Osprey

On a recent trip to visit my folks in Florida I had the good fortune of getting some great shots of Osprey doing all that they do.   I have a fondness for birds of prey and Osprey are included.  While I didn't get any shots of they diving into the water from 100 feet I did manage some good shots.  What really amazes me about the birds in Florida is how close one can get down there.  Usually up here in the northeast one doesn't stand a chance of getting even half as close to any bird.

One of my favorites

This is one of my trusty steelhead patterns that has caught me a fair share of fish over the past few years.  It is a take off on the Signal Light pattern.  The body is silver tinsel with edge glo wrapped over then a little purple ice dub for a thorax and finished off with purple and black schlappin.  A simple and effective pattern that has taken fish in fall, winter and spring for me.

Black Friday

Made the run to the river for Black Friday and finally found some steelheading weather.  At 11 am it started to rain and instantly both Matt and I hooked up.  The exciting part about this was Matt getting his first steelhead and on the swing!  It took three trips going back to last winter, but he persevered and found success.  Unfortunately for both of us our first fish came unbuttoned before we could get some pictures.  On another note, it's been a weird fall weather wise.  Here it is after Thanksgiving and we still haven't seen any snow and the temps are warm for this time of year.   Don't know if I'll make it up again till after the new year.

 
 Matt's first brown on the swing

A small but very feisty buck that fought like like hell

 Matt just after he hooked his first steelhead, very happy.

Its not All About the Fishing

   This past weekend I found myself on the water with a great group of guys.  On one of our long walks in search of open water I found myself deep in conversation with one bud and he was saying that these trips are now less about the fishing and more about the company.  That being said it was a tough weekend fishing wise.  We fished hard and covered a ton of water with little to show for our efforts.  With 4 guys getting 11 days (6 of those days swinging with myself and Geoff getting 5 of those days) on the water total we got 1 fish to hand via the swing and 6 via nymphing.  We didn't see anyone else killing it either, this included the pinners and bottom bouncers.  Regardless of the fishing it was one of the most enjoyable trips I've ever had.  Great friends, great food, fishing hard and tons of laughing make for a great weekend.   Some images from the weekend.

 

Red Tail

 Went out this morning for a little bird outing and captured this immature Red Tail Hawk.  Love seeing all types of raptors and getting close is even better!

 

My House of Worship

 I'm not a religious person but I do consider myself a spiritual person, so in that vein this past Sunday I spent some quality time in my house of worship. I went out to one of the local areas where it is fairly common to see Marsh Hawks aka Northern Harriers.  They are a unique bird of prey that hunts on the wing for small rodents and birds.  They nest on the ground and hunt by flying low over the ground.  Their heads are disc shaped  to funnel sound to their ears.  Watching them work the fields over and over, probing the ground for an easy meal mesmerizes me and keeps me enthralled.   Over the coarse of the two hours I was privileged to witness their activities I took hundreds of photos.  As is the case of any photographer I only ended up with a few that I liked.  Such is the nature of bird photography especially without the big dollar lenses that the pros use.

 

A little carp from this past summer

Video taken from this past summers carp outing.  So much fun, very frustrating fishing at times but very rewarding.  Now as my friend Pat say we have to suffer through steelhead season until spring. 

A lil friend

Went for a walk last week during my son's music lesson and came upon this little guy. 

Montauk

I got a special invite a week ago to hit the famous waters surrounding Montauk.  Although I have a boat it is not up for the trip across Long Island Sound especially if it gets windy.  I tend to stay close to shore and in the more protected water.  After hearing all of the incredible stories of Montauk it was great to finally get to see it in person. That being said it is still fishing and nothing is guaranteed.  We got there mid morning due to fog and there must have been 200 boats ranging from skiff (only a few) to 40 foot cabin cruisers all plying the waters for fish.  We stayed outside a bit hunting for albies and didn't venture towards shore where more bass tend to be found.  The bait was spread out a great deal and we had to work hard for the albies that we found but between the 3 of us we must have hooked 20 albies.  I must admit that I got schooled by my friends who live on the coast and had the correct flies and I did not.  They did offer pity on me and gave me some of the magic flies after letting me flog the water from the bow of the boat for a while.  All in all it was a memorable day and one that I hope to repeat next year.

 

 albie,the inshore rocket ships

 Love the colors of albies

 "Hardcore" hooked up

 The famous point.  If you carefully you can see a guy up to his neck in-front of the guy on the rock.

 The Montauk lighthouse

Marsh Hawk

I grew up on a salt marsh in Massachusetts and always loved seeing Marsh Hawks aka Northern Harriers.  This past weekend I was on a walk with my family in some nearby woods when we spotted this Marsh Hawk hanging out.  It isn't often that one gets close enough to get good shots of these birds.  If the sun had been out I could have gotten better pics but am pleased with this one.

Post Yellowstone

In the craziness of getting back from YNP I somehow forgot to post a few pics from our visit to our friends in Bozeman.  We spent two wonderful days with a good friend and his wonderful family.  My bud and I did get out for one day of fishing which was a blast.  I hadn't fished out there for many many years and never during "Hopper time."  Here are some of the pictures from this outing. 

 A common sight in rural MT

 Did I say it was hopper time?

 small creek goodness

 greedy little fish

Oh Deer

The best shot from a little outing this past weekend.  Very happy with this shot given the poor lighting and some tweaking of my technique to get sharp photos with my telephoto lens. 

70-300 mm zoom
ISO 400
F 5.6
300mm
1/30 second