Loyal readers may have noticed a change in the aesthetics of these pages, a new layout and look. It’s a mid-winter make-over, just one symptom of a mild case of the Shack Nasties and, while Quill Gordon himself has no intention whatsoever of making an appointment with a stylist, The View from Fish in a Barrel Pond could stand to be gussied up a bit. (Another symptom of this strain of Shack Nasties is hanging out in south-facing windows, fighting cats for sunny spots.)
The image for our current background is a picture of flies tied and framed by Don Bastian, replicating a color plate from the book “Trout” by Ray Bergman. You can visit Don’s blog by following this link to Don Bastian Wet Flies.
Don’s flies are great but we can’t help feeling the new background kind of looks like pajamas. Reader input is welcome.
The View from Fish in a Barrel Pond 
Nice. Very stylish. The flies in the background are fabulous. But don’t get all gussied up on our account. It’s Quill and the Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society that keeps us coming back. Cheers!
Thanks for always coming back, Mike. It will be spring before I can change my own outfits from longjohns, dirty Carhartts and green woolies, and the view out the window is more or less glaciated, so about the only thing I can really change is my little piece of internet turf. It’s either that or clean out my office …
Those are beautiful and well tied flies with lots of history. They are classic! Just like Quill and the Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society. Hope you win the fight with the cat for the sun or at least talk him into sharing.
They really are great flies, Mel.
Unfortunately, I am outnumbered by the cats but they know they need me to get the bucket open for food so they are usually accommodating.
Fly print pajamas. Now there’s an idea. I would actually consider wearing pajamas if I got get them in fly print.
Fly print pajamas with feet and a flap at the back. Adult sizes only.
Great background, great blog (with or without the background) and no one ties quite so beautifully as Don.
Thank you, Jim. I don’t remember how many frames Don had with him that day but it was quite a display.
The thought of P.J.’s flies or not makes me itch. But I must say it’s an improvement.
The thought of you without PJs …
Pajama flies are good, especially if there’s a fly on the pajamas.
Don’t do wood grain again….
I know there’s a way to bump up your title so it’s not covering the heads of the people in the picture. I like that picture. But finding how to bump that requires going through endless lines of code and experimenting. Which sometimes results in interesting unexpected things.
Since it looks like the same image is tiling over and over, what if you just blow up one of the tiles to fit the background. Or cut down on the number of tiles. In other words, I guess, make the flies bigger. Some of us need a bigger fly…
But I like wood grain. I’ve got some barn board images that would work well. I’ll stick to flies for now.
The original photo doesn’t leave much to work with, as far as cropping goes, but I tweaked the padding around the title box and got it shrunk down a bit. I think it looks better now. I’m learning to mess with the CSS and probably better leave things the way they are for a day or two anyway. I’ve seen the code for the tiling and think I can change that without too much damage. Then, of course, I’ll get busy this spring and let everything sit until next winter and I’ll have to learn it all over again.
I generally do not comment on the size of other fellows’ flies.
Barn board will work, that other one was too brown.
I taught myself all kinds of things 2-3 years ago, the let it sit. When I went back to it I wanted to cry. Couldn’t remember a thing.
Thanks to those who complimented my fly tying and Quill’s pajama print idea. And damn nice pajamas they would be! This made me laugh like hell!
Something tells me I’ve already missed my chance to make it big with pajamas for anglers, especially with a few like Lt. Woolybugah running around (here’s to hoping no one has to see that).
pyjamas with hooks. how novel !
They would come in handy for holding your share of the blankets on a cold night. Barbless, of course.
That’s a great background. I’ve always loved those plates.