Midge Me.

Photo of midges from US Fish and Wildlife,Tom Koerner.

Saw my first midge swarm here last night as I was doing brush control clean-up from work I deferred in the fall. Better now. A couple small fires to burn of the brush yet to go. I like to burn when it is wet just on principle and it should rain slowly all day Sunday.

I'm prepping for a spring trip to the Catskills and am tying generic dark Adams, light Adams, and Borcher Specials.

I'm only crowding the eye with the hackle on about one out of six flies.

Tomorrow night starts the epic "size #18" sessions. I figure a week of those and I'll be good to go. I'm good on classic soft hackle flies to use on the classic dry fly streams. I'm that sort of guy.

I have materials for Quill Gordons. I should work some up but it really isn't my sort of fly. Now, the Hornberg is much more to my liking.

I'm going to tie some Hornberg's this month and post them for inspection.

Lastly, as the water finally drains from the ice rink in our little park here in Dexter, a bunch of locals are going to have a "run what you brung" 4wt casting session on one of these Saturday's before season. There is a pretty nice stable of rods in this crew -- cane, mostly -- and some of it was hard to come by.

Not many Garrison's and Gillum's hanging on just every wall.

My local fly shop will bring over the latest crop of the usual from Winston, Hardy, Douglas, Echo, and others. We'll all drool over the lovely finish and shine then pick up our own epic rods and put tufts of wool onto dinner plates. Maybe a couple on the backcast in the oak that has grown a bit these last few years.

I was impressed with a Hardy 3 wt last week that I think would reliably go 60' in a pinch. Feels like a 3 wt. Casts like a 5 wt. The tip might be too stiff for 12" on #7 tippet. Not sure. Would have to put a fish on it to see which I think is the true case in any decent rod.

A broom handle can be made to make a nice presentation with the proper touch. It doesn't help when the fish is thinking of that last splashy turn.

I need what we all need: less gear, more days on the water. 

Prost.