Stumbling into 2011

Had a big homily prepared for first 2011 post: all about the merits of fishing, how time outdoors, under duress is required in one's life, etc. It was set to be pretty good. The first line is: People aren't born mad, they're driven mad... The edge has been taken off momentarily though. Maybe revisit later on during next lull. At this point, suffice it to say that I was burning up going from office to home to office to home to office to home all day every day for going on maybe two straight months. Man was it burning a bit. I needed to get out and sting my face with some good wind.

I had used a tent patch kit to cover a gaping hole in my hip waders. They are my preferred winter gear. I took a flashlight inside them in a dark room, and looked for any little points of light escaping. Didn't see any. Apparently there were many that I missed though, because the second I stepped into knee-deep water, it was as though I was wearing a couple of collanders on my legs. Immediate inundation is the phrase that comes to mind. Usually not a big deal, but it was low teens F on this day, and it wasn't a small volume of water. I usually get a little wet in winter, but not like this. So I was slowed a bit, pondering what to do. Eventually I figured that as long as the water stayed in liquid form (which I knew it would) and I moved around a lot, it should be okay. Indeed, after standing and casting at a given piece of water, on picking up to leave my right leg felt like a rounded stump. I'd walk five minutes or so and my foot would come back to me. In short, this situation became more than uncomfortable for me, and thus my goal changed to simply catching a couple fish and then getting my hippies off.


First fish of 2011 - salmo trutta - was sitting in this current, hanging just under that ice shelf. Took the trailing gray scud of a 2-nymph rig. Classic slow descent of strike indicator.


I couldn't make myself get downstream of this water (numb foot and apparent difficulty with bank and angle), so I just took the indicator off and let the rig sink downstream... then tightened up on it and swung it across. Second fish of the year was a nice rainbow probably 13-13.5" that ate the lead nymph: pink squirrel in focus.


After catching that rainbow, I gave a look around and tore myself away. Drove home a couple hours early. Not the end of the world but minor downer, as I'd watched the trailer for this outing a hundred times and it was really good.



And the next day my foot was still sore/tingly. Nothing resembling anything serious though.