Thursday, October 26, 2017

Deja Vu or Halloween Scary



I eagerly accepted Clyde's invitation to fish muskies in late October, 1992. He had recently landed a good job up north and also found an old farmhouse to rent, right on the west bank of the river. And he knew where the fish lived. He had caught them on big plugs.

From his small boat we cruised about three river miles upstream from his place. He flung the plugs while I beat the water with monster streamers on a full sinking 8 weight line. After four hours of fruitless pursuit, we were both pretty beat and figured on a rest. We had not had a follow.

Clyde said we might salvage the morning by catching a couple of walleyes for lunch - a sure bet below the rapids, just upstream. So, on the first cast with a 1/4 ounce Mister Twister, a 42 1/2 inch musky ate the jig. A long slow tug followed and eventually, the fish was landed for measurements and the grip and grin.  The picture is long gone from me.

Twenty five years on, in late October, I fished for a walleye for lunch. This time there were no exact measurements, but a picture was retained. This fish was much larger - I think we were in fifty inch territory.
Yikes!
Halloween scary!



The wheel goes round or deja vu or some other such coincidence perhaps............

And then there is Fogerty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkazf7znllQ







Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Crude Approximation



Throughout the bulk of late summer and into early September the crappies and bluegills were aggregated in their usual haunts. Edges between dense aquatic vegetation and deepwater drops are the normal places where they lurk.  They bite differently on differing flies and jigs and at different times, but they are together. With the first cooling influence of fall turnover these fish segregated; the crappies heading out for deeper water. The guts of two of those fish revealed the targeting of young bluegills, perhaps an inch and a half in length.

So, I twisted up a particularly ugly impression of a YOY sunfish.



A rude hatch match

Saturday, October 7, 2017

A gossamer morning

Heavy with fog
The forest dripping down
Young spiders practice their spinning

Soft light shrouds the pending sunrise