This is why you ALWAYS fish when the opportunity presents itself!

I took a vacation day today. No real plans - just relax and do whatever we feel like doing. My wife and I went to our local coffee shop, ran some chores, ... Around 3:30, she was watching something on TV, so I walked over to the ponds in our subdivision. The water was high but just the right clarity, so I decided to go over and make a few casts.

These ponds are not the ones I write about and fish on over lunch. These ponds are right across the street from my house. In the 7 years I've lived here, they have gone from being occasionally good, to great, to mediocre, to absolutely sucking. Not really sure why. I fished them ONCE in 2009 (not even a hit) and not at all this year. Talking to the other guys in the neighborhood who fish, the word is that the pond on our side - the east side - stinks, and the west pond is OK.

Before I go on, a little background. Over the past 2 weeks, we've had in excess of 9" of rain here, and have been under flood advisories for most of that time. We had a HUGE surge of water pour into the ponds last week. The tiny creek that feeds the ponds - a rivulet, really - was up 5' and breached the roads. It is still flowing fast, but the water is pretty clear. so I gave it a try. On the way out the door, my wife asked why I was going - isn't it usually bad in the middle of the afternoon? My son wouldn't go either.

You can see my vast assortment of lures I l took along in my pockets - 1 trick worm, 2 swim jigs, a bag of trailers, a bag of Yum Dingers, and 1 spinnerbait. Fished the worm and spnnnerbait for 15 minutes as I worked toward the inlet - nothing. But, on the last cast with the spinnerbait, I made an inadvertent cast into the junk at the inlet and, as I was ripping it across the vegetation - BOOM - a blowup!. Hmmmmm...

I put on a 1/4 oz. swim jig and a Strike King trailer, and immediately got into fish. they were tight to the trash, on current breaks. To make a long story short, in the next 25 minutes I landed 8 largemouth, had 3 shake off, and missed about 5-6 hits. All were decent fish, with 1 being a REALLY nice bass.

And - THAT is why you always go when the opportunity presents itself. You just never know what will happen!




My Tackle pack



The inflow at the East Pond




1st bass




2nd Bass



3rd Bass




4th Bass




Best Bass - sorry fo the goofy picture - I had to do a self-timed and the grass is high!




These current breaks are where the fish were holding. Click on the picture to see it in better detail

MY Urban Jungle

A recent remark by Yours Truly, in a comment to a Musings of Murphyfish post, led John (the talented writer of M. of M.) to write his most recent musing. The subject matter is the abundance of wildlife in urban settings. [NOTE - this is not a synopsis of John's post. If you haven't done so, simply click on his blog through my Blog List and read his works.] It all started when I mentioned that I believe there is a lot of overlooked "stuff" in our own backyards and vicinities. For me, it literally IS in my own backyard.

Interestingly enough, I have a few components of the "Anti-Ecosystem" in my yard. The grass is mowed all spring, summer, and fall, the weeds are killed, and the edges are tight - all compliments of my wife, I'm quick to add. In many cases, this style of lawn maintenance leaves nowhere for the critters. But, we have a LOT of things living in our yard. Partially because we plant appropriately for the fauna. We have extensive perennial gardens, and many of the plants are there specifically to attract wildlife. We also feed the birds throughout the year.

The following pictures are all from the back yard. I have some other pictures I was unable to find this evening - pheasants in the snow, and praying mantis, to name a few. Still, we have some good "stuff" in the yard, and I'm always trying to capture it on film. I have yet to get a good shot of the sole hummingbird who appears briefly each summer, but I'll get him eventually.

What is really sort of amazing, when you sit back and think about it, is that we live in the absolute WORST type of development to attract nature - essentially a recently developed cornfield. There are no substantial trees because the oldest house in the development is 12 years old. Consequently, there is little shade for diversity among the flowers planted. And we're surrounded by other developments that were very recently cornfields, so there is no plethora of wildlife waiting to come into our yard from the adjacent property.

Still, we do what we can, and we have fun watching the stuff in the yard. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

NEWS FLASH - I will actually be FISHING in the coming weeks - once next week in PA, and the following week out west. I will take so many pictures my camera explodes! So, this may be the end of the "I wish these were fish pictures, but the best thing I have right now is my Yard" posts.




A moth on the siding




Hummingbird Moth




Butterfly




Moth




A single morning's haul of toads from the window wells. My wife checks for, and rescues, the toads in window wells every day.





A baby rabbit




Hawk on the chair. We feed a lot of birds, and that in turn feeds a bunch of hawks!




Goldfinch




Mallards in the snow




TOAD!




