The Deer Field

Fished the Deer Field alone on Saturday. A brisk 10 minute walk brings you to the river that meanders along the distant ridge. Before Pa. liberal deer season this field would hold herds of deer mornings and evenings. They still come but in fewer numbers now.

A couple pics of the river. Far enough away from the dirt road that I park on and walk into from, in 3 hours of fishing I heard one distant farm tractor.

The smallies were cooperative this day. One of several I landed in the 12-13 inch class.

A Rock Bass coming in. Also called a goggleye or redeye they gave me some action between smallies.

A 5 inch sunfish trying to eat a 4 inch plastic bait. They have to have some piranha genes in them.

Leaves on the water reminding me that fall is approaching quickly. Sad to see the fishing trips end yet eagerly looking forward to hunting treks through the grouse and woodcock coverts.

A butterfly that caught my attention.

On the walk back through the Deer Field the grasshoppers filled the air. This one decided to hitch a ride on my hat.

So ended another enjoyable day filled with quiet surroundings and hungry fish.

The Yellow Barn

Caleb and I fished the Yellow Barn stretch of the river this morning. I started off fast with a nice chunky 13 incher.

Caleb had some action too.

Here he is working in another one.

I got lucky and pulled in the fish of the day a heavy 15 incher.

Here's one throwing Caleb's hook. If you look at about 10:00 you might see a brown worm flying through the air.

Here's one that "didn't get away".

Here's a long eared sunfish that slammed my 3 inch worm rigged on a 2/0 hook. How he got that big hook it his mouth I'll never know. Inch for inch their as scrappy a fish as any that swims and brilliantly colored.

With a skidder tire as a background some sort of bitten poses for me.

A butterfly that found this riverside flower appetizing.

This damselfly had romantic ideas about my rodtip.

We also spied a mink that didn't wait for me to take a pic, some deer in the distance, and several great blue herons that didn't cooperate either. All in all a nice morning on the river as summer winds down.

Ashamed to admit it but..........

I broke my first rule of never going anywhere, whether fishing, hunting or just for a walk, without my camera tonite. The day after my last blog I awoke with a pulled muscle in my back. After two weeks off work I went back to work last week. Tonite I had some free time and just had to get out on the river before the summer slipped away. I had some new plastic baits that I wanted to try out on the smallies, was in a hurry, and forgot my camera. I went to the same spot that I had seen the eagle and the big bucks several weeks ago but this time I fished upstream. The smallies seemed to like the new baits and I caught several in the 10-12 inch class in the first several minutes. As I worked my way upriver I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye. Turning my head I saw an osprey winging its way upriver toward me. It set its wings and landed in a dead snag about 75 yards away, within range of the little Canon if I had remembered it. I watched it for several minutes as it paid no attention to me, posing handsomely. Cursing my forgetfulness I continued fishing catching several more, one a chunky 13 incher. After about an hour my back began to tell me it was time to turn back when on the next cast I had another strike. The fish came toward me as I reeled in quickly to keep a tight line. Suddenly it veered off to the side making the little Daiwa's drag scream. After several more hard runs she played herself out and slowly came into view. I eased her up to me and slipped my thumb into her mouth. A very nice heavy set 16 incher the best for me so far this season, and without a camera :(. After admiring the old girl I slipped her back into the river and headed toward the truck. As I waded back down river who should appear but the osprey making another fishing run no doubt. As he flew by me on the opposite side of the river he suddenly banked his wings and landed in another dead snag, now only about 40 yards away and proceeded to stare me down. I just had to laugh at myself on this hard learned lesson. Hope to get out this weekend for some more fishing and you can be sure I won't be "cameraless" again.