The Potomac, the Monocacy, and Thomas Wolfe

I read Look Homeward Angel and the other novels of Thomas Wolfe about half a century ago. An English professor in college said to read Wolfe while you're young because otherwise you won't, and I think that's true. It was in Of Time and the River, I believe, that Wolfe wrote a lyrical passage about how pleasant the native names of American rivers sound when spoken. I thought about that passage today when I fished these two rivers.

Fishing results were mixed because although I only caught two, one of them was the best bass I've caught this year, a fat 16 inch smallmouth. The fly was a B Damsel created by Joe Bruce of Baltimore. No sign of grasses. Water levels were 1. 09 at Point of Rocks, 2.77 at Little Falls, and 2.21 at Bridgeport on the Monocacy.




The Monocacy, looking downstream near the confluence with the Potomac.

Ellicott City

The old section of town is frequently described as picturesque with its quaint old buildings, and I remember taking both black and white and color photographs there when I was into photography in the 1960's and 70's. Ironically, on my first visit to the town in years yesterday I forgot to bring a camera. Even if I had remembered, I might not have taken any pictures because I came there primarily to scout fishing locations along the Patapsco River.

In addition to finding new places for future trips. I got in an hour or so of actual fishing and caught a nice little smallmouth bass as well as numerous bluegills, all on a B & B fly. The trip back was highlighted by a violent thunderstorm which decreased in severity as I drove south to home.

Car show

Although I'm not a car hobbyist I attended a show in Edgewater, Maryland yesterday because my friend, Pat, was displaying some of his cars, one of which is pictured with him above. The show specialized in Nash Ramblers and other cars made by American Motors Corporation so I learned a lot about this collecting niche. Basically for me it was a good opportunity to sit outside on a nice day, drink beer, and talk cars, fishing, and any other subject that might arise.




Under the hood:





This one belongs to Pat's father and is one of only about 12 1957 Rebels in existance:

Caught in the rain on the Patapsco

I seldom take rain gear when I fish in hot weather because feeling the rain on my body is cooling and refreshing. I don't want to be caught outside during a thunderstorm, however, so I began the 40 minute paddle back to the car soon after the rain started. I didn't mind ending the trip because I had been out for 5-6 hours and caught many panfish and a few bass. Thunder sounded distant while I was on the water but both it and the rain picked up strength on the drive home.

Most effective fly was a red and pink bead head marabou streamer. I have no idea what made me tie that color combination. Water level was 1.44 at Hollofield.

Before the rain:

The Book of Job and Recent Movies

Two days ago I saw The Tree of Life, and it's still in my head. The movie's quote from the Book of Job in the Old Testament made me think of another movie from just a few years ago, A Serious Man, that I also associate with that biblical book. I did some prowling around the internet to refresh my memory of A Serious Man and noted that, although critics often referred to the central character as a modern day Job, the Coen Brothers deny they were consciously referencing that story.

The story of Job is of a righteous man who is subjected to great suffering. This mystery of why bad things happening to good people is a question that has perplexed religious thinkers for hundreds of years, and that theme is an important element of The Tree of Life but not the only one. The movie examines the harshness of nature in contrast to spiritual grace and also the inter-relationship of all living things. In its own way, it may be the most religious movie I've ever seen.

Last night I napped in front of the TV which at the time happened to be showing The Da Vinci Code, a much inferior movie than the other two, and at one point I awoke to see a biblical verse shown on screen. The verse was Job 38:11. Apparently, movie makers of recent years are obsessed with that book over all the others in the Bible.

Patapsco Afternoon

Didn't get out until mid-day to the Daniels area. Many, many bluegill but no bass. Grasses coming in throughout the slack water above the dam which makes it look less barren. Lots of minnows too. Water level 1.45 at Holofield.

Hometown Tourists

About a month ago, Pam was introduced to the gardens at the Franciscan Monastery In Washington, DC by Susan, a friend who is well known in area gardening circles. Yesterday, we glanced briefly at an internet map, and Pam and I set out to visit there.

