WELCOME TO ANGRY STONEFLY.. outdoor adventuring for gear heads
My name is Jeff Lomino. In addition to being a avid outdoorsman and blogger, I am also the founder and co-owner of Riverworks Rod Co.
With that said, I will definitely be featuring our gear on this blog. But, Riverworks gear will only be a small portion of all the cool stuff that will be featured on this site. I am a gearhead. I dig outdoor gear.
I am a former Lean Process Engineer in the automotive industry. The largest automotive manufacturer in the world spent a ton of money training me in the philosophy of continuous improvement. I spent the better portion of decade looking to improve things. I am always looking for better gear, better systems, better processes. Me and my buddies, some of whom are also confessed GEARHEADS have and use a ton of gear. We will showcase and feature our gear. We will detail our favorite gear and why we love it (or hate it). Several brands will be featured more than others because I have an affinity for certain brands based on experience and confidence in what they produce. But I am not exclusive to one brand. I want this little blog to grow and feature tons of cool stuff. In addition to featuring gear, I will also feature destinations, trip reports, showcase videos, show gear in action. I hope to have a new article every week, and some of my articles will be contributed by my fellow GEARHEADS. The blog will also feature fun and (sometimes funny) content. We want to have a weekly look at some social media highlights and sometimes the STONEFLY GETS ANGRY, on occasion, so there will be the periodic rant. This will of course be detailed in the best and worst of social media segment.
So here are the primary things the blog will focus on. Notice I said primary, so on occasion, I will deviate from the format if I believe something is important. The ANGRY STONEFLY is a stream of consciousness for me, so there is really no telling where things can go week to week.
The focus will predominately revolve around...
1. Fishing
Although the focus will generally center on Fly Fishing, I employ a range of different tactics and gear including ultralight spinning and BFS setups for trout, a smorgasbord of spinning and casting setups for bass fishing to saltwater, and I have even been known to fish live bait on occasions in saltwater environs. Most of the articles that will be featured here will in some way be connected to my pursuit of fishing---- GEAR OF ALL KINDS, SHAPES, SIZES, and yeah, you get the picture. I want to share my love of different fishing methods and the wonderful gear that goes along with it.
2. Overlanding/Camping
I dig outfitting my little Jeep Renegade for adventures in the wild. I always want to go further and as I get older, I value a little bit of comfort when I get to where I am going. My buddies also have some pretty cool gear for their rigs, and I plan to feature that here too. In addition to setups for vehicles, we set up camp where we park our rigs. I will feature gear that I use to make base camp home for me. My friends and fishing companions have a variety of gear to feature as well. We have tons of cool toys and most of us eat, sleep, and live pretty well in the backcountry when we are able to get out.
3. Clothing and Apparel
Every outdoor adventure involves covering your skin with gear that creates a positive experience. I literally am out in the wilds in every conceivable weather scenario. In order to maximize the experience in the best and worst of weather, I wear specialized clothing. In keeping with the predominate fishing theme, most of the clothing I will feature here will be involved with my fishing obsession. That covers a really wide spectrum, and a lot of my fishing clothes overlap into other pursuits. But good clothing that works in the backcountry is really important to me and a lot of the articles here will feature clothing, which is some of the most important gear we own.
4. Destinations and Trip Reports
All this fantastic gear ends up somewhere. A river, a lake, an ocean, or combinations of the three. I will detail my journey, the water, and my success or failure. Of course, certain destinations will be kept private for obvious reasons, but I want the ANGRY STONEFLY to detail my experiences, and to share them with you.
5. Truth and the occasional rant
For the most part, over my time in the fly fishing business, I have remained silent when I see something on social media that I don't agree with, or is just blatantly false information. A blog is a place where an individual can express his or her opinion, right? This brings up the anecdotal weekly trip into social media in all its weirdness and glory. I don't plan to focus solely on the negative, although I am seeing more and more negative on social media these days. I want to highlight my "screen grabs" for the week. From the absurd to the inspiring, the ANGRY STONEFLY will become my outlet. Where once I toiled in silence, now I will be able to voice my opinion. Sounds fun right?
Why the name "Angry Stonefly"?
There is a little story behind the name. Myself, and a number of the guys in my fishing group (its not a club), were camping at Big Snowbird Creek in western NC. It had been raining off and on since we arrived, and we had a series of tarps set up to stay out of the rain. We didn't have our traditional campfire, but instead, had happy hour under the tarps. We had a few of those inflatable solar lamps, which were fully charged, and set them up on the picnic table where we were gathered. The little lamps gave off a wonderful soft light (started a gear review of inflatable solar lights, sorry). The lamps attracted every aquatic insect in the rivershed. We counted dozens of different species, some that many of us had never seen before. I have always had a certain admiration for stoneflies. I have been tying stonefly patterns since I was a wee pup, and just generally dig stoneflies in all their different varieties. Big Snowbird is known for its abundance of Golden Stones. On this particular evening, without our traditional campfire, the little inflatable lamps attracted the largest and meanest Golden Stonefly that I have ever seen. As all the other mayflies, caddis flies, and other assorted river bugs vied for a space on the solar light, the incredibly mean and obviously angry Golden Stone proceeded to push the other insects off the light. Punching, biting, scratching, just being ANGRY. An ANGRY STONEFLY. This guy was quite the spectacle that night, and it made such an impression that I named my blog after this bug. I'll never forget that night, or that stonefly. This is the inspiration for the blog name. So, yeah, this is the first of many stories.
Anyway, I just wanted to give you guys a what's what on the ANGRY STONEFLY. I welcome you, and hope you enjoy what I put down here.