I Didn't Fish Last Week
It's Monday morning as I start this blog. Last week i scrambled to vomit 600 words on a Saturday morning and it wasn't my best post. I just hadn't given it a ton of thought.
This week I will put out a better product.
All last week the evening temperatures dipped into the low 40s and high 30s. Rumors of fish stacking up kept coming to me via text and FB. Life happens in strange ways.
The rain has come in a nice steady way just as everyone said it needed to happen. The big lake temperatures have dropped and the fish are running and everyone is following them. All but me.
This week I drove by several closed streams filled with fish knowing that the big rivers are open and loading up.
I have been thinking about this time of year all summer and preparing to do salmon season and steelhead "right". To actually target those fish instead of trout. It's here and I seem to be stuck out of the water.
I've got a deck to build and a floor to install and a sliding glass door to put in and a remodel to quote. Kids games and practice which I've ranted about plenty.
Bottom line I imagine I felt a lot like my friends did in September when I was trying to do the "20 days of September challenge" from Orvis. I made 15 days. That's a pretty good month!
Now more than half way through October the table is flipped. I have been out a little more than 5 days.
I most likely will head to the river in spite of these obstacles. The heart wants what the heart wants. My heart wants, no it needs, an untamable sea creature at the end of the line jumping and running to escape me. Fighting for its life not knowing that I will only set it free when I have it in my hands.
Pause over, and it's Saturday evening. I got to some good water today.
As I was preparing gear for this trip I had my 6 wt phillipson the "sweetheart" as she is know by me and I was gonna put her in my truck but I'm committed to learning Spey and focusing on big fish. I put it down against my better judgement. I can catch browns in the Muskegon river with my eyes closed with that rod and handful of hares ears seriously it's one of those things I can almost count on.
But here I go again with a rod reel combo and big flies that I don't get yet. It's tough to deal with in my mind, the scarcity of catching these big fish. I must prepare my mind for a long winter standing in waist deep water a few degrees above freezing. Ice in my guides, frozen reels and fingers. Trust that THOSE fish do exist THOSE fish that will eat a fly on the swing. Be a swinger, my mantra must be.
Seriously, I'm finding that this is a mental game. I must persevere.
