First Cast with the Bucktail Spinner

First cast with the bucktail spinner, given to me by Tom Savko, and a largemouth whacked it. I missed the hit. Sun was setting, a little of its presence yet on the shallows I cast, water warmed somewhat there, but I doubt the temperature got quite to the mid-40's. Temperature here in Bedminster at 4 pm was 46. The bass left a nice surface swirl after it vanished.

The blade is homemade. It's not a spinner crafted entirely by marketed components. And it works, an excellent choice for Bedminster Pond on a mild day. Last year, my son and I went there and fished for about 15 minutes, catching bass, but I lost a spinner I made during the 1970's for this purpose of slow shallow retrieve. Bedminster Pond is also shallow, and has residual weeds to retrieve over.

What fortune. Last year, after losing that spinner, I figured that fishing is done with, because I'm not going to make more...even though my mind has bugged me a little, as if I might. Along comes Tom Savko and solves that problem for me.

http://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2018/03/bucktail-spinner.html

Day Off

Another day off, and maybe I will do that spinner fishing over here at the pond. Replied to one of The Fisherman editors, who let me know he has several openings for the Freshwater column, so I sent him ideas. And I went on NJ Freshwater Fishing.com, fascinated in the catch of a nice rainbow right over here in Far Hills, just before the stream closed until Opening Day. The guy used a really smart tactic. Just let current hold in place a tiny Rapala down pretty deep. I'm still trying to figure out how to catch early season trout on flies, and wistfully wish the season hadn't closed. Mike Maxwell tells me about Jesse Sullivan, who fly fishes trout all winter, averaging about one fish every 10 hours at them. Noel Sell was doing better than that, using Power Bait, during the mild weather of this recent February.

More snow on the way? To get bummed over lingering winter would be a dumb emotional strategy, when I know warmer weather inevitably comes very soon.

Now to work. On writing. This sort of work I love doing.

Walton and Charles

The Izaak Walton League of America is another of the many organizations reaching my inbox, and perusing the latest connection, I felt moved to ask, "So what do we do to protect our natural heritage"? I don't mean to suggest I have a ready answer, but if you like, you can click on the link I leave for you, at bottom.

And who was Izaak Walton? In the wide-ranging reading of outdoor literature I engage, I once came upon a line that humored me a little, that he's the classic (wrote The Compleat Angler) every angler knows about, but has never read. Of course, I've read his book, but I'm obsessed with words and ideas, and have to suck everything written into my head. That's impossible word by word, but I listen to Pink Floyd, too, and my favorite line from them, sung, "Breathe, breathe in the air."

To get to the dark side of the moon, you have to realize the globe was orbited, first.

Walton was English. But I like the League's American title best, even though Walton's quest for the king, Charles II, does not reflect well on current national politics. I'll leave you with that hint. Future book(s) of mine might be more forthcoming.


http://www.iwla.org/publications/conservation-currents/article/conservation-currents-march-2018/iwla-disappointed-in-president-s-conservation-budget-request

Bucktail Spinner

"The Unforgettable Fire," U2 keeps playing in my mind, the cosmic resonance of instrumentation unearthly and melancholy, as if light years from the down-to-earth pursuits I love. I guess this winter is lingering on awhile yet, though this has nothing to do with ice fishing; it's a nabby sort of winter weather that doesn't give anyone the vitality of extreme cold.

I thought of taking my two-weight TFO and Sadie the black Lab to Peapack Brook, thinking of wild browns and possibly any rainbows that could have moved upstream from the North Branch Raritan, stocked this past fall, but I was up until 5:00 a.m. last night, not getting out of bed until 3:00, having a lot to do. I want to walk in the downstream direction along the railroad tracks and see if I can find holes along the brook's course as it nears the river. I also thought of casting spinners over here in the pond, and though that water is cold, I could grab my rod right now and try, but I think I'm waiting on next Monday, after I get a homemade bucktail spinner in the mail from Tom Savko, a New Jersey Federated Sportsmen News reader who liked my recent article about in-line spinners. He sent me photos of his father's, and his, work, and the plugs he makes are amazing for their professional finished quality.

