When the rain reins in all hopes of fishing: PAWS

Going into the Labor Day weekend, I regret to announce I am suffering from PAWS.

Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome, that is.

Owing to an unfortunate concatenation of events — namely, the weather — I have not wet a line in two weeks.

So while I am past the trembling, the hot flashes and cold shivering, the hallucinations and the uncontrollable sweating, I am listless, irritable and nihilistic.

Grumpy, too.

The good news is the fact that it was 58 degrees in Lakeville this morning, Sept. 2. One thing we can count on around here: Right around Labor Day, things cool off.

It is important to remember that trout do not do well at water temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit. My personal feeling is anything over 66 is out of bounds, but I am hidebound and reactionary. 

Why is this? The short version: The higher the water temperature, the lower the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water. 

It’s not that they can’t survive the higher temps. They can and do. 

It’s that if you catch them, even if you play them fast and get them back in the water with the absolute minimum of handling, they are very likely to die when they have trouble doing basic things, like breathing.

Keeping all this in mind, here is the fall 2021 plan:

The Housatonic 

The river has been unusually high this summer, and that means the trout have had more and better options for making it through the high water temperatures. It’s flowing at a hearty 5,800 cfs this morning (Sept. 2), but when things calm down in a week or two (emphasis on the latter), there will be a lot of trout coming out of the doldrums and looking for dinner. That’s in addition to the smallmouth bass.

The Farmington

A weird year on this river as well, notably in the lack of cold water coming out of the dam above Riverton. That unhappy situation will begin to revert to normal as air temperatures drop. My best guess is around the third week of September we will see a significant improvement in Farmington water temperatures, and be back in business.

Little blue lines

If you don’t have a water thermometer, get one. Last week, I was confronted with the unbelievably exasperating fact that one of my main small streams had plenty of nice clear water coursing through. Never mind fishing — I just wanted to sit in it. It would have been quite pleasant, too, as my thermometer revealed the water was between 76 and 80 degrees. Now, that was in a bottom reach, exposed to more sunlight than the mountainous areas upstream. But still.

But I’ll keep an eye on the small streams and wait for the moment when the trend is reversed.

Exploration

After being humbled by the East Branch of the Delaware River (in New York)  a few weeks back, I feel there is unfinished business there. And I am going to finish it. But next time I am going to go with someone who knows it, to minimize the floundering.

Chesterfield Gorge, East Branch, Westfield River (Mass.)

I’ve been reading about this for years, and this could be the time to go check it out. Plus there’s a tailwater section below the Knightsbridge dam, wherever that is.

That’s the general plan. Which is, of course, subject to sudden change. 

But I feel much better just thinking about it.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less