Back Up...

Had to go incognito for a few days...but enough on that. I'm back.

Been having some decent fishing on the Huron as of late. Last Tuesday I tried a new locale below Delhi Metropark, but I arrived there to find most of the choice looking spots already occupied--conditions for the hex/ephoron hatches on the Huron are starting to resemble those of the hex hatch on the Au Sable. I was forced to set up on a wide, flat stretch that ranged from ankle to shin deep and all but resigned myself to a night of catching 4" rock bass. The hex hatch once again was only fair, but a nice emergence of ephorons took place and fish were soon working all over the flat. At first the fish seemed to mostly ignore my flies, but about ten minutes into the hatch they started paying attention in over the next half hour or so I caught 8 smallmouth ranging 11-16.5".

I had a long upstream wade back to the access point (and a further hike to the car), but I didn't mind. The night was pleasant, the river bottom mostly free of obstacles, and the full moon was high. I spooked a couple of large fish along the bank, nearly tripping myself when I spun around to verify that the eruption by my right kneecap wasn't some attacking mad beaver. All kinds of odd fears attach to unrests in the dark.

Wading down, I'd had the impression I was in a wooded, undeveloped stretch of river, but on the return trip in the dark I could see lights, behind a latticing of branches, lining top of the hill overlooking the west bank. Houses. Not a bad spot to live, I thought.

The place where I'd gotten in the river was connected by an impromptu, unmaintained trail, beaten down through the tall grass by fishermen, to the designated trail back to the parking area for the nature preserve. My flashlight starting to fail, I veered off of the rough trail a couple of times, and I when I did make the maintained trail, I took a wrong turn and followed the trail to dead end at the boundary of private property. If worse came to worst, I thought, I could just walk along the property boundary to the hilltop, hoping the homeowners weren't armed and anxious. But I made my way back to the right trail in short order, and my jaundiced flashlight (seriously---I had 3 feet of visibility, max) held out long enough to take me to my car.

Without the missteps, I'd have been back at least 20 minutes earlier. On a night like that, though, I saw the delay as a pleasant extension of the outing.