Why Bethlehem Township Hates Mrs Housenick and the Monocacy Creek, oh and other non watery shit.

Nerd fight!

Fluff piece first, eh? I engage in an entire spectrum of dumb nerdy shit. Oh, and don't kid yourselves, people, tying little flies out of dead animal bits then obsessively chuckin' em to fish so you can put the fish back is pretty fucking nerdy. Amongst other shit I do, I play role playing games. The real kind, with paper and dice and shit, not that lame computer based shit. My friend, he writes them, which is either more nerdy or more creative, don't give a fuck... He blogs that shit up, and has once asked me to write up a review for a minis game. I did that right here. Am I rad, or what?

However, there's more stuff afoot. Dare I say actual, important stuff for once. The Bethlehem Township commissioners evidently hate open spaces, joy, and life. They do love money, though. So, that pits Bethlehem Township directly against the Archibald Johnson Housenick Estate.

There's a little tract of land that's set aside as a nature preserve or some shit in what's now Bethlehem Township. Seems some lady named Housenick died and left huge tracts of land to the County, the Township, and her church. Seems that there's a movement afoot to take part of that land, build some shitty apartments, and wreck the lovely little patch of unspoilt land by filthing it up.

Goddamned tricos.

Who cares if its pretty, I'm tired.

There are few things that make me get up at the asscrack of dawn, and one of them is tricos, the tricorythodes genus of mayfly. For what its worth, they're so annoyingly stupid, they only get me to do it about once or twice a year.

Oh, sure, its a big deal hatch 'round here, coz we got the blighted little fucks in spades. Shit, the Little Lehigh is well known for its big spinner falls of the things, and I am a big fan of ultralight rods and dry fly action, so you'd think that being able to have a legit use for a 1wt rod in the form of tossing size stupid fucking stupid (26?! Fuck. You!) flies to happily feeding trouts up top would be like a wet dream for me.

You're wrong. I loathe it. I don't know why, probably because it means I'm supposed to be up on stream at 7am and shit.

However, I'm willing to acknowledge its The Thing To Do in the Lehigh Valley, so, well, I do it. Once. Maybe twice. OK, definatly twice, but highly doubtful as to do it three times.

And the Oscar goes to...

NIMBY!

...something that wasn't Gasland.

Not surprised, whatever it is that won, it was abotu the financial meltdown, and people are more actively worried, plus, you can blame that on Republican leadership with ease, this is Hollywood we're talkin' about.

Marcellus Shale isn't nearly as scary, I guess, unless you live with it. Its why you might want to watch Gasland at some point, coz like, it has bearing on you. Directly on many of us who might read this stupid blog.  There's a good chance you might be, too. If not now, soon enough. That article claims "Saudi Arabia of natural gas." I'll remember that when we start seeing sheiks in Rollses rollin' down PA191.

So, for what its worth, Gasland available via streaming on Netflix and Amazon.

And then, there's wading in the Little Lehigh Heritage Angling section, which is allowed now, BTW.

But why...?

Government working for you: Flow gages.

Good 'ole 01452500.

Didja know when you're not beating your official Tea Party rabble rousin' drum that the Government occasionally does something useful?

Oh, don't be silly, they don't intend this to be of service to you, its just a helpful bonus, and that's the crux of the problem.

The US Geological Survey maintains a series of stream flow gages, established in 1888, continually collecting and collating data. If you've never looked at one, its a remarkably helpful resource for all anglers. Its also very helpful to the sorts of eggheads who calculate sciencey stuff and plan about disasters, and all the sorts of things that massive, and epic, flooding from rain can cause. This, of course, is its intentional goal, not to help you determine if you're going to be fishing dainty little flies in low flows or slinging meat to fish in high waters.

The downside is that many of these are in danger of shutdown due to budget cuts. All those bombs cost cash, and we just can't print more (well, we could, but it generally goes to buy more bombs and staff cars), so as we all many of us look to tighten our belts, there will be cuts.

Like, the nearly 40 in danger of being shut down in the coming year.