I've got some catching up to do..

I've been a bad blogger. I haven't had an update in almost a week. A long cold winter stuck indoors with plenty of time to blog and tie flies has given way to birthday parties, doctor appointments, surgery, sick kids, funerals, longer hours at work, evening fishing trips, mowing the lawn, planting trees, taking my son to the park, etc etc. Life happens and sometimes there's nothing you can do about it. I apologize for the lack of action. Hopefully you'll still stop back on occasion.

So, here's a brief update of what's been going on..

Fishing
I know it's the best time of the year to be out on the water, especially for trout, but it's just been awful in PA, at least for me. All of the rain has made every moving body of water look like a chocolate milk shake with some branches stirred in it. As soon as it starts to clear, more rain comes along. I haven't even really been having luck at night.

On Saturday, I tried some streamers in the creek behind my house for some leftover stockies. After 20 minutes, I was sick of chocolate milk and snagging debris, so I opted to hit the local lake. I've mentioned this place in previous posts. It's full of largemouth, crappie, pickerel, bluegills, and bullhead cats. I got there at dusk, hoping for some nice bass, or maybe a pickerel. I started stripping a black bugger with some blue flash along the banks and after about a dozen casts, something hits it really hard. I lock on to the fish and then realize that it's not a bass or pickerel, but maybe a crappie or gill. Turned out to be a pretty decent bluegill. A few casts later, I hit another one, maybe about an inch bigger. Not what I was hoping for, but still fun on a 4 weight.



About 20 minutes later, I hooked in to a nice pickerel, about 18 inches on a white bugger, but he did the death roll at my feet, spit the hook, and swam away smiling. Oh well.

Besides that, it's been skunkville for me. I need some trout in my life.


Tying
Not much to report here either. I knocked out an army of rubber legged CJs. These things take me about 8-10 minutes to tie each one and they take too many materials for my liking, but they do work so I suffer through the time on the vise.


I also have been meaning to try out Shark's caddis larva. I was going to dedicate a whole post to this, but Gaeron over at TreartonFly beat me to it. These things don't look that great when dry, but they look just like a bug when wet.




Family
Well, Easter came and went and that damn bunny left my son like 4 baskets of candy, various Thomas trains, clothes, and books. Everyone loves to spoil him. He had a blast with his Easter egg hunt.




Not sure if I mentioned this, but Michael is obsessed with cows. There's a farm down the street from us that we stopped by while taking his great grandmom home after our family gathering. The cows run right up to your car. He was in heaven.


Now, here's some advice. Next time you buy a mower, go self-propelled! Mine finally died last week so I splurged in a 4 speed Troy Bilt 75 XP. I love it. I had some help while mowing tonight.



Also, before I go...Feel like winning a $50 Cabelas gift card? Then swing on over to TROUTRAGEOUS and play along.