04-07-2004, 01:10 AM
My newest online column....
also, on Thursday April 8th 2004, I will be on the DVO radio show just after 5:30 pm EST. [url "http://www.delawarevalleyoutdoors.com"]www.delawarevalleyoutdoors.com[/url]
[size 3]The First Day of Trout Season 2004[/size][size 2]
As soon as my kindergartner got on the bus Thursday morning, I finished packing my truck and headed an hour and a half away to fish for Brown Trout. I went to our campsite in the Southerntier so I could fish the Ischua Creek in private. On the way there, any little stream that held trout, was packed. What an amazing site that was. About a half an hour from the camp, it started to drizzle rain. I was thinking to myself, "Am I crazy?" I only had 2 hours that I could fish, and then I had to start my trek back home to get my daughter back off the bus.
Finally I pulled in to the camp and the creek was running pretty high and pretty fast. I wasted no time whatsoever and tied on one of my new size 4 Panther Martins using my favorite knot, the Half Blood Knot. (I never knew WHAT that knot was called until I researched it online.) I chose the Black lure with the gold spinner because the water was a little bit stained.
My plan was to bring home some trout. I have never done that before, and I was bound and determined to do so. I crept up to the water's edge and slowly entered the creek at a crouch. I casted my lure upstream and started reeling it in. As it got downstream and was heading back to me, the first trout hit, but I didn’t set the hook. I was thinking this was going to be a great day. Again, I tossed my lure upstream and reeled it in, and again, a trout hit my lure, flipped a little to the side so I could see a fat belly, and was gone.
On my next cast, I landed my lure into a tree branch on the other side of the raging creek. I watched it as it spun faster and faster around the tree branch and then come to a sudden halt. O.K., SNAP…. One fatality. Hopefully I can retrieve it later on this year.
Let’s try another lure…. How about a #4 Gold/Brown Panther Martin, with a fly on it. Cast, cast, cast, spin, spin, spin sudden halt! I had caught another tree. I am guessing that it is because all last year, I threw size 2 Panther Martins, so I tied my size 2 black and gold PM on. That baby rode the waves because it was so light. I added a sinker, but the fish just didn’t want it.
Now I decided to break out the flyrod. Mind you, it has not stopped raining, but is getting heavier. I attached a pink scud and added about 4 feet of leader to what was there. They didn’t want that either... they wanted that #4 lure that was up in the tree.
So, I went BACK to the truck again and tied on a silver and yellow #4 PM and offered them that. They flat out told me NO…WE WANT BLACK! These fish were so impossible. I decided to go upstream to another area that I had caught fish in the past. (tossing my lure in here and there with no luck)
Once I got to my spot I entered the creek and started casting. On a cast that I felt was surely to land near a trout, my spinning reel didn’t close on me and in the amount of time that it took me to close the bar and start cranking, my lure was stuck in the creek, on the other side, with no possible way to get to it. Oh, I tried, but when the water reached up over my back half, I decided that was a bad plan. I paced up and down the creek. This was my LAST #4 PM lure, I didn’t want to loose it. I opened the bale and let the current pull my line down stream, hoping the angle would unsnag it. In the meantime, I notice a large frog, floating, half-frozen in the creek. Feeling sorry for this creature, realizing compared to his dilemma, my problem was nothing, I picked him up in my bare hand, and held him a few minutes to see if he would warm up, and he did. As soon as he finally started kicking and acting more alive, I took him to shore and he hopped away.
I was ready to tackle my lure again, but a lot of my line was down stream now, slightly tangled in a fallen tree. Slowly I reeled and tugged. To someone passing buy, it would have looked like I was fighting the fish of a lifetime! Once I had retrieved all of my downstream line, I was back to where I had started, and gave up. I closed my eyes, pointed my rod at the snag and pulled. And with a soft PLOP, it came unsnagged! WOO HOO! I casted a few more casts and decided it was time to head back to camp and start packing up.
It was raining mighty hard now and I was soaked. I drove up to a pavilion and slip out of my waders, put on my boots and headed home. A half-hour into my trip home, it started to snow.