Now, Pam and I are lifelong DC area residents, and Pam was actually born in the District. Nevertheless, we had trouble finding the Monastery although it covers considerable ground in Northeast. From our general notion of the location, we blundered into an area of sufficient proximity that the view started to look familiar to her and we finally found it.

The gardens and buildings are beautiful. I'm only posting the one picture because my photos don't do it justice. There are bee hives on a section of the grounds not open to the public, and Pam has contacted them about volunteering there although we are not Roman Catholics.

Like any tourists, upon leaving we made a wrong turn and got turned around again. When we corrected our course, we drove back into Maryland on Michigan Avenue which took us through the Queens Chapel area of Prince Georges County. It wasn't an efficient route to our home in Silver Spring, but the drive did revive memories of that neighborhood for both of us.

Baseball road trip

Friends Bill and Stan picked me up yesterday morning, and we drove to Philadelphia to watch the Phillies play the Red Sox. Bill is a Red Sox fan and Stan a Phillies fan, and I'm just a baseball fan.


David Ortiz (Big Papi) at bat for the Sox.




On the way home, we stopped in Baltimore for the Orioles/Cardinals evening game.

Red Winged Black Bird

Last two days fishing

Caught a few bluegills on a foam spider during yesterday's brief trip which took a little of the sting out of today. Normally Nolands Ferry on the upper Potomac fishes very well for me this time of year but not today. Only managed one undersized smallmouth for the day. Hooked another one but lost it. Tried many flies, but Joe Bruce's B Damsel was the only one that produced at all. Water level was 2.01 at Point of Rocks and 3.32 at Little Falls which is high for this time of year. We haven't had much rain lately, but they must be getting some in the upper part of the watershed. Water clarity was slightly muddy, and grasses not yet in evidence.

Bethany Beach 2011

Bottom floor apartment. Three bedrooms.








Bethany night life-























Father's Day dinner at Bethany Blues. That's Sean with Becka. Greg wasn't there at that time.




She may not look 64...




...but he does.

Reservoir and pond notes

Taking advantage of the beautiful weather, Pam and I went canoeing again yesterday at Rocky Gorge. While she read, I paddled around with one eye on my portable depth finder in hopes of learning something that will be helpful the next time I fish there. That section of the lake drops off quickly so that many spots close to shore are 20-30 feet deep. Marked a lot of fish suspended 4-5 feet down.

Just returned from an hour fishing the pond and hooked two bass and a good sized bluegill, all very close to shore. The second bass jumped and threw the hook. Like always, I laughed with joy when the fish jumped. I was using a black spun deer hair surface fly.

First Upper Potomac Trip of 2011

Since there was no access to the Potomac from the ramp on the Monocacy last year, today was my first trip to the Mouth of the Monocacy in two years.





The debris which had piled up on the near 200 year old Monocacy Aqueduct had been cleared sometime, somehow during the past year.

Fishing was good, about eight smallmouth bass, two rock bass, and a half dozen or so fat bluegills, all on subsurface flies.














Water level was 2.37 at Point of Rocks and 3.54 at Little Falls which is higher than I'm used to in the area generally because my first trip was sooner than most years.

Early afternoon at the pond

Hot weather fishing

Got out three times last week when the temperatures well into the 90's, but none of the trips were very productive. One trip was to the nearby pond and caught a few bluegills on a B & B fly. Then I tried Morgan Run for trout but caught nothing, maybe because a large number of young people were there swimming and sun bathing. Then I went out in the canoe to Rocky Gorge hoping for bass but only managed a couple of bluegills. I think that was the first time I was out in the canoe by myself.

I didn't fish on the short trip to the mountains but tried the pond when we returned home. The weather cooled off and I got a couple of bass and and some bluegills also on the B & B. Now it's very hot again.

A couple of more days in the mountains...

...of Maryland and West Virginia.