Loss and Sustenance

The only tree damage my family suffered, resulting from the big snow, is the bent and possibly broken-bent limb of our juniper in front of the condo. But I felt for others' loss, and even mentioned this sentiment to a customer where I work, who spoke of her broken trees. I'm pleasantly surprised to have got Robert Romano's latest blog post in my inbox on just this theme of loss, though I feel sorrow for his.

We never lost power. Other people still have none, perhaps. I know yesterday some were without, including a coworker, though his came on this morning, and I got no news today of anyone without.

There's a maple--huge--in my father's backyard I planted in 1972 or 1973. A transplanted seedling, a tree now with a trunk about three feet wide. Someday, that house where my father lives alone, down in Mercer County, will be owned by someone else. But I expect that tree to remain there on the property for many more years to come.

Romano's blog (He lives in Sussex County):
https://forgottentrout.wordpress.com/2018/03/11/old-friends/

Amphibians

Spotted Salamander

Early in the spring of 2011, informed by New Jersey Audubon Society, I drove at night into Warren County somewhere near Ghost Lake to meet NJ Division Fish & Wildlife biologist Kris Schantz and fellow protectors of spotted and blue spotted salamanders, crossing the road on their mating treks. It doesn't happen everywhere. Only certain places with the right sort of wetland and habitat otherwise, and NJDFW has this all mapped out.

I was interested in writing an article I never got around to doing, and I also had hopes that my son would join the volunteer timber rattlesnake team she supervises after he turned 16, though by now, seven years later, I'm not very clear on what they do. Matt's interests shifted to math, physics, and politics, though he kept on fishing (and even goes by himself or with friends sometimes).

Actually, Matt and I discovered a number of salamander species, including spotted, at Swartswood State Park in 2007, I believe it was; that venture by no specific involvement with or information from NJ Audubon. Summertime. They were under rocks. In rotten wood humus.

I got interested as Matt did, too, but we never got nearly so involved as was possible. Recently, on February 25th, I got a press release notice from Kathleen Sandt of the Delaware Watergap National Recreation Area, informing us that River Road between park headquarters and Hialeah Picnic Area will be closed some nights over the next few weeks so "amphibians" can cross. Those mild (50's) rainy nights. Primarily the amphibians are two, maybe three, salamander species. I think less common Jefferson salamanders, also. But we found some frogs and toads, a few, that night seven years ago.

And then I got a notice about some Park road closures after the recent snowstorm. We had 80 degrees, what was it, three weeks ago?   

News from Theodore Roosevelt's Inspiration

I get Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership articles sent to my inbox, and today's is worth sharing a little about. I'll leave the link at the end of what I have to say. Surprises me that the Bureau of Economic Analysis is tracking the outdoor sector of the economy for the first time, but the results aren't surprising to me: about two percent of the gross domestic product. More than 800 billion dollars is a lot of money, but I wouldn't expect any less of a nation that values its land and water as much as we do. It's a growing figure. The economy in general grew 2.8 percent in 2016, while the outdoor economy grew 3.8 percent.

Now what about the Trump Administration's response? Public lands continue to be a target, agencies managing the 640 million acres (which doesn't seem all that many) taking budget cuts. The infrastructure is a wreck, and little is getting done to maintain and improve it. According to TRCP, the President's infrastructure proposal is contingent upon expanding industrialization of public lands. If this land is my land and your land, our President seems glaringly un-American. To be frank with you, I think of the bodacious streamer fly I cast once into the Salmon River back in November 2015. Whatever possessed me to try it, and it doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to guess what, I realized before I finished stripping it back the bad idea. It has a big fat red head, black body, and busy black marabou tail like a woman's dress. What was the communist dictatorship of the Soviet Union but a government directing industrialization?

I will always know that isn't my America.


http://www.trcp.org/2018/03/06/outdoor-recreation-jobs-spending-shouldnt-overlooked/