The Fish Don't Wait

The fish don't wait for it to get warm again, so why should we? Most anglers do, actually. That's probably not a bad thing for the fish, and it is one of the reasons I adore winter fishing. About 70 percent of the fisherman around here just give up once the nights are below freezing. Some of them will wait for the stillwaters to freeze over, and don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to ice fishing season too. But I'm not lazy enough or patient enough to wait for it and there are fish to be caught right now. Today it only squeaked above freezing for an hour's time. It was cloudy, the pressure was dropping, and the fish could feel the winter storm (dumping snow on us as I write this) approaching. I could too, but apparently I was the only one thinking about it that way because I was completely alone on the water. Not even a fresh track to be seen.

The idea was to both get my left hand used to being a part of the cast again and maybe hook a big rainbow. Nothing felt right about the first pool. It had been months since I'd done any spey casting at all and it was showing. Not that I was particularly good at it before either. But I was really inconsistent to start this outing. I had expected that though, and subsequently chose a run I didn't think would produce to work the kinks out in. 

I moved down to a pool I was much more confident in when I was comfortable with my casting and presentation. Just where I was expecting there to be a fish my purple marabou Intruder got slammed so hard the hit just about pulled rod out of my hand. I'm almost certain it couldn't have been a stocker rainbow. Not given the biggest fall ones I've seen here being about 20 inches. And I missed it. I cussed, then shook it off (literally). I made note of how much line I had out and the rod angle and made another 15 swings to that lie even though I knew whatever it was wasn't coming back. 

I moved up one pool and worked it through about as thoroughly as I could, which wasn't very. The river was high enough to make wading the line that would have been most optimal for good slow swings very uncomfortable. I got out to certain rocks and did what I could and was rewarded with a half a dozen grabs, including some spectacularly visual ones.

The fish don't wait around for it to warm up, and neither do I. It has been said a million different ways a million times by a million people: you don't become a better angler by waiting around for the weather that suits you best. There are still a lot of anglers out there that would being doing themselves good by heeding this advice. 

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Thanks for joining the adventure, and tight lines.