In Gormania, West Virginia, sister-in-law's husband supervises their grandchildren on the trampoline.



The women share their wisdom...







Waterfall on Laurel Run in Maryland. The pool is also a local swimming hole, and native brook trout can be found in the more secluded sections of the stream.




Pam relaxes along the stream.

The Scientific Revolution

The book I recently finished, The Clockwork Universe-Isaac Newton, the Royal Society and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick, I may not have read were it not for the college course on the history of science and technology that I just took. Most history courses focus on political history, but I think to understand today's world knowing the contributions of some great natural philosophy thinkers of the 17th century is more important than knowing the kings of the Stuart Dynasty or the major battles of the 30 Years War, all of the same century.

Of these great thinkers, Isaac Newton was probably the most important. He is the link between the Medieval and the Modern world. During his "miracle years", 1664-1666, he invents calculus and calculates gravity's pull on the moon. His Principia in 1687 explained his law of universal gravitation, "a single force and a single law that extended to the farthest reaches of the universe. Everything pulled on everything else, instantly and across billions of miles of empty space, the entire universe bound together in one vast, abstract web."Although much of his work was fully understood by few of his contemporaries, his genius was immediately recognized. Alexander Pope wrote, "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night, and God said 'Let Newton be' and all was light."

And this genius of math and logic was as obsessed with God as any Medieval monk. Newton's motivation was to understand God and the universe that He created and probably believed that God created him for this purpose. He never traveled outside a small part of England, not even to see the sea although he was the first to explain the tides. He never married and died possibly a virgin at 84. He had a difficult and prickly personality and feuded with many people, most importantly Gottfried Liebniz, a German who was perhaps the second greatest thinker of that century. Liebniz independently discovered calculus at about the same time as Newton.

The feud between Newton and Leibniz was snide and petty and sometimes vicious. I find it somewhat comforting that these towering intellects behaved no better than the rest of us. The Clockwork Universe is an entertaining read as well as educational one.

"Cave of Forgotten Dreams"

Saw this documentary Saturday night at the AFI in Silver Spring. Directed by Werner Herzog, it tells the story of the 30,000 year old art work that was discovered on the walls of Chauvet Cave in France. The cave went undiscovered until the 1990's because of a massive rock which blocked the entrance, and now detailed steps have been taken to restrict access to preserve the artifact within.

The images are quite haunting. They transport the viewer into the expressions of prehistoric artists and provide a linkage with humans of an ancient time. It has been speculated that the site had religious significance to these people, and modern humans often feel a spiritual bounding as well.

Daughter Rebecca, who is studying for a masters in art history, saw the movie in 3-D in New York. I'd see it again if I had the chance to see it in 3-D.

High water on the Patapsco

But fishable. Reading was 2.4 at Hollofield, and I don't think I'd care to fish it when it's any higher. No trout, no bass, but a few bluegills saved me from being skunked. Stumbled and got some water in my waders but didn't get hurt and was able to continue fishing.

It's been a wet spring and very wet in the Potomac watershed. Water level at Little Falls was over 10 feet yesterday.

My Back Yard

When wife Pam retired a few years ago, our roles regarding landscaping reversed. For most of years we've been in this house I've had primary responsibility, but since then it's been mostly her. Whichever has been the case, we've talked over any major changes and disagreements have been rare. Also, the person with the secondary responsibility has always had a garden section which was largely theirs to do with as they wished.

For me, this section has been the bedding area which runs along the property line of our shallow back yard. Last summer, the whole back yard took a beating when storms knocked down some very large tree limbs and the deer fence. Between the immediate storm damage and the resulting deer marauding, it wasn't much to look at and the bamboo project was an effort to make our back view pleasing to us again.

I'm happy with the results of that bamboo work, and nature has its own powers of restoration, fortunately. Now I have to decide about supplementing the perennials, trees, and shrubs with annuals. Although I like the way the garden looks now without them, experience has taught me that by late summer I'd miss the additional color annuals bring.

