Keeping it in perspective.
Today was a tough day for me. Tried some pools over on the BK this afternoon. Three pools, three rises, two hookups and one 15 inch hatchery brown landed. The BK is just not ready for fall fishing, yet.
I was O for three with my raincoat. Put it on two times and the sun came out and I got sopping wet inside the "breathable" jacket. Don't care what it costs buy GORTEX. The third time I left the raincoat in the car and a brief shower came over the hill out of a bright blue sky and just poured on me.
At 6:00 I drove up the PA side of the BR. There were two boat trailers and two wade fishermen at Buckingham and seven cars and a boat trailer at Stockport. When I looked at the Junction Pool parking lot from Rte. 191, the lot was empty. When I arrived in the lot, not five minutes later there was a car parked and a guy wading upstream. While I was standing there two more cars (four fishermen) pulled in. Left and headed downstream to a place that has been good to me a couple of times in the past two weeks. In an hour of fishing I saw some big red spinners (they never fall) and enough epherons (white flies) to at least be noticable. Saw two rises, neither of which ate my fly and had two fish eat blind casts.
In the winter sometimes I look back through my log books from the 60's. Back then the limit was ten, any size and no fish was ever released. Every year the DEC stocked 60,000 thousand trout in the Ausable River alone. They had a "Trophy Trout" area where you could keep one trout of 14 inches a day. Over the years I caught at least a thousand trout in the trophy section and I hooked and landed exactly one fish that was 14 inches long. Was 35 with at least 25 years of fly fishing experience when I hooked and landed my first 18 incher. Back then a 12 incher wasn't a dink, he was fish of the day. The 14 inch "trophy trout" was probably fish of the year. Todays 15 inch hatchery fish would have required me to buy beers for my fishing buddies.
Why is this relevant you might ask? Back in the 60's I would have considered today's "tough day" catch of a 15 inch hatchery brown, a 17 inch wild rainbow and a 19.5 inch wild brown nothing less than a "biblical event".
A shout out to Mike for his kind words. It's always nice to get a comment (lets you know someone is reading this besides my wife). Unfortunately I don't know of anyone now making vests for deep water wading. Tac-L-Pac once made a "Shorty" vest for just that purpose. Bought one and used it a few times but it was almost as big a pain switching fly boxes as drying them out when I waded too deep. Gave the vest to my grandson a year ago. You might look at some of the chest packs and see if they would get your flies up a little higher.
I was O for three with my raincoat. Put it on two times and the sun came out and I got sopping wet inside the "breathable" jacket. Don't care what it costs buy GORTEX. The third time I left the raincoat in the car and a brief shower came over the hill out of a bright blue sky and just poured on me.
At 6:00 I drove up the PA side of the BR. There were two boat trailers and two wade fishermen at Buckingham and seven cars and a boat trailer at Stockport. When I looked at the Junction Pool parking lot from Rte. 191, the lot was empty. When I arrived in the lot, not five minutes later there was a car parked and a guy wading upstream. While I was standing there two more cars (four fishermen) pulled in. Left and headed downstream to a place that has been good to me a couple of times in the past two weeks. In an hour of fishing I saw some big red spinners (they never fall) and enough epherons (white flies) to at least be noticable. Saw two rises, neither of which ate my fly and had two fish eat blind casts.
In the winter sometimes I look back through my log books from the 60's. Back then the limit was ten, any size and no fish was ever released. Every year the DEC stocked 60,000 thousand trout in the Ausable River alone. They had a "Trophy Trout" area where you could keep one trout of 14 inches a day. Over the years I caught at least a thousand trout in the trophy section and I hooked and landed exactly one fish that was 14 inches long. Was 35 with at least 25 years of fly fishing experience when I hooked and landed my first 18 incher. Back then a 12 incher wasn't a dink, he was fish of the day. The 14 inch "trophy trout" was probably fish of the year. Todays 15 inch hatchery fish would have required me to buy beers for my fishing buddies.
Why is this relevant you might ask? Back in the 60's I would have considered today's "tough day" catch of a 15 inch hatchery brown, a 17 inch wild rainbow and a 19.5 inch wild brown nothing less than a "biblical event".
A shout out to Mike for his kind words. It's always nice to get a comment (lets you know someone is reading this besides my wife). Unfortunately I don't know of anyone now making vests for deep water wading. Tac-L-Pac once made a "Shorty" vest for just that purpose. Bought one and used it a few times but it was almost as big a pain switching fly boxes as drying them out when I waded too deep. Gave the vest to my grandson a year ago. You might look at some of the chest packs and see if they would get your flies up a little higher.
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