Fish Art

Going fishing is something I'm always down for.  A couple of Mondays ago, I almost gave up before I started though.  A strong cold front had just moved into the area and the air temperature was quickly falling towards the freezing point.  Sometimes I put the joy of catching a few fish in the balances against the misery involved and find the scales tipping in the direction of staying home warm and comfortable.  This time I rebelled at that idea though, especially since I was pretty confident that I would have the water to myself considering the conditions.

Arriving at one of my local streams, I started rigging up.  More properly stated, I put my fly rod together in between holding on to anything that could possibly fly away, the wind was just that strong.  A couple of times I thought I might fly away also and wondered again about the intelligence of fishing under such conditions.  Finally I got everything situated and trudged down to the stream.  Soon I had the line pulled through the guides and a Crawbugger tied on.

In the first pool I stopped at, a fish spooked from an unlikely spot in the back.  Knowing that the water was low enough that I couldn't afford to spook fish, I just started casting from where I was even though I prefer to work a bit closer to my quarry when possible.  A follow!  Focusing on the retrieve to work the fly just right, I enticed a little brown to nail the offering.

After a quick picture, I glanced up.  The natural art I had just released was beautiful but something nearby was unique and interesting in its own way.  Anyone who has put in some time on the local creeks will undoubtedly recognize this.  I can verify that the browns living in this vicinity are hungry and willing to eat!

Not far below here, I found some violets, one of my favorites!  I'm grateful for the beauty in nature that is always around me in the amazing places I get to fish.

Moving downstream, I continued to catch a fish here and another there.  Standard for streamer fishing, there were a lot more follows than there were eats.  The fish are obviously hungry after a long cold winter locked under the ice.  I did locate some better than average fish as well that will require a return trip or two or three until I land them.  Finally, the eats dwindled and eventually stopped.  The weather had put the fish off the feed.