Luckily I live 10 minutes from Orchard Road.
I would have had 2 hours to fish if I weren't so stupid.
I think it's been a good 5 months since I reported the washout that's occurring under the railroad tracks in the stretch just east of Orchard Road. I haven't been through here in a over a month and it has got a little worse. I reported it to the City of Oswego who sent it on to RailNet, who said they would look into it. Apparently it must be no big deal.
Now I'm perversely looking forward to hearing about a freight train derailing in this stretch and laying in the Fox River. Can't say they weren't warned.
I've walked this stretch many times over the past 10 years throughout the year. For some reason I never saw the abandoned house up on the hill. It's collapsed in the middle, but the old fireplace is made of limestone and will probably stand long after all the wood of the house rots away. I didn't go up to check it out. My daughter Leah likes to do that kind of exploring as much as I do, so I'll wait till I have her for the weekend. Of course I'll have to listen to Di's warning if I tell her what we are up to . . . Don't call me if you get yourselves arrested. Most of the cops around here seem to know me. I don't think that will be an issue.
I usually start fishing this stretch directly across from the duck blind. That is also the starting point of a series of really long eddies that continue all the way back to the Orchard Road Bridge. This is the only blind east of Orchard Road and I don't think hunting is allowed on the river from here all the way up to or around Algonquin. I've met the guys responsible for initially building this. They live nearby. It used to be a pretty well decked out blind. In order to allow this here, the shooting deck is open to the public, but the shed part has always been locked during the waterfowl season.
I've hunted here a few times. I knew how to let myself into the locked shed and found a camp stove, coffee, percolator, cups . . . the bare necessities to make a pleasant day of hunting. I left a few bucks for what I used and never left a note. No one left a note questioning what I did, so generally that's a tacit sign of approval.
I had stopped by the blind over the summer. The floods of the last couple of years have taken their toll, especially the big one in September of 2008. The floors were caked with a couple of inches of mud and the water line was up over a foot on the wall. Didn't seem like it would take much to clean it up, but it looks instead like its been abandoned. I think the few guys that continue to use it aren't the original builders of the blind. Nobody has done anything to it and it is standing out like a sore thumb. Doesn't matter in the long run, it's in the worst possible location anyway. The valley is too narrow here for birds to feel comfortable flying through and most of them land on the river in the big pool at the end of the island about 150 yards to the east. There is a way around this and if it stays this way till next year, I may put together a little group to give this a try. I did it once and it worked, we'll see.
You can see that the door to the shed is open, so all the amenities I'm used to are surely gone.
Took my time fishing my way back down to Orchard Road. An hour and a half is just enough for a leisurely stroll. Picked apart the shore and any cover laying in the water. Landed one and had two others hooked and up to the surface before they tossed the hook. Of course they were much bigger than the one landed.
Same fish, the flash went off on the second shot. I should do that all the time. That way nobody knows where I'm fishing.
Didn't really care about the fish today. That's not why I was out. Being out whether fishing or hunting is the only way I know to clear my head. Nothing else works anymore. Setting sun, running water, the smell of leaves burning somewhere off in the distance.
I needed that.
