Bluebird Days

As the countdown of days to my great American land voyage gets close to single digits, I'm busy with final preparations.  Our weather this spring has been dominanted by frequent rains, but the sun has asserted itself the last few days, giving me an opportunity to be outside most of the time.  These have been bluebird days in the fullest sense. While mowing our fields on my trusty John Deere, I've spotted pairs of bluebirds at each of our three sets of bluebird houses.  That's always a good sign that spring is fully in progress, and if there's any doubt, here's a recent picture from our back yard:

I've also been trying to find opportunities to sharpen my fishing skills after a long winter of few casts .  Yesterday I took the kayak to Giving Pond.  Amazingly I did not see another human being all day.  Having the lake all to myself, I took the time to squeeze the kayak into a large shallow cove thick with dead, flooded trees.  I've always been reluctant to go in that area because casting space is tight, but the breeze was high and the cove was sheltered, so I decided to give it go.  That turned out to be a great decision because that's where the bass and the larger bluegills were, and they were eagerly hitting poppers.  Bird watching was supreme and colorful turtles lined every other log.  A turtle that appeared to be almost three feet long swam by the boat, eyeing me with indifference.  Fluffy clouds dotted the sky.  At one point I just sat back in the kayak, smoked a cigar and let the breeze brush my face.  It was a perfect afternoon.

This morning I climbed back on the Deere and continued to mow the fields.  The bluebirds were still flitting around, along with a couple of purple martins, who seemed to be making a home in one of the bluebird houses.  A large redtailed hawk circled a couple of times, apparently unhappy that I was chasing the mice into the woods with my noisy bushhog.  Listening on headphones to the David Bromberg channel on Pandora, I was pretty much in heaven.  When it was time for a break I ventured over to the Schaffhausens for lunch with Bernadette and Eric - five-onion soup and a very fresh, light chicken salad made a wonderful repast.  Having recently finished assembling my new Colorado XT pontoon boat, I needed to check its seat position and balance, so I had brought it to the Schaffhausens' pond for its maiden voyage.  Also, I was pretty sure I could catch some bass there, which I did.  Here was the scene this afternoon at the Schaffhausen pond:

I've planned one more outing before I start the long trip on May 20.  Next Thursday I'll be floating down the West Delaware River in a drift boat with friends.  They say most of the brown trout in the West Delaware are in the 20"-plus range.  I tied some chartreuse bunny strip streamers the other day and I'm ready to see how they'll fare in the lairs of those big browns.  With luck, Thursday will be another bluebird day.

Bass Fever Continues

For some reason, many fly fishers aren't keen on bass.  I have to admit that for many years I wavered between apathy and antipathy for bass, but when I moved to Pennsylvania I hooked up with a local guide who introduced me to fly fishing for both smallmouth and largemouth bass.  The first time a largemouth came flying out from under a submerged picnic table and crashed down on my popper, I was sold on bass, big time.  I still love trout, but in the area where I live, the average bass puts the average trout to shame in terms of size and strength, and they are often more of a challenge to catch on a fly rod.

Yesterday I took my kayak to a small lake in Delaware Canal State Park.  I often go there in the early spring, just when the bass are waking up, but this was a little earlier than usual.  I tried several kinds of poppers and a few flies that imitate leeches, minnows and crawfish, but to no avail.  I couldn't crack the code with flies.  So I went to Plan B, pulled out the spinning rod and caught two solid largemouths before the sun dropped behind the ridge.  It was another learning experience, and a great day on the water.  Waterfowl were abundant, mother geese were nesting, and there was only one other boat on the lake.  Very nice.

If the weather cooperates this week, I hope to take the kayak out one more time before I return to trout environs and start acting like a respectable fly fisherman again.  I'm fortunate that one of my friends, Jeff Landis, has some private property on Bushkill Creek in the Poconos, and we'll be going up there on Friday.  Should be very interesting to test my skills at matching the insect hatches to trick the wily wild browns of the Bushkill.