It was 12 degrees when I got up just after sunrise to walk a dykeland trail.  For old fogeys like me who automatically translate Celsius into Fahrenheit, it was about 54 degrees, cold enough that for the first time this summer I wore track pants and an extra t-shirt.  Even then I shivered when an east wind whistled up the river trail I was walking.

Early mornings are cool now and evenings aren’t much better.  On my favourite trout stream, which is weed-choked in places, the evening hatches and the evening rises for the most part have disappeared.  Which to me, since I prefer to fly fish, means the best part of the trout season is practically over and done.

I bait fish once in a while.  So if one of my bait fishing friend shows up with a jar of fat August grasshoppers, I might be persuaded to go along with him to a dykeland stream.  Grasshoppers fished live with a light leader and tiny hooks can be killers at times.  However, grasshoppers may be difficult to find.  For reasons unknown they seem to be scarce this summer, at least around the fields I’m familiar with.  I speculate but maybe something has hit them around where I roam.

This has been a great summer for striped bass fishing all around.

Good reports are coming in from everywhere along the shore with anglers saying the runs are better than ever with a lot of legal size fish being caught.  Without a reporting system, however, it’s difficult to determine if this is a banner year for stripers or an average season.

It will soon be shotgun season.  Some of my friends who live in farm country are already giving me reports on pheasants.  And I’ve already had a couple of friends remind me to keep them in mind when I take my bird dog out this fall.

Those cool mornings and evenings, days with noticeably fewer daylight hours and those hunting conversations with friends are sure signs nimrod fever is setting in.  Sure it may be premature to talk about hunting.  While mornings and evenings have been autumn-like lately, the remainder of August likely will have a few hot, muggy days.

However, whether the rest of August is summery or not, September and the early goose season is looming.  The 2013-2014 waterfowl regulations are now posted on the Environment Canada website, in case any of you diehard duck and goose hunters are interested.

And by the way:  I just got my first hunting catalogue in the mail.  That tells me it’s time to at least think about getting ready for hunting.