Today is Ascension Day, but most people have forgotten that you are supposed to go fishing today.
It's the day Jesus ascended into Heaven. But it's also Fishing Day, according to local Ascension Day lore. Ascension means good luck for fishing, according to our almost-long-lost tradition.
84-year old Dale Berrier knows about fish and Ascension Day. He is casting for rainbow trout on the Hammer Creek, a few miles up the road from me, so I asked him about Ascension Day.
I asked him why trout bite better on Ascension Day. He replied that his mother told him so. Must be an old wives' tale.
When I left the creek today, Dale's line was hopelessly tangled in a willow, and he hadn't caught a thing all morning. Looks like Ascension Day might not be so lucky for him after all. The trout may be the lucky ones, this time around.
Above: Dale Berrier was fishing the Hammer Creek north of Lititz, on Carpenter Road. When you go fishing there, you can park your pickup along the road, like that guy did in the photo above. You will probably have the creek to yourself.
If you get worn out from all that peace and quiet, you can sit in the shade, on those cast iron benchs. Compliments of the farmer whose cows are staring at you from across the road.
I'm no fisherman. I don't go fishing on Ascension Day. So today I had to make do with smoked trout from Maine, from Stauffers supermarket.
Betty Groff, the doyenne of Lancaster County foodways, suggests a smoked salmon salad with a horseradish sauce. So here is my version of all that, with watercress.
I had to buy the watercress from Stauffers also, because Canada geese steal all my watercress from the creek at home.
Hopefully that guy on the Staffordshire plate caught something by now. He's been sitting there for a century.