Start of Archery

PA archery season opened this past weekend. The weather was looking great for the early season: cold and clear. Paul was able to get out for the morning so we had plans to meet at Colyer. Somehow, all the meteorologists got it wrong...big slug of rain coming down from about 5am to 10am, exactly when we were going to hunt. I'll hunt in a lot of weather, but 40 degree rain on the first day of archery aint it. Came home and did work for the day and headed back out in the afternoon. Sat in my permanent stand set up off of Thickhead Mtn road. Didn't see anything while it was light out, but jumped at least 5 on my walk out - they're there - it's just a matter of time.

Went out spotting with Paul last night. Saw 72 deer. Yes, 72. And only 4 descernable as bucks. But one of 'em was a goddamn bruiser. Biggest buck I've ever seen. As soon as we hit him with the light he turned around, tucked tail, lowered his head and just walked quickly out of the soybeans back into his bedroom: a nicely posted 5.7 acre piece of isolated woods in the middle of ag fields. I talked to the landowner today, but they are too sick of hunters causing damage and acting unsafely that they aren't allowing any hunting anymore. The woman said they had farmed there since 1960 and only posted it 2 years ago because of all the issues. Thanks a lot douchebag poachers and "hunters."

Took a walk this afternoon onto a piece of property that the County bought from Penn State a few years ago. Ran into a nice guy "Bill" who hunts it frequently. He was hesitant at first to talk, but ended up sharing with me some information about the property and surrounding areas good for hunting. After I left him I parked along the access road and took a walk. Beautiful fields, thick honeysuckle, rubus, and black walnut, and a stand of spruce; deer trails everywhere. Jumped 3 doe out of a finger of trees between two fields and got within 20yrds of one of them. Found a couple trees to sit in, but it seems to be one of the only places I've come across here where a blind would work well.

Today's retard encounter: I got back to my car to find a note saying "Private Property - your vehicle plate # has been reported to Township authorities" signed, Centre Region Rec and Parks Dept. I was confused at first, maybe someone thought I was walking on the other side of the road? Maybe this property is off limits (even though I knew it wasn't and they guy I'd just ran into said it wasn't)? Then I started thinking, why would the rec and parks department be putting notes on peoples' cars warning about private property? So on my way home I called them and asked. The response was "Oh, yeah, you can go ahead and ignore that note - our guy was confused." Hm. I kept the guy on the phone and he gave me some line about how the property was open to hunting (I didn't mention hunting, he did) and would remain so until they start "developing" the site. Developing, huh? When might that be? Well, a few years out, maybe two. I hung up and have been getting more and more pissed ever since. Who is this guy? He works for the County region; he gets paid with tax payer dollars; he doesn't like people hunting "his" "secret" spot?; he leaves threatening notes ("reported to the authorities!") on peoples' cars who might be infringing on "his" spot, which happens to be PUBLIC land, open to hunting. I don't think this is the end of this - I'm calling back tomorrow and getting a name.

I did get into the stand this evening though and saw 6 deer. Big ruckus in the woods in front of me around 6:15. 3 doe came running by - took a shot, but a running one with no luck. Shouldn't have done that...oh well. Shortly thereafter, I could see a doe sneaking through the brush 25/30yrds to my right; too thick for a shot. Another little one was another 10yrds beyond following mom. A 6th one must have seen me turn around in my stand and went bounding back the way she came. No good shots, but a good time for the second day. I could see deer like that all season and be happy.

Labor Day Fishing

As the tenant upstairs noted, this damn blog doesn't get updated very frequently. Mostly, I think, it has to do with the nice weather; who wants to be typing while it's sunny and 80 degrees out? Least of all, those of us trying to type paper after paper to finish a dissertation. Yuck. Regardless, this weekend's outing deserves a post. So, too, do other trips this summer, but we'll see if as the weather cools I have motivation to properly log the experiences here.

As for this weekend, Ben and Christine came up and Dad surprised most of us (Ben excluded) by showing up late Friday night. Guess he couldn't bear missing another trip out to the little J. We parked in Barree and hiked in to a huge fire ring and spent the night fishing, eating, building a huge fire, and dodging rattlers. Ben and Libby both just about stepped on the thing. He was pretty big - biggest I've seen in PA - but not huge. His coloring, however, was beautiful - super black head and tail with gorgeous brown, black, and tan markings. Thankfully, he wandered around our campsite for only a while before heading up the ridge to warmer weather (I assume).

