Three Main Reasons Summer Sucks

I had an old native man in Ontario tell me the best way to keep mosquitoes away was drinking an entire bottle of whisky. He was tough and weathered and his face looked like a leather first-baseman's mitt that had been left outside all spring and summer. The old timer seemed serious. And that particular summer in Canada was wet...and even the 100% deet was only working for an hour or so. I really thought hard about joining him with my own bottle of brown water. The bugs were bad that year. I remember one of them getting its leg caught in the leader knot I was tying. I did enjoy that.

The ponds are warmed up and the bass are eager to hammer topwater flies...but every cast gets fouled up with a seemingly endless supply of cottonwood seeds. And they stick like fibered paste. If you ever see a warm-water fly fisherman with an insane glaze over his open eyes...it ain't 'cause the fishing was particularly good. It is because of cotton clumps. Be carefully. No sudden movements around this guy. He might try to bite you or take a swing.

I like to wet wade. If you also like to wet wade, especially when the water starts to warm up...be prepared to have your blood sucked. But there are some tricks I have learned over the years when dealing with leeches. Wear waders. Or buy a big box of knee-high women's nylon stockings, once on spray them with insect repellent. The nylon material makes it more difficult for them to attach and it retains the repellent underwater longer. Oh, and they make your legs look just fabulous.