The longest day.
According to the people who keep track of such things today is one second longer than tomorrow will be. Tomorrow the pendulum begins its long swing back to a cold gray November day when it won't be light until after 7:30 in the morning and will be dark again by 4:30 in the afternoon. I savor the hour and a half of additional sun light we get upon our arrival in Florida in late November and secretly rejoice when we gain our first minute of sunlight back the first week of January.
I don't like it that tomorrow the days will start to get shorter. You don't notice it at first but its there. I got back to the car tonight at 9:55. By this time in August I'll be driving home by 8:30. The fishing didn't even start until after 7:30 tonight. In October it'll be dark by 6:30.
When you are self employed one of the fringe benefits is the ability to celebrate holidays no one else does. Opening day of trout, pheasant, duck and grouse seasons were always holidays in my office and so was the longest day of the year. It just seemed to me that you should spend the longest day doing what you liked best, so I always went fishing (still do).
So how was the fishing? If it was any good I would have told you so three paragraphs ago. Fortunately the severe weather predicted to hit the Delaware watershed did little damage. The Beaverkill was up the most and in river report parlance it was "stained". All rivers are clearing and in rapid decent. With the BK, BE and the BR all off color and high, the boats were on the WB. I went to the UEB and from 2;00 until 4:45 got a tail kicking. For the record I rose four, hooked and lost one and was refused by the other three. There were no bugs whatsoever!
Drove from there to the upper regions of the WB where at 5:00 there were no bugs, fish rising or fishermen fishing. Drove down to the gamelands and at least caught up with the boats. About eight or ten of them went by ( all but one courteously). There were but a few fishermen, fewer bugs and no risers until about five minutes before it was totally dark. It was then that the sulfurs hatched, the spinners fell, the trout rose and the one other fisherman in the pool cursed, "You fish dries to see the trout take your fly and they don't rise until its too dark to see and then there are so many sulfurs on the water you have no chance the fish will eat yours, its total bull shit."
I had to agree.
I don't like it that tomorrow the days will start to get shorter. You don't notice it at first but its there. I got back to the car tonight at 9:55. By this time in August I'll be driving home by 8:30. The fishing didn't even start until after 7:30 tonight. In October it'll be dark by 6:30.
When you are self employed one of the fringe benefits is the ability to celebrate holidays no one else does. Opening day of trout, pheasant, duck and grouse seasons were always holidays in my office and so was the longest day of the year. It just seemed to me that you should spend the longest day doing what you liked best, so I always went fishing (still do).
So how was the fishing? If it was any good I would have told you so three paragraphs ago. Fortunately the severe weather predicted to hit the Delaware watershed did little damage. The Beaverkill was up the most and in river report parlance it was "stained". All rivers are clearing and in rapid decent. With the BK, BE and the BR all off color and high, the boats were on the WB. I went to the UEB and from 2;00 until 4:45 got a tail kicking. For the record I rose four, hooked and lost one and was refused by the other three. There were no bugs whatsoever!
Drove from there to the upper regions of the WB where at 5:00 there were no bugs, fish rising or fishermen fishing. Drove down to the gamelands and at least caught up with the boats. About eight or ten of them went by ( all but one courteously). There were but a few fishermen, fewer bugs and no risers until about five minutes before it was totally dark. It was then that the sulfurs hatched, the spinners fell, the trout rose and the one other fisherman in the pool cursed, "You fish dries to see the trout take your fly and they don't rise until its too dark to see and then there are so many sulfurs on the water you have no chance the fish will eat yours, its total bull shit."
I had to agree.
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