Male Cardinal in the snow

The Cure to what Ails You

I needed to run a few errands today over lunch and, since I ALWAYS have a rod (or 3) in the trunk along with some tackle, figured I might as well try a few casts at the pond.

I hadn't been fishing for over a month. Usually, the pond slows down considerably over the summer as the water heats up and often turns the color of pea soup with the algae blooms. Catfish get fairly active, but bass are quite tough to find, especially without a boat. There are really only 1 or 2 spots to fish from shore.

But - I'd rather get skunked trying for a fish or 2 over lunch than do the usual eat-and-run lunch. So - off to the ponds.

My game plan before I got there was to tie on a Cubby and try to get a few 'gills. At least I can usually get a couple of them to bite. When I opened the tackle bag, an old (at least 20 years old) Rebel Teeny Pop-R caught my eye. I have not fished with one of these for eons, even though they used to be one of my favorite lures, especially when wading for smallmouth bass. So - I tied it on and tried to make a largemouth or 2 come to the top at noon.

The action of his particular lure was perfect. Nothing really replicates a perfectly tuned Pop-R. I have dozens of other popping lures but none sound quite like the old Pop-R's. I was having a ball simply casting and making the lure do different things - make it dive a little, slow pop it, run it across the water, ... Well, apparently a few little largemouth found it enticing, because I fished for 30 minutes and got 5 hits, landing 4 fish. 1 was tiny - 6". 2 were around a foot. The next was maybe 13-14" - a nice fish, especially on my 4-1/2' ultralite rod! And, my last one was a solid , chunky 16" bass, which surprised the hell out of me!

I feel rejuvenated, like I received a shot of adrenaline. Just being out there was great - saw a few really nice butterflies that I hadn't seen yet this year, and saw a buck in velvet. The fish were just icing on the cake.

Sorry - no pics - didn't plan on fishing so I didn't bring a camera.

Get out there and go fishing -it does a body (and soul) good.

Still Kicking, just not fishing

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. I have been serioously busy with work - at a trade show all last week, with heavy travel prior to the show. No time to fish or post (nothing to post, really). Rest assured, I'm keeping up with all your blog postings, and plan to get back in the saddle again shortly.

Bumblebee quest

After looking over the pictures from yesterday's post, and the one's I didn't include, I decided to just let the camera do the work and quit messing around with specialty "SCENE" options. I went back to auto-focus and went after a good bumble bee photo.

I don't know if they are any good, but they were fun to take. My wife thinks I'm nuts for stalking the yard insects, but I like it. There are always some surprising pictures when I download them.

Here are a few from this afternoon's "Bumblebee Quest". And, a few new flower pictures.

Enjoy. And, as always, click on the picture for a much better view.











White coneflower




a cool looking Rubeckia



A little bee in the center of a Rubeckia. We always called these "Sweat Bees" when I was a kid.




Gaillardia, or "Blanket Flower"




Trumpet Gaillardia

This ought to be a post and picture fest about smallmouth bass, but it's not.

I was supposed to be returning from La Reserve Beauchene today. For the uninitiated, Beauchene is one of the absolute best smallmouth waters on the planet. No, you won't get fish as large as May smallies on Lake Erie. But you will get big bass, big numbers, and stay at a terrific resort while fishing beautiful, private water. We've had a reservation for this trip for about 6 months. I've been there once before, about 8 years ago, and can't wait to return. But, alas, some things are just not meant to be. At least until next year.

One of our party of 4 FINALLY got an offer and contract on his house. Naturally, the closing date fell while we were to be fishing. If he changed the date, it would have cost him 10 GRAND, and possibly lost the sale. We negotiated with the lodge and they allowed us to move our deposit to next year. So - no bass for me.


Toad and Gargoyle




Toad

Instead of fishing for my favorite fish on a great piece of water, I got to stay home and literally watch my grass grow. We've had non-stop rain and warm temps, and I've had to cut the grass every 3 or 4 days! THAT part of the yard maintenance is getting old in a hurry. But the flowers are growing, so I take some pictures of them when I see something I like. So if you were expecting bass pictures - sorry. The only ecosystem I've been seeing recently is in my back yard, so that's what you get. I might sneak out Saturday morning for catfish, just so I can post a picture of a fish.


Our lillies have been really nice and colorful this year, so that's what you'll get on today's pictures for the most part. I need to make some shutter speed adjustments to capture the bumblebee's that are flocking to the freshly opened bee balm, but I'll post what I have. Enjoy.








And, finally, my lame bumblebee attempt

More pictures from PA

I had a bunch of pictures from a week ago that didn't make it on to the original post, so I figured I'd post them as "stand-alones". Most are self explanatory; some have captions. Enjoy. And, as always, click on the photo to view it in full size. It really DOES make a difference.


