Thursday, April 13, 2023

REVIVAL...Making Up for Lost Time

   This new post is the start of a new chapter in my journaling. It's now April of 2023 and I have revived my interest in fishing. The last three years have been filled with controversy, confusion, and covid. So fishing had taken a back seat to my other efforts to survive through a layoff, two new jobs, the loss of a fishing buddy and trying to manage three vegetable gardens.

For now I will skip over the year 2020. As I'd like to forget that whole year.

It so happened in February 2021 that my friend  Andy and I had a couple of opportunities to fish for Steelhead. We tried some new places in Irondequoit and webster. Andy hooked up several times. It was good to hit the water again in cold temperatures.




A few days later on March 4th we took our friend Ben with us to Penfield.  Andy proved to be the skilled fly fisherman with this brown trout in hand.


I will bring my journaling up to date with more in depth adventures soon. This past week I fished three different days and refreshed not only my fishing skills, but also revived my Spirit. 
Fishing, what else is there!

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Trout from the 2019 season

I can't believe the autumn season has begun. As I look back on 2019, I find very little evidence that I have given up fishing as the sport I enjoy so much. I can't remember all the particulars, but I do have fond memories of each outing. The photos below are a sample of the highlights of my summer fishing.








Thursday, July 19, 2018

Just to name a few.


Last Saturday I wanted to scram on down to a creek I really think is pristine. The creek is just outside of Letchworth State Park, about an hour from home. I got an early start and it still was midway into the feeding hours for trout. When I saw them rising I knew it would be a good morning. With no thought of what trout might be nipping at, I went with a caddisfly. Before long I was taking photos of  this 14 inch trout. Released it back to feed, I caught several more. Then the action just stopped. I tried a few other stoneflies and nymphs but no luck. I waded down stream and caught another nice brown hiding under a tree fall in fast water. Large yellow stonefly nymphs work good for this.





The morning light caught my eye on this photo.



Later in the day I found this bad boy in the Genesee river.
I filled my day with fishing, what else is there?




The saturday before last I explored the Canandaigua Outlet, in Phelps, NY and just caught this Chub.


And this Racoon.


Evening out in the kayaks

Kim and I went kayaking in the evening and I brought along just a spinning rod and one Rebel Pop-r lure.
With a few hours of daylight left, I landed these nice bass The largest was 17 inches.





First week of July

Fourth of July

The Fourth of July was hot this year. People were passing out from the heat at the parade. While they were watching our public servants pass by, I was in a stream watching small mouth bass dart from under my feet. The stream is the best place to cool off on a hot day. Wading without waders keeps your feet and legs cool. The shade of streamside trees protects your head from the searing heat. These are the days of summer when I love to fish for the always hungry rock bass and smallies. 



  This stream was stocked with trout this year. I hoped to locate them. It did not take long to find rising creek chubs hitting on brown caddisflies so that's what I started with. I practiced my fly placement and strike reflex. I soon got bored of these 6“ minnows and moved downstream into some very nice flat water. Here, I could get some distance with my backcast.
















 I tied off a black-nose dace and started pulling out a few smallmouth, not big, but fun on the fly.

I continued downstream and fished all morning. Each swell in the river bottom held one or two bass. I found a patch of grass and caught a bass that had obvious scaring from a previous encounter with a larger fish, possibly a pike.
While free wading, I spooked a black bass, maybe 12 to 14 inches in length.




By the afternoon the action shut right down.
I hiked back to my vehicle and reviewed each of my photos.
 Each photo renewed the enjoyment of catching fish where I wanted and when I wanted on Independence Day.