A MORNING TRIP
Morning can be rough. Bodies don’t necessarily want to get up and about when we want them to. The beep-beep-beep cut through my sleep, bursting in upon my comfortable fog, bringing the burn of insufficient sleep painfully to the forefront. I’d been up way too late. Tying up the last few flies, cleaning the fly line as well as attending to a flock of other details best not left until the Great Morning itself.
The gear is where I piled it last night. All is in order and ready to dump in the truck and GO. Still feeling foggy but the draw of the water begins to exert its force. Gear bag, rod tubes (with rods - check!) reels, float tube, PFD, flippers, air pump, water bottle, lunch sack etc. etc. Alright, it’s all loaded. I’m dressed. Truck starts. Back out of the drive, headlights on and DRIVE.
The drive there can be summated as a time to ponder my tactics and dream the impractical dreams of what could be, what may be. Building and fishing the trip in my mind’s eye beforehand is an excellent way to...whoops! Better keep an eye on the road there hoss!
Pull up and park. Drag out my tackle and get busy assembling my day. Run through and re-run through in the mind’s eye. It’s all there, it’s all put together right. I hope I won’t have an, “Oh no! I forgot,” moment out there.
Stepping into the water transitions from “getting there” to “I’m fishing!” The water move up my feet, my legs, the temperature change is a bit shocking. Not time for waders yet, but soon, very soon. Old float tube bites the surface and starts doing its job of keeping me afloat. That looks like a good spot - right over there. Turn and start kicking, I didn’t lose any fins at launch this time, Hallelujah! Fin tethers are something to have and hope you won’t need. I sure did once not too long ago.
OK dear reader, are you there? Are you in the water and kicking your way out to fish? If not then close your eyes real tight and get there!
Alright, we’re in position. That looks fishy. Casting mode ON! Load, stop, load, stop, let the line settle, take up the slack. Strip-stop-strip-stop-strip-stop all the way back. OK, let’s get it out there again.-. Dang it! The line’s around our reel and several straps on the tube. Grrrr. Start untangling the mess and.-. POWAP! The fly’s gone! Line’s shooting off into the deep! Get it untangled! Get it untangled now!! I can’t get it unstuck from that one loop on the tube. Gonna have to do this the hard way! (I hate it when that happens, except I love it)
Don’t you just love that throb? There’s a beat and surge, a pulsation, as the life on the other end EXERTS! The rod tip submerges, the line is straining. Thank goodness for a twenty pound test tippet! Keep that head away from the weeds, which would be the end of game. Back and forth, back and forth rod tip up, rod tip back in the water. Don’t give up too much but don’t force the issue beyond breaking. It’s twenty pound test but still.....
Swish and swirl, and some colors start to come to view. Catfish! Alright! They are low gear, Positrac, head to the bottom fighters. Why no school has the catfish for their team mascot only means that not nearly enough people fish ultra light.
Lipping a catfish demands some thought. One doesn’t simply “grab aholt” in the same way one might with Mr. Micropterus. Glad the barb was mashed down; getting the hook out is no big job, even with the fly deep in his gullet. “Back you go, thank you for playing with me this morning!” Cleaning catfish is not high on my list of fun things to do. Leave that to the folks who sell fillets to the grocery store heh?
Now whooda thunk we’d get a channel cat on a bright yellow popper at 5:45 AM. They prowl the shallows looking for the opportune offering. This suits me just fine.
Let’s kick on over to those weeping willows. That looks promising. Sure enough, the brat pack is soon tugging on the popper legs, trying to drown their unfortunate prey. Decision time; smaller fly or wait it out for a big boy - POP!!!! Never mind, question answered by what soon turns out to be a fine bream too big to grip. There’s a whole different beat and thrum to a bream. Their displeasure manifests on an entirely different wavelength that makes ultra light tackle as popular as it is. Big Fury in a small package that chatters and jerks in angular surges - 30 49 - 212 down and around. Visualizing the beastie’s motions, feeling connected through graphite, plastic and steel. This is part of why we fish.
| Sysadmin Note |
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| More from Robin can be found at his blog at https://robinsrumination.blogspot.com |