It's more fun than sitting in a tree.


Apparently Mother Nature thought things were too easy yesterday. Today the "breeze" was again out of the south but at 10/15 which put waves on some of the pseudo sipping pools. At 4:30 (quitting time yesterday) I  was lucky to have two fish. Spent a lot of time driving around looking, in vain, for spots out of the wind that had bugs and rising fish. 

After complaining about how poor the fall foliage was a week ago (the hard maples leaves on the trees in our woodlot turned a dull yellow/brown and started dropping in September). The Catskills on the 10th of October were partly bare (the maples) and partly still green. Today, on my drive, the hills were in full color, soft maples were bright red, there were a few hard maples that were bright orange, yellow and dull orange (rust) colors were everywhere, a few young oaks had turned along the roadside and there were even some sumacs still showing bright red. Made for a pleasant drive.

The fishing - Once again the catch was made up of 1.5 and 2.5 year old fish (no big 'bow today). The first fish was hooked in the gill cover as he was undoubtably in the process of refusing my fly. The second fish was on a little spot I like to fish on the BK. As I was putting on my vest, a pickup truck stopped and the driver asked me how I liked the new stairs. I asked if he fished there and he said nah but I know you do and I wanted to make it safer. I'm not sure, but I think he's the same guy who tried to talk me out of going down to the rive there a few years ago and ended up saying he was coming back in a couple hours to check and make sure I'd made it back out safely. It's important for all of us to remember that there are a lot of very nice people in this country, no matter what religion or political party they are affiliated with.

Back to the fishing - At about 5:15 I opted for a spot on the WB which was somewhat out of the wind (which was easing up a bit). To say there were bugs and rising fish would not be a lie, but there were GD few of either. Nevertheless, the risers were hungry and my little pseudos met with their approval often enough to make it an hour and fifteen minutes (yes, it was dark at 6:30) of fun fishing.

Just so you know, I'm able to totally enjoy fishing to small fish. I don't count fish in my "catch" unless they measure at least 10 inches. If I caught these same fish in early August my catch would have been cut in half. To me, it just doesn't matter, the game is to get the fly in front of the fish and convince him to eat. Would I have liked to have had a shot at a big 'bow, you bet, but it didn't happen today. Maybe tomorrow.

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