'Tweener

All in a tweener's eve.

The 'tweener' is the fishing trip one takes in between this and that and the other thing on the long list of things that one has to do to survive.  Yesterday I had just such occasion to hit up a local stream to get in an hour and a half of fly fishing.

It was the first outing of the year where the heat and good old "suck the soul out of you" humidity had reared it's ugly head here in NY.  I rigged up at the car and felt the suffocation of my thickly woven 30 year old busted up and torn Hodgman waders.  Man, I really need a new pair.  That's for another day, though.

With beads of sweat rolling down my back I stepped into the stream.  Sweet relief.  The coolness of the stream with a slight upstream breeze was just what I needed.  I was in heaven.  This brought me immediately into the present moment, my day's tasks, whether before or after, were now non-existent.  This is why I fish.  All else disappears.  It does help that I like to catch fish I suppose but that's the bonus, right?

The Good Lord's AC cranking, I began to scout.  I didn't fish, didn't strip the line out just yet.  Yeah, I only had a limited fishing opening but I've got to mature at some point, right?  I looked and then I looked some more as the water slogged into a newly formed tear in said waders.  There it was, just upstream.  Pocket water.  They must be there.

I quietly made my way upstream and across the riffles to a good run between a couple of decent sized boulders.  If one can tiptoe across rocks then that was what I was doing.  I had a hunch.  I was right.

My first four casts produced three trout.  All Rainbows.  All beautiful.  One I won't soon forget.

I've heard and read about this type of action out of a particular hole and I've even caught a couple of fish out of the same run but this felt a little ridiculous to me.  How did they not see it coming?  How did they not get spooked?  Where was the hidden camera?

Satisfied immediately and still plenty of time to linger in this 'tweener', I walked upstream to fish a run that I've had a hunch about for quite some time but has never produced.  That was also turned on it's ear as I managed two smallish feisty Browns within just a few casts along the outside seam of the run.  If there is a hog heaven then call me a pig.

I probably could have fished more but I didn't.  I'm maturing, you see.  I can look at the water before dropping a line in and I can leave in time these days to get to my next "this or that or the other thing."

Of course, I was late to my next thing.  By about ten minutes.  Maybe fifteen.

Darn traffic.

This was one of the toughest fighting Rainbow's that I've had the pleasure to tango with.

Rain Date

They say that the best time to go fishing is "when you can" and I agree.  This morning was my only chance at an outing in the past couple of weeks so, rain be darned, I set the alarm for a bit after 5 and off I went.

I put the fly rods down as I have been overdue for an early morning reservoir trip so today was the day for the Kensico.

A quick stop for a hot 'cup 'o joe' and a granola bar and up the Saw Mill River Parkway I went, singing along to the sounds of this great tune here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzZnsfe1MFY.  I got some Sawbellies and was excited to use them this morning with my new Okuma baitfeeder reels.  I have had one of these reels since my birthday last July and just acquired two more used outfits for a great price from a friend over at www.westchesterfishing.com.  Today was the first time that I fished with them and I was hoping to hear them "sing" louder than I was singing Springsteen.

The window was short, from about 7 to 9:30 of actual fishing time as I had to rig up three rods and get the boat launched, but it was productive.  The baitfeeders started to sing at about 7:30 and were fairly consistent for the next couple of hours.  In all I had 5 hits.  Two of them I missed but with the other three I was able to bring some trout to net.  I am pretty sure that the first hit that I missed was a Brown Trout as, it seems to me, these finicky fish like to "play with their food".  He tapped at it a few times and then ran as I counted down from 10.  On 11 I flipped the switch and heaved up the rod to set the hook and "poof", he was gone.  So was my Sawbelly.  Call me prejudice but I just don't think a Lake Trout is smart enough to steal bait after running with it for 10 seconds (or two seconds for that matter).  When Lake Trout hit, they hit hard and aggressive.  I had two of the hard hitters come up early in the outing.  One at 18" and the other at 20", both released to gorge and grow.  The third was just before my row in, a nice 24" and 4 and quarter pounder who put up a nice diving fight as Lakers will do.  I kept him for the table.  A nice treat to end a rainy A.M. and another example of the why, no matter what, "when you can" is always the best time to go fishing.