Fishin'

When I was a kid I spent a lot of time fishing. My father and grandfather we both fishermen and I kind of followed along. Somewhere along the line I just stopped but this year I find I've got more time on my hands... Back in April as the weather warmed I headed out. For reasons I don't really understand I had already collected a couple fishing poles and so I took to the river. The Millers river flows not too far from us and interestingly while people were flocking to our local state parks you don't have to walk too far to leave the crowds behind. People will go on the main trails but not much farther. Those early months didn't see a lot of success, I was catching some small trout but not too many and none of real size. That all changed in early June when I walked up Priest brook. Priest brook is a tributary of the Millers and while I didn't catch any fish where the road got near the river when I walked upstream my luck changed.

Mostly on Priest brook I find trout although there are some sunfish, perch and what I think are small pickerel.

Its hilarious to catch fish so small the lure is bigger than they are. This little guy was really punching above his weight.

Since then Angie has started fishing with me and I've learned a couple things:

1. I'm a luckier fisherman than her. She'll admit it too "I've never seen anybody so lucky."

2. You really have to get away from the crowds and since our local rivers meander that means you'll be bushwacking.

3. Bushwacking is going to but a hurt on your legs. The other day I think I tangled with a stinging nettle, the results were excruciating.

4. When you're into the fish the pain doesn't matter.

So far we've taken 2 good sized trout to eat and 3 smaller ones that had the bad luck to swallow the hook so deeply I couldn't get it out without killing them. Angie caught a sunfish that we could and maybe should have taken but "It looked at me, I can't kill it!"