A typical scene on a PA trout stream.










This fawn is less than a week old. A little too far for a good, clear pic, though.

Trout fishing - Finally

It's been way too long since my last post. I've actually done a little fishing in that time, but also had a LOT of work, and just haven't been able to carve out the time to do a post.

(Make sure you click on the pictures to see them full sized)



The cabin - I LOVE IT here!




The view of the creek from the cabin




The big palamino trout just downstream from the cabin


This adventure took place on June 2nd. I got a chance to spend a day back in PA on some trout waters. It's a lot of travel for a day's worth of fishing, but I think it's worth it. When I get back to PA and have only a day, I really need to make a decision beforehand as to whether I'll fish the stocked, larger streams, or spend the day on the tiny, unstocked Class A Wild Trout waters. The stream where the cabin is located is a very popular stocked trout stream. I've had many happy days on this water, and basically learned to flyfish on it. As you can see from the picture, it is a beautiful stream, and has some pretty nice fish stocked in - at least occasionally. The palamino trout in the picture was at least 18", maybe 20" long. Even though there are trout literally a cast away from the cabin porch, inevitably I am drawn to the remote tributaries.



Windfall Creek


This was no different. I spent my one day there on a small feeder stream to a larger feeder of the main stream in the valley. This is SMALL, skinny water inhabited by wild native brook trout. The prevailing wisdom says that if you can get a dry fly over them without spooking them, they'll hit it. It's not about the right fly choice - I fished a red #16 Humpy all day. So, at face value, it really shouldn't be that hard.



Little native brookie

Well, it is. The grass/ tree limbs/ fallen trees limit EVERY cast. Most of your casts are roll casts. Nothing is longer than 30-35'. The best looking plunge pools - the ones with the longest deep water - are actually the toughest to catch anything in. Why? You inevitably spook a coupe of 5" brookies in the tail of the pool, and they madly dash into the heart of the pool and scare the hell out of every fish in the area. I found out years ago that the best, most productive water on these streams is the short stretches of pocket water. Might only be 2 feet long and a foot deep, but the current hides the fish (and you) and they don't spook as easily.



Love these natives!



Tough to be stealthy here

I've never been able to pinpoint the allure of these tiny trout . I've caught hundreds, if not thousands of them in PA and NY, and have caught a total of 2 over 10". My fishing partners all think I'm nuts for chasing with them, but I love 'em. They're beautiful, and they're SUPPOSED to be there. They just belong.


I caught a bunch of fish on this day, all small. My weapon of choice for these streams is a 5 pc., 6'9" Winston 3 wt. LT rod. A small box of flies, some dessicant and floatant, extra tippet material, and you're ready to go. And, of course a camera.



Fallen tree


I saw some interesting things on the roadless valley I fished. As I was walking out, I saw a female grouse ahead of me on a dirt road and, as I neared her, she put on a terrific "crippled bird" display. She would come out in the open, drag her wing in the dirt, call to me, and try to lure me away from where I was standing. I had heard about this, but never seen it personally. There was obviously a brood of chicks nearby. I saw the grass move, and smiled as I walked toward the hen. After she "lured me away", she flew back to her chicks. Very cool.



Grouse on a dirt road - sorry for the blurry image



I also saw something that I've never seen or heard of. I welcome ANY AND ALL comments as to this behavior. I was walking and noticed a bunch of butterflies ahead. That's not unusual - there are a ton of butterflies in these mountains, mostly along the creeks. But as I neared, I saw that they were on an old, not-quite-stripped deer carcass. Why would butterflies gather on a deer ribcage??? Did I miss the evolution chapter where they became carnivores?



Butterflies on a deer carcass




More "Carnivore Butterflies"


I stopped along the stream that this tributary feeds into as I left. It is a stocked stream with a fair amount of natural reproduction, too. A pile of stocked rainbows were stacked up under a small bridge. Even though they were very picky in the gin clear waters, it just wasn't the same as fishing for wild fish. I watched them for a while and left. On the way back to the cabin, I saw 2 Eastern Box turtles on the road, which I "assisted" on their journey across the road. Then I came upon a less gracious turtle crossing the road. He wasn't nearly as happy as the box turtles to let me help him along his way!



2 visible trout below the bridge on Cross Fork Ck.



A snapper crossing the road

Living in Illinois is OK, but when I return - even briefly - to the mountains, be they PA or COL, I remember how much I miss them. Short of moving, I really need ot figure out a way to spend more time in the mountains.