Catch and Release is so Over Rated

Killed two fat brown trout yesterday, one fifteen and the other seventeen inches. On the five weight in fast current these fish fight themselves almost to death in the 70 degree stream flow, so I clunked them both on the head.  I fish only for meat under those conditions as these bigger fish don't release very well. Zane waited patiently for the skins.

Gloriousness

Hepatica, nobilis. var. ?

The fish will bite shortly

Turkey Time

 I have been in the wood
   but heard nary a Tom
so wonder then where
   have the Gobblers all gone

As promised

The loons are right here
the ice is gone
and other watery beings arrive

"The Loons Land Tomorrow"

She proclaimed it as truth
returning from the third dog walk of the day
down to the point
the edge of the shore
to see the melting ice
to breath in the moist north east wind
charting the course of the thaw
and the song of the white throated sparrow
and the rasping red winged blackbirds
staking their urgent claims
and mud was the colour of her dogs

Alder catkins ready to seed

 Ant swarm. She thought it looked a bit like spilled caviar.

 Edge

Trumpeter swan greeters

 Still Life: Winterkill bluegill with Pin Oak.  The mechanism by which this fish arrived in the forest over 100 yards from the water's edge remains unclear.

Of course as soon as the snow is gone, come all manner of ticks.

 Only about a third of the ice has gone, but I determined an evening paddle and a first cast with crappie fly attached to the four weight.

 Honeycomb

Gator

Bare Ground on the Hypotenuse or Chinookiness at Last !

The trail to the mailbox is the shortest route from the house
to the outside world
if one is afoot

the cold finally snapped
after sixty seven days below the Celsius doughnut
and thawing arrived with gusto
five full degrees by mid afternoon
producing an actual glimpse of ground
 
rarefied air indeed

Happy New Year

A January thaw brings a dash of color