Sunday, May 20, 2012

Water levels are beginning to get reasonable

Here in eastern Massachusetts it was at first felt that we'd have a nice earlier-than-usual trout season.  But in spite of the flowers and other flora being a few weeks ahead of schedule, the fishing in April never seemed to take off. 

Water levels were low early on, due to the fact that there was no snow to melt and run off.  But the water was nevertheless cold and I don't think the bugs were ahead of schedule.  Anyway, trout fishing for me in fast water in April was a bust, though for some of my friends who fish still water I guess fish production was reasonable.

Now we are in May.  I don't think our drought has been eliminated but we've had buckets of rain.  My favorite river, the Millers is still way above wadable levels.

So, I took a short drive yesterday to the Squannocock.  The weather this weekend in New England is wonderful and I enjoyed every minute of walking along the river looking for fish.  But other than a few chubs (i.e. fallfish), there were no trout to be had (by me).  I saw no other fishermen, so I actually wonder if this section is stocked anymore.

I just have a few pictures to share from this beautiful day.  Sorry, no fish pics this time.  Hey, but everyone knows what a stocked 10 to 14 inch rainbow looks like?!








Wednesday, May 9, 2012

I just added a foreign language translate button

Google keeps coming up with great ideas to add to their blogging system. 

[fishingwithflies.com is a bona fide Web site, which I run from my home computer with Frontpage 2003 software... a bit antiquated but it still works; while fishingwithfliesblog.com is a blog powered by google which means among other things that the content is fully stored on google's servers which makes it oh so simple. And whenever google adds something to their software, I just have to click on "add" and it's added to my blog.]

One of the latest additions is the "Translate" button.   I think there are about 20 languages to choose from.  I added it right under the rainbow trout image in the upper left side of each page.  I thought it might be helpful to foreign readers because I have seen in my viewing statistics that 1/3 of the page views on this blog are from foreign countries.

Now, I theoretically learned French in high school.  So, I chose French in the pull down menu and within seconds the post was translated for me into French.  It's only seen that way on my screen; anyone else viewing on their computer at the same time will still see English.

I was hoping I could follow the French translation, especially since I wrote the content!  But alas, I didn't have a clue. That's so sad.  I really envy the Europeans who grow up learning and speaking many languages.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Flies of a different sort

Perhaps this is a bit off-topic, but I just uploaded to my photography Web site a set of 16 images of butterflies photographed yesterday.  Since I presume that most of the readers of fishingwithflies are nature buffs, I thought these images might be of some general interest.

Yes, I know it's not likely that any of these will find their way into the mouths of a bass or trout.  And I don't think I have ever seen a dry fly pattern that would match any butterfly or moth. 

On the other hand, I have at least once heard of a moth hatch that brought the trout up.  And then there are woolly worms and inch worms, both of which I would classify as terrestrials, and both of which turn into butterflies or moths... I have no idea which.

So, check these out:

http://www.peterfraileyphoto.com/butterflyplace2012may5