Fair Skies And Tight Lines
by
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There is something special about September. It really isn’t summer but it isn’t fall either. It is a bit of both. This is the Song of September. You hear it in the wind through the trees and across the waters. It is a song of change as one season leaves and another begins. In September you leave for fishing in mid day and have the air conditioner on in the car, then to return home in the evening with the heater on. You will see the first colors on the trees. The bright red colors of maples and sumac tell of the coming autumn. Everything seems to be changing in September. When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s Labor Day seemed pivotal in my young life. Usually, the last grilling out of the summer was during Labor Day weekend. Life seemed much more regimented then. You only grilled out in summer. The grill normally came out on Memorial Day weekend and then got packed away in the garage or basement right after Labor Day. That meant you had all winter long to think about how good a grilled hamburger or bratwurst would be. Also, the day after Labor Day was always the first day of school and once again, we would be standing outside waiting for the yellow school bus to pick us up. It would be a long nine months before we got off the bus for the last time of the school year for summer vacation. Normally we started out wearing short sleeve shirts but by the end of the month we were in sweaters and jackets. Despite the unpleasantness of having to return to school I liked the month of September. After the dog days of August, it seemed fishing flourished again. Possibly it was the first cool days and nights of September that turned fish on. In October hunting seasons started and people forgot about fishing then so the unofficial end of the fishing season normally ended with September. In my youth, September was about trout fishing. It was the last month for trout fishing and my father and I tried to get every opportunity we could to go. Labor Day weekend was our last trek to the far northeastern counties for brook trout. Then we spent the remaining days of the season fishing near Wautoma for brown trout. There was a lot to like about September trout fishing. There weren’t any bugs which is always nice. Temperatures were cooler making it pleasant to be wearing waders after the hot days of August. There were few if any fishermen out on the streams. Father and I wondered why no one else was on the streams in the last month of the season. For my father and me we couldn’t get out enough in those last weeks. It was the best fishing of the season after May.
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About the Book
These twenty-five stories in Mike Yurk’s “Fair Skies And Tight Lines” takes you into the world of fishing as well as adventures, both on and off the water. From memories of an outdoor catalog to the joys of using vintage fishing gear to stories of boats to fishing on his honeymoon and later his thirtieth wedding anniversary, you see a variety of fishing experiences enriching life. There are people in these stories such as an old German fishing buddy, another fishing partner with a new heart, and two granddaughters learning to fish. There is adventure here in fishing for big walleyes on big water and the power of summer storms. Going to a smelt fry or taking a fish fry to South Dakota brings family and friends together. It is not all about catching fish but sometimes just the pursuit is enough while muskie fishing. There are the memories of a boyhood growing up in the country surrounded by fishing and hunting adventures and returning home, much later in life, after a long time gone. Going fishing right after a long winter to the joys of spring fishing in April and late summer fishing in September you feel the changes in a season. Chasing after smallmouth bass to old and new memories of catching white bass to enjoying time on the water with friends on a special day in September takes us to the essence of what it means to go fishing. There is so much more to fishing than just catching fish and so much more in the pages of “Fair Skies And Tight Lines.”
About the Author
Mike Yurk has been writing about the outdoors for over half a century. He has written for several newspapers and published over a thousand magazine articles in regional and national publications. After a twenty-year career with the United States Army, taking him around Europe and the Middle East as well as the United States, he returned to his home state of Wisconsin where he lives with his angler wife Becky, and is working on his next book.