I was out at Manassas this morning getting new tires mounted on the camper trailer wheels. The shop said it'd be a few hours, so I spent the time checking out the battlegrounds. First stop was the site of the Second Battle of Manassas. The fields and rolling hills looked like places regiments would have marched on - but today, you could see the bales of hay being rolled for colder times ahead.
I walked down the path and came up on this pond - the first thought I had was "I need to go back to the truck and get my flyrod" - but I decided to just stop and watch what was going on in the water. I saw tons of tadpoles - going up to the surface to take a gulp of air and disappearing back under the weeds. There were a couple of turtles - one more interested in the other. And I saw several of these crayfish just hanging out in their 3"x3" space - as long as no one moved from their spot, there was peace in the crayfish neighborhood. I did not see one sunfish or bass - and even if there were any in this pond, they'd probably be so stuffed full of food that they'd ignore my flies and the mediocre presentation. Sometimes it is better to just watch.
