C'mon, Man!

     Now, this hurts.  Look, rain in moderation is always a good thing for nature.  Today we have a little more than we perhaps wanted, but the reservoirs could sure use some replenishment.   What does that mean for fishing plans tomorrow morning?

     This what you call I was going to fish the brown trout run on the Esopus, but now I'm going to do projects around the house instead.  This type of rain is going to sideline the clarity of the Esopus for another seven days, at minimum.  Just can't seem to get there.

     Oh sure, it's fine.  No problem sweeping the garage, shop-vac'ing musty wood pellets in the basement, and getting a haircut.  Oh yeah, that's just as good as bouncing an egg pattern & stonefly across the nose of a nasty hooked-jaw, lake-run, brown trout. 

     Should I get up early in the dark & go fish the blown-out Wappingers Creek not knowing if and how many trout remain there after the hot summer?  Or is it better to snooze, drink coffee, eat two breakfasts.... and while the house is still silent, ask myself pointless, answerless questions such as....

     If I could only rig up one rig, for a whole season, what would it be?  Would it be a euro-nymph set up?  A 12-foot, 6X leader with a #18 parachute adams?  Would it be a conehead woolly bugger?  It'd probably be a stimulator with a pheasant tail as dry-dropper...  Yes, it would be that last option.

Drawing courtesy of askives.com

     What would a day feel like if you could "fish for the cycle"?  Like in baseball - hitting for the cycle encompasses at least one of each of the four hits (single, double, triple, home run).  What kind of cool day would it be to catch a fish on a dry, a wet, a nymph, and a streamer?  Wow....  flies courtesy of www.orvis.com



     What's it going to take to join the 20/20 club?  That would be a 20" trout on a #20 fly... Where could I pull that off?  I almost did that on my last trip to the Croton - it was at least the 18/18 club.

     Yeah, this is painful.  Rain is for Mondays.  If you're out there tomorrow, stick a few for me.