Trotting through a marsh in December often feels solemn to me. Maybe that's just because everything is very dull. There's a general lack of vibrance in the winter salt marsh. Everything is some form of grey or tan. Winter holdover stripers offer just a little more color than the scenery, too, as they are often more pale and lacking in spunk than they were just a month or two before. Most of the water I cover is devoid of fish and may only have the slightest evidence of any life at all. Perhaps what makes winter striper fishing enjoyable. Walking up to a deep cut and seeing a swirl or casting a Clouser and feeling the dull thump of a striper eating the fly are very much in contrast to the overall apparent dead-ness of everything.
Catching fish where fish aren't generally expected to be or at a time of year they aren't generally a prime target can be fun. Of course some of the CT holdover striper fishing is far from a secret anymore, and that has just lead me to wander further afield, in marshes and creeks where actually encountering my intended target species feels a bit more improbable. I find just enough to keep me interested, and sometimes as the day comes to a close I realize that the dead winter marsh isn't all that dead at all. It's just in a light sleep.
Winter is taking hold little by little in bits and spurts. It doesn't feel like it every day, but the salt marshes and their resident bass are taking naps. They'll wake up again for real in April.
Until next time,
Fish for the love of fish.
Fish for the love of places fish live.
Fish for you.
And stay safe and healthy.
Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, Luke, Streamer Swinger, and Noah for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version.
No comments:
Post a Comment