Sunday, April 27, 2014

Drought

I should know by now that thinking too much about the potential greatness of an upcoming day on the water will probably lead to disappointment. Making fly fishing only about the fish is a mistake, but it's hard not to do that when you haven't had a shot in a very long time. I've lived here for 18 months and this was my first chance.


The feeds that had been turning the Indian Ocean into a boiling mass of tuna and mackerel for the past few days never materialized. The flies I stayed up late tying never got wet. The coin I dropped to fish in just the right conditions felt more like theft than anything else. But that's unfair. This is fishing and no one is owed anything, no matter how long it's been since you've had a shot. Coming from the land of public waters, paying for access is hard for me to stomach.

The setting sun turned the ocean to poured gold and the tankers we navigated, shrouded in anti-pirate razor wire, reminded me of a city skyline. The smell of the water and the wind and the birds and the colors are usually the cherry on top of a day spent fishing, but as the little boat skated over the surface on our way back to the harbor I became aware that I was thinking more about how I never even got to cast than I was about the beauty around me.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

A Tale of Two Mornings


After a long drive and a longer day of fishing, sleep came easy for us. While Austin and Pat opted for their tents, I slept in my hammock. The temperature dropped into the thirties but I was still comfortable in my cheap sleeping bag. As we awoke from our slumber we restarted the fire to finish off the sausages from the night before and began preparing for another day on the water. Our preparation pace slowed as we realized that no one was around and we had most of the entire river to ourselves. It was already ten o'clock and we geared up awaiting the slowly cooking sausages and the wild trout a football field away…

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Fresh, Dumb, & Willing


On a 3rd annual fishing trip to celebrate my good friend Austin's birthday, we found ourselves riverside after an all night drive west to the land of stocked bows. It was the last weekend in March and the fish were freshly stocked, incredibly dumb, and willing to be caught more than once…


Thursday, April 3, 2014

Spring Ahead


Daylight savings time in the spring is probably my favorite day of the year. It affords the fly angler an extra hour of daylight in the afternoon to not only enjoy the increasingly nice weather outside, but to go fishing after work. This year springing ahead fell on March 6, and should have ushered in some Spring-like weather. However, it decided to snow multiple times in the Mid-Atlantic region since then with the temperatures and weather fluctuating on a weekly basis. This made Spring seem a little farther off than anticipated, but I didn't let it stop me from heading outside to do some local trout fishing. I even got in a few carp sessions when the water clarity finally began to clear.