One of my early memories of fishing was a trip to a small pond in October loaded with pickerel that were eager to bite on our lures. I have no idea how many we caught or even what lure we used so long ago but I clearly remember catching lots of them. Over the last few days the number of pickerel clients have been bringing to the boat has been on the rise. But yesterday was a day like I remember from (dare I say) forty years ago.
The weather today was perfect. A clear blue sky without a cloud, little breeze, high temperature right around 70, fall color is really starting to show in the trees. A brilliant red maple here and there sprinkled onto the green hillsides.
In the last few days clients have had more to see than just great weather and beautiful scenery. The critters have been showing up more than usual and in unusual ways. One afternoon on a perch fishing trip we were anchored in a cove out of the breeze. I heard a splash and looked up to see a young osprey about twenty yards away, nothing unusual here. Except the young bird was floating on the surface of the pond, wings outstretched, rather than launching himself (or herself) back into the air.
