The real cold weather is settling in and while it is long
past due, it still a of harsh reality. We are now the furthest from decent
fishing we will be all year. I have not been out in a long time due to work and
family loss, so I guess this just wasn't the year to fish (there will be
others). I now have time to reflect on the few days out and improving my skills & understanding of the rivers and the fish. Winter is the time to spend fishing in books (it is the 2nd best kind of fishing). So I now
turn to Wright, Lyons,
Best, Gerich, LaBranch, Seikes, and on and on...
2006 witnessed my best day (by fish landed & released count), the best fish ever in fast water, a large fish in fast
water which bent the hook but still it held. There was an on demand fall brookie and the smallest fish ever landed and yes a few shutouts (but less & less as the years progress) and on and on...
You have to get over the time not spent on the water and things not done and
focus on the brace of fish landed from above on a 10' wide stream in a tunnel of alders on a pool which had only witnessed rises & impossible to cast to fish. A 22" bow in a brook which only exists for 2-3 miles above the ground's surface. The new brook
which should not have fish but did, a day spent on posted water (courtesy of the owner), the fish in the
flood plain, the bugs, the bites, the bats, the slips / falls and the burns. I think about the 5th
consecutive year on a nothing (to anyone else) Northern Brook in the pool below the cascade where the river was
so high i could not approach let alone fish (but i did).
I need to focus on the not 1 but at least 3 new access points to a river i have been
to so many times and thought was fully covered. I recall standing several feet
below the longest beaver dam in the ADK's (100++ yards wide and over 3'
above the trail), as i passed all i could think about was the Indiana Jones movies and held my breath while awaiting the inevitable break of the dam and the subsequent cascading of water as i passed below the water line along the trail.
There was more, so much more, but so too is there is less, in the end this was a good year for fish & for fishing. Still... I can't wait until next year...
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