We had more luck fishing this time - a few mid-teen inch browns and a bunch of small mouth bass. The spinning rods were great, but I'll never leave the flyrod behind again...

Progress

Although there is quite a bit more work to do, it's been good to get two sides of the house done and the gardens "upgraded." Couple pics to remember the feeling...

Whipple Dam

Hot night last night so we packed up some towels and drove the forest roads over to Whipple Dam. Swam for a half hour around 8. Thunderheads reflecting the sunset just hidden over the pines gave the water a northern new england feel. Super refreshing - it really took the day off.

Green Drakes

Ben came into town last evening to help finish the current kitchen progress. We hit the stream almost as soon as he arrived and ended up in the middle of the infamous green drake hatch. Penn's was alive with millions of drakes, sulphurs, caddis, crane flies, march browns and cream midges. The sheer size of the green drakes, however, is overwhelming. The bodies are easily two inches long and their tails can be 2 or 3 times that length. The coffin flies were falling, littering the stream, and the fish were rising everywhere - places I've never seen fish rise were just boiling with fish. By dark the bugs were so thick I had my shirt buttoned to the top and my collar up just to keep them out. The caddis were out like crazy, too, covering the stream bank, rocks, and our legs and arms...kinda gross after a while. I ended up with four fish, one bruiser; Ben with two. But once the coffin flies started to fall, the stream was literally littered with bugs and our flies were lost in the smörgåsbord of bugs. So despite fish rising everywhere, and rising violently, splashing, thrashing, catching fish is almost like winning the lottery. Can't wait for tonight.

May Fishing

Out a couple times in the past couple days. Paul and I hit tunnel road again and stood in the stream watching sulphurs and march browns and millions of cream midges hatch, fly around, and float down the river. There were also thousands of american toads crowding the stream edges...they were deafening and you could see and hear them splashing along the banks. I'm sure the big boys eat those things like candy... No fish rising. Only at 9PM did things turn on. I pulled 3 out of the hole that stumped me the last time out. The big fish were back, rolling at flies along the bank, but I couldn't get one to hook themselves. Tonight was a different story. Beautiful night tonight, bugs everywhere, and virtually no one on the stream. A Friday to boot. Strange. They missed out. I took advantage of the empty stream and finally fished at the mouth of Elk Creek...crazy little spot with big boulders and random, deep holes that made wading difficult at best. First cast I had a missed strike...fourth cast another...sixth cast, however, I caught a monster. Huge brown trout whose 15inches belied it's size. This thing was fat. Had a huge head and a thick, hooked nose. And I've never seen a more beautiful brown; this thing was 4 different colors of bright orange, mottled with various sized, dark and haloed spots, and all its fins had bright white edges. I was going to keep it for breakfast (and to take a picture), but literally it was just too gorgeous to not put back. Go make babies, big guy. Caught 6 total on sulphur and march brown dries. Had 1 other on that came off and a few more missed strikes. The only other guy on the stream didn't catch a thing and I'm assuming was relatively pissed at me by the end of the night. Sometimes you get Penn's, sometimes Penn's gets you....as the fella says.

Fishing, Finally

After a long few weeks of cold weather and rain (and lots of it), the sun has finally broke through and the streams have begun their descent out of flood stage. Finishing the kitchen floor seemed to take forever this week, but Ben and I got out on Penns on the 24th and 25th of May. Flow the first day was around 780cfs and it was pushing a lot of water through at Long Road. Ben caught a couple nice fish, I caught a couple small fish, but despite seeing a ton of sulphurs in the air, no fish were rising. Last night the flow had come down to 680, or so, and was much more fishable although we had the same lack of rising fish at Long Road. Instead of staying there and getting skunked, we drove down to Tunnel Road and jumped in just above the private road bridge. There were a lot of fish rising here with march browns, sulphurs, caddis, and cream midges everywhere. Ben was the master last night catching 7 or 8 with a few 14 inchers in the bunch. I had one fish on all night - but what a fish it was. It took my march brown fly and all my line downstream and after a good 10minute fight, he finally came off. Never had a fish take that much line and never wanted to break my pole over my knee after losing a fish. It's sunny again today so perhaps I'll make it out after the Muth BBQ. Libby is in New Zealand for two more weeks, which should be enough time to get the kitchen finished, this place back in order, and the school work done that is looming over my head. Fishing intermittently will be a good break from these stresses.