Recent fishing

Twice this week at the pond. Monday I caught a mess of bluegill in the shallows, and yesterday bluegills and a largemouth about a foot long. Monday's fish came on a SHWAPF, and yesterday's on a yellow foam spider. Both days I started with a marabou streamer looking for trout, but didn't get any because I suspect they're in the deepest coolest water they can find. Lily pads are out and have been for a couple of weeks.

Last week at the Patapsco I caught bluegills, a bass, and a nice rainbow trout. Right after I got the trout, the hatchery truck went by to stock the upper part nearer to the Daniels dam.

Reservoir canoeing

The weather has been beautiful this week and school's out, so Pam and I got out in the canoe yesterday. Enjoyed the day and saw some wildlife.








I was more cooperative than she about posing for a picture.

Good-bye, Gary

Thank you, Gary Williams, for 22 years of Maryland basketball. I forgot my camera for today's farewell press conference, so I pulled this image off the internet.
There were a lot of misty eyes among the thousands at Comcast Center today, and according to the University president, the building will bear your name soon. I think that's appropriate.

Contemplating the relationship of mass and time

The other day I was at the mall of the University of Maryland between classes. It was a little chilly but warm enough to sit comfortably in the sun, and I did so on a bench while I did some reading for my class in History of Science and Technology.

As time for class approached I moved about 50 yards across the mall nearer to the lecture hall where my class would begin in a few minutes. There I stopped momentarily and looked over at the empty bench where I had previously sat. Based on the pictures of myself a few days ago I have a pretty good idea of what I look like, so it was easy for me to visualize myself sitting there on the now empty bench.

I don't remember ever have done something like this before, and I think it had something to do with reading about physics and relativity for the class. A recent news story may also provide some insight:

"A NASA probe orbiting Earth has confirmed two key predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which describes how gravity causes masses to warp space-time around them. The Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission was launched in 2004 to study two aspects of Einstein's theory about gravity: the geodetic effect, or the warping of space and time around a gravitational body..."

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/05/05/52-years-nasa-gravity-probe-confirms-einstein-theories/#ixzz1LdIltJm5

I actually don't know shit about this stuff.

Anyway, today I took this picture of the general area from a favorite vantage point on campus. The position is on the hill northwest of the McKeldin Library, overlooking the mall with the steeple of the Chapel visible in the center background.

Saturday at Fells Point in Baltimore

Pam and I met a few of the guys I've gotten to know from the internet. The group originated from a fishing message board which some of us broke with to talk about other subjects other than fishing. We periodically get together for lunch, and previous lunches have taken place in Arlington, Virginia, Washington, DC, and Annapolis and Deale Maryland.

Pam was a very good sport about coming along because much of the lunch activity was drinking beer and talking fishing neither of which she does. Nevertheless, she charmed all the guys, and one of them later posted that "she obviously lost a bet with God" which is their way of complimenting the wife and good naturedly insulting the husband.

We met at a old tavern named The Wharf Rat which is apparently known for the variety and quality of its draft beer. After a few rounds we proceeded, perhaps a little unsteadily, to Bertha's for lunch. Bertha's is well known for its mussels, and it lived up to its reputation, spread chiefly by bumper stickers which it has freely distributed for years.

As fishermen we are drawn to water, so we walked out to look at the harbor and to take a few pictures before heading back to The Wharf Rat for one last round. Pam took the above shot of the group, and Andy, the youngest member of the group took the picture of Pam and myself.

For shad fishing, it's location, location, location

Yes, the location is beautiful. The picture above is looking downstream at Deer Creek from Stafford Bridge. But what I really mean is that specific location on a stream can make a huge difference in shad fishing success, even when the difference is just a few feet.

Today I caught a few fish shortly after arriving in the afternoon but not any after that. This seemed to be true for the other fishermen except for those at the positions shown upstream from the bridge who continued to catch hickory shad at a steady pace all afternoon.

