I am Iron Man!

I know it's been a LONG time. I shouldn't do that to all of you! I'm sorry. I know...we're all busy. I'll make more time for this soon I SWEAR.

Here, I got you a teady bear....from Ozzy's house!

I've been getting into some adventures but they're mostly pretty tame since the great crash. I'm getting better every day and am even starting to hit the gym though I don't do much. I'm back on my bike and MAN did that sofa-time set me back! I'm a lard-ass. I'll get back to my old bony self in no time though ...I hope. Riding in the DC heat should help. Aloso, it rains every day now at 5:00, jsut like in Florida, so you have to ride fast to get home!

On the same trip where I saw the scare-bear above, I was headed out to the eastern shore and stopped at my new favorite store.

Yes, Stuf 'n things. It's everyhting you ever looked at in a gift shop and thought, "Oh neat...I'm not buying it though". Poor guy. I hope he sells weed on the side or something.


Anyway, Summer is REALLY HERE and it's apparent on the trout streams; not just on the asphalt. I headed up to the Big Gunpowder last Saturday and the signs are everywhere.

The berries are delicious and, while the air is hot, the water is ice cold! There was a nice layer of fog to hid in while fishing the tricos (which were everywhere in the AM) and the fish were nice enough to play along.

Here's a little guy who was duped by a #22 snoshoe jobby.

Here's dave, who has no fish on his fly.

Dave is also looking unhappy because of the water temps. Behold:

That's COLD! It was really like 52 since it was so hot out of the water, the temp rose faster than I could take a shot!

I decided that it was too hot to wear Sahara Death Pants (aka: waders) so I just went in wet.


It was a great day even though it was a million degrees out. There were bugs EVERYWHERE. We ran into a guy who said "I've only seen one fish all day" and I said "There must have been 10 right there with him you didn't see." I was amazed he hadn't picked up on the tric hatch. Later we hiked upstream from the first bridge just a bit (there's always good fishing right at the bridge) where we came across this little guy.

There were LOTS of butterflys. Yellow ones, black ones, Orange ones...freaking tons of them.

I set my man Dave up in some warm shallow water and he looked like he was figuring his casting out.

Earlier in the AM I'd tried to help him deliver the fly with a little more grace and he had a fish come up and NAIL IT and I said "Set the hook Man!" and he just looked at me and said "i would if I knew what that was." I guess he still has a ways to go but I'm excited about his progress.

We switched to hoppers in the afternoon and the fish would come out of the deppest cracks int he rocks to nail them. I must have missed 6 hits where the fish seemed to be attempting to drown my fly rather than eat it. It was frustrating but got the blood pumping.

We were lucky and didn't see any copperheads but we did come across one nice healthy water-snake. He was just soaking up rays on a log when we were on our way out. It was neat.

Anyhow, it was a great day on the water and I cna't wait till later in August when I have more time to devote to fishing the tricos. I tied up a dozen fresh flies last night and I'm ready to go!

Spread love and wear your helmet! you never know when your newbie friends will swing a fly at you and get'cha! Micah

PS

No spell check for my picky friends today! Have to run!