail fibers make amazing small Clouser style flys.

[Go Fish]

Here is a super easy one that tastes great and is perfect for summer:

The juice of one fresh lime
2 oz of your favorite or cheapest vodka (it really doesn't matter)
A tall glass filled with ice
A bottle or can of ginger beer

To the glass filled with ice, add the vodka and lime juice
Pour in the ginger beer until the glass is full
Stir.
Drink.
Smile.

If you do not smile, pull back on the lime for the next one.

It is called a Moscow Mule.

[oldschool]

I'll have to give the Moscow Mule a try -

Enjoying the Dogfish Sea Quench quite a bit these days.

To ping-pong this thread once again, fly tying - good to know about the fox. I am crappy at fishing wets other than streamers or a dropper running under dry fly as an indicator/presenter. I should really push myself to fish them more often but when the dry fly fishing is good, it tends to keep you hoping to pick a few off even if they are not hatching. Trout fishing has slowed way down on the creek near our cabin so I'm looking now to get out more bass fishing - I like fishing moderate sized poppers - Poka Pops are my favorites - smash the barb and those guys are good as they will catch sunfish to keep you busy and bass as well. Smashing the barb makes taking the hook out of sunnies way easier.

I'll try to post a pic or two of my favorite patterns -

[Go Fish]

As far as poppers for warm water fish go, anything Bett's makes will kill it! The Poka Pops are awesome. I've got a chartreuse one with a black tail and white legs tied onto the six weight that is in the rod rack on the boat I will fish from tomorrow morning.

Try out lead eye Wolly Buggers in size 6 or bigger for bass. At my local lake, black and olive are irresistible and I have caught some nice sized large mouths using them. A 3 pound Larry on a 6 weight is a riot. I also fish a lot of small salt water patterns for fresh water bass. In lakes with good bait fish populations, an olive over white Clouser is deadly. Bunny strip flies are king if there are leeches around...this list could go on for a while.

[oldschool]

Yeah, the Bett's poppers are really nice - the chartreuse Poka-Pop is the one I go to whenever possible - I've made a few of my own too - ok, but nowhere as good as those poka pops.

My favorite streamers - both pretty simple and tied on #8 streamer hook

For trout -

Black thread, wrap hook with some lead wire, cover with some yarn to provide some bulk to body, overwrap with pearl braid. You can also improve the durability of body by tying in a piece of old mono at the rear and using it to overwrap the pearl braid a little on a spiral. Black moose hair (small fuzzy understuff removed) tied in as the top, a little chunk of red yarn put in as throat, whip finish head.

For trout and smallmouth bass or steelhead -

Red thread, gold bead. wire weight on hook (I make some lighter ones too by omitting the wire weight), black marabou feather tail - I tie it in and then palmer/spiral it over the body to make the underbody and tie off behind the bead, options but my favorite is the olive with black barred hen saddle or tail feathers to palmer over body, tied in at small end at back so it gets a little bigger as you get to the front. I put on a couple wraps of guinea grey/white spey feather and then make a nice red collar behind the bead to finish.

I generally like fishing these on a sinking polyleader - they make some smaller, shorter ones for steelhead fishing - they are tapered so cast decently, even better if you make a dedicated WFF line where the taper is removed from the end and a loop connector added - my 6 wt. line is set up that way and chucks bigger poppers a little better too. The sinking polyleaders are coated mono and the tie in end is uncoated - I tie a loop in that end and then just make a loop in the end of a short chunk of tippet and loop-loop so the sinking leader doesn't keep getting shorter from changing flies. The polyleaders are nice for swinging flies and also work decent for lake fishing by casting and counting to whatever before starting the strip retrieve of clouser or one of these.