Cruel

Spring can be cruel. After a long winter of desperation our need to wander in the water can be foiled by her swollen clouds clinging to hillsides dispensing valley filling deluges. We complain about this bounty of water but if she shirks her role we'll be bitching come August. Always the trade offs.

Saturday night rain pounded on the skylight telegraphing the state of rivers come morning. Sure enough, the gage reported Sunday's river at twice normal size and it looked to be getting bigger. The Sunday sky, clear at dawn, by noon was spitting a preamble to the showers we'll see all week....

Read the rest of the story at Hatch Magazine

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I'm going to be writing a story once a week for Hatch Magazine the next month or so. I'll publish links to that story here each week.

Size 12s

I never stop fishing for trout. Closing day. Opening day. The season's milestones hold little meaning in a state where there is a generous open season and many options during the brief off season. Even in the depths of winter, when the fishing yields little catching, the lure of the water draws me if for no other reason that to revisit the places where rising trout slashed at bugs and came to hand with abundance when the water was warmer and the air was thick.

Spring is late this year. There have been frosts well into April and it's almost Easter and the forsythia are not yet in full bloom. The peepers have started but their songs but are not yet at max volume. Good fishing is coming, just not fast enough.....

Read the rest at Hatch Magazine

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I'm going to be writing a story once a week for Hatch Magazine during the next two months. I'll publish links to that story here each week.

Making it worse

We've gotta stop screwing this thing up or it's gonna catch up with us in a bad way.


MIDWAY a Message from the Gyre : a short film by Chris Jordan from Midway on Vimeo.

Eggses

I found this at the bottom of a run. My egg patterns are much too small.

In need more Chartreuse Mcfly Foam

Beady Eyes

I need to add eyes to my crayfish imitations.


Beady Eyes from Sipping Emergers on Vimeo.

Taxman Cometh

I finished up my taxes a short while ago. I should have been done earlier today but I played a bit of hookie.

Last night I attended the Mianus TU chapter's fund raising banquet. I won a new Orvis Superfine Glass rod and it came complete with a reel and line -- ready to go for the water. I swear they auction these things off like that just so you'll be compelled to fish the next day.

I returned to a small stream that had a fish kill last year. It used to be thick with wild trout and I wanted to see if any had migrated back in. I was in luck. Two fish took a swipe at my fly and one came to hand. Further upstream, above the kill, the trout were numerous and eager but I was especially encouraged that the blighted section was making a comeback. There may be hope for the human race after all.

And that new glass rod, my first, casts like a charm.