Quick Casts

When it comes to fishing, Nathaniel has become a lot like me at his age, making every cast he can any time he can get around water. He keeps boxes set ups specifically for a couple of nearby ponds where he occasionally gets to fish.

We're feeding a friend's cats this week, and there is a pond on the property behind our friend's house. Nathaniel always rides along if he can, and whether he can make one cast or fish for an hour, that's what he wants to do. Whether it's 60, sunny and still or 40, drizzly and windy makes no difference.

Yesterday's efforts yielded two bass, both on 3-inch YUM Dingers. Nathaniel's 5-year-old brother, Asher, gets credit for the camera work.

Of Fish & Fishermen

When it's cold, fishermen congregate around the fires. A mealtime, they gather around the table. When weariness sets in, they find couches or beds.

Fish really aren't much different from fisherman, and the angler who keeps that in mind has taken a big step toward finding and catching fish on regular basis. Beginning with that mentality, it simply becomes a matter of figuring out where the fish will find hints of warmth on a cold day, a supply of food at mealtime or a comfortable place to rest.

Extreme conditions, whether in the form of cold snaps, hot days, high river flow or drought, actually make things easier in many ways by substantially limiting the places where fish can find the things they need. So don't sit at home complaining about the cold. Get out there and think like a fish(erman).

Days Ahead

With the morning low holding above freezing and a forecast for 40s today and 50s tomorrow, I find myself pretending we've turned a corner. I know better; more cold is most likely just around the bend. Time does pass quickly, though, so I'm looking ahead toward casting for brown trout on Arkansas' White River in less than two months and catching giant Lake Erie smallmouths a couple months later. Neither destination will necessarily be warm. In fact, it might be like revisiting winter in Georgia. Both rank among my favorite places to travel, though, and I look forward to sharing great fishing and fine food with friends in the outdoors industry.

Georgia Ice Fishing?

Lindy Darter

Folks in other parts of the country laugh at what we consider cold in Georgia, but from my perspective, it's pretty chilly outside. In truth, it's not that uncommon for us to get a morning low in the teens on the coldest morning of a hard January winter front. However, a weeklong block of that sort of lows and high around freezing - which is what we're in the midst of now - hardly ever happens.

Maybe it's time to start shopping for augers, ice-fishing lures and one of those funny little poles used for dropping baits through the ice? I've been ice-fishing once, and I really enjoyed it. Or maybe it's time to sit inside, drink coffee and write fish stories, saving ice-fishing notions for some future trip north!

One Year Later

Well, the "new, old job" of writing fish stories and this blog both turned one year old this morning, so I guess neither is new anymore. God has provided well for my family, and I'm thankful for the many "fish stories" that I have been allowed to write for various magazines in my first year back.

I'm also grateful that Nathaniel has been able to travel with me on several trips and for how well fishing trips and dulcimer festivals have lined up. He has a professional interest in writing and in dulcimer playing, so learning the whole writing business by traveling with me while building his place in the dulcimer community provides him with invaluable learning.

Fishing adventures took me from the Niagara River to far South Texas in 2009, and I caught several of my most memorable fish ever. I'm looking forward to seeing what the new year brings.

My deepest gratitude to editors who have allowed me to return to the free-lance writing fold and to manufacturers, tourism folks, angler sources and fellow writers who have helped along the way. Happy New Year, friends. See you in the creek!