After a few weeks of violent weather, we’ve experienced a bit of August’s Alms, golden gifts of brightness, breezes and bliss; warm and welcoming with the promise of crisp and cooler evenings, the sweeter side of summer.

Stream flows have been favorable after the flooding has abated, thanks to continual rain showers; both the Beaverkill and Willowemoc have maintained a well-above-average flow, and agreeable air temps have kept water temperatures down into the 60s for most of the week. These are peaceful, quiet days; the realization that we are now midway through the month of August seems to come suddenly - a few immature apples and a sprinkling of leaves fallen off the trees, squirrels busily gathering and storing up food, the bronzing of the pastures and fields, and instinctively reaching for a jacket when planning a late-day venture.

A recent trip to the Beaverkill provided the balm, solace and quietude that was needed and shared with a friend on his first trip to that river - its cool liquid music punctuated by the gurgling of the riffle upstream. Peeks of sunlight broke through the cloudy skies overhead, and in the shadows of the large bedrock across the water, a party of dragonflies darted and hovered, visible against the stone, flying swiftly upstream and down before vanishing back into the shadows. A deep, restorative sense of peace settled, as if the busy world had slowed down for just a bit within this cool sanctuary in the fading heat of an August afternoon.

        These days are special and begin to remind us that the cherished days of summer are waning. Many have been out fishing and others are trying to make up for the days they missed; some looking for the big browns and rambunctious rainbows inhabiting our larger rivers and streams, others seeking solace, fishing for smaller wild fish in the upper rivers and tributaries. 

Some of the joys of fishing, written about in the last chapter of A Flyfisher’s Revelations, are described, with the sights and sounds and senses evoked on trips deep into the forest. We are fortunate to be here and enjoy more than 300,000 acres of forever wild forest lands in the Catskill mountains, and with it the endless gifts of nature they have to offer. A couple of forays by friends on a hunt for wild brook trout proved promising this weekend, and Jesse Vadala shared a special experience with me on this day. 

Traveling up to a cool little forest tributary, he found the stream recovered from flooding, its right bank showing deep erosion; its streambed scoured clean. He mentioned that the little creek swells in high water, and uses the open flood pain as a release; but stated that the stream in that section was so beautiful, and that just about a mile upstream, he had an unforgettable encounter. Noticing a great blue heron soaring above and then disappearing from sight, he approached a big downfall and beaver dam pool he liked to visit.  After fishing for a few hundred yards, taking his time and soaking in the solitude, he saw the the reflection of that heron on the pool he was fishing, before realizing just how close and how low to the creek it was … and then “it cruised around a corner and came right toward me, and was as shocked as I was to be nearly face to face with it!’  The prehistoric-looking creature with its enormous wingspan and pterodactyl-like silhouette, was “maybe 12 feet above the creek, and hit the brakes when it cleared that log and saw me”- it spun around and headed back upstream, leaving Jesse with the memory of a sight he will never forget.

The fishing experience was also memorable as, despite the odd appearance of the rocks and stream bottom, scrubbed clean by the recent high water, he encountered some dark Isonychias in both the nymphal stage (on the rocks) as well as the beautiful adult mayfly stage with large upright wings. Jesse was fishing with a dry fly he had tied, and sent a few photos, saying that in the past, he had only known this stream to contain brown trout, and on this trip, he was looking for brook trout. But he stopped anyway because “it’s just so pretty here”. The last time he fished this stream he caught a big brown, but on this day, he was rewarded in his efforts with a beautiful Brookie on his Henryville Special.

Next Streamside will continue with more Looking for Brookies, Sweet of the Year, and the Scarlet Ibis!