My 8-year old nephew Julian communing with the dobson fly larvae. Yes he was named for the apostate. How cool is that?
Here's the latest cinematic masterpiece. Jean Luc Godard look out! Just wanted to get some footage of the Shawangunk (AKA: "Shongum") Kill up here. I've actually spent more time fishing this kill than any other body of water--including the Pacific Ocean! One might even say I learned to fish on the Shwangunk.
Unbelievably, there are still a lot of nice-sized smallies in it. The water level was way low and unbelievably hot. Caught most of these fish at high noon, in 2-3 feet of water with hardly any shade. Nice to see so much wildlife along the shores. Herons, a mink, frogs, crawfish aplenty. When I was a kid one seldom encountered this guy:
Nice to see the fresh water mussel population doing so well. Seriously! It bodes well for the ecosystem. They were almost extinct in the river when I was a kid. Counted at least 10 in one day. Evidently there are quite a few species of freshwater mussels on the East Coast. Found a chart at the American Museum but could not identify this one.
Truth is, when you fish with hellgrammites, bass seem to materialze out of nowhere, so maybe I have a skewed understanding of bass abundance. Julian caught 7 and I stopped counting at 20. Kept one for my longtime family friend Chris, to do with as he saw fit (he pan fried it).
And yes... I am not too cool for bobbers. Try drifting a live hellgrammite over a submerged tree without one! (I did, in fact, remove it after the first fish but for aesthetic reasons only. The day's largest fish was actually landed on a fairly large Rapala).
Fishwife and camera woman: Camilladilla
Unfortunately most of the footage of nephew Julian did not come out, or was shot at a distance of like 200 feet by his mother (my sis) who was traumatized, I think, by her brother in the 70s with these same dobson fly larvae. Anyway... if nothing else the Jimmy Reed track, (Goin' To New York) and the Desmond Dekker classic (Mother Nature) ought to get you through the 4.5 minutes.
That's it for today. The movie sapped most of my energy.
Unbelivable what I'm hearing on the local front. Salmon are in, stripers everywhere, halies in the flats! What's my excuse?
Hopefully i will have some fish to talk about this week.
Kirk-out
See below for movie:
