Fishing and Thinking in Minnesota

March 2014 Winter Trout

Negative tendencies; that’s the long-standing suggestion. Down and out too often; bordering on depressed, down and out very often, depressing others. It’s come up before and it surfaces regularly like the sine curve from the Holt Rinehart and Winston blue and gray text books. And the sine curve idea has some merit; maybe a sine curve with some erratics interjected that would indicate events like someone telling you that you “ought to” replace appliance A or B, or you should “consider” adding this monthly bill to the stack; and on the other side week-long stretches of playing catch with a football every day in the sun or two straight days of walking in deep valleys. But most questions should first be counter-questioned with these two basics, before pursuing any answer or subsequent solution: (1) is the issue raised important and/or can we explain why finding an answer is not important, and (2) if the answer is premised on and/or is embedded with a suggestion: what does one expect? What do we figure ought to be the case given the circumstances both obvious and less so? In this case I concede the former. To the latter point – should we expect an average human male who has been confined to office space and belted to the indoors by a long winter and moderately beaten up by the difficulties inherent in keeping a household on a steady path to be happy, smiling, uplifting in the face of any particular situation? More generally, should we expect people who live in a world that means to basically strip the balls off its men and drive everyone to one existence to be outwardly inviting and show genuine smiles? The counter might be: well, it’s all in how you deal with it. It’s all in how you react. It’s all what you make of it… One might agree if it were the case that concessions ought to be made that favor the uni-gender world. Just make the money, keep things going, keep your hands in the dishwater, then on the keyboard then on the steering wheel and circle back again. If the basic concession is made that that is how things ought to be, then it would indeed be in best interest to simply accept it and focus on “how you deal with it.”

There are deliberate forces working against happiness. I am susceptible. My response is not to simply make the concession and “work on how I deal with it.” Rather, it seems a counter-strategy is in order. A multi-faceted approach to beat back the clench of the age (WB). It’s under development and will be public noticed at a later time. Submitted comments may or may not be afforded response.

In the interest gathered here – that being fishing – it can be said that walking rivers is a mainstay. Walking with kids. Watching friends get drifts right and lift rods in joy. Seeing kids with rods doubled over, tips touching water. Finding carp unawares, tailing in rocks. And in the case of this report – walking moderately deep into a valley with a mission of gender maintenance. That meaning fighting through deep snow, cold weather, and edge-ice to catch some fish. Not a lot of fish. But fish got by a decisive action that kept us on the track of difficulty (as opposed to running around looking for easier water). Yeah, we know “difficulty” should not be a term in the playground world of fishing. But we are at that point. We have to invent some difficulty to keep sanity intact. We know, we know we are playing at edges; thanks for the comments in that regard. We know, we know this is just too much writing on fishing; you try too hard to justify things, thanks again for those notes but they fall flat. Many people know exactly what I am saying, I suspect.

These guys here are coworkers and friends. We’ve met occasionally on these waters; they appreciate them. In some way or another I suppose we’re looking for the same things. Exertion, sweat, blood, the high hill, camaraderie, the riffle and the deep pool. I did not line a rod until 330 PM. Snowshoes were needed. A fire was tended at a big corner hole. And when the first line came tight on a fish there was an insuppressible whoop bookended by swills of fiery drink. Things done, things left undone, we felt pretty good out there in the end. Some minor league swashbuckling. We need it. We better damn well face up to that fact or all the analysis will be based on false premises.

Some guys got up early and drove for this outing. Photo credit J.J.

Drifting under close watch of the sandstone. Note ice conditions.

Need a bird dog focus when nymphing.

Postcard from the valley. We watched two coyotes cross just upstream at that next bend.

Putting in work. Big corner hole. Tough to fish given conditions.

Prettiest fish of the day; I never did see in person. Photo credit J.J.

Cold. Do what you can do. A fire like no other because all the dead wood comes from different stands upstream. Carried down and left on bends in various postures.