The sunlight and the temperature continue to bob up and down like a caddisfly bouncing down a fast riff of current, in short, another Catskill spring.
That first precious day: caddis and a couple of different mayflies which I wasn’t really certain I would see; my Quill Gordon enticing a surprising rainbow, seeing and hearing my backing leaving; man my smile was a mile wide! Then fishing returned to it’s taciturn ways. Sunshine and no bugs, sunshine and enough bugs but with uninterested trout, and in between colder wet air driving water temperatures down enough to stifle activity.
No complaining here, not in the least. More than three decades on these rivers has taught me how it goes, and all of the changes and colors make the game what makes it a lifetime pursuit. Right now, in the back of my mind, I’m thinking about the two good fish were plunking along on some smaller mayflies; the fish I should have caught.
There weren’t any insects close enough to me to see, capture and identify and then I let myself be impatient, overruling my own better judgement and sticking with my 4X tippet instead of taking the time to change to 5X. I know that 5X lets me fish flies down to a size 20, and that 18 I was pitching wasn’t getting the job done on the heavier material, but I worried that Nature would trip the switch at any moment and leaving me standing there with a half-tied blood knot. I know this river. The phrase that comes to me is something along the lines of “famous ten minute hatches”.
My decision was the wrong one, demonstrated by those trout having enough that, when the little bugs petered out, they didn’t keep rising when some bigger bugs started drifting down the river.
So, I missed my opportunity for the afternoon but then again, I didn’t. I was out there doing what I love to do on a beautiful spring day, something I wasn’t in the position to ever being doing that a few weeks ago.
I just heard the wind suddenly pick up, trying to rip the tarp off of my unused drift boat. I was hoping to dodge some primetime rain showers later on and get a few hours to see if I can redeem myself. Maybe, maybe not. Springtime, after all. You never know what the day has in store until you get out there and live it!
Bright Waters Catskill 