Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A horrible day fishing but a great night on the water

I live in SE PA and we have had almost no rain all summer. The last two days it rained all day and put the water levels up a little bit. I thought I'd go out and swing some streamers. I was hoping that the extra-murky water might get some catfish cruising around. I grabbed my 8 wt (which I wanted to dust off before my steelhead trip next month anyway) my reel with sink tip on it, and hand full of streamers and nymphs and went out the door.


I got to the lake and the area I usually fish at, with a nice bank and sandy bottom, had some kids fishing it, so I went to the other side of the lake which I've never fished before. Three steps in and I was in mud up to my knees. I thought of Bear Gylls crawling through that quicksand, but figured if I did that it might be a little overkill. I stuggled out of it and got back to the bank.

I took one step out and decided to try and roll cast. Found out that roll casting with sink tip is pretty easy. But I had no action.

I saw the kids leaving so I made a be-line over to my side of the lake. Took two steps in and was in mud up to my shins. Well, it was an improvement.

I look around and see literally dozens of fingerlings feeding off of the top. They were jumping and splashing and having a great time. I look at my streamers and my sink tip and just kind of sigh.

I was still hoping for a bass or even a catfish, so I cast out my streamer. I work the water for about 30 minutes and get snagged. I try to roll cast past it to free the streamer but no luck. I pull on it and it come out of the water and it's caught on another line, pretty thick too.

Normally I could have walked out to get it, but with the mud I didn't think it was so safe. I decided to break it off and pulled.

Snap!

As I try to dodge the line that is flung back at me, I notice my leader sliding into the water. A whole lot of my leader.

I check the line and the loop connection that I made in it had tore. No more loop, no more leader. My plan was only to be out for an hour or so, so I only had one leader, and that was on the reel. Which was now at the bottom of the lake.

I walk to shore and start breaking down my rod. I started to watch the fingerlings jump and it was the most remarkable thing. One or two would jump, but then all of a sudden 10+ would jump at the same time. They just kept doing this. So I stood there and watched the runts jump and the sun set.

Even though I had the wrong tackle and that the tackle I had failed, I still count it as a good day fishing. I got to watch the sun set and fish feed in such a way that I had never seen before. I truly count it a blessing.

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