Catch and Cook Trout Fishing

Since I don't believe the stocked trout at the pond survive over the summer, I always keep and eat any trout I catch there. These all came on an olive marabou bead head. Today, I also caught and released a few bluegill and lost a couple more trout.



I like the look of the combination of red buds and white blossoms that appear this time of year.

Catch and Release Shad Fishing

Catching fish and releasing rather than keeping them for food has been described as needlessly cruel. I don't have a good counter argument for this point of view even though most of the fishing I do is catch and release. In many cases, not releasing your catch is breaking the law so to reject the practice is to reject fishing, and this I will not do.

For a number of years, fishing for both the American and the Hickory shad must be catch and release in Maryland. The regulation was passed because the numbers of both species became dangerously low. Recreational fishing was a factor is reducing the numbers of these fish, but the greater problems were commercial over-fishing and the building of dams which often stopped the upstream spawning migration. Sport fishing for shad is probably about one hundred years old, but commercial fishing goes back to colonial times as we know from entries in George Washington's diary in 1760 about netting large quantities. Before the coming of the Europeans, Native Americans along the eastern seaboard caught them for centuries.

Yesterday, I drove to Deer Creek which flows into the Susquehanna River right at the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay. I've fished the April shad run in the Rappahannock River, the Patuxent, and, especially in recent years, in the Potomac at Fletchers Boathouse, but this was my first time at Deer Creek. At Stafford Bridge, I met my friend Ken, and we joined other fly fishermen in the stream. I would describe the fishing as steady/slow because every 20 to 30 minutes someone would hook a fish but the action never got as hot as I've seen shad fishing get.

I enjoyed fishing for these strong ocean fish in a relatively small freshwater stream. Water was high and cloudy and the level was 2.71 at Darlington.

I'll Remember April...

And I'll smile.

Warm weather home for our canoe

We've had this canoe for about 30 years, and it's been tied atop various vehicles for trips ranging as far as the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York as well as closer tidal rivers, lakes, and campsites.

It hasn't been used much in recent years, however. At over 70 pounds and 16 foot length, it's a chore to load on top of a car and even more so as I've aged. For fishing, I choose the smaller, lighter kayak. My last kayak trip last fall was to Triadelphia Reservoir and made me remember the day trips Pam and I enjoyed there or at its sister lake Rocky Gorge. I then remembered that those two WSSC reservoirs allowed people to seasonally keep a boat locked in mooring for a fee.

So a few weeks ago, I registered the canoe and paid the fee. A few days later, my son Greg who's young and strong helped me transport it to its new temporary home at Scott's Cove at Rocky Gorge.







I think the canoe enjoys being outside beneath the pines.








I'm looking forward to a number of outings this spring, summer, and fall where all we have to do is throw life jackets, paddles, and refreshments in a car and drive 20 minutes in order to lazily drift and paddle while enjoying the scenery.

Only in America

A girls softball game was being played in the park this afternoon, two local high schools. Playing third base for one of the schools was a girl wearing a Muslim scarf.

There was something heartening about seeing that.

More trout

Although I don't plan to take pictures of every fish I catch this season, since I'm going to eat these anyway it's easy enough to do. These were caught from the pond on black bead head marabou streamers.

Trout for dinner

About a foot long on a bead head marabou streamer from the pond.

Hey Jack Kerouac

I think of your mother

And all the tears she cried

She would cry for none other

Than her little boy lost in a little world that hated

And that dared to drag him down

Her little boy courageous...

Natalie Merchant and Robert Buck of the rock group "10,000 Maniacs" wrote those lyrics in the 1980's, at least 20 years after I read On the Road for the first time. Kerouac is on my mind because I just finished reading his novel Desolation Angels which was written just prior to the publication of On the Road which made him famous.

