Friday, May 29, 2009
Who Said Fly Fishing Was "The Quiet Sport"?
They say the internet is the great democratizer. Or maybe it's that it has a way of bringing us all to the same age bracket.
The one thing about the internet is that no matter how you post something, you can't give your words tone, or inflections, that might show you are being serious, sarcastic, silly, funny, or any kind of emotional context. It's kind of like when someone says, "You are something, you know that?" If you can hear their tone of voice, or sense their emotion when they say it, you will know whether they are complimenting you, or being sarcastic. It just one more thing we have to adjust to in the electronic age.......thankfully, I can go fishing without any interference on that front......my cell phone stays in the car.
If you are going to get involved in a forum, it's also important to take a deep breath before you respond to someone's response to something you post on an open forum (did that make sense?).......or else guess what happens........all hell breaks loose. You have to read this thread to believe it. Prepare yourself for some real shits and giggles....and don't take it too seriously if you aren't used to this stuff. Most of the players know each other (virtually or personally).
http://www.njflyfishing.com/vBulletin/f5-north-eastern-general-discussion-forum/t17399-kick-ak-skim-out.html
Thanks for a few (many) laughs, Dennis. Oh, and I vote to keep him.
Life is Good. Although it can be tough if you don't know how to play chess.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Fishing's Fine
I fished up the run taking a number of fish, most of the stocked variety, but also a couple of smaller, richly colored wild fish. By noon I was off the water and heading home to spend the afternoon doing chores and errands with Karen. I took pics, but the camera is in my car at the office.......meeting in the City tomorrow early so I took a company car, its good for the paint job.
Last night after dinner with the family, I headed out again. This time to a different stretch of the same river. No one was on the water I chose when I arrived at about 7:30PM. It was cool, calm and partly cloudy, the sun peaking out whenever it got the chance. I knew the long, flat pool held lots of trout, as it always has and although the surface was free of the dimples and expanding rings from rising trout, I figured the sulphurs just had to show.
The first half hour I took one trout that was rising lazily in a steady rhythm, 1-2-3-4-rise, 1-2-3-4-rise, to what turned out ot be small caddis. Then, as though someone flipped a bug switch, sulphurs began to show. As time passed, their numbers increased, and with that the trout started to feed on them. By 8:15, we (me and the trout) were in the midst of another Sulphur Riot! A well placed cast to a rising fish with a snowshoe rabbit foot sulphur dun tied to the end of my 12 foot leader tapered to 6X, was all it took. It got so that I knew the second my fly touched the water on a cast, whether it would elicit a strike, or be ignored. The more I concentrated on making good, drag-free presentations, the more I hooked up on successive casts. When that happens, you shut off all tension in your mind and body, and just let your subconcious run the show. It may be the closet thing to true peace I can find. I fished til dark, almost fell in wading out of the river because I stepped on a large subsurface rock, and I caught about 2 dozen trout.......all on the same fly.
I'll post some pics tomorrow.
Life is Good. Get out and do something that takes you to another world....anything!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Sometimes its What Happens on the Way to the River That Makes Your Day
The fawn was reluctant to get up, but mom made her way into the woods just off the road. I waited to see if the fawn would follow mom, but it sat still and hid its face in its front legs.
Despite our road being a single lane, we have plenty of dumb asses that think the minimum speed limit is 45MPH, and the maximum whatever the SUV will go when the pedal is pressed to the metal. (Where's everyone going in such a hurry. Don't they know that life passes you fast enough without you passing it by faster?) So, I got out and after taking a couple of photos with my cell phone, I picked it up and placed it in the woods about 10 feet off the road. It was silky smooth, light as a heavy feather, and calm as sunrise. Mom watched unblinkingly from a distance, snorting lightly, ears at attention and stiff as a board.
I pulled away slowly and waited up the road until I saw mom on her way back to the little one.


Life is Good. Its' the journey, not the destination. Get out and fish.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Tonight Was Cool, Bright With Lots of Trout Rising
And the fly of the day? An Iris Caddis....................what else?
I'd tell you more, but I have to get up at dawn to go help stock trout thanks to King Corzine furloughing the paid Fish and Game (and all state workers) later this week. I'm actually looking forward to spending the time volunteering with the other conservation corps guys.
Got to hit the hay.
Life is Good. More shits and giggles tomorrow.
It's Too Cold
I'll be back with more later.
Monday, May 18, 2009
It's Bug Time!
Work now, report later.
Go fish!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
The Third Degree

Here's Karen and her study buddy Lilya after they received their diplomas.
So, now I'm married to a woman who has a B.S., Masters, and A.S.R.N. Will she go to work? Nope, she starts classes in the fall working towards getting her PhD. in medicine so she can pursue a career in cancer research. She's a survivor in every respect of the word, and my hero......and she fly fishes!
Life is Good. I'm going fishing this weekend, so expect this blog to turn the corner and get back to the other important stuff. : )
New Math. Work + Family = No Fishing, damn it!
I know, I should be (and am) happy I have a job, and I am more than happy I have the family I do. Its just that when you're sitting at work and your email New Mail Folder keeps popping up with messages from buddies and others that the rivers are alive with bugs and surface feeding trout, you want to get your sorry ass out and into a cool, clear stream to cast a fly to a rythmically rising trout tucked tight to the bank in 6 inches of water.
I better stop, I think my head is going to explode!
Life is good. Sometimes it ain't what we'd like it to be, but that's life. I'm going fishing.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
It's Moms Day....Does She Fish, too?
Life is Good. Thanks, Mom, for everything, especially all those times you took me fishing before my bicycle took over for you.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Soft Rain, Blue-winged Olives and Trout
Along the far bank, there is a wide, smooth flow that widens as it moves downstream. A broad canopy of an angled maple creeps over the flow toward the center of the river like a many fingered hand. Trout were rising at different locations throughout the 30 yard slick, to sip the hatching olives before they could take flight into the humid air.
The gap between the fingers and the water surface averages maybe three feet. In other words, my challenge would be to drop a tiny fly under the branches and onto the water surface below and get a drag-free drift of at least a couple of feet to a rising target, without getting hung up on the branches above. Lots of sidearm casting made even tougher by imposing branches hanging over the water behind me.
Life is Good. One of these days I'll even get more done in the yard.