I can’t help but love the emergence of May flowers signaling the real end of winter and the real start of summer with Memorial Day right around the corner.

Wild violets rank up there as one of my favorite flowers as they really thrive in Western Pennsylvania along wooded glades and fields. My spring mowing becomes quite radical as I skip around some violet colonies and clumps of blossoms in an effort to spare them a not-so-great fate! The colors of the violets are varied and I have seen them in colors such as blue, purple, yellow and white.

They can also be multi-colored and have patterns and shades that are very unique. They can be transplanted in clumps if you find a nice colony, but remember they like rich soil and are edge plants. So much for my botany class 101.

Fishing trip on tap

I am excited to be planning a weekend fishing trip up into the Pennsylvania Wilds with Beaver Boy and the Professor. I don’t have all the coordinates yet, but I will be following the boys up north of I-80 and then heading toward the deep woods for some native trout streams. We will be practicing some catch-and-release fishing as this is an exercise to get some quality time in with old friends.

I was looking at some old camping gear that we used to use like: cooking forks, Dutch ovens, toast racks, griddles and even old thermos bottles. However, we will be staying in a cabin by the stream and will only need to bring our sleeping bags and some changes of clothing along with provisions.

The good thing about camping is that we have some great places to find our favorite camp foods like bacon, sausages, smoked pork chops, ham slices and fresh country eggs. I might not catch any fish, but you can be sure that we will be eating well this weekend. Our women folk are concerned that we might not have a balanced meal with all of the fruits, vegetables and grains added to the menu. I told them not to worry, we will eat a salad when we get back home.

One thing that I will need to do is go over my fishing equipment and plan better for stream fishing and have my fishing rods and reels matched up with some lighter line. The boys will definitely be fly-fishing, but I will stick with spinning rods and light tackle for this trip. No bait as we do not want to hurt our fish and will release them as quick as we can back into their native waters. After all, a nine-inch brook trout is a trophy in many of the streams up there.

Different equipment

It’s funny how you collect different equipment for fishing depending on your targeted fish and their water environment.

I was going through some collections of mine this past week and saw items that I haven’t used for many seasons. Rods and reels that I used from the shores of Lake Erie back when the Coho Salmon were being stocked regularly and returning in the fall to the creeks from the New York to Ohio borders.

I had a great assortment of Little Cleo’s in all the gaudy colors and casting weights, giant Rooster tails and Kast Masters to toss out to those hefty salmon and trout. Then we moved on to the walleye and small-mouth fishing and it was another switch of tackle that these species preferred.

The anglers who hunted muskies and northern pike and large-mouth bass had an even more different approach with the floating stick baits, rubber worms and rattle lures. The aggressive pike in one northern lake were so outrageous that they completely stripped the paint off on a red and white Daredevil spoon. In the Niagara River, we needed heavy lead weights to even get our lures down in the current to catch monstrous Chinook salmon that burned our forearms as we reeled them in against the current and their strong runs as they fought us wildly.

So, as you can see, every adventure that you may find yourself in presents a different challenge. That’s what I like about being in the outdoors as you wait for every day to be different and unexpected. You never truly know what you may find in your daily experiences.

I will still prepare my gear for the weather, plan on a great breakfast and a hot mug of morning coffee and then leave the rest of the day to be all that it can be. Until we meet again, get with some old friends and make another memory in the great outdoors!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle