Golden pilsners and a warm afternoon at the vise. All-around caddis larvae and summer spinners in colors for favorite streams, along with small streamers for landlocked salmon.
Budvar, Pilsner Urquell, and a smogarsbord of flies. A pretty chill afternoon.
The October Caddis of New England, Pycnopsyche, and the great autumn limnephilids of Europe belong to different evolutionary lineages, yet occupy remarkably similar ecological worlds.
On the Crnica in Serbia, the limestone stream enters autumn beneath the same kind of seasonal rhythm that I find in New England rivers thousands of miles away.
Different continents, different genera, different species—but the same beautiful solution to the changing season.
For a fly angler, these connections make October feel almost like Christmas. You begin to look at the river not as two places, but as one enormous natural history.
Pupae illustration: E. Schweibert, from Nymphs.
