Reconnecting

Things slow down a bit this time of year, thankfully.  It is, hopefully, a time of reconnecting with those that are most important.  I am lucky to have the family and friends that I do and a touch luckier to have some time off around the holidays to spend some quality time with them.  This, for me, is the entire meaning behind the season.

Leading up to Christmas, I had managed a couple of December outings to the East Branch of the Croton River.  A gift in its' own right because this stretch of river remains open year round.  If you can brave the conditions, you might even get a reward.  Fishing for trout is tough on the fly at this time of year and that proved to be the case on these two outings.  The river can be a lonely place in the winter as you don't run into too many folks.  The ones that you do run into seem to have the same luck as you do, which is no luck at all.  The lack of our friends with fins, of course, makes the stream a whole lot lonelier.

Either way, with the afterglow of the season coupled with the anticipation of the New Year, I figured I'd hit the river once more and see if I couldn't close out '13 with a bend in the rod.

I chose a different stretch of the water today than on my previous December oh-fers, and I was happy to find it vacant of anglers.  Lonely is one thing but not having the stretch you want is another.  With a twist of a couple of knots, I sunk a dropper nymph rig and hoped for the best.  It was somewhere around 9:30 a.m. and the indicator, as red as Rudolph's nose, disappeared into the depths.

Finally, I reconnected.

I hope that all of you have had the chance to reconnect with those you hold dear during the season and I hope that 2014 brings you an abundance of those connections.  And, yes, the other kind too ;)

Thanks for a great '13!  Tight lines.

Mike