I HAD A DREAM
It is rare that I can remember my dreams. So much so that I once had a feeling that I didn’t dream. A friend mentioned that everyone dreams at some time while they sleep, it’s just that some people don’t remember their dreams.
I was on a big open pool with some people (I can’t remember who they were). The pool was disorganized with a jumble of back eddies and 2 slow currents. The water was not dark like Tlell River in the Queen Charlotte Islands (dark as morning breakfast tea as it loaded with tannins from the cedar forests); nor was it gin clear like the Boni or the Jupiter, but just colored enough to not clearly see into the depths.
In my dream my fishing partner cast out into the mild current. He deftly mended the line to get a smooth swing despite laying his line down across 2 seams and three contradictory currents. We see a flash, a boil just under the surface. The salmon doesn’t take the fly. As we can’t see the salmon and this one seems to have charged up from the depths we figure he’ll come right up to the surface.
Since I’m already rigged for dries we exchange positions; me to cast, him to spot. Having a spotter or Guide is a great help when fishing for Atlantics.
I drop the #6 All Black Bomber (thanks Marc Madore for your fine articles) onto the surface a mere 20 feet out on a slack line. It takes a weird meandering drift, but there is no drag. As it swings out AWAY from me in the current a boil pushes the fly up. An eruption on the surface and the fly is gone.
I watch as the leader drifts even further out and to the right then I set the hook.
No jump or splash, the line dives into the depths of the pool. This is no young buck. Probably not the first time he’s been hooked either. Once he’s about 10-12 feet down he pulls hard right and bolts toward the current. Before I can even think of turning him left, he’s into the mild current and the reel starts to sing!
Now seeing as this is all a dream, there are as usual the weird things that go on in a dream. I look down at my reel to see if all is unwinding properly and I see that reel is pretty messed up. The handle is gone, as is the rim of the spool. Line is still looping off without tangles, but there is no way I’ll be fighting this one off of the reel!
The salmon stops on his own accord about 10 feet into the backing and I start to strip in line. I gain back about 30 feet of line, but it’s piled up at my feet, dancing around my ankles in the shallow water. He runs and I try to meter the line off my right index finger. In a flash there is that old familiar burn as the line cuts through a couple layers of skin. He turns and I strip in line again.
The salmon bolts again, the line at my feet catches on a boot lace hook and Poof!
I usually fish with leaders for Atlantics, even in my dreams, so the salmon is on his way having popped the leader 2 feet from the fly. I see him leaping and rolling. Once twice, then a third time and the barbless fly is flung from his lip.
As I mentioned, I rarely remember my dreams so it is a very rare occasion that I have to actually analyse a dream. What does it mean? Hmmm, probably means that there is a reel or two which I have forgotten to overhaul this winter.
Sunday morning I’ll unpack the reel case and give them a once over - just in case.
The 2010 Atlantic salmon season is just around the corner in Eastern Canada.
Tight line to you all – Play hard and come home safe.
Christopher Chin – Proulxville, Quebec