Off Days

Well, our prototypical yo-yo spring weather patterns are still at work keeping Catskill anglers on edge. That week long warming trend last week was enough to spoil us for a typical April. I mean the last two days of April’s second week were unreal: 88 degrees and 90 degrees. The water temperature was 60 degrees and my anticipation level was sky high for a great hatch. The funny thing is, there were no mayflies, none, until the heat wave broke a few days later. The first good hatches came on a damp, misty, cool afternoon with the river at a seasonable 55 degrees. That is typical April weather.

The past two days have been downright cold, with river temperatures locked into the low to mid-forties. I sat huddled on a windy riverbank and stood shivering in the water for three hours on Tuesday and saw two mayflies. Yesterday it was even colder. I wandered around the house checking water temperatures every hour and hoping the afternoon sunshine promised by the forecaster would appear. I think what I was feeling was kind of withdrawal from fishing stimuli: I was nervous, twitchy, worrying about missing out on something I felt pretty surely wasn’t going to happen. Nine days straight on the rivers and then bam, cold turkey!

I’m still a little twitchy this morning. The water is still cold and, though the air temperature should hit the upper sixties, it isn’t too likely we will have any sun; and sunshine carries most of the load when it comes to raising water temperatures.

I’ve got my Menscer Hollowbuilt standing by the door, along with the old CFO that sort of got married to that rod seven years ago. There is an old Airflo weight forward still spooled on that reel, cause that rod seems to sing her sweetest tunes with that line’s accompaniment. That Airflo has been repaired and cleaned and shepherded through all seven seasons since, like too many of the best things I have found in this world, they don’t make that line anymore. I have a new Airflo, they call it the Tactical Taper. It is a great line, but it just doesn’t have the same vibe with my Menscer.

Every bamboo rod I have ever cast has a favorite fly line, a special combination of taper and suppleness that brings out the best casting performance that rod is capable of in my hands. The my hands part of that equation may be the largest part. Every caster is different, and what feels best to one may just not work well for another. The bond between an angler and that living thing, that scepter we call the bamboo fly rod, is sacred.

Just thinking about that calms me down a little bit, centers me, as I prepare to visit another reach of bright water to search for the magic of trout and fly!