2021 to 2024 lost interest

 Health issues, a shoulder injury and a new job have slowed down my fishing exploits considerably. Some where between my psyche, (soul, mind, or spirit) and my love of fishing, I lost interest in going fishing. I never thought that would be possible. I had lost a good friend and fishing buddy, and it just did not seem like I would enjoy the experiences of the past.

So I found myself making excuses for not putting a line in the water. I'm busy this weekend. I'd rather be watching football. It's raining to much, the stream will be blown out. I should visit my mom. So many excuses for avoiding my sport. Then days became weeks and weeks became years and here I am thinking about the satisfaction my past fishing had given me. The stream is calling me, as I write this blog, instead of putting my gear in the vehicle and going fishing for possibly the first time in about three years.

Now where did i put my fly rod?

Working For the DEC of NY

 In February of 2021 I had acquired a position of maintenance at the Lima DEC department of environmental conservation. It was a dramatic change from sitting behind a graphics computer. I cut lawns and picked up trash at several boat launch locations. I even helped clear trees for a pond levy project. I enjoyed doing this job until the it ended abruptly in October that year. Meanwhile at home I found time to tie flies and even made a fly tying station out of english walnut. There was some fishing in both Cohocton and Naples.

May 14th of 2021 there was an outing with an old friend who met me at Oatka. We fished late in the day and caught up on some things.  The evening brought out the spinners and some nice early evening sunlight. 

 Brian brought his nice camera and took some great photos. I still have thoughts of rising trout and chasing the current with an elk hair caddis dry.

May 21st i took my wife Kim back to Oatka in the late afternoon. I gave her a choice of fishing spots. She chose a calm pool and I went upstream to fish the fast water. She made the correct option. Within minutes she hooked up and i had to walk back downstream to record her catch. We fished that pool the rest of the evening. It made for a very pleasant closeness to the stream and my lovely wife.

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!

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.

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.

The last week of June

That's Marvin in the background with his new
White river flyrod from Bass Pro shop

In late June, I was able to fish a couple of days with my brothers. Wednesday was pouring rain for most of the day. I spent the morning trying to fish for bass on Sodus Bay with my outboard motor boat. It was raining when we got started and the wind was really churning up the surface. So we stopped at one of the inlets to the bay and fly fished using poppers. Other than just practicing in the wind, this proved unproductive.

When we finally got the boat in the water the rain had stopped. Marvin and I fished with shiners and crawlers for a couple of hours with no luck. As it often happens, I was out of my element when it comes to fishing large bodies of water. Give me 5 feet of river and I can catch fish. Give me 40 feet of lake and I'm at a loss where to find fish.

So when the rain started filling our boat, we packed up and decided to check out some small creeks that flow though Wayne County.

Most of the creeks are just drainage ditches in a dry summer. We found one that I know flows rather heavy in the spring and fall. This stream has a few pockets where fish hide. So I directed my brother to use a popper to coax something out into the open. After a few small creek chubs, we ended up hooking a rock bass and small sunnies.

We'll toss that one back!

When Saturday rolled around I determined I would bag a bass with my kayak and fly rod. It was around 7:00 am when my brother and I got started. 
The temp was already hot when we got out on the water. We found shade along the east banks of the small reservoir we were fishing. I was using a small popper and Paul was using a spinning rod and lures. I caught some sunfish right away on top water. It was about 9:00 before I caught a small bass. 


   Paul did not have much of any success, so we traded rods and right away he was getting hits, and soon a small bass. With the spinning rod I just was playing games with some wary fish. I then put on a Rebel Pop-r top water lure and tossed it behind me. Around 11:00 I began to paddle back to the shore to exit the water. Then I heard a splash behind me. I lifted the pole and hooked a nice 17-inch Largemouth. It felt good to get out on the water and land a big fish.

Great morning with Paul

What Summer was like last year.

Summer has begun and as I look back over my blog and last summers photo albums,

I realize that my fishing has suffered from working to much.

Here is a look at the few outings I did manage squeeze into my busy 2017 summer.

 Now through September will attempt to get back into some great fishing. This afternoon I registered my trailer and boat. Tonight I repaired a fly rod, cleaned some fly line and restrung a reel for left hand retreival. As I mentioned in my April 1st blog, my fishing had suffered from a right shoulder injury. My shoulder has now healed.... Praise God... I will now be training my left arm to cast better than my right. Rain is in the forcast for this weekend. I hope to get out in between downpours. I'll be fishing most of next week with my brother.

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