6-5-11

One man's junk is another man's treasure. The waters that I fish are sacred to me. A paradise of sorts...It takes me away from the rigors and stress of day to day life...It transcends me to a higher place...A better place...Back to nature....The creek that I frequent offers a great variety of finned friends to chase, smallies, carp, suckers, walleye, the occasional rock bass, and once in a blue moon brown trout....A great all around fishery. One of my most peaceful places to visit. Today's trip was the first of the big floats for the year, 4 miles. The river has changed...We knew this from my initial exploration a few days ago. It seems as though the transformation runs much deeper then a little structural damage. There were trees fallen, banks further eroded, garbage on the bottom...At one point we passed by what seemed like 20 old tires on the bottom...This water is abused....It is not highly regarded by the masses, including the controlling forces in our great state. The first section of the trip brought us dead crayfish and fish on the stream bottom. No signs of life. Sure, some of this could be winter kill...I feel as though more of it is due to neglect and abuse, such as the silt removal and dumping from the damn. Imagine a nuclear cloud blocking out the sun...Earth would die....Take a large quantity of silt and spread it like a blanket on the river's bottom...Forage dies, crayfish, insects, plant life...then the minnows, sculpins...then the predators...If there is no food, there is no prey...This could be a world class Smallmouth destination with a little love and respect. The thing that annoys me the most, the upper end of this creek is sacred...It's written about, regulated, protected, a thing of Catskill legend..The lower end, the part that I adore...The Devil's Piss Pot....

Phil floating peacefully down the creek...

My catches for the day...No complaints really....all in all a nice day