Ya gotta love New York![/size]
[signature]
also, on Thursday April 8th 2004, I will be on the DVO radio show just after 5:30 pm EST. [url "http://www.delawarevalleyoutdoors.com"]www.delawarevalleyoutdoors.com[/url]
[size 3]The First Day of Trout Season 2004[/size][size 2]
As soon as my kindergartner got on the bus Thursday morning, I finished packing my truck and headed an hour and a half away to fish for Brown Trout. I went to our campsite in the Southerntier so I could fish the Ischua Creek in private. On the way there, any little stream that held trout, was packed. What an amazing site that was. About a half an hour from the camp, it started to drizzle rain. I was thinking to myself, "Am I crazy?" I only had 2 hours that I could fish, and then I had to start my trek back home to get my daughter back off the bus.
Finally I pulled in to the camp and the creek was running pretty high and pretty fast. I wasted no time whatsoever and tied on one of my new size 4 Panther Martins using my favorite knot, the Half Blood Knot. (I never knew WHAT that knot was called until I researched it online.) I chose the Black lure with the gold spinner because the water was a little bit stained.
My plan was to bring home some trout. I have never done that before, and I was bound and determined to do so. I crept up to the water's edge and slowly entered the creek at a crouch. I casted my lure upstream and started reeling it in. As it got downstream and was heading back to me, the first trout hit, but I didn’t set the hook. I was thinking this was going to be a great day. Again, I tossed my lure upstream and reeled it in, and again, a trout hit my lure, flipped a little to the side so I could see a fat belly, and was gone.
On my next cast, I landed my lure into a tree branch on the other side of the raging creek. I watched it as it spun faster and faster around the tree branch and then come to a sudden halt. O.K., SNAP…. One fatality. Hopefully I can retrieve it later on this year.
Let’s try another lure…. How about a #4 Gold/Brown Panther Martin, with a fly on it. Cast, cast, cast, spin, spin, spin sudden halt! I had caught another tree. I am guessing that it is because all last year, I threw size 2 Panther Martins, so I tied my size 2 black and gold PM on. That baby rode the waves because it was so light. I added a sinker, but the fish just didn’t want it.
Now I decided to break out the flyrod. Mind you, it has not stopped raining, but is getting heavier. I attached a pink scud and added about 4 feet of leader to what was there. They didn’t want that either... they wanted that #4 lure that was up in the tree.
So, I went BACK to the truck again and tied on a silver and yellow #4 PM and offered them that. They flat out told me NO…WE WANT BLACK! These fish were so impossible. I decided to go upstream to another area that I had caught fish in the past. (tossing my lure in here and there with no luck)
Once I got to my spot I entered the creek and started casting. On a cast that I felt was surely to land near a trout, my spinning reel didn’t close on me and in the amount of time that it took me to close the bar and start cranking, my lure was stuck in the creek, on the other side, with no possible way to get to it. Oh, I tried, but when the water reached up over my back half, I decided that was a bad plan. I paced up and down the creek. This was my LAST #4 PM lure, I didn’t want to loose it. I opened the bale and let the current pull my line down stream, hoping the angle would unsnag it. In the meantime, I notice a large frog, floating, half-frozen in the creek. Feeling sorry for this creature, realizing compared to his dilemma, my problem was nothing, I picked him up in my bare hand, and held him a few minutes to see if he would warm up, and he did. As soon as he finally started kicking and acting more alive, I took him to shore and he hopped away.
I was ready to tackle my lure again, but a lot of my line was down stream now, slightly tangled in a fallen tree. Slowly I reeled and tugged. To someone passing buy, it would have looked like I was fighting the fish of a lifetime! Once I had retrieved all of my downstream line, I was back to where I had started, and gave up. I closed my eyes, pointed my rod at the snag and pulled. And with a soft PLOP, it came unsnagged! WOO HOO! I casted a few more casts and decided it was time to head back to camp and start packing up.
It was raining mighty hard now and I was soaked. I drove up to a pavilion and slip out of my waders, put on my boots and headed home. A half-hour into my trip home, it started to snow.
Ya gotta love New York![/size]
[signature]
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