One Fish

Did you ever have a day where frustration was the headliner? Where almost everything you decided on was not the best decision? A day where a heavy rain would be a blessing. Oh my...yesterday was such a day. Please keep in mind this frustrating day only encompassed my time on the stream, the rest of my day was quite lovely. I arrived at the stream and was soon walking along it's banks. Looking at the first photo you can see an assortment of foliage, quite thick I will say. It was somewhere in that foliage that some strange sounds were being heard from. I can at most times identify what I hear but these sounds are still a mystery. That little incident put me on edge somewhat. Now to add to this I realized I left a fly box at home. Not a big issue because it only contained a few flies that I had tied and wanted to try.

Walking along and fishing I felt like I had no fly tied on my tippet, the reason I thought that was I had not received a single hit. The fish were not being nice at all. I changed flies multiple times with the same result. Now let me tell you I had already fished for 3 hours with only a meager 2 fish takes and not a single fish to hand.

Look at that beautiful run. Now hear about the hell I endured trying to get to it. Looking at the far side of the stream it looks pretty easy, but I was on the near side. It was thick with blow downs, the soft mud was up to my knees. The footing when I was not knee deep was like walking on ice. To say I was frustrated is an understatement...but. Have I ever mentioned to you how much I love Fran Betters? Well it was his influence in the fly I was fishing that made my day.

It was that fly that so pissed off this fine wild jewel that he went for it three times, one of those times it stuck him and I actually was able to bring him to hand. As it turned out it was to be my only fish of the outing. It was worth the frustration.