CVTU Field Trip

I don't often fish with other folks, other
than my dad, my special lady and her father.
So this was kinda new to me.

Our TU Chapter (there's a linky over there ---->)
put together a fishin' trip up to East Licking Creek,
Juniata County. Figured this was a good chance
to get to know some of the fellas away from the
meetings, help out a little bit with lunch and break
in the new little camera.

Arrived at Karl Guss Picnic area, shook some hands
and decided to rig up and fish down below the park,
basically heading in the opposite direction of most
everybody else.  Was a good couple of morning hours
on the water, picked up a nice little wild brown that I
had mistaken for a tiger at first, then the brookies got
hungry in the riffles and it was bang bang bang if you
were able to make the cast.

Reeled in around noonish to get back up to the pavilion,
Ken had kielbasa and 'kraut warming on the Coleman
dual burner, 'dogs were on the grill and picnic sides set
out for us to chow on. Plenty of stories were shared, beta
collected for Montana this fall and then we hit the water
again for another hour or so.  Fishin' was slower as expected,
but still found a brookie or two to play with, switching from
the floaty CDC & Elk caddis to my red headed softhackle.

good times.

Learning.

Now that the intro is done,
time for some content I guess.

What to talk about, do feel a bit
of rust on the blogginess...

Well, I did sneak in some fishin' over the wknd,
made a trip up to State College for the TU Mid-A
Regional Conference. Been getting involved
more and more with TU, was mildly involved
back in the mid-90's for a few years after I moved
to this little trout mecca of Carlisle, PeeYay.

I've always had a thing for clean water, and TU
is a good fit for me. Lots of folks concentrate on
the fishing, I prefer to focus on the water, knowing
that if the water is taken care of, the trouts will be there.

That's just how it works.

Anyways, yeah, joined back up a few years ago,
got more involved with the local chapter and was
approached about serving on the Chapter's Board.
It's been in with both feet for the last year or so.
There's so much going on in our area and our chapter
has quite the heritage, it's been a bit humbling,
overwhelming and certainly rewarding, just doing
what I can and learning along the way.

So, the meeting was good, learned a bunch, had
some doubts quelled for the time being and it was
a good recharge of the advocacy battery, a wknd
well spent.

Plus I did sneak in some good fishin'.

Stopped at Reedsville during the commute, thought I'd
check out the Kishacoquillas, but ended up rigging up
to wet a line in Honey Creek instead.  Running late-ish,
didn't get there 'til 7, which is just perfect for sulphurs btw.
Pulled into the community park and took a stroll before
rigging up, if at all. Found an older gentleman swinging a
wooly bugger thru the big bend pool.

"Any luck?"

"Nah, just one bump, that's all.."

Glance at my watch, "Wonder if it's worth rigging up,
only got an hour or so left to fish..."

"It's always worth it," he replied with a grin...

Yeah, he was right, it always is. The sulphurs made an
appearance and an hour later I hooked up with this wild
beauty of brown, strong enough to pull some line and
make the little Hardy purrrrr....it's important to
listen to your elders. Lesson (re)learned....

Reboot?

So, it's been a while.

Had a blog for a bit, it's still there and
was mostly all about the journey by bike,
I was mostly all about the bike.

 But things change.

Change.

 Yeah, now that's a word to chew on.

 But change, for me at least, is often cyclical.

The bikes are there/still here, the
bikes are still fun, but things change.

And now there's time, time for other things,
and passions get rebalanced, rebooted.

So why not start something fresh,  something new.
But something which really isn't, Lord knows I've
been fishin' for as long as I've been pedalin'..

The bikes...that was a particular mindset
and the rekindled passion for fishing,
the passion for the trouts, for the chars,
it is a different mindset, yet still the same.
It's not a mindset, it's a passion.

The roots, quite similar.

Because it is me, it does come from me,
it is within me, so it is the same.

But, it is different.

So, this new blog, it might be different,
or it might end up being quite the same.
(Words and pictures and links and my voice,
how different can it really be?)

I just know, that I've always liked this
no-longer-what-the-cool-kidz-are-doing
format of communicating via the blog.
(What the fuck is a hashtag anyways?)

So I'm starting this one,
kinda from scratch,
kinda not really.

And if you've managed to find it, welcome.

Hopefully you'll find something here you like.
Hopefully it's entertaining, hopefully it's a decent
enough read that you'll come back and maybe,
just maybe, you'll learn something from something
I might share. So, who knows, it sure don't cost nuthin'...


So, well, anyways, let's get started.

Here's a Letort brown I was lucky to hook up with last week,
fooled by an old school partridge and yellow soft hackle swung
just right, sure was a pretty fish.