Well, here it is, April 17th. and another opening day for fishing in Ct. If you haven't been following the latest fiasco in fishing license fees for this state you don't know what you are missing! And for those of you who have been following, especially since some of us purchased our licenses in Jan., well, we do know what we are missing. Twelve dollars to be exact. Some of us purchased our 2010 fishing licenses way back in Jan. so we could fish and do so legally. It never crossed my mind that the politicians would actually come to their senses and lower the fee that they so adamantly insisted was necessary to balance the state budget to begin with. So what a shock it was to read in the Hartford Courant the other morning that the fee was lowered from $40.00 to $28.00 for the year. Holy cow, Batman!! I kept reading the brief article to see if there was any mention about getting a refund if you paid the $40.00 earlier. I was greatly relieved to read that the politicians hadn't complelety taken loss of their senses when they decided not to offer refunds to the anglers who already purchased their license. Politicians. Gotta love the way they reason things out.
Undaunted, my husband and I decided to drive up to the Farmington today for some fishing. It was cloudy, 50F and a bit of a breeze up there. We also took our dog, Cleo. Cleo is not your "out in the woods get wet in the water dog" no, she is a princess. Maybe it's her age or maybe we spoil the heck out of her. Whatever the reason, she is not at all thrilled with these long river jaunts. She would much prefer her pad by the pellet stove.
We picked a spot that really wasn't too crowded compared to previous years when we dared to drive up on opening weekend. Rob was the only one fishing today. I still don't have "permission" from my surgeon yet. I dared to mention to my physical therapist last Friday that it was opening day and I was thinking of heading up and out to the river. You know, there is always a right time to bring stuff up and when laying on a table getting your shoulder worked on (left one this time!) was bad timing on my part. The short of it was Terry gave me a look that would have frozen hell over in an instant. "Yeah, go ahead. You can watch the fishing but that 's all you will be doing." And so that is exactly what I did. Walk the dog and watch.
Eegads. I don't know which is worse. Being told I needed another rotator cuff surgery or looking at some good water conditions and not being able to fish. Humm...let me think.
So up and down the river Cleo and I went. We checked out the Beaver Pool and came up on an angler who had landed a beautiful browntrout and was in the process of gutting it. So sad.
A bit farther down the river and there was Bubba sitting on a boulder and, to put it mildly, Bubba had a prodigious exposure of his behind that made me want to poke my eyes out. Man, with that cold breeze you would have thought he was feeling a bit chilly!
What next?
Then I happened upon a young kid and his dad. The kid was trying to fly fish and dad was standing behind him in a most dangerous spot. His son would start false casting without looking behind him while his dad was doing some serious ducking and weaving to keep from getting hooked. This was fairly interesting. So I did offer some suggestions to the kid and asked what fly he was using. He didn't really know what he had on and they had no other flies. So I told them to hang on and I would be right back. Now the look I got from them was, "What can she possibly mean?" But back up to the car Cleo and I went and then I returned with a variety of 30 flies. They were both very appreciative. In the short amount of time it took to hand over the flies six other anglers converged on the same spot. I don't know where they came from but if there is anything to spontaneous germination of anglers I do believe I witnessed it this afternoon!
After a brief chat with father and son, Cleo and I headed back up to the car. We decided to move on and try the Still River and Sandy Creek. Then we headed up to Sandisford, Mass., and Colebrook. The wind had picked up for sure. I tried laying down on a boulder in what little sun there while watching some caddis flit around the tree branches. I actually got a bit comfortable there on that rock as it was quite relaxing watching the clouds skirt across the slate grey sky.
So there it is. Another opening day for fishing.
Pretty eventful.
But better still, it was great to be on the river.
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