Friday, June 17, 2011

Paying Bills Ain't Something I'm Gonna Do Today



It is Friday pay day and I am super pumped. My dwindling bank account is in need of a boost to fund my passion yet there is a little hiccup this time around. It's time to pay some bills. I calculate them in my head and my paycheck is reduced to smithereens as the full realization of my current predicament hits me hard. The moment is brief before I erase it from my mind and begin tying flies for tomorrow's event. With each turn of hackle and each spin of deer hair the bills get pushed further and further from my mind and money is no longer an issue. Paying bills ain't something I'm gonna do today. I'll be just fine.



Hitting the water, I am accompanied by two friends and we are driving our yaks into a strong wind. We make our way up a long skinny pond intermittently throwing to the banks. Spin and fly, just fishing and hammering bass, pickerel, and crappie on a variety of patterns.  Watching us from above is a small family of bald eagles and several herons prowl the banks before taking flight from our intrusion. We are interrupting their fishing.








Along one bank under an overhanging tree is a deep hole that also happens to have three types of structure. A tree, lily pads, and an overhanging vat of vegetation. Perfect habitat for a big bass. A sidearm skip cast gets my popper under the tree and as close to the bank as possible. Strip, strip, pause. Strip, strip, pause. From the right coming from the pads is a large flash and an explosion on top of the water. Big boy boomeroo wanted it bad and I tie into some weight that runs deep towards the structure. Lipping the bass, he is a little different compared to the others I have caught out of this place. Similar in length, this fish has girth and a much larger mouth. I release him and sit back on my SUP Yak to have lunch and take it all in.



With lunch scarfed down, I play catch up with the other yaks. They are deep into the headwaters of the pond in truly tight quarters, casting plastics and spinner baits into deep channels of flowing water. I watch in awe as they hammer the fish, often doubling up in the process. I take a few shots here and there and find some success but no where near what I was witnessing. 

Overhead, rain clouds and thunder are threatening. The wind is picking up and the leaves on the trees are showing their undersides. It is time to head out, back into the real world where we are faced with a myriad of problems and choices until the next time we get to escape and free ourselves from society. 
















6 comments:

Javier Gómez said...

Beautiful place and fish!
http://thefreshwaterangler.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Eff paying bills! Those fish are stoopid. Nice day out on the water.

Stealth said...

as long as your fly rod, kayak and cabelas account are all paid off, theres no bills that need paying.

northernfly said...

Great post. Excellent photos!

Kirk Mantay said...

Where the heck are you guys? Looks eerily similar to where I am spending time fishing right now - Maryland's eastern shore.

BTW excellent photos!

Mark said...

@ Swamp

You guessed correctly. Lets say DELMARVA