Movie Time

It’s been a great year but not so much for writing on my blog.  Here is a video I made with the best moments of 2019 to date.

Mutualism

Mutualism is a symbiotic relationship in which both species benefit.  A common example of this as the Alligator and the Plover bird.  The Plover bird extracts nourishment for the Alligators teeth and the Alligator gets a free teeth cleaning.

I recently had my own experience with mutualism. 

Last summer I was walking down my alley when I happened upon a baby bunny.  His natural defense was to remain perfectly still which he did while I knelt down beside him to take a photo.  While I was down next to him I said, "You look very tasty, I think I should have you for dinner."  To that the rabbit replied, "I am so small I would hardly make a dent in your hunger, you should wait until I get bigger before you eat me."  This made perfect sense to me and I went along my way.

 Last fall I stepped out my back door and saw the bunny again but this time he was much larger.  "Perfect eating size", I thought to myself and I picked up a landscape rock about the size of a raquetball.  The rabbit saw me doing this and he yelled, "No please don't!".  I dropped the rock and approached the rabbit.  "Why shouldn't I eat you now?  There is plenty of meat on your bones to give me a good sized dinner.".  "Please Eddie", the rabbit whined, "How often do you run into a talking rabbit?  I know you could have a fine meal of me at this point but hear me out.  I would like to barter with you for my life.  I will supply you with rabbit fur for your fly tying and rabbit pellets for your breakfast cereal if you only let me live."  I thought about the rabbits proposal for a moment and said, "Okay I will spare your life through the coming winter to give you a chance to fulfill your end of the bargain.  If you have not given me a good supply of rabbit fur and pellets by then I will send you to the chopping block."  The rabbit then cracked a smile and hopped away.

Every spring I plant Morning Glories along my fence and I leave the vines on my fence through the winter on purpose because it becomes an important food source for the local rabbit population when most of their food supply is buried under the snow.

 You can see how they forage along the fence line leaving little treats along the way.

 I was delighted to see that the rabbit had left a clump of fur for me to tie flies with.

 Oh and look at the pellets.  Once you get past the taste you can really appreciate the fiber content.  It's like Metamucil times one thousand.

 I am going to be eating good at breakfast time.

 Imagine the flies I will tie.

 

 This is what I refer to as a "Quality Clump".

The hook is ready.

 Guard hairs for the tail.

The fly is complete. This one fly will catch so many trout that will feed me for so many delicious dinners.  I am glad I let the rabbit live.

Dinners are great but breakfasts are better.  I'm kookoo for rabbit pellets!

The Blog Post That Almost Never Happened

 I figure that if I am to truly revive my blog I should start by writing at least a post for every time I go fishing.  On top of that there should even be times where I make a post even if I just think of a cool thought about fishing.  That being said one of my goals has always been to make a fly fishing blog that people actually enjoy reading.  I put a lot of pressure on myself to churn out blockbuster posts on the reg.  I want my fans to be excited when they see that I have published a new post.  I don't want to produce no "Chicken Soup for the Soul" when I can make "Magnesium Citrate for the Fly Fishing Soul" instead.

Someday I would like to break my personal record of blog views from July of 2016.  This year I will take my blog to new heights.  Who wants to come along for the ride?

It's always been easier to write posts when I have a day filled with the spoils of battle.  I don't have to dig as deep for jokes if I can just cobble together a few photos of trophy fish, a couple nice scenery shots, a selfie or two and some sarcasm.  Who wouldn't want to enjoy a post like that?

As I snapped a photo of my dad throwing on his fly fishing vest I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be cool to have a blog post titled, "The Village Bicycle" being that pretty much everyone has fished this spot a time or two.

  I looked at the Goldilocks bugger that has been tied on the end of my line since the last time I fished this rod two weeks ago and thought,"I should make a post titled Goldilocks and the Three Trout.  Now all I have to do is catch three trout.".  That dream died when I lost my Goldilocks Bugger to a snag on my first cast of the day.

I think this was a Raccoon at some point but it was hard to tell.  I wondered if he drowned while being swept away in the flood or if the high waters had picked him off the forest floor and deposited him in this tree.

The cold January air did little to dampen the odoriferous emanation.   Oo oo that smell.

I suppose I could write a post titled Nature's Way.  

Dad walked back to the van after we swung and missed at another spot.

We eventually hit another trusted stretch where dad managed to catch an eleven inch Brown Trout using a small Olive Woolly Bugger.

I ended the day with zero fish to hand but I still had fun. 

Boyz 2 Men

Last Wednesday, January 9th, I made it out fishing with my buddy Justin.  Like all great adventures this one started out with a plan.

When we planned on fishing the week before I thought that the January heat wave we've been having would still be in full effect.  Unfortunately the cold returned on Tuesday and Wednesday last week.  

 I spent some time thinking about what creek we would try to fish on Wednesday.  I settled on a small Brook Trout creek with some good spring influence that flowed down an eastern slope.  I figured the morning sun would have time to warm the water all morning and then shine on us the whole time we fished.

Over the course of the last couple years I really pay attention to small details when choosing where I will fish on any given day.  I feel that it's one of the great benefits that comes from years of experience.

The creek had some pretty good ice when we arrived sometime between 10 and 11 am.  So much ice that it was pretty much unfishable.  I remembered that there was some springs located upstream and suggested that we fish closer to the springs where the water flows out of the ground at 54 degrees.

