Time well Spent

Every year a group of friends reunites on the banks of New York's Salmon River.  As we get older and hopefully a little wiser these trips become more about our time together and less about how many fish were or were not caught.  This year I'm glad that was the case as fish were hard to come by.  In years past one could pretty much count on 1-3 pulls for 10 hours on the river.  This year it was more like 1-3 pulls for 24 hours on the river.

Instead of being discouraged I found myself doing the only thing I could, enjoying the time with my friends and fishing each run as carefully as I could.

That being said I didn't land a fish, although I did encounter a couple, but I got my ass handed to me, which was fun in and of itself.  The nymphers in our crew fared a little better, but not much.  Unfortunately I wasn't with them when they hooked fish so I didn't get any chrome pics.  Despite the slow fishing many laughs were shared, tales were told, we caught up on each others lives and shared some great meals.

Looking back at our time on the water I can't imagine a better way to spend some quality time with friends. 

Working the run

Cheese

Post lunch riverside siesta

Heading out at first light

Overdue

Life has been a little busy lately, so I have not had the opportunity to post any pictures.  That doesn't mean I haven't been taking pictures so here are a smorgasbord of pictures since my last post from a variety of outings.

 Soft light

 Incoming rain showers

 Nuthatch

It's Called Fishing for a Reason

My last two outings have been unusual in that it has been more fishing than catching, a lot more.  While fishing is much more than about catching, I for one love to photograph the the beautiful creatures that I'm after.  Lately, things haven't worked out in that regard, but it has provided other opportunities.  Here are a few of those opportunities from my last two outings.

 

 A good D loop

 Ready to launch

 

 Gaining wisdom from an elder

 Fish on but no pics, it broke the leader before we could get a picture

 Technically it's a fish, but not what I was after.

Taking It all In

Last weekend found my wife and I taking our son for a hike.  His teenage enthusiasm was let us just say, less than stellar.  When he realized that we were not budging, he pretty much surrendered to the inevitable.  Lucky for us, it was a perfect fall day.  The sun was warm, but not hot. There was a little bite in the air at 10 am when we started out and bluebird skies.  The vista from the top did not disappoint.  For me, seeing my son appreciating what I hold dear, filled me with gratitude and love.  He's not ready or excited to go on an overnight backpacking trip anytime soon but there is now a foundation to build upon in terms of more exposure to mother nature.
 

 Getting ready to head out

 

 Light on the trail.

 

 The beginning of the transformation.  Note the headphones.  

Below are vista's we were treated to.

 

Below taking it all in.

 

Casting Practice

Apparently I came down with a case of Muskie fever.  I had a day to fish and this time of year offers an adventuring angler numerous quality options, maybe too many.  Several of these options held my attention, but the ghosts of those huge tigers pulled me away from the salt, fall trout, or salmon etc.  The only problem was that no one told the tigers to show up.  I fished hard for 10 of the 11 hours I was on the water.  I  worked the structure,  fished cover, fished near bait all for chance to entice a tiger to eat my fly.

The disheartening part of the day was that I never saw any signs of them. The prior week there were boils, a couple of fish jumping and even a two swimming on the surface with their heads out of the water.  None of this was evident on this day.

I did manage to take some shots of me casting.  Casting large 7-8" flies even with an 9 or 11 wt all day means one really needs to be spot on with one's gear and technique.  In terms of gear one needs to have properly lined rods in order to throw half chickens out there with any kind of distance.  Technique wise you better know how to double haul and not be sloppy in your casting or else one will quickly burn out and not be able to put in the time that maybe necessary to land a fish.

                                           

                                          The deep bend of a good forward stroke. 

                                                                      Letting it fly.

                               One of the flies I was slinging all day. 

Tiger Time

Two years ago, my bud Matt and I did two days of muskie fishing.  For each of us it was our first attempt at Esox masquinongy aka Muskie.  Well we were hoping for a return trip to the salt this past weekend, but high winds and seas negated that as an option. While we were in search of an outing we decided to try to fish for Tiger Muskie aka norlungel, a sterile cross between a Muskie and a northern pike that inhabits several bodies of water in upstate NY.  Research was done flies were tied and many casts were made.  Our novice butts managed to each land one tiger and we had several other follows including one that was the size of my leg, a true knee knocker.

                                            Gearing up before launching the boat.

 Early in the game Matt hooked this beast of a largemouth, the biggest one I've ever seen.

                                                 My little tiger, with great colors

                                                                       The release

   Matt admiring his tiger.  He was ready to pack it in, until he had a follow that had him make a few more casts.  He was rewarded for his efforts.  They are some cool looking fish, I wish they lived a little closer to home. Now they live in my dreams.