Thanks for all the replies folks. I did get out this week, but it was a stillwater trip, and mostly trolling flies. Still quite a bit of discomfort in the hand, and it did affect the fishing ability, but it seems to be slowly improving. I can aaaalmost make a fist without discomfort now, but still can't apply stress without a lot of pain. I did remember an event that is almost surely the main cause of the injury. After falling on it, and aggravating the arthritis, I was stapling some thick documents together, and felt the twinge of pain. My reaction to that was to crank down hard on the stapler( just to teach it a lesson) and I felt something pop in the hand. Didn't think too much about it at the time, but I'm sure that's what resulted in the pain I'm having now. My son is an Occupational Therapist, and he advised me to run water as hot as I can stand on it, while gently squeezing a washcloth, followed by applying ice. It has helped a lot, but improvement is slow. I don't know why it takes so long for my brain to realize that I ain't a kid any more, and can't do things the way I used to. A half second of thought before acting would have prevented this injury. Thanks again for your input.