Saturday, March 29, 2014

Yellow Spotted Salamander Evening Rain

Ok, so salamanders dont catch much brook trout or even striped bass, but, they are one of my favorite yearly events. My apologies to all the hardcore fly fishermen/women readers... Tonight's post is about salamanders. Tonight was actually the third warm rain of this spring, one was brief, cold, and didn't even melt the snow... last night was not as severe.. tonight the rain came down. Yellow spotted salamanders come out of hiding to lay eggs on the first warm rainy spring day. ever drive around after dark and see all the frogs in the road??? well.. one day a year mixed in with the frogs are these huge amphibians thicker than your thumb.
If anyone recalls last years post (http://connecticunt.blogspot.com/2013/03/sos-save-our-salamanders.html) I was a little late to save as many as I had wanted to, but this year was a little better, although there were casualties, I will save you the horrific photos. this year was all about the saving. All collected salamanders are put into my 1 acre vernal pool, where they lay their eggs and continue to thrive in a local ecosystem with the resident fairy shrimp, grays tree frogs, and the now loud again peep frogs. The sound of my swamp on a humid summer night is a deafening chorus of nature that might keep city-folks awake all night. We prefer to keep the windows open, it's something that without... I might be kept awake all night with the silence. Tonight I got soaked to the bone, and filled up the bottom of a cooler, with each salamander being possibly 20 years old, not doing anything to help them is not an option to me. We put the roads there.
This lone large toad was transplanted to my front step, as well as a few greys treefrogs. they usually stick around all summer, filling up on the moths that gather at my porch light which never turns off.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

searun fever

It's been so Dang cold lately, and with spring just two days away, I've got trout fever, shoreline style.
 Last year, the searuns came in on March 18th... give or take a few days of fishing. Although I can't make it out today, I have been trying and trying. Seems like the stream is abandoned. I remember that from last year, then a few nice days, and its like someone shook the fish out of the sea, and bam! Magic.   I'll continue to get skunked, time and time again, because I know, soon enough, they will come.   Not much beats a fresh 2 pound searun.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

The evolution of my mouse SBS


It's a bit out of my usual trout tying, but I had to try it out. Still dealing with winter-time cabin-fever.
   I remember reading last year about how a trout was found with 21? mice in it's stomach!!! Gotta have my bases covered right?  so here's my attempt at evolving (its only my 5th ever deer-hair mouse) the next pattern to become a trout slayer.
 start with this...
 do this,
 end up with this bed-head nightmare
 give it a haircut....
 Voila!!!    I think the zonker tail will look great when it gets wet swimming over lilly-pads for some LMB
 the chubby middle mouse is kinda like Gus-Gus in Cinderella.   (sorry, I have a 3 yr old princess)... I've seen Cinderella way too much this last year

any comments? advice? how about mouse eating trout in Ct?