April 27 when the day is done

After work, one quick inning of carp baseball and went 1-3 with a stand-up double.  Double digit fish just before dinner never a bad deal.  Quick hitting encounter.  Three chances in the 100% cloud cover, off-and-on rain, turbid waters: (1) soft, soft steps and painful focus on the water; is that a dorsal outline (not the fin, but the dorsal dimension is noted); yes it is just that; drop fly; it goes out of sight, as does the gray line of the carp; lift up and find the fish had eaten this green leech.  Not an unremarkable event.  In fact somewhat fulfilling.  Scaled the fish at 10 lbs.  Note the nice belly contour.  (2) Another fish, this one in better sight, moving along the shore...   can even see some red in the tail...  put fly on, fish soft-spooked, never to be seen again.  (3)  Soft steps were falling just as they should have, but when I came upon a pigathon with a nice rounded gut, she was facing me; completely still, big scales in all her grayness; easy mid-teens, maybe high.  One, two, three seconds as I touch my fly in the hook keeper...   probably holding my breath...   and there she turns, bolting; knowing better.

Other notes: (1) got to try out the drag on this new "entry level" Ross Reel.  Desirable, IMO.  Funny sound when reeled in; I asked the guy at the Ross table why the hell it sounded like there was sand stuffed in there on reeling up and he said you can disable it and I said, oh, so you do that on purpose.  Yes, on purpose.  It's a large arbor and it came with fly line and backing.  The fly line was worth more than what I paid for the whole deal, so that's explanation enough as to why purchase was made.  It'll sing a lot higher notes come end of May though.  (2) Spent all day with the boys today, various engagements none of which were high intensity or taxing.  Like Go Fish game over coffee and hot chocolate at the local bakery, then 1.5 hours of tag at the park on the creek, then 45 minutes at the library.  Low-dollar, high-community things, IMO.  On the way back I pointed to a piece of water and said sixteen lb carp right there last year.  That's half your weight Danny.  Then to James: if a sixteen lb carp is half of Danny's weight, how much does Danny weigh?  Without pause he said thirty-two lbs.  Which wasn't all that surprising.  But then I asked him how he came to that number.  Fifteen times two is thirty, plus two is thirty-two.  I about ran off the road and then I did run in and recount this exchange to my wife.  Watching your kid absorb process and understanding; and even better using a Houghton-Mifflin carp word problem.