My favorite season of the year is autumn.
There are things about September and October that no other months have.
Much of that has to do with the changing light as the sun’s movement is farther to the south; the shadows seem longer and the filtered light lasts longer in the trees. Nights become cooler. Most days are still warm – but there is the faintest coolness in a breeze that, to borrow from Game of Thrones, is a reminder that winter is coming.
Maybe it’s the return of children to school; maybe it’s the understanding that another year is coming to an end – and there is still much to do to prepare one’s house and one’s self for the coming of winter.
And as I’ve written before. autumn is a reminder that our lives are passing quickly and we need to pay attention to what’s important. Autumn is the season for adults.
Even on a local weather broadcast this week, the comely young weather forecaster speculated we may have seen our last mid to high 80s for the year.
And today I went to the beach to test out a spey line on a long misplaced rod – and though the temperature was about the same as a few weeks ago, the clouds and. winds gave the day the feeling of late October.
We had some work done in putting in a new air return from the second floor that required first cleaning out a closet.
In the back corner was a rod tube and in it was a Sage Accel 7126 – a 7 weight, 12 foot 6 inch spey rod.
I had completely forgotten I had it – it must have been in the closet for at least 8 years; I’m sure I got it on a close-out. But with some medical issues, it was quickly forgotten.
Too bad – it was a a well regarded mid range spey rod in one of the popular weights (7 weight); George Cook, Sage’s Northwest sales rep, called it “Mister Wiggles”, given it was a bit of a more relaxed casting rod than others that were availabe.
Today I took it out to test with one of the spey lines I have for my other rod. I used the Rio Scandi Body (500g) and a 10′ intermediate poly leader; this is basically a rig for light flies fished close to the surface.
The combination worked, but my feeling was the line was at least one size too heavy.
So I will take it out again with another line to find the match that works.
And given the weather pattern that is changing – we’re expecting clouds and rain over the next week – it could be a wet and windy day.
We can anticipate many sunny, warm days over the next several months – but they will be interrupted by gray days with wind and rain, until the real winter storms typically roll in mid November.
This year brings the Super El Niño – and how that affects the winter weather is a big guess.
An El Niño historically brings warmer dryer winters; but this ‘super’ one is expected to break that pattern, at times, with more precipitation and snowpack.
Whatever the winter brings, by February everyone will be looking past winter and hoping for the first buds and warm days of Spring.
But those issues are for later. For now and the next few months, the only important thing is to treasure each day of autumn and how much each day can enrich our lives.
