A Day On The Lake

No fly fishing as my back just won't tolerate the casting stroke right now so sorry there is no fish porn. I am fortunate just to be able to get out and walk albeit along the easy hiking trails and slowly at that. Carrying the camera has become a chore as well.

One good thing about not being able to fish is that I am able to sit and observe very closely the conditions of the lake and it's surroundings. I am really enjoying watching the wildlife, the folks with their kayaks, other people fishing and got a really good study of this water after it's flooding from tropical storm Lee. The lake rose about 3.5 feet nearly taking my canoe off of its moorings. I am getting a good idea of the amount of time it takes the water to clear up from such an event.

Well I did get to see a show from mother nature. The chilly weather seems to have sped things up a bit. I am seeing an early touch of fall colors so I think they will be very nice this year. I watched various waterfowl come and go the realized I was seeing the return of the Northern Loons. Next on the scene were the Bale Eagle and the ever present Canada geese. When I started to drive away from the lake I stopped to watch a large flock of Eastern Wild Turkey. Gorgeous birds! As I was sitting there I had a large Whitetail doe and her yearling cross the road within feet of the front of the car. I was hoping to see a Black Bear and the local Bobcats but no such luck on them. I saw a lot of the winter birds returning and have noticed that all of the Robins seem to be gone already fro warmer climates. No groundhogs which is strange for this time of year. All of the fur bearing critters I did see, mostly squirrels, seemed to already have their heavy winter fur. I think my friends that this may be a long, cold winter. There is a lot of food again in the forest for the critters. We have tons of walnuts, acorns, hickory nuts, pine cones, berries and etc.....

It did help to ease the fog of pain that I am in literally 24/7 now. If only I felt good enough to pick up the long rod again. Would be nice to be able to pick up some of those walnuts and hickory nuts for my own use but not this year. Some time soon I hope to be able to pick up the long rod again as there is nothing like the art of fly fishing to heal a soul. In the meantime I am thankful for what I can do. At least I can still walk along the lakeside trail, sit upon a bench beside the lake and just soak in all that goodness that is His creation.

Thanks for letting me bend your ear or eyeball, L.o.L. Perhaps next time I will take the video camera along.

After reading that, I myself need to take a walk along the water with out my rod to just watch what nature has given us.

Rocky

What lake have you been looking at? Pinchot is close to home and I haven't been there to look at the lake since the rain. Get yourself one of those grabber thingys to pick up the nuts without bending over. Down south, they used these little rolling cage looking things to gather up pecans. That wouldn't work for walnuts, but it might for hickory nuts.

Great post!!! There is so much to be observed while out on the lakes or rivers and we get so involved in our fly fishing that we miss what Mother Nature and our Creator has given us to enjoy. It would be great to just fish for awhile and then sit down and observe what is going on around us. It would be so relaxing and interesting. I think I will start doing that when I fish. One could learn a lot by just sitting and observing our surrounding. I noticed that our flowers around our home have pretty much run their course and are dying out, but, the wild flowers along the river are just beautiful and will stay that way until frost. There is a lot of "life" still active around our rivers and lakes and we need to stop what we are doing and take in the beauty.

Thanks for the post and "wake up" call....

Holman lake at Little Buffalo State Park in Perry County Pa. I took this photo there years ago in the autumn:

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...GP0950-1-1.jpg

Take a note book and pencil with you. taking notes of the times that you see hatches come off, light levels, water conditions like waves, clarity and etc. Take notes of the times and light levels at various rises of fish, the types of insects you see and the types of birds you see as they will indicate insect life. Look at spider webs in the brush along the shore to see the types of insects caught there. Also at the flowers.

Notice the weather conditions and how they affect the water. Wind patterns are something to study too as well as how the wind crosses the water surface along with objects that affect it's motion. Here is an instance I have noted: In the evenings usually between 4:30pm - sunset at this time of the year the winds in the Little Buffalo valley seem to calm down significantly sometimes even going dead still. The gnat catching little birds seem to show up skimming the water surface just prior to a drop in the wind speeds. This is a signal to check the hatch that is coming off then switch to the appropriate dry fly or emerger. The birds I look for now in our area are primarily the blue-Gray gnatcatcher:

http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/351...atcatcher.aspx

and the eastern blue bird:

http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/580..._Bluebird.aspx

also the gold finch:

http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/91/...Goldfinch.aspx

When these birds show up along or over the water get ready because the rise is on the way. Same goes for the Osprey and the Bald Eagle.

You know though the greatest thing I get out of all of this is like the old saying about stopping to smell the roses along the way. When is the last time you watched the gray squirrels frolic in the tops of a stand of hickory trees or just watched as the loon dives then try to guess where it will come up? I have hunted a lot of critters and caught a lot of fish but every so often I think we need to just sit back for a while to soak in all of that beauty in creation. Nature is so incredibly beautiful. Where else can you get photos like this one:

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...G_1446-1-1.jpg

Little feller really did get me laughing.

