Last week, pictures of flowers; this week, pictures of clouds. Before anyone starts thinking Quill Gordon has jumped the tracks, don’t worry, there has been plenty of fishing (20 minutes last evening and half an hour last Sunday) but someone got a new camera and pictures are so much easier than words.
Fish in a Barrel Pond is graced with an above average number of above average days as far as fine summer weather is concerned. Hitting the evening rise can border on the sublime, with fish taking dry flies like there’s no tomorrow beneath a sky that would be just fine if it happened to be the last one you ever saw.
It is generally agreed that fine dry fly fishing among pleasant surroundings is one of the primary charms of Fish in a Barrel Pond but not everyone sees it that way. Some folks just can’t catch a break and it seems that every time they visit the weather takes a turn for the worse. Maybe it’s bad timing on their part, maybe it’s bad karma, who knows? The fact of the matter is that there are those who ask when Old So-and-so has made reservations so they can come another time and avoid spending time beneath Old So-and-so’s personal cloud.
It’s still a nice place to be, though Old So-and-so would never admit it as he sulks in front of the fire with a bottle of scotch that has three sides so it won’t roll away in the dark. Ending his weekend more miserable than he started, it might not just be the weather surrounding him that others avoid. Guys like Old So-and-so create their own damn atmosphere.
As we slide toward the end of summer, the make-up of the groups staying in the camps at Fish in a Barrel Pond is markedly different than it is in spring and in fall. Now is the time of paying penance for those springtime weekends with the boys and the camps are full of families spending quality time together and enjoying the great outdoors for anywhere from a week to ten days at a time, which is to say there are a lot of folks out of their element running around and not all of them are happy about it.
Spiders in the showers, bugs in the lights and strange noises in the dark are not for everyone but tradition is tradition so Old So-and-so’s family, all three generations of So-and-sos, came up this weekend for the start of their annual week an a half of justifying Grandpop’s fishing club membership.
I took some pictures just ahead of their arrival.
As usual, they’ll have the place to themselves.
I wonder why.
The View from Fish in a Barrel Pond 
Although I have never met the so and so’s, I’m fairly well convinced we are somehow distantly related.
Are those clouds making faces?
Lovely shots, Quill. I must check my dance card. I need to drive north.