May

May is best. The in-laws live on the border of CT and NY. After a delightful supper with Z and his bride the evening before, it was brook trout in the yard and wild brownies in the hills of the local Reservation. After recent rains and falling, stained streams, the fish were more than willing, as they usually are in May. But first, we'd sharpen up at our Guilford pond.

Traditional verge cutting in Guildford, CT.

Size 12, long shank, 2x strong.

First of the year. A good one.

NY reservation turkey

The sky held.

As perfect a stream as I know.

Wild brown trout

Scenes from the Reservation, NY

The Old Oak, down but still there.

Wild brownie.

NYC tap water.

Back in the Yard.

 

A Native.

English Jonny, in clover.

Yellow Stone.

Large, Wild Eastern Brook Trout.

I married well.

Jonny

Fresh

It’s interesting to consider that at the very same time that Jonny’s coastal stripers are beginning to wake, our own land-locked cousins, the white and yellow bass, are doing the same. Their small size and willingness to bite give them an innocence one doesn’t tend to associate with their salty kin, but as I said a year ago and repeat here now: the spring bass run is exactly as it should be…more so after a winter like that we just had. 

I’ve yet to luck into any large whites – the egg-laden females that can be 16 inches or more and push two or three pounds – but a few of this spring’s fish have been better than last year’s, and the few yellow bass I’ve caught have been quite impressive (for yellow bass.) Today, though, the fish were hard to come by. My wife and I spent a leisurely morning on the stream, her mostly after warblers and I after bass. I managed just two, but together she and I saw just short of a dozen species of warblers (Yellow, Yellow-rumped, Bay-breasted, Palm, Blackburnian -my favorite, Prothonotary, Magnolia, Golden-winged, Chestnut-sided, Yellow-throated, Waterthrush and Common Yellowthroat).

Yellow bass are handsome

T.J. Brayshaw is handsome

It's how I roll (cast)

This Prothonotary came in close

What you usually see