Elvis had a song, not one of his biggest hits "You Ever Have One of Those Days." You know those days where nothing really seems to want to go the way you want it to go? Yesterday afternoon was that way. My new fishing buddy / neighbor, who told me at he could go fishing in the afternoon, calls after I have packed my spare float tube and waders for him to tell me he has to go fix a problem with a customer?s computer system. I should have known better than to get an IT guy for a fishing buddy. I get to the lake, two high school kids have left their pickup blocking the improvised ramp, no big deal, although I think their parents should teach them a little simple etiquette at the ramp. I?m using a pontoon so I carry it a little further. Rods, oars, everything on the boat, waders on I sit on a stump to put my fins on. The strap on one fin breaks, I look in my pontoon pockets, in my pickup. I always have cord with me, but no cord. I look around; someone has left an aluminum window screen frame on the bank (failed science project seining with a window screen?) I pull out enough plastic spline tied my fin on. It worked, redneck engineering triumphs again.

Let the catching begin, using two rods I have never used before, a cheap 9 ft. 5 wt. and a 7?6? 4 wt. I caught some monsters, maples, birches, I was high and wild. Finally, I got settled down and caught some fish, four yearling bass and several middling bluegills. Largest fish was a beautifully colored pound and a half largemouth on the 4 wt. Several LDR?s, one a good headshaker, maybe a catfish? All in all it was a good afternoon fishing until my right shoulder start complaining, don?t know if that was the 9 footer giving me misery or early seasons out of shape issues.