 Justin surveyed the stream upon our arrival.

The upstream section was free of ice so we began to fish.

I started out with a size 12 Czech Nymph.  I like it because it gets deep in a hurry and I could see the fish hanging out on the bottom of the deeper holes. 

It wasn't long before I was on the board. 

Damn I'm good.

At first my hands were really cold but after a while of catching fish after fish I started to warm up and forget about the cold.  I love it when that happens.

 I was so happy.

So much life on the stream bed all throughout the winter.

Justin was having fun and catching fish too.  He was using a two nymph rig.

Often time I just sit back and watch Justin fish.  His casts are very graceful.

 Another Brookie for the Justinater.

 Justin caught this bad boy using a size 10 streamer.  It even had a little bit of a kype.

 We walked upstream past where the springs were and started to notice some ice again.  Time to turn around and call it a day.

On the way home we stopped at DQ and we each ordered a large soft serve cone.  

RESURGENCE

As I stepped into the creek I noticed a block of ice on the opposite bank.  Even though I knew it was a block of ice I asked myself, "What is it? Why is it there?"  I pondered for several minutes what kind of conditions would have had to have existed here in the last month or so for a block of ice that big to be that high up on the bank.

 I looked at myself and asked, "Who am I? Why am I here?".  The answer was clear.  My name is Eddie Rivard and I am here to try and catch some trout.  If that goes well I will commemorate the experience by writing a blog post noting every detail.

 I've been here before but never in the wintertime.  This stream is straddled by private property on which I have not been granted permission to access.  The law says that I can go wherever I want as long as I keep my feet wet.  To make matters worse this stream has long sections with knee deep muck that make wading a pain.  I brought my 8.5 foot kayak along to make floating over these sections a breeze.  This is what my my kayak looks like.

Access barriers like the ones I described in the previous paragraph are things that I embrace because they generally keep other more timid anglers out which gives me full reign to exploit the resource as I see fit.

I've been here a few times before but never in the winter.  I had many streams to choose from but the proverbial dowsing rod in my mind eventually led me to choose this as my fishing spot for the day.  I was armed with my 5 weight that I had pre-rigged with a size 18 Pheasant Tail Nymph before leaving my house.   I eventually added a midge dropper but they first three runs I fished resulted in zero takers.  I was fine with that because I wasn't here to fish the runs.  I had probably lost a few minutes of sleep the night before pondering the propensity of the trout the existed in deeper holes on this stream during the winter months in which they are primarily referred to as wintering holes.  Big trout will generally migrate to the headwaters sections of streams in the fall to spawn and then they will remain in the nearby deeper holes during the winter before dispersing throughout the system in late spring.  Anybody that's read Preston Sealon's paper on, " The Dynamics of Stream Trout Migrations through the Seasons in the Driftless", knows this as fact.

When I finally made it to one of my dream holes my heart beat with anticipation.  I was delighted to see sporadic rises and although I couldn't see the fish the sound the rise made was louder than usual.  My third cast with the nymph rig resulted in what felt like a snag and when I gave it a light tug the line quickly snapped.  I couldn't tell if I had snapped the 5x tippet with my strength or if a larger fish had bolted the second it felt resistance.  

 I rearmed with a section of 3x tippet and a small pine squirrel leech streamer.

I had some nibbles while stripping it in on the first cast and on the second cast I hooked a fairly nice Brown Trout.

 I took two pictures of him since he was my first fish of the year.  And after two summers where I have been pursuing Musky with the fly rod catching a fish is something that I no longer take for granted.  There is definitely something magical in every wiggle that a fish puts in your rod.

 I cast a few more times and was teased with several more nibbles and missed strikes.  At the end of one retrieve I saw four trout chasing after my streamer turn around.  I let my streamer sink more on the next cast and adjusted the length of my strips to be shorter and then bam!  I knew it was a bigger fish but didn't know how big it was until I saw it in the water ten feet away when I could clearly see that it was a 19 incher.  I would later confirm this measurement with the rod rule.

 Boom shaka laka.  I love it when my dreams come true.

I caught several more fish in that pool afterwards.  There was about twenty minutes of action that rivaled some of the other times when I have had lights out fishing during my life.

 I eventually decided that my arms needed a rest from pulling in so many trout so I began to walk and paddle upstream again.  When I am not sitting in my kayak I attach it to my belt with a strap system.

 There was quite a bit of green vegetation on the stream bed.

 In this run I could see a multitude of tiny trout rising after midges that were coming off the water.  They were not interested in my streamer so i moved on to the next big wintering hole.

 This one was somewhere in 15 to 17 inch range although I never measured it.

 Selfy time.  You can see more of those small icebergs in the background of this shot.  They still kind of weird me out.  I wish I could have been there to see the event that left them there.

 Another dandy trout for the Ed Man.  This one was on a GoldiLocks Bugger that I started using after I lost my leech to a snag.

 Mystic Pool of Emerald Green

I look into you and start to dream

What big trout lurk on your bottom?

How many men wish they had caught em?

Thank you for keeping them just for me.

The E to the D and the D I E

 A beaver had been here chewing on this log.

 Another mystery chunk.

 Rope Swing, Rope Swing

Hanging from a tree

Oh how I'd like to swing from thee

 Paddling back to the van.

 A flock of mallards flew overhead.

 Mallards in the Sky

Ducks Flying High

Quack, Quack, Quack

Quack, Quack, Quack