Posts Tagged With: ghoti62

On Thin Ice

(This Blog entry was my submission to a Sportsman Channel and Outdoor Blogger Network writing contest.)

A major credit card company had a contest, a few years back, in which one could win one’s own private island. The television commercials showed groups of very young, very attractive people partying down on a tropical beach, dancing the night away, without a care in the world. The magazine ads featured a white sand beach, turquoise water and palm trees, and all of the ads included the tag-line “What would you do?” Continue reading

Categories: Humor, Vermont, Winter | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Fall Rituals

Certain events mark the passing of the seasons here at Fish in a Barrel Pond, taking place year after year, but they are not dependent on calendars and clocks. Sure, I can tell you with some certainty that my annual ritual of draining and blowing out water lines in the camps will be done shortly before dark, on the last Sunday of October but after that all bets are off. Continue reading

Categories: Fly Fishing, nature, Vermont | Tags: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

It’s Not Over ‘Til It’s Over

The end of the season is nigh, here at Fish and a Barrel Pond, but it ain’t over yet and I should have known better than to write like it was as I did a couple of weeks ago when I got all sentimental and gooey in my post “Mostly Photos, from Somewhere in Vermont“. A string of sunny days full of blue skies and brook trout interspersed with starry nights scented of bourbon and wood smoke can do that to a guy.

It’s been almost six months since the 2010 fishing season began for the members of the Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society and it was nice to spend another Saturday night by the fire, sipping toddies and swapping stories with a swell bunch of fellows but on Sunday afternoon, as I stood in the road waving good-bye, a chill, northern breeze boxed my ears and tossed my hat in the ditch, reminding me it is the end of their season, not mine.

All week long that breeze blew. It took the sunshine away, replacing it with steady rain, and by Thursday afternoon the breeze was a flag-shredding gale and, after a brief lull, the rain became sleet.

You pay your money and you take your chances when you come to Fish in a Barrel Pond, especially in October. Some folks, with little apparent effort, have a fine time no matter the conditions, while others don’t try at all and are miserable, rain or shine. Continue reading

Categories: +The Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society, Fly Fishing, Humor, nature | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Match Game

Search the internet and you will find plenty of fly fishing experts, willing and able to befuddle you beyond all reason with their grasp of the sport. I am not one of them.

I do like to touch upon important aspects of fly fishing from time to time, though, as I did with “Fishing Hurts,” where I discuss the back cast, and with “Teach a Man to Fish,” where I discuss delicate presentations and sportsmanship in general. I am able to observe a lot of fishermen, both on the water and off, and over the years I have reached some very important conclusions regarding this peaceful pastime and its practitioners. One of those conclusions  — painful as it is to admit — is that a six-year-old with a $20.00 Spiderman fishing pole and a tub of worms can catch more fish than a 50-year-old with a $600.00 fly fishing rig.

There, I said it. I am also nearly certain that a pink marshmallow will attract more trout than a Royal Wulff and corn will generally outperform the most intricate woven-body nymph. Continue reading

Categories: Fly Fishing, Humor, nature | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mostly Photos, from Somewhere in Vermont

As much as I’d like to be fishing, there are things to do before I close the camps and pull the boats in 16 days. I’ll get out on the water soon enough but, in the meantime I am relegated to spectator status, watching other guys take advantage of the last few fine days of the season.

Continue reading

Categories: nature, Vermont | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tropical Rain, Then a Hard Frost

The season is coming to an end here at Fish in a Barrel Pond. Four more weeks before I drain the water lines, close the cottages and take one of my legendary end-of-season naps but, in the meantime, the members of the Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society are squeezing in as much time here as they can.

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Categories: +The Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society, Fly Fishing, nature, Vermont | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Summer’s End

There are five weeks remaining in the season, here at Fish in a Barrel Pond, but summer is over. The leaves began turning early, the trees giving up on any hopes for rain and packing it in for the year. Strange sounds fill the nights as owls and coyotes prowl in the moonlight. The Pleiades are visible and I’m sure if I dragged my sorry butt out of bed at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. I’d see Orion, too. The strings of geese passing overhead in the darkness surely do. Continue reading

Categories: +The Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society, Fly Fishing, nature, Vermont | Tags: , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Dead Flies

With a fairly steady stream of anglers plying the waters of Fish in a Barrel Pond I find flies everywhere. I pick them up and if they are intact I add them to my boxes. If not, I keep them anyway. Mangled and broken, tattered and frayed, shredded and unwound, dropped, stepped on and left behind, it sometimes seems that I accumulate as many un-fishable flies as good ones. I find them in boats, on the ground in the parking lot and stuck in the nap of rugs at the doors of the camps. No fly lasts forever.

Most people wouldn’t give these worthless bits of feather, hair and thread a second look but I just can’t throw them away or leave them behind, rusting away to nothing.

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Categories: Fly Fishing, Humor, Rural Life | Tags: , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Slow Evening on the Pond

The air is warm, the water is warm, and the fishing is, well, slow. During the day the trout are hunkered down, hanging around spring holes and the feeder streams where the little dribbles of cool water still flow in (boy oh boy, do we need rain). In the evening a few small pods of fish move around, sipping mayflies and other insects blown in by the warm breeze, but a summer’s worth of fishing pressure has made sneaking up on individual fish and groups of cruisers difficult. They’ve been educated and shy away from the boat. Long, accurate, delicate casts are the only way to hook up. 

I can do long, I can do accurate, and I can do delicate but all three at once is asking a bit much so I spend a fair amount of time just sitting, watching and waiting. Here’s some of what I saw on the pond two nights ago:

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Categories: Fly Fishing, Loons, nature, Rural Life | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mouse Pie

 

The leaves are turning, early it seems, and around here that means more people from other places will be showing up to see them.  Every small town and village tries to get those people to stop, linger and spend money by hosting craft fairs, food fests, art shows, etc. and ours is no exception. My friend Eugene and his pal Purly are looking to get in on the action with a booth on the green where they can offer up real, honest to goodness Vermont food, educate folks about a different way of life and maybe make a few bucks along the way, even though their first experience with food and outsiders didn’t go very well (see “Eugene, Purly and Chef Gordon Ramsay“).

When Eugene stopped by this week, searching for ingredients, I was happy to help. Unfortunately, he and Purly originally wanted to serve up Teriyaki Beaver on a Stick but beaver season doesn’t start until November and all I had to offer was a couple of frozen hind quarters (freshness is of utmost importance). They were, however, able to come up with an authentic recipe they could use and for which I can provide ingredients in abundance. It’s a win-win, as they say. Continue reading

Categories: Humor, Rural Life, Stories About My Good Friend, Eugene, Vermont | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

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