Ironic Eric. Yesterday I did pretty much the same thing. I took and aluminum folding director's chair down to the river and just sat and watched. For whatever reason, rivers are soothing to me. I can't fish them anymore because of my lack of balance, but just being near the water is nurturing. There was a family exploring the river bank about 150 yards downstream. A family spending time together exploring nature can be very rewarding. And, in this economy, it doesn't cost very much. Another lady walked past me with her two grandkids and said they were there looking for the moose. When I asked her what moose, she said about 4 days ago a bull, cow, and 2 yearlings were wandering the shores. I asked her to be very careful of moose as they aren't afraid of anything. Not even the trains in Alaska. I didn't see much wildlife other than a skein of geese heading south, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Fishing is a wonderful pastime but it's not the only thing there is to enjoy about the outdoors.

Beautiful photo of the lake. I was surprised to see so much fall color. Some of my trees have changed color a little and dropped leaves because of the lack of rain. That lake needs to be explored with a float tube, which I used to find fishing from my old donut tube good to relieve my back pains. I am blessed with a picture window by my desk where I see squirrels, chipmunks and birds almost continously. I probably spend too much time watching them. My wife maintain three bird feeders on our deck, which is above my office window. We have bluebirds (her favorite) nuthatches, chickadees, which were not common in Mississippi when I was growing up. We have Eastern Towhees also which I was not familiar with previously. About once a year we have a squirrel jump to the hanging feeder suspended about 16 ft. off the ground on a small cable. Then they learn due to the pendulum effect of the feeder they can't jump back, the fall is more than they like so they don't try it again. Squirrels are not dumb. My yard has so many hardwoods, mostly oaks and hickory, I have a difficult time trying to grow tomatoes due to the lack of sun.

Sunday there was an osprey flying up the river with a trout in its claw, a native judging from the size. It's amazing I can go catch native brown trout and planted rainbows, which are also reproducing in parts of the river and be surround by a metro area of over 5 million people.

In the past 2 weeks I had a couple of opportunities to spend time outdoors without a fishing pole in my hands.
The first was a lake shoreline clean-up project:
http://www.whotv.com/news/who-story-...,4225205.story
Our fishing club did this project in conjunction with a team of anglers from the Recycled Fish non-profit organization. As I was driving one of the other guys around the lake to the next access point we were going to clean up, we had to slow the car down for some deer, and we saw a rafter of wild turkeys (I JUST NOW learned that a group of wild turkeys is called a rafter!).

The second outdoor event was walking a mile-plus length of sanitary sewer that wound its way along a wooded creek. We saw all kinds of birds...goldfinches, cardinals, bluejays, robins, hawks. I saw deer, 4 different types of butterflies, squirrels, minnows and largemouth bass in the creek. I didn't see any turkeys, but found a BUNCH of turkey feathers scattered around, so they must hang out in the area frequently. Saw some HUGE oak and cottonwood trees. I like the way oaks branch in such jagged, irregular directions, so I took a picture of this dead tree (with my crappy cell phone camera):
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...eadOakTree.jpg

I found a shedded snake skin...then about 10 minutes later I found a snake that looked like it may have been the one that shed the skin!
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...Snakeskin1.jpg

I grew up in a rural area, on 20 acres of partially wooded land with a creek flowing through it. We saw plenty of wildlife. I'd almost forgotten how many interesting things one can find in just a day or less spent wandering outside and looking. I DID see a red fox here in town last week, and of course we get plenty of ducks (mostly mallards) and Canadian Geese. And those darned rabbits.

Fish are part of wildlife that you can count on...you KNOW where they will be.

Dave,
Very nice!

Uncle Jesse,
Thanks. That picture is from a few years back. Colors are just starting to show here.

glad everyone is enjoying this and I love the posts you all are putting here. We really were intended to live life for the moment.

Love the picture of the squirrel. That is exactly the way they lounge around on my fence top after filling themselves full from my bird feeders. lol

Isn't it great how being outdoors in nature can really lift one's spirit? I live within walking distance of the Santa Cruz mountains and enjoy watching the wild life and standing under the mighty oak trees.

Nighthawk,

Thanks for taking us along on your hike, and thanks to the other folks as well. I pray your back pain eases soon so you can go fishing, but until you do, keep on posting. I'll hike with you anyday.

Take care,

Mike

Nighthawk,
The way you write, I'm not entirely sure that a video camera is required.
:)

Ed

Seems Sunday was a day for walks. Usually I would have been fishing for cutthroat in the lower river but decided to visit the upper river and watch the circle of life.

Pink salmon making thier way up a small stream close the Skagit River......

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...it_walk-31.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...it_walk-14.jpg

After the spawn they give back nutrients for the next generation....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...git_walk-1.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...it_walk-75.jpg

Cool pictures Kerry! We sometimes get so intent on the fish that we forget to enjoy our surroundings.