Another Turn…

How time flies! Today begins the last week of July, and August will be knocking on the door. Some call August the Dog Days, and indeed, temperatures and drought can justify their complaints, but I recall mornings like the one just pictured. Catskill Summer days with warm but pleasant afternoons, often after a touch of a chill in early mornings and cold water flowing in our tailwaters!

I remember that morning. There were some very small flies, green caddis, the kind of flies we see in bug books, but I for one have rarely encountered. Sure, I have tied some, but after a couple of years of disuse, well, what the hell ever fly box did I put them in? That morning I had to improvise. I took the greenest size 20 olive CDC mayfly I had, clipped off the tails with my pocket scissors and squashed down the dun colored CDC wing until it rode like a down wing. That boo bending sweet brownie told me it was just fine!

I remember a last day years ago when I decided to drive to a favorite spot rather than simply starting the drive back to Pennsylvania. I trundled down the steep bank to find loads of BWO’s on the water, and good trout rising, stealing a couple more hours of great fishing before back home and another week of the work that was slowly killing me.

I can’t tell just which kind of August we might have, but I am hoping it is filled like days like those. It begins with Summerfest, always a good time to trade tales with tackle dealers, run into a friend not seen for a year, and just enjoying the day surrounded by like characters.

I plan to do my best to make each day of the month worth living, to spend my hours in fishing, tying, great music and food, and to take a few minutes on the porch late in the day and enjoy a frosty cold one and just look around at these mountains.