Fishing Journal : April 2000

April 8, 2000

This'll seem really odd. I spent the ENTIRE DAY mowing the lawn and performing spring clean-up on the front yard. I mowed, edged, and vacuumed most of the day away. Not like it was a fishable day anyways. The winds are still gusting up something fierce right now. All of the trees in the area are swaying like hula dancers in a heavy tippers bar! I started off the activities at around 10:00am and called it quits at around 3:00pm. By then I had the old familiar calluses back and an aching back to boot.

And it's not like I haven't had any opportunities to fish! It's just that I haven't had any opportunities to do some "interesting" fishing. Mainly it's just been in the local area for the last while. Since Richard Ross and I met at the little Lehigh anyways. I did get to fish Lion's Lake Park. Lion's Lake Park is marked by a small sign right on route 73 on the Southbound side. You really have to keep an eye out for the sign as it's easy to miss. Also I believe you can see the Kresson Golf course through the trees from the lake. That lake is always fun for a quick trip. Some really respectable sized Blues and Sunnies in this lake. I also pulled out some White Crappie on this trip. Landed three after finding their hiding spot. I mainly used a variant pattern I've made up using some Christmas wrap and Cookie Tray Covering. The fish all seem to like it. The nymphs all were either 18 to 20.

Then there's the hole in the ground fountain at the Camden County Vocational Center. This one is on Berlin-Crosskeys Road. Just between Kearsley Road and 3rd Ave. Actually you can't miss it if you're on Berlin-Crosskeys Rd.  The road is only a two laner and the surround areas are light residential and mainly trees. The pond is wide open and in the summer they run the big fountain in the middle of the pond. You can usually find one or two souls throwing worms and jigs into the water to entice the denizens to come out an play. I've found that nymphs fishes with very slow retrieves will usually draw strikes here. There are some nice Bluegills and also a good population of White Crappie. I've been told that there are also Bass here although I have yet to catch one. This'll be a project for the summer with some poppers and my eight weight. I usually fish this spot with my four weight and I love it! The best part of this is that there is lots of room to cast. I don't have to worry about catching any tree trout on the back cast here. I al really lay out line with out having to always be checking over my shoulder on the back cast.

The last venue I've been haunting is the small pond just before the intersection of Berlin-Cross Keys Road and New-Brooklyn-Erial Road. This is a five minute walk from home and has a good population of Blue Gills, White Crappie, and large mouth bass. I've managed to catch two Bass out of this water but they're still really small. The white crappie are rare but you can find them on occasion. The Bluegill are always plentiful. Lately though this water has proven to be really finicky. I don't know if it's the sudden rise of the water levels or what but the fish are being very persnickety. Just yesterday I only managed to catch two after about two hours out. This is definitely challenging water to fly fish from. It's only been recently that I learned to roll cast and that meant that I had to be very careful to get line out. There are trees everywhere and a lot of obstructions that you can snag your line on during the back cast. I plan on doing some more prospecting on this water this year with my newly learned roll cast. I figure that a small popper should call out those hawgs that I know are lurking in the back section.

So it's not like I haven't been thinking about it. I've just been consumed with an inordinate amount of work. Also I am now heavy into the study of Windows 2000 and how I will implement it into our network as well as it's ramifications. Then the kids... Ahhh my lovely daughters. They've all been sick one at a time and I've managed to catch each and every one of their colds. I am on my third cold of this year and I am just hating it. I am only hope that it will get better. We're also planning for the baptism of our youngest daughter sometime soon. All of this has cut into the fishing and tying time. I still try to keep up. I get onto r.o.f.f. now and then and lurk and read all of the madness going on. I am on digest mode on ff@ and I try to keep up there as well. My poor web pages have been severely neglected of late though.

As I said I hope it gets better!

Tight Lines!

Michael

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April 16, 2000

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