Summer is Buzzing Away
Although the calendar says we are at the midpoint of summer, for me, August is a bittersweet marker of the beginning of the end of my favorite season. That feeling was amplified on my recent trip back east to visit family in New Jersey. While I did not see any changing colors yet, a few trees had begun shedding stray leaves and the buzzing of the 17-year cicadas was joined in the evening by the rhythmic chant of katydids, a harbinger of back to school season.
Cicada, University of Maryland Extension
Heat Slows Local Fishing Opportunities
Here in Oregon, the statewide drought has dramatically affected local fishing, with hoot owl regulations limiting angling time on many rivers, and excessively warm lakes and ponds already showing late summer levels of weed growth. My only fishing since last month’s Flyline was a day trip in early July to Hartland Lake near Lyle, Washington. Local wildfires resulted in a road closure near the lake that required a detour that added nearly an hour to the drive from Portland. Hartland Lake is one of the Oregon Fishing Club properties and usually fishes well even in hotter weather, but this time it was markedly slower, with a scant handful of fish landed by my partner and myself. Trolling and stripping woolly buggers did not produce the usual results, and the dry fly action was nonexistent. The few fish we found – mainly rainbow and a few smallmouth bass – took either a balanced leech or a black chironomid suspended about five to seven feet below the surface. Given that experience, and the stretch of hot and dry weather that followed, I will be waiting until September before wetting a line again.
Annual Picnic Returns This Month!
On a happier note, I am excited that the Club is resuming in-person meetings beginning with the annual picnic on August 10 at the Westmoreland Casting Pond. By now you all should have received an email with the details, so please mark your calendars for a fun evening of socializing, casting games and prizes, and a catered dinner (BYO if you want beer, wine or booze). Thanks to program director Mike Radakovich for putting this together. Please note that while the event is free, we do need you to register yourself and any guests so we have a head count for dinner. You can register online by going to the club website or using the link in the invitation email. Regular dinner meetings will resume at the University Club beginning in September with an updated menu and pricing.
Creel Progress
Finally, your 2021 Creel Committee volunteers spearheaded by Mark Metzdorff have been hard at work creating the 60th Anniversary issue of the Creel. All articles have been selected and organized into sections, and the committee is refining the layout of the manuscript. The publication will be printed this fall and distributed to Club members at the December meeting.
Tight lines,
Jim
