Eyes on the Prize

Yesterdays fishing trip started like any other.  IF...your trips have you waking up an hour too early, forgetting the 1 thing your wife asked you to do before you left, AND hitting some object that was standing in the middle of the road but seemed to exit stage right, but didn't!

Not sure why I ever set the timer on the coffee maker.  It serves no purpose if you wake up before the brew has cooked.  But, I always do it and always end up waiting 10 minutes after I manually start the process.

You'd think that while I was waiting, I'd take care of some chores or honey-do's.  Nope!  Sadly, I must confess, I don't have that kind of mental dexterity.  Before a cup of coffee, I'm pretty much stuck on "need coffee" mode and "did I remember to turn the coffee maker on",echoes repeatedly in my head.  As such, I double checked the coffee and forgot about the trash (last thing she asked, plz take the trash out).  There it sat, beside the door, as I left the house on my way to fishing utopia, coffee in hand, and smile on face.

20 minutes later...mental conversation goes like;  "What's that?  Looks like a deer.  No...it's got 2 heads.  Slow down dummy".  Apply brake, start to slow.  "Great, it's getting out of the road.  Wait, no, only 1 head decided to not get run over.  The a$$ head is still there.  Get out of the way dummy".  Apply lots of break and nearly stopped before...a$$ head never moved and basically got pushed over/rolled over.  I saw it get up and run away.

A little heads up for my deer readers.  Beware of the guy in the truck with the yak on the rack.  He doesn't stop when he's en route to the water.  Not at McD's for breakfast.  Not at WM for whatever last minute gear someone forgot.  Not for snacks.  Not for bait.  Not at the fly shop.  Not at the ATM.  Certainly not for 2 deer, standing in the middle of the road playing chicken with cars at 5 am.  Nope...not stopping...find somewhere else to play your games!

I made it to my destination and was surprised to find the boat ramp empty.  It didn't take long to notice the wind was steady at 15 mph.  The weather channel disagreed and stated it was 5 mph but it felt like 15 and the pads flipping out of the water confirmed it.

No chance for flinging flies today.  So I opted for the 2 baitcasters I had in the truck.  I started the morning working a frog over the pads and got a good bite about an hour into it.  I set the hook and got a birds nest!  That's completely bassackwards...I'm pretty sure they come from the cast.  I checked the drag and it's really lose.  Tried to adjust the knob but the drag didn't respond.  Guess it was just old...not the most mechanically gifted either.   Down to; 1 baitcaster, 0 fish caught, and 1 missed...not to mention the chaos from the road trip

The 2nd caster isn't set-up for frog work.  Time to flip the edges of the pads and see if I can change the day.

Decided to cross a pad field b/c I expected most of the boaters would pass up on the inside ponds.  After about 45 mins of pushing through the pads I found some open water.  Wasn't long and I felt a thump.  Set the hook and had a weird feeling.  Started to reel and noticed nothing was happening. New tally; down 2 reels, 0 fish caught and 2 lost + chaos.

I figured out that if I put my thumb on the spool when I set the hook it wouldn't reverse and I could keep fishing.  Guess the "anti-reverse" bearing was failing, who knows!?  So I fished on and managed a few more fish applying the thumb trick...it was a PIA but that's fishing.

searching for holes and unexplored ponds

About an hour before I had to leave the wind went slack.  I could see little disturbances on the water.  The noise in the trees was noticeable all day.  The cicadas were in full force.  The high winds had knocked about a million into the water...they were everywhere.  Unfortunately, the fish weren't taking them.  And worse, I had to leave and couldn't come back the next day, or the next.


What we learned from this trip.
The world stands still until I have coffee pulsing through my veins.
I'm not thoughtful when I'm thinking about fish.
I never, ever, under any circumstance, stop when I'm on my way to the water.
There is no such thing is a weather forecast.  (weather is what you see when you get there)
I break stuff!
When I break stuff, I can't fix the stuff b/c I'm not mechanical.
I can catch fish with broken stuff.
My passion is fishing, anything that gets in the way is an obstacle that must be defeated.


Eyes on the prize!