PLAN B
On a recent vacation, I found myself in a potentially precarious situation. My wife, who is a fly fisher, and an avid one though not the compulsive fur and feather flinger her husband is, accompanied me on a trip to some small spring creeks in the driftless region of the upper Midwest with a couple of friends. However, once there, she found herself not really in the fishing mode after all. Uh-oh. I’d been counting on this trip to make up for a less than stellar fishing season in which I’d spent far less time on the water than usual. I needed to fish, but the trip was also about spending some equally badly needed quality time with Marguerite as well. Lucky for me, I lucked into the recipe for satisfying my fishing addiction, letting my wife do her thing, and allowing us to spend most of our time together into the bargain. Turns out there are just a few simple steps necessary to accomplish this.
Step One: Get a cabin within walking distance of the stream you
are fishing
This is never going to be the cheapest possible accommodations, but it
accomplishes several things that make it worth a few extra bucks. First
off, being that close to the water means you can wake up a few hours earlier
than your spouse, walk down to the water, catch a few early rising trout,
and be back at the cabin in time for breakfast. Marguerite’s not an early
riser, especially on vacation, so if I’m on the water as soon as I can
see well enough to cast (I rigged up the night before so I wouldn’t have
to see well enough to tie knots yet) I get about three hours on the water
before the day really starts. If she wakes up and feels like doing a little
fishing, great, if not the morning isn’t lost, and you can also sneak down
to the water for an hour or so after dinner in the evening as well. One
piece of advice here: on at least a few of those mornings it’s a good idea
to be back in time to be the one to make breakfast.
If you are both into camping, this is easy as campgrounds are usually a little easier to find close to the stream. If not, then the cabin is a nice way to go. If the cabin is nice enough, your spouse will be more likely to want to just stay around the cabin and enjoy the scenery, and since there’s that trout stream right over there…
Step Two: Find another reason for her to follow you to the stream
For this one, your spouse has to be at least somewhat of an outdoors person,
but if she wasn’t, you probably wouldn’t have gotten this far. Lucky
for me, Marguerite wanted to be outside and around the water, she just
didn’t want to fish. For her, the stream also meant autumn leaves, wild
flowers, mushrooms, critter watching, and of course the opportunity
to photograph all of the above. Photography is a semi-serious hobby
for her, so the camera is never far away. Any sort of activity that
involves the outdoors or can be done streamside will work. There’s a
distinct advantage here for me also in that if she’s not fishing, she’s
available to take photos of me landing fish. I rarely get good pictures
of fish when I’m alone or she’s fishing as well because the fish would
have to be out of the water too long while I dig out my camera, switch
it on, etc.
Many of the stories written by Nick Lyons about his fishing adventures involve his wife, Mari, who is either doing watercolors or sitting in the car reading while he fishes. One of the lessons I learned from reading his stories instead of having to learn the hard way is that this goes much better if you can stay involved in what she is doing while you are fishing. In our case, we walked together from pool to pool, looking at flowers and such, with her stopping for pictures, or me pausing to look for likely pocket water in the riffles, each of us asking questions and commenting on what the other is doing. This way it remains quality together time instead of just a way to keep her busy while you fish.
Step Three: Be near an interesting town, park, or other diversion
On this particular trip there were days when it was foggy and days when
it was rainy, the rest of the time it was both at the same time. We
both like those foggy mornings when the mists are still on the water
well after the sun has come up and evenings when the mists close around
you as you fish. I don’t mind fishing in the rain and do often when
I’m by myself. Marguerite’s not quite that dedicated to the outdoor
experience, and even I need a chance to dry out after awhile. On this
trip there were a couple small villages and one decent sized town close
at hand to explore on the really wet days. On those days, I would get
in the early fishing as per step one, then after breakfast we would
head into town to poke around antique and craft stores, and those often
fascinating little specialty museums that so many small towns have hidden
away. In one case we popped into a little store and lo and behold, there
was a small fly shop in one corner. Okay, a fly counter, but still,
there was local knowledge and conversation and I wound up walking away
with a couple very useful books on the area’s insects and the flies
used to imitate them, including a fairly reliable hatch chart. So the
days spent in town were an enjoyable and profitable break for me as
well.
We also visited Effigy Mounds National Monument one day. It was a day we could have fished all day, sure, but I’d been there a few years ago and knew that she would enjoy it as much as I did. It’s a beautiful place, and the trail along the bluffs above the Mississippi River provided some incredible photo ops. It was well worth losing part of a day’s fishing (we still fished that evening) to see again, and being able to share it with my wife made it even more enjoyable.
All in all, it turned out to be a really good trip for both of us. I got to fish a sizeable chunk of each day we were there, Marguerite took a lot of wonderful pictures (the ones included in this article are hers), saw the sights and did all the things she wanted to do, and we got to spend most of that time together. I know, by now there are a few wives out there thinking “yeah, okay, but what if it’s me that wants to fish and he doesn’t.” It works just as well the other way around, except you may have to trade the antique shops for hardware stores. But hey, they still sell fishing stuff in small town hardware stores occasionally.
