Fornicating on a bridge

I thought I heard Barry White on the wind

One would think that spring is in the air, but it's not.

Sure it's warmer than most early February days but it's nowhere near spring. Last week, Ann came in and mentioned that there were bugs in the air but I was too busy on conference calls to cut away.

This afternoon I was standing by a stream and saw bugs in the air - clearly a cloud of midges taking advantage of the sunny, winter afternoon - with an occasional careening fly of some sort. I thought it was some random caddis out on a lark, I was wrong.

As we walked back across the bridge Ann and Chris pointed out stoneflies on the railing of a bridge. I'm not sure which of them saw it first, but there was some serious stonefly love on that bridge.

Little Black Stoneflies crawling on stark, white snow is one of the late winter signals that the dismal weather will soon end. It's something I look for each season around this time. Unfortunately, there's been no snow to speak of this year; no black on white.

Later, Chris and I walked a small river. I took a rod along. I did some prospecting on a stream that floods had made unfamiliar. No sign of any fish. Chris found three golf balls embedded in the sand of the flood plain. Strange finds far from where golf balls normally roam.

The water temperature was forty-two degrees, a bit on the cool side for trout to be looking up. I wasn't expecting much but I was hoping that those stoneflies roaming about would have made a cold, hungry trout move a bit for a snack. No such luck.

I lost two flies - a Bomber and a BH Hares Ear - to a streamside bush. The light was moving on and Chris was cool in his sweatshirt. At least he had agreed to wear a knit cap. We headed back to the car.

Those afternoon stoneflies have raised some hope. I would have preferred to see them crawling across the snow but stoneflies alone are a good sign. They're the first bug of the season. A season that now seems a whole lot closer.