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

Smallies

 This summer I had one great day of smallmouth fishing out of the two days I chased them.  While they are a great game fish I find myself chasing other species more often, especially carp.  The fun part of this day was catching three really nice smallmouth.