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Author Archives: rivertoprambles
Common Sense is Like Running Water
I have a new book of poetry just released from FootHills Publishing in Kanona, New York. From the High Hills to the Bay is a 72-page hand-sewn book with spine– pretty cool, even though I understand that poetry is not … Continue reading
Reflections on a Gentle Art
The Genesee River near Shongo, New York was flowing weakly and with water almost too warm for trout survival. I found a stretch of river cool enough for an evening of fly fishing and began hooking and releasing hatchery … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged art, Catskill rivers, Catskills, Crete, dry flies, fly-fishing, Genesee, Greece, Minoan, nature, reading, trout rivers, Walt Franklin, writing
16 Comments
Planted Near Running Water
“Happy the man who does not read advertisements,/ does not listen to their radios/ does not believe their slogans. He will be a tree planted near running water.” — Ernesto Cardenal Often in times of social and political turmoil, I’ll … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged birds, E. Cardenal, fisher pair, fly-fishing, freedom, gas leak, gifts, healing, imagination, nature, plantings, poetry, protest, small streams, turmoil, wildflowers
24 Comments
Operation Perdigon
I’d intended to fish the brook ever since a friend indicated that his son had looked for trout there years ago. Through my decades of digging into local history, especially with regard to native fish populations, I had never seen … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged brook trout, exploration, fishing, friendship, headwaters, local life, nature, nymphing, Perdigons, preservation, small streams, writing
11 Comments
Halfway Lake
The small seven-acre lake was a good choice for a meeting of the clans. My son and his wife would drive north from Arlington, VA to meet us at Halfway Lake, a feature of Raymond B. Winter State Park in … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged environment, family, fishing, Halfway Lake, hiking, natural history, nature, Rapid Run, social distance, travel, Winter State Park, writing
19 Comments
Spinners, the Final Stage
“Spinners” form the fourth and final stage in the life cycle of a mayfly. The aquatic insect lives through egg, nymph, adult (dun), and spinner stages. The adult typically rises from the stream as nature says, “It’s time to mate.” … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged fishermen, fly-fishing, friendship, Genesee River, mayflies, philosophy, poetry, psychology, spinners, the final stage, transcendence, writing
12 Comments
Between the River and the Rail
Railroad fever gripped the nation during the latter decades of the nineteenth-century. As the New York and Pennsylvania timber and tanning industries burgeoned from dreams of endless forest and mineral wealth, many towns in the region clamored for a train … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Baltimore & Ohio, economy, fishing, Greenwood, history, local history, nature, New York & Pennsylvania, railbeds, small trains, The NYP, travel, writing
19 Comments
An Early Canisteo Cabin
[On the first white settlement in this watershed– a place that became my permanent home two centuries later… Understandably, no photo of original cabin is available.] The American Revolution had ended. General Sullivan, acting on the orders of George Washington, … Continue reading
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Tagged cabin, Canisteo, Canisteo River, history, migration, nature, pioneers, sense of place, settlement, travel, wilderness, writing
12 Comments
Picket Pin
One of my older fishing pals told me that his favorite fly pattern for night angling on the home river was a Picket Pin. Another elder told me that he likes to cast the same time-honored pattern (first developed in … Continue reading
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Tagged Amish, Ben Franklin, brown trout, dry fly, fly-fishing, ground squirrels, Hendrickson, home water, nature, Picket Pin, solitude, writing
27 Comments
River SCOP Rambles
Scop, you say? Well, my dictionary defines the word as a bard, or poet, of the Anglo-Saxon days in ancient England. I was drawn to the word and to the scop’s role in medieval time because of the pandemic and … Continue reading
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Tagged creation, environment, fishing, fringe-dweller, Hendrickson, home water, nature, pandemic, poetry, rambles, scop, small streams, wild trout, writing
10 Comments
