Democracy is coming to the USA?

Beautiful morning here in North East TN. 73 degrees, mostly sunny, and should reach the mid 80s by mid afternoon. Possibly another day to take the solar blanket off the pool and float around. Yesterday we watched may flies perform their mating and funeral ritual over the pool as they flew about in a dance pattern that is older than human kind.


This is the female, greatly magnified, courtesy of TroutNut.com.

20 meters from the pool, in the creek, they are thick enough to see as a light haze over the water.

When I tie copies of this pattern I can fit 3-4 atop a U.S. ten cent piece.

It is probably time to harvest the rainbows that live in the portion of Cassi Creek that bisects our land. Gloria has been feeding them matzah left over from last Pesach. Yes, of course matzah; they're trout. At least two of them are over 12 inches in length, with a highly visible red stripe that says rainbow.

The creek was stocked many years ago by the TN fisheries folks with rainbow. That was a once or twice event. Other creeks in the vicinity are stocked on a regular basis with rainbow and see some heavy fishing. I have heard that our neighbors at the head of the valley have been stocking the creek with rainbow caught and transported from other drainages. I haven't seen them do this, don't want to see it, and have not asked them about it.

What I really am concerned about and happy with is the small population of native brook trout that exist in the creek. They are linear descendants of the fish that were once the primary population in these and other mountain streams of the eastern U.S. They are beautiful little fish, jewels with fins, that have managed to hang on in TN despite logging, mining, and all the other habitat destruction that comes with people and industrialization.

Trout found in TN are easy to identify
http://www.aa-fishing.com/tn/tennessee-trout-fishing.html

Nearly all of our fishing is catch and release. Ideally, fish we catch are released without being taken from the water. In order to make this easier for us and the fish, the first thing I do when tying a fly is flatten the barb on the hook. It takes slightly more skill to play a fish with a de-barbed fly but it is worth it when trying to preserve the fish population.

Copper Wulff tied as described.