THE SNOW IS GONE!

March 1, 2010

And for me, I say Thank God. Yes I lived in Michigan for a good number of years and my worse memory of living there was stepping out of a little Morris Minor in dress shoes on the way to something nice and sinking up to my ankles in slush.

Slush for those who have not experienced it is a very cold mixture of water, ice, and snow. It only looks frozen. It isn’t. The minute you step on it you sink, and sometimes deeper than others. I have heard people scream when sinking into it totally out of control.  Oops, that might have been me. The only thing I can think of worse is maybe falling in a really cold steelhead stream in February.

It was the Pere Marquette (PM) and my late husband JC, an attorney friend from Saginaw, and my present husband, Neil, were there on a weekend trying to catch steelhead. I don’t recall if any of us caught one - or any - but I know I was wearing waders and a down jacket which soaked up an amazing amount of water in a very short time. I had been fine all afternoon, but finally decided I’d had enough and headed for the bank. I really was careful and just as I almost reached the bank I must have let my guard down, because I went down. The water wasn’t deep enough to really soak me, as in over my waders, but you know how you reach out with your hand/arm when you realize you are falling? Well that’s what I did, and splash was the result. They had a clothes dryer at the place we stayed and my jacket was dried out before we headed home.

It was a learning experience as they say.

We moved to Montana where we lived some seventeen years, but you don’t dare complain about snow, wind or cold to any Montanan, they seem to be immune. And after seventeen years I thought I was too.

I’ve been told you don’t necessarily remember all the good stuff, like a wonderful fish you catch, the ones you do recall are the ones that got away. I won’t try and tell you I haven’t lost that many fish, but I’ve lived a lot of years, and that would just be a lie. Some were LDRs (Long-Distance Releases) which means I never really had the fish under control in the first place.  I’m sure you’ve never had that happen. 

The most memorable LDR wasn’t mine, but our wonderful writer Chris Chin from Canada’s trick. Chris had taken me to a neat spot on the Ste‑Marguerite River in Quebec. We were hoping to connect with one of the big sea-run brookies. Indeed I did exactly as Chris told me and bam; I had a terrific fish on. The neat part was I had actually spotted the fish underwater! Chris told me to watch and see what he took, where and how. I don’t recall which fly I had on (one that Chris had tied no doubt) and I cast a couple of times without getting the fly to where the fish was holding. On about the fourth cast he came up for the fly. I saw him open his mouth and slide up.  I had him on! Chris was watching and immediately headed over to where I was. He could see a problem starting. The fish was headed for some underwater brush. Oops. Chris made a valiant attempt, hit the leader with the net and my trophy was gone. I didn’t hook another on that trip.  How big was the one I lost? Perhaps five or six pounds, which is not bad for a brookie! I probably will never have one that big on my line again, but it was a wonderful experience. 

The trip to Quebec was indeed an adventure - of very best of it was spending some time with Chris Chin in person. We had talked many times on the phone and I felt I had known him a long time, but having the person ‘in the flesh’ is so much better. If you ever have the opportunity to make the trip and fish with Chris, just do it. You will have a wonderful memory to cherish. We also met Faruk Ekich whom we later fished with as well, but that’s another story.

Castwell and I had some terrific adventures over the years, I’ll see if I can share a few in the weeks coming up before I forget everything I know.   

Here is a tip for all fly fishers, you might try and find a medium-sized spiral notebook and at the end of your fishing day (or the next day) while it is still fresh in your mind jot down the highlights of yesterdays fishing. I’ve had several over the years, the one I’m using now is 8.4 x 5.375" says JOURNAL on the front, and the front and back covers are a sort of heavy plastic in blue and green stripes. It has 100 pages, ruled on both sides. I think I got it at Wal-Mart. It is small enough to go and not big enough be to a nuisance.

For years Castwell keep a sort of journal in the spiral ‘Tide Logs’ - more of who was there, what the weather was and what fish were caught (and by whom.) That worked for him. I prefer to add more, what birds, flowers, seashells and sometimes I’ll add a sketch. With just a few details you can read through then close your eyes and almost be there.

That’s really what it’s all about anyway.

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