Ken Fortenberry wrote in message ...
I hope all you Dad's have a happy Dad's Day [snip]

Happy Fathers Day to all you Dads and/or Granddads out there.

Being a father of 4 this day means a lot to me. Being a father of 4
aged 15-24 means that I have aged a LOT in the past several years, a
lot more than time alone brings. This year is bringing a lot of
changes with my youngest graduating high school (you read that right,
but it's a special situation) and many of these changes are limiting
my angling travels. But I did finally manage to drop a line near the
end of today in the local stocked creek in search of some brookies.

I was kind of disappointed at first, hitting some very promising
spots, but coming up empty. Main problem was the water level, being
very low. Surpisingly low in fact. They had only been "promising" in
my mind since I knew they were stocking points. Honestly, I had never
been to this stretch of the creek at this time of year before. There
are some other "spots" on this creek which I'll check up on another
time this summer, but today I really wanted to have something tug on
my line.

Thankfully I didn't come up empty.

Hitting the most promising pool ("promising" here in the sense of real
brookie habitat, a nice hole, structure, cover, you name it and, upon
arrival, having enough water to sustain some fishies) that I knew of
in the area I hit 2, one of which kinda LDR'd (fell off right when I
was bringing it to hand) and the other ( which I would guess was a
very nice 12.1253134" long, I didn't measure it, but this is a pretty
good estimate) coming home to the grill which, by the way, was a
father's day present (ever the cheapskate, I was cooking on a grill
given to me by a friend about 10 years ago, and he had it for about 7
or 8 years...but I digress).

At any rate, although I will definitely be squeezing in a day or 2 to
get lost chasing trout down south of here, at least there's enough
cover and water to keep some trout around close to home, so I don't go
stark crazy this year! Although it is not representative, given the
temps over the last 24 hours, I was at least encouraged that the water
temp was 64-66 throughout the creek, even measured up near a small top
water release dam.

Another nice thing was giving my latest acquisition (St. Croix Avid
AF603 6 ft 3 wt) a decent workout with wet flies. Even with the old 'n
cheap WF line I had on there, it did some real nice roll casts and was
ideal for the tight canopy and brushy streamsides encountered on
Monmouth County's neglected waters.

So, a couple of hours for a bit of sanity was nice....real nice. No
great tale of big waters. Not a story of a river running through it.
But just thankful for any chance to tangle with piscatorial predators
using a rod and reel.

Echoing Ken's thoughts, hope you all had a very Happy Father's Day!

-- Rob from Tinton Falls, NJ