Whispers of Autumn

It is still cool nearing midday. Though the sun is bright, its light has a subtle tinge, that golden quality of autumn light.

I am headed for the wide-open reaches of the Delaware this afternoon, feeling somewhat improved from my weekend battle with some sort of pinched nerve that forced a rod from my hands. I feel better walking around at least, and that is enough to break my hiatus and get me out on the river. If I find a rise to draw my cast, I will discover if my aging muscles are sufficiently healed to perform. The Delaware is not typically a place for short, gentle casts.

Our forecast shows a coming four day return to summerlike weather. Beginning Thursday the highs should hit 80 degrees with plenty of sunshine. Today though, I hear whispers of autumn.

My mind is a rush of thoughts, from the simple joy I feel on a beautiful day, to that touch of melancholy that ghosts in with each thought of season’s end. Fidgeting with tackle, I keep travelling back to past Septembers on my Catskill rivers. Fishing seems never to be easy. Rivers are usually low, their wild trout straining to recover from the long drought and difficult migrations of the heat of summer. Yes, migrations, as the City of New York’s whimsical attitude toward the health of these great rivers and their fisheries does not make for comfortable conditions in many miles of these rivers. Both freestone rivers and tailwaters become too warm for trout to survive, and they must move to seek spring holes, cool tributaries, and sufficiently cold water closer to the dams.

Conditions vary each year. Hurricane Debby complicated the picture this summer, and a few short spells of colder nights brought many miles of marginal waters down to cooler temperature regimes for a time. That did not last, as heat and sunshine returned when the rivers dropped and the freestoners saw afternoon temperatures in the seventies again.

So where are the trout? The big water of the lower East Branch and the upper miles of the Mainstem Delaware have nice, wadable flows and ideal water temperatures right now due to increased dam releases in anticipation of the Delaware Aqueduct Project. That should increase insect activity, but have the trout come back? Nature’s wrath already posted a false alarm after Debby, and I found a few in the Beaver Kill after that, but not many. Guiding my new friend from Germany on Thursday and Friday I did not find them within the hours we had available to fish.

Today’s walk along the Delaware is another leap of faith, an exposition of my belief in the stamina of her wild trout. I hope for a sign, enough mayflies to bring a couple trout to the surface would be a shining example, the arch in my rod as a sleek rainbow charges away downstream would be even better!