High Summer Trout

Something from the tackle box:

       A river and its streams bring joy to the city, which is the sacred home of God Most High.  God is in that city, and it won’t be shaken.  He will help it at dawn.  (Psalm 46:4-5 CEV)

                High Summer Trout

The dog days of late summer is not the season

     To fish for trout on little streams,

           Or so most people say.

The knowing sportsmen have all left the brooks

     To cast their baits on lakes for bass

          Around Memorial Day. 

Or, perhaps have forsaken their rod and line for clubs

     And mid-day tee-times in the blazing sun. 

But I know that trout still rise to flies

     When August days are hazy hot,

          If only for a time. 

For a short half an hour, just before sunset,

     And twenty minutes after dawn,

          The fishing can be prime.

For one who is willing to gear up and get out 

     To wade a stream for such short lived fun.

This morning on Tinker’s Creek was such for me,

     With a summer fog hanging on the banks,

          Air denser than the brook.

I cast near a hole I had fished in yesterday’s twilight

     A spot where I had gotten seven rises

          Without setting a hook.

Those seven strikes had been encouraging, if frustrating,

     This morning there would be but one.

A quick splash, and the rod bent over, hook well set.

     Her breakfast tasting better than dinner,

          At least at first, I bet.

Not big as trout go, but flashing and dancing in the current

     All the way, until leader met rod tip,

          And she nestled in my net.

As I introduced myself, a golden spotted beauty she was,

     I removed the hook and let her run.

For we may well meet again upon another summer morning.

     Or perhaps an early evening tryst awaits us.

          One can only wish.

Either way, I shall have her to myself, if and when that happens,

     For the knowing sportsmen have all left the streams

          To fish for bigger fish.

And I alone will wade in Tinker’s Creek, right at dawn and dusk,

     High summer hard upon us, but my fishing not yet done.  

Something to take home in your creel:

       I really did have a glorious, if very hazy, morning on a Tinker’s Creek today.  As well as the fish I just wrote about, I had a hummingbird fly up and call me “buttercup,” as she stuck her beak under the bill of my cap.  Although I didn’t get a picture of that, here are some other photos of the beautiful late summer foliage along the banks this morning.

One Year Ago Today

Something from the tackle box:

       Respect your father and your mother, and you will live a long time in the land I am giving you.  (Exodus 20:12 CEV)

bluegills caught on an old Southbend bamboo fly rod

       One year ago today I opened this blog site, bluegills on a fly rod, to share my reflections on fishing, family, friends and faith with the world at large. My first entry was posted on August 24, 2015, and was titled, Introduction to a Fisherman’s Tales.  In the twelve months since that first posting I’ve put up many more stories and reflections, including this one, totaling 34 in all.  I hate to sound too hackneyed, but this project really has been a labor of love for me.  All of the entries on this site, be they good, bad or indifferent, have come from the heart.  In the next week or so I hope to post a reflection talking a little bit about my motivation for creating this blog. 

       Over this past year I have checked the account page for this site almost daily to see if anyone is actually reading my stories.  As of this morning the page-view counter informs me that over 2,720 visits have been made to bluegills on a fly rod.  This is way more hits than I ever thought I would get when I started this project a year ago. 

       All I can say to this astounding fact, is this; “Gee Whiz, - Thanks a lot Mom and Dad!  To have visited my blog site over seven times each and every day over this past year really took a lot of love and dedication on your part.  I love you both so much.” 

mom & dad on the porch at Long Lake

Something to take home in your creel:

       OK, - so maybe there are a few more people out there following my blog than just my folks.  I know that!  I really do want to thank all of my readers. The encouragement that your continued interest in bluegills on a fly rod has given me makes this project all worthwhile.  May God bless each of you for the blessing you have given me by enjoying my stories.

       In addition to my Mom and Dad, some extra special thanks go out to Michelle, Wayne, Pam, Von, Terry, Bessie, Scot, Thom, Jack, Mimi, Ron, and the unknown membership of my Russian fan club, all of whom have read, commented on, and shared so many of my stories from the very beginning.  -  May peaceful waters and hungry fish be your lot! 

