For me, the month begins on a profoundly introspective, wistful note but ends like a roaring lion. An 80-plus hour work week will be the norm from May 24th through to mid-October. But it will drop back to the standard 40 (more or less) after Columbus Day.
The reality, though, is that trout season in New York has been slow to date, as we switched in March from a strong El Nino to a La Nina weather pattern. For this reason, there’s actually still a fair amount of snow on the ground in the Adirondacks. Yet, I am not complaining. Because all things being equal, it makes for a longer and better fishable portion of trout season.
In contrast, the progression of Spring in the Catoctin region of Maryland is 2.5-weeks ahead of where things stand in the Taconics and well over a month ahead with respect to the Adirondacks. Now last week, I fly-fished mostly Owens Creek on the edge of Thurmont. And what I can tell you is that the Hendrickson hatch is finished. The mayfly du jour is currently the blue-winged olive.
With that said, I landed a bevy of trout using a commercial caddis dry pattern as well as two Adirondack wet fly patterns of my own design (the Ticonderoga and the Kateri Tekakwitha). In fact, I smelled so fishy last Friday (April 26th) from handling all the trout, plus a brace of chub, that it was inadvisable to cap it off with a gin and tonic somewhere in Frederick before first showering. Although I’d gone three days conserving water, and so I needed it.
At one point, I actually had an audience of fly-anglers who were intrigued by how I was skating the caddis dry pattern, basically imitating a bug trying unsuccessfully to launch off the surface film. They even took a few unsolicited action photos (one of which you see here) and then inquired about my set-up. “You should see what I can do with a box of crayons,” I assured them afterwards.
Speaking of Frederick, I toured Carroll Creek Park for the first time per my sister’s recommendation. Well, if I didn’t know it before, I certainly do now. Frederick begins with the letter ‘F.’ And ‘F’ stands not only for ‘firearms’ and ‘fly-rods,’ but also ‘fancy.’ I felt a little out of place. Yet, there has to be common ground somewhere.