Desolation Angels never achieved the popularity of On the Road and represents the flip side of the earlier novel as Angels is as dark and downbeat as Road is life-affirming. In it Kerouac has already begun to dislike the Beat Generation which he more than anyone was responsible for creating. I think he detected a faddish insincerity about those who saw themselves as following the Bohemian footprints of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso and his other friends, and the movement declined into a "postured, actually secretly rigid coolness soon to become a fad up to the mass of middle class youth." The depression of Desolation Angels is probably fueled by Kerouac's growing alcoholism which contributed to his death before he reached 50.

He lived most of his later years with his mother who he pictures with love in this book and is why Merchant and Buck's lyrics above came into my mind. Kerouac was a courageous man of almost saintly sensitivity, an athlete good enough to be offered a college football scholarship, a heterosexual whose two closest friends were gay. Most importantly to me, he was a great writer. I'm not surprised his books are still read half a century later, and I believe they will still be read a half century from now.

And the fishermen came...

To the pond for the first day of trout fishing.






The residents had to be tolerant of the
newcomers.

Late winter is a desolate time...

Even when we're two days into spring by the calendar. There certainly have been spring-like days with temperatures in the 60's and even a few days in the 70's, but today is winter-like. Right now, the temperature is 47 degrees which isn't so cold, but the dampness in the air makes you uncomfortable.

Although the weather hasn't been as severe as last year, every winter gives the land a beating and it shows.


However, the budding of the trees gives you hope of better things to come.


Another sign of spring:

The sign indicates that the pond has been stocked by the state, and is closed to fishing while the fish acclimate themselves to their new surroundings. Saturday, the fishing will reopen and the fishermen will come.

Lately I've been thinking about my wife's looks

She is quite beautiful, you see. A few nights ago we had dinner at another couple's house, so I was sitting across the table from her for a few hours. At 64 she is still amazing to look at. A year ago, we went to a high school reunion, and she was easily the best looking woman there. She was very pretty in high school, but there were many other pretty girls in our class. Now, she really stands out.

Now, some will read and think, "How nice. This man really loves his wife, and even though she's aged she is still beautiful to him." That's true, but she is also quite striking to people who are just seeing her for the first time. A couple of years ago she visited me at work, and I introduced her to two men I'm close to there. Later that day after she left, each separately said essentially the same thing to me: "Hey, you're kind of robbing the cradle there, aren't you?" No, she's actually 23 days older than me. About a year ago a guy I've known for a few years became somewhat tongue-tied upon meeting her for the first time.

On top of all this, she has many other outstanding qualities beyond her appearance. She is smart and has an inquisitive mind and a good sense of humor, all of which makes her an interesting conversationalist. She is an excellent cook and a loving and attentive mother to our children. I've been told I'm a lucky man by people who don't even know all this. They just say I'm lucky because they've seen her. They don't know how lucky I really am.

A Fishing Legend

Bernard "Lefty" Kreh is, at 85, possibly the best known fly fisherman in the world. He was born in Frederick County, Maryland and has spent virtually his whole life in this state except for serving in the army during WWII when he fought in The Battle of the Bulge.

Because Lefty is local, I've been lucky to have met and talked with him a number of times usually at events like today at the fly fishing gathering that has come to be known as Tiefest on Kent Island. The event's name is a reference to fly tying which takes center stage, but there are also fly casting demonstrations and lessons such as Lefty is shown giving above. He's probably done this thousands of times, and he's probably given the same answer thousands of times to the question I asked him about knots, the subject of a couple of the many books he's authored. Still, he managed to answer with patience and humor, as he always does.

Back to College

Every Tuesday and Thursday I find myself in the same lecture hall that I was in 45 years ago. Back then, it was a Botany course, and now it is "History of Science and Technology in Western Civilization." On those days I also have an earlier class in "Film in American Culture."

The deal at The University of Maryland is that a retired person over 60 may taken up to 9 credits with minimum tuition plus books and parking. I have chosen to audit rather than taking the courses for credit, so I won't be writing papers or taking exams.

Without the pressures I had as an undergrad, it's pure learning and it's great.