September Camp
It’s getting harder to gather people for what I have been calling trout camp so if I change the name maybe that will help. Most of us, excluding Natch, have pretty open schedules due to retirement, self-employment, and less responsibility. Seems like it would be easy to get folks together for a long weekend of trout fishing. As the person who organizes these things, it is a bit of a sting when things go south. In all fairness, the switch to the third weekend of September was unusual with two guys just unable to work it out and another caught in a time crunch.
Natch and I met up at Pickerel Lake for the weekend and did some serious trout fishing. The streams were low and clear and the days were hot so we tried to get out early morning. I cooked up an early breakfast in the Scamp trailer and we hit our favorite stretches like Cornwall Flats and Tin Bridge on the Pigeon, and the Valley on the Sturgeon. We did the best in the Valley.
I had just finished the stretch above the horse bridge and set a 15-inch male brown on the railing when I saw Natch walking up from downstream. I could see he had one hand behind his back so I was prepared when he swung around an 18-inch brown. To be clear, it was too early for the fall run of big browns on the Sturgeon but somehow Natch managed to find a very nice trout. He has a habit of doing that.
We did some exploring. We saw elk and deer and investigated a couple more pot-hole lakes that are supposed to hold trout. It is artificial lures only but maybe some fake leaf worms / Berkley power bait, might be workable. Could make a fun afternoon.
A couple months back Jake suggested an “art instrument” challenge. I spent some time thinking about what to do for that and built an electric guitar kit, a $79.00 Leo Jaymz Telecaster. I was inspired after finding a raw pine telecaster body locally that had knots in it. It reminded me of the “possibles” box (see earlier post on that). I painted up the pine body to match the artwork on the box. It was a tricky but fun build and after finishing it I thought it would be cool to plug it into the possibles box so I added a guitar plug to the box that’s connected to a battery-powered amp inside.
I played “Things Have Changed” by Bob Dylan and a few other oldies like “Uncle Charlie” off my Without a Hitch CD. I waited until the campground cleared out on Sunday afternoon. I think there’s a rule about no amplifiers in state forest campgrounds. And not everyone shares my strange taste in music.
Natch was apologetic about not having art instrument ready. No problem. He is fully employed and busier than the rest of us combined. I have no idea if Jake or Feral managed to get something going but no matter, it’s fun playing something I have invested time and energy into. I wasn’t even sure I would like a telecaster! So far I like how easy it is to bend notes on the almost flat neck.
We started a new tradition called October Camp which is a short weekend at the height of the fall color change. I’m not sure about any of the timing but tenting in October has a nice appeal. It’s the time of year when we guys with a red-green color problem get a glimpse of what we miss the rest of the year: spectacular colors. Reds and oranges popping like magic. Driving down a two-track a couple years back it seemed like I was driving through a forest fire minus the smoke and heat.
If we remote camp, which is probable, I know there are some interesting vintage air rifles and plinking coming up also. I hope to get some photos and a good story for that.
Fichigan 