I Just Keep Pluggin’ Away

Something from the tackle box:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  And God said, Let there be light:  and there was light  (Genesis 1:1-3 KJV)

a nice pike taken on a "Lucky 13" this summer

nolan and grandma feeding the camels

       I went to the zoo with my three grandchildren last week.  It is one of those zoos where you can feed some of the animals from your hands, carrots to the giraffes, leaves of lettuce to the camels, tiny seeds to the parakeets.  I think the grandparents enjoyed this as much, or maybe even more, than the children did. 

       At the end of the outing, near the exit to the park, we came to the koi pond.  It wasn’t that exciting of an exhibit to look at.  The water was rather murky, and even though you could see the shadowy forms of a few fish meandering back and forth below the surface, it all looked pretty drab.  But then I saw the dispenser for the fish-food pellets.  I knew that for twenty-five cents you could bring those shadowy and lazy swimmers to the surface in a bright orange, snow white and jet black blotched feeding frenzy.  Koi can be beautiful when you get a good look at them near the surface and I figured it would be well worth the price of one slim quarter to delight the now tired grandkids.  That it did, and I had well over a dollar’s worth of quarters poked into that pellet dispenser before we could get the oldest to make the final exit through the gift shop and out to the car.  Beautiful fish roiling on the surface of the water are fun to watch.

       I am primarily a fly-fisherman, and a dry-fly fisherman at that.  The reason is simple; just like feeding the koi fish-food pellets at the zoo, there is something magical about actually watching with your own eyes as a fish rises to the surface of the water and strikes your well placed feather and hair fly with a splashing lunge.  It is an experience that is just not available when fishing with baits that ride below that plane where the air meets the water.  A fish may come up to splash around after it takes a bait below the surface, and that is certainly fun to watch when it happens, but that initial excitement of the strike is experienced differently, and to my mind less excellently, by those who must rely on the feel of a tug or the sight of a disappearing bobber to know when to set the hook on a fish.  And so I am primarily a dry-fly-fisherman, but not exclusively, as there is another method to bring fish to the top for a strike.

a tray from my box

       When I am out in a boat with my spinning rods, fishing for perch and bluegills that are hanging out in deeper water, I always pack along a few surface plugs in my tackle box.  It is not all that unusual to be out quietly jigging deep for pan-fish only to have your peace disturbed (quite pleasantly) by some larger game-fish busting the surface around your boat as it feeds on insects and minnow near the top.  This is especially likely to happen in the gathering light of dawn or the lowering light of dusk.  When something bigger starts advertising its hungry presence in this way I swap out a jig-head for a surface plug and test the hungry splasher’s interest in what I might have to offer. 

       I have caught some mighty fine fish this way, bass that are both large and small of mouth, as well as pike.  The largest Smallmouth Bass that I’ve ever caught in my whole life was taken in this fashion.  You can read about it in the post, My Week of Big Smallies, found under February of last year in the Blog Archive.  As I made plain in that story, it is just an absolute blast to catch fish this way!  

the plug is just right of his head

       Not only is it a lot of fun to catch a fish on a surface plug, the lures themselves are veritable works of art in comparison to most other sub-surface fishing lures.  Many people collect old fishing lures and the old hand carved wooden surface plugs are almost always among the most interesting and desirable items to aficionados of that hobby.  While I am not willing to pay the high prices that some of those old lures can bring, especially if they are like new in their original packaging, I have managed to pick up a dozen or so old wooden plugs at yard sales and second hand shops over the years.  Displayed in an old tackle box they are very beautiful indeed.  But I don’t just look at them, I fish with them too, as watching a big old fish take an old wooden plug adds even more to the fun! 

Something to take home in your creel:

       Any honest fisherman, even those who love fishing on the surface like I do, will tell you that you are going to catch far fewer fish working the top of the water with a plug than you will going down underneath with a rubber worm, beetle-spin, or some other well proven submarine crank-bait.  And it’s the truth, I’ve caught quite a few nice Northern Pike in my fishing days, but only a handful of them have come to the surface to take a top-water plug compared to the numbers that I’ve hauled up from the deep on a jig-head and minnow rig.  It’s the same with bass.  If it were the numbers I was most concerned with in fishing I’d probably have a tackle-box stuffed with nothing but purple rubber worms.  But, when it comes to catching fish, numbers are not my main concern.