it's early days.

 


Down in the Florida Keys the signs of spring are subtitle and go unnoticed by most. The sun gets higher in the sky, the days get longer, and you need a higher SPF number sun screen.  Yes, all that's true,  but it's not what I'm talking about. The first male cardinal starts to sing mid February, the ring necked doves start to whoo hoo hoo at about the same time, and the turkey vultures have headed north looking for winter killed carrion by the end of the month. The Gumbo Limbo and Mahogany trees start to lose their leaves early in March  and the Tarpon show up in April. The snow bird  migration starts mid March and ends Easter week.

Sat on the porch at the Lordville Estate tonight (my Perfect Manhattan in hand) with the temp down to 73 (from 77 this afternoon) and took-in the first signs of spring in upstate New York. The blue birds have returned and claimed their nesting box, the tree swallows, who were not here on Saturday, have arrived and are fighting over the other three boxes. The geese and mergansers are on the river. Robins are on the lawn listening for worms. The little black and brown stone flies are hatching, and the air is filled with the glistening wings of the micro caddis. It's early days to be sure, but spring has arrived and if you take the time to look there will be new signs of it each and every day.

Drove over 100 miles this afternoon just taking in the river system. The water is warming but it is still too high to wade. There were a few boats on the WB and a handful of waders along the edge of the BK.  Maybe they caught something, if not, it was still a grand day to be on the river. The weather forecast is for above average temps for the next week and if we don't get a lot of rain, perhaps some trout will start to rise. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Had To Get Out The Neosporin For The Tooth Cuts On My Index Finger.

  To say the Delaware  is a hard river to figure is an understatement. Yesterday was an overcast day that had fishermen thinking olives. Turned out the water was probably too warm for olives and too cold for sulfurs, in short, a dud. Today the air temp was a little cooler, (I think), with a mix of sun and clouds and the sulfurs, (both yesterdays and todays), hatched. The fish? At least where I was, went nuts, threw caution to the wind, and ate everything that came down their feeding lane, both with and without hooks. Heard from two sources that the sulfur hatch at the red barn was also very good today. If my last report on the red barn sulfurs was erroneous, blame it on Ed who has been in Hawaii for the last two weeks, (hence no reliable red barn reports). The fishing mid-day was so good, and the number of fishermen in the "Zone", (it's Friday afternoon), so high, that I decided to fish down river during the evening hours. Fished a pool in the middle section from 6:30 unt...
Read more

Fishing A Cold Blow From Out Of The North.

  Jean came down and we spent the weekend watching wildlife in the backyard, driving around the area and enjoying two "nights out", one with David and Maryann, (the apprentice Troutfitter Inn cleaning lady). A shout out of thanks to her for spending four hours on the road to have dinner with us. Not sure the company or the meal was worth the drive. We drove up to Stilesville to witness the hordes of anglers, and then along the reservoir all the way up to Walton, where we usually stop and go in some of the shops. It was threatening to rain so we elected to keep going. It was raining on top of the mountains but we took route 206?? to Downsville anyway. We hit the rain part way up the mountain and then drove down the other side to Downsville in a torrential down pour. Came out of the rain at Downsville and drove down route 30 with the intention of checking  out the trout in some of the BK's thermal refuges, saw the muddy water at "Jaws" and drove back to the Lordvi...
Read more

Don't let that that rain come down.

 My South Holston river friend, (one of only two people who will fish with me), (the other is currently on injured reserve), is up for a visit (he brought his boat) and today we floated. There might have been some question about where we chose to float (no one else launched where we did), but we enjoyed the fact that we never saw another fisherman, let alone another boat, on the river all day. The weatherman might well have gilded the lily a bit when he predicted a chance of showers and a high temp of sixty degrees. It rained all day, and the temperature peaked at fifty three degrees. When I read the forecast for the rest of Mark's stay (rain for the next four days) I was thankful that we got in the day that we did today.  How was our day? We sucked it up, paid an extra $5.00 to launch (didn't have the proper change), parked in the wrong place (got a note from the owner where we put in), never made it to the predetermined takeout place, and had a delightful day counting bugs (...
Read more