|
It was on a Monday during the seven-minute walk from the
car to the office when it hit me, hit me hard, "The family
will be gone Wednesday night from 6:00pm until around 8:30pm.
Almost two and a half hours to myself, two months worth of
free time all in one night, I can go casting." (To go fishing
implies the presence of or chance to catch fish, being a
natural producer of Viking Fish Repellant, I don't go fishing.)
Monday, Tuesday and most of Wednesday were spent trying not
to plan the outing. Not thinking about which rod to use, not
thinking about which body of water to hit. Not thinking about
which fly to use, and so on. Yes I said trying not to plan,
for if I plan an outing to the water, it will not happen.
After not planning which lake to try first and not choosing
which rod to use, (the new 3 weight I built of course) it all
falls apart. Wednesday at 3:00pm the wife calls me at work to
inform me that I had to take daughter #1 from piano lesson
to the church at 6:30. Ok, that still leaves me just less
then two hours to cast. At 4:00 pm she calls again, "they need
some help with the kids can you stick around, you should be
done by 7:00." That, of course, was not a question.
When I left at 7:40 I was down to less than an hour to cast.
That is when I made mistake #1. I got into a hurry. I hurried
to a lake where I could cast from the swimming area, since
nobody would be there swimming, and hurried to get the rod
rigged up. When I finally started casting I felt discombobulated,
all out of synch, even worse than usual. I shouldn't call what
I normally do casting, but this was even uglier. That was when
I noticed mistake #2. I had assembled the reel backwards.
(This was a direct result of mistake #1). I decided to take
the time to break everything down and start again, thinking
this would calm me down. It would have worked too if it weren't
for the adrenaline rush I got from the fish I spooked eight
feet away from me when I knelt down, no he didn't spook when
I was waving the rod or tripping over the sticks on the shore
but when I knelt down to correct mistake #2. From the amount
of water that was moved, I'm pretty sure this was no six-inch
bluegill.
After assembling everything for a second time I begin to 'cast'
again, this time it feels a little better but still not right.
I decide to just work on getting some line out. After a few
minutes I am into a rhythm, not a good or correct one but a
rhythm none-the-less. I then notice some surface activity back
towards the car and decide to investigate, slowly casting and
walking my way over. When I get to where the activity was it
stops, and I do too. I decide to just watch for a while as it's
now getting dark. Nothing happens for a couple of minutes so I
decide it's time to go. I kneel down to tie my shoe when I
spook another fish just ten feet from me. This guy moved even
more water than the first one did.
Not a very exciting outing but I did learn a couple of lessons.
First is "haste makes waste," I was in a rush to relax. "I ONLY
HAVE AN HOUR TO FISH NOW GET OUT OF MY WAY AND LET ME RELAX.
I'M HERE TO LISTEN TO THE WATER" My 'casting' was off because
I was so tense and in a hurry to relax that I wasn't doing
things properly, increasing my tension and a nasty cycle was
entered.
Second, I must have loud knees to spook fish when my 'casting' doesn't.
Hope your first trip was better. ~ (swen)
|
