Rocky Ford Creek Report: Redemption Is Always Just the Next Trip Away

Winter at Rocky Ford. It's been cold, but rising temps have opened a window, and you've climbed through it. Roads are wet, not icy. It's so warm it could be February.

You slog through the snow down to waterside.

A fish splashes across the way. Welcome.

You start with a mouse. Oh my, the fish can't take their eyes off it. They follow and bump and swirl. But they don't take it.

You toss out a callibaetis and let it drift. There. A feisty fish takes the plunge. The first fish of 2016.

Have you found the magic fly? No. Just one fish.

You put an indicator on, and hang a scud under it. Some tugs, then the cold shoulder.

You go with a big fuzzy nymph. Now we're talking. You get a hookup. It lasts about a second.

Marsh Hawks are materializing out of the fog right over your head. They dematerialize back into the fog, then materialize again over the water. You glance up once and miss a strong pull. You stop birding and get down to fishing.

You cast into the shallows upstream and get another good pull. This time you're ready. You hook up. A good fish. It takes off for the deep channel and the tippet separates from the leader. The indicator shoots into the air and comes down free and clear. It drifts downstream out of sight. 

You have one indicator left. You try another nymph, get a tug, rare up and miss. The line ends up in the cattails out of reach. You yank it free. But indicator and fly are gone.

Time to mouse. You cast and strip. The fog thickens and the dusk deepens. You cast and strip. You get some swirls but no takes. You cast and strip. You cast into the shallows downstream and a fish comes up and grabs the mouse. No messing around. Alright. Your day is made.

It's not a bruiser but it's decent. You play it carefully, leading it out of the dangerous cattail hummocks right up to the bank in front of you. Home free.

You're reaching for the net when the fish rolls off the hook. Off it goes.

You cast awhile longer, until you can't see the mouse anymore, then pick your way through the dark to the truck.

Sometimes you drive home thinking about all the things that went right. Then sometimes it's like it was tonight.

But here's what you like about this pastime: redemption is always just the next trip away.

"Snow-Flakes" By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

From "Baika Jo = The Plum Blossom Album" Baikan Okada, 1808

Out of the bosom of the Air,

      Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,

Over the woodlands brown and bare,

      Over the harvest-fields forsaken,

            Silent, and soft, and slow

            Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take

      Suddenly shape in some divine expression,

Even as the troubled heart doth make

      In the white countenance confession,

            The troubled sky reveals

            The grief it feels.

This is the poem of the air,

      Slowly in silent syllables recorded;

This is the secret of despair,

      Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,

            Now whispered and revealed

            To wood and field.

Fly Tying: New Year's Party

I've continued to do some dribs and drabs of tying, still thinking of a full range of surface and sub-surface flies for Rocky Ford. So I added some nymphs and flymphs and griffith's gnats to the scuds and chironimids and midges and mays I had already tied.

Then I got distracted by stimulators. But I want some when I'm down there on that spring creek.

It looks like I can finally get away on Friday for my first fishing trip of the year. I've tucked all my new flies into a separate fly box ready to go. It has a special compartment just for my secret weapon: MICE. That's going to be fun. I'm eager to see what kind of a New Year's party I can get going with those Rocky Ford Rainbows.

Momoyogusa = Flowers of a Hundred Generations

I found something beautiful among the NYPL Digital Collections. This is a book of prints by artist Sekka Kamisaka, published in 1909. There is something about the charm and simplicity of these images that captivates me. They provide a rewarding meditation on a gray January day. 

New York Public Library: So Much to See, So Little Time

From the New York Public Library on their Facebook page:

Did you know that more than 187,000 of the items in our Digital Collections are in the public domain? Starting today, the Library now makes it possible to download all of these items at the highest resolution images available directly from the Digital Collections website. We’ve even created a few tools, projects, and explorations designed to inspire your own creations—go forth and reuse! 

I went in for a look. The vast range of topics and materials is breathtaking, from print to photographs to art and illustration to you name it. In just a few short minutes I was focused in on one of my topics of interest.

These illustrations are from an 1896 natural history of North American fishes,  J.L. Petrie, artist, Eastern Brook Trout and German Brown Trout respectively..

These are 19th century cigarette cards from Great Britain.

This is a chromolithograph of "Trout: Salmo Fario" by Edward Donovan published between 1802 and 1808.

Wonder what they've got on fly tying? So much to see, so little time.

You can learn about the collections HERE.

Or you can go directly to the Digital Collections HERE.

Leftovers From My Miscellaneous File

Kokkaffeporr - 2015

Oh man. Another exquisite video about another thing I love. (Music by Jazz & Fly Fishing.)

Eat Sleep Fish, Issue No. 49

Go fishing in Spain right now. Or Croatia, Japan, or Austria. Get your ticket HERE.

"To the New Year" by W.S. Merwin

With what stillness at last
you appear in the valley

your first sunlight reaching down

to touch the tips of a few

high leaves that do not stir

as though they had not noticed

and did not know you at all

then the voice of a dove calls

from far away in itself

to the hush of the morning

so this is the sound of you
here and now whether or not

anyone hears it this is

where we have come with our age

our knowledge such as it is

and our hopes such as they are

invisible before us

untouched and still possible

"To the New Year" by W.S. Merwin from Collected Poems: 1996-2011. © The Library of America, 2011. 

Got a Tad More Snow

December 28 

Today

Take Care of Your Rod

Good advice at any time, but especially in the depths of winter when you have some free time for some careful maintenance.

I pass on to you these helpful tips from our friend at Fly Fishing in Yellowstone National Park. With thanks.

Slow Down the Fall

Exquisite.

Xtreme Tenkara trout

But is it fair to jump in after 'em?

River Report: Hard Water

I Am An Able Woman

I am an Able Woman from Able Women on Vimeo.

2015 On the Water

Looking forward by looking back....

"Borderline" by JYA

Casting a fly into the sun on the water.
Something shifts
on the glimmering edge of vision.
A shoreline emerges, becomes
the way that beckons,

the journey and the destination,

the light that opens,

a looping, lightshot world of its own,

the borderline between worlds

that cannot be parted.

Small trout flash there
gathering up light

rise by rise by rise,

taking the world
on their bright shoulders and,

with the fulcrum of their vibrant life,

turning it round

and round.

It's 2016

WARM WISHES 

FOR A 

COZY AND PEACEFUL NEW YEAR.