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| A stealthy young Eric at the bottom left. Ice should be easy enough to see. |
Despite the cold week, Eric and I hatched a plan to fish
for a few hours on Sunday at our little blue line spot. As a freestoner, there was no doubt there
would be ice, but we were lucky enough to have Eric’s dad do a drive-by with
his phone on Friday. We saw enough open
water to justify a walk in the woods with fishing rods if nothing else. With low expectations, we did just that, and
things turned out about how I expected. There were quite a few spots totally locked in
with ice, but we landed a few fish, including a decent and camera shy 11-incher
for Eric. I believe the fish took a size
16 or 18 caddis larva. Both of the fish
I landed took an olive jigged streamer in a deep wintering hole, but I lost a
much better one on a golden stone when it dove under the ice in front of me—like
slipping on that invisible ice at the edges of the fringe ice, a hazard this
time of year. It was a risky (or stupid)
cast, under a rake of branches and tight to a log jam, but with water low,
clear, and frigid, of course one ate right there in the mess of wood and ice. Had I thought not only about where to land
the fish but where my rod could go to get a better hookset, I might have had a
picture for you. Eric’s fish, well, I am
pretty sure he also dove under the ice, and the lip of my net. One thing for certain, we thought the fight
was over and were digging for phones to take a pic of this lovely male still
colored up from the spawn, and all we got was that caddis larva stuck to the outside
and bottom of my net.
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| Some fish caught, even one photographed. Treated to snow geese on the drive out. |
Another Nor’easter is slated for tonight into Saturday,
and like the last one (or two?) South Jersey seems to be taking the brunt of it.
We might get up to 7 inches tonight, but
the snow showers today that amounted to maybe a couple inches motivated me to
take a walk with a fishing rod. As I suspected, it was pretty as heck along
this SEPA limestoner, and I even got a picture of a fox crossing a snowy log (though
you may have to squint to see him in the collage). Fish were caught too. I landed two decent ones around 8 or 9 inches
on a jigged bugger. The first was my
first fish, and I did not take off gloves or dig out my phone in the snow
showers. The second, well, I dropped
that one trying to take a photo of Eric’s jigged bugger in his jaw.
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| Pretty woods, a ghastly hookset, a fox on a log with ducks. |
A theme this week, besides cold, is my poor or apathetic
fish photography! I guess I have seen
enough average small stream fish not to want to handle them too much when the
air temps are below freezing? Yeah, maybe. If I do
land a decent fish this month, I promise to do a decent photoshoot. Besides the two fish I have to leave to your imagination,
I also stuck a small one a little too hard after that with the bugger—the barbless
hook went clean through her poor face! I
was only there from noon to 2 PM, but I also landed at least five more on a
perdigon under a small Palsa pinch-on indicator too. Of course, I got clear, clean pics of a
couple dinks from that collection. Not a banner month, but I
may be able to get out one more time before January comes to an end. Regardless of what our boy Phil sees next week, the
first week of February looks promising on the fishing front with needed rain and a
warm up.
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| Warmer weather and better fish pictures in February? |
You paid some dues in those conditions for sure. I will say that fox and duck pic made it all worth it. You don't see that often, let alone for long enough to photograph it! Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks, bud. Pure luck! She actually crossed the other direction, saw me, and probably decided she didn't want me to know where she lives, so crossed back. I keep the phone buried in layers for warmth this time of year, so I am not very fast on the draw! Hence all the missed fish pics too, I guess.
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