Fishing Log

Gentlemen! Quite a learning experience today! Not so much re: fish catchin' as I did what expected to do which was catch 'em up. More so re: fishing in this kinda weather. Have never fish in air temps this cold before. Thought I'd be smart and suit up at home. Put on two pair of sweat pants and 3 layers of shirts, flannel, quilted flannel & heavily quilted flannel. Drove down to the river in my waders, so, in theory, all I needed to do was don my wading boots and off I'd go. Jumped up in my dressing room (truck bed) and immediately saw that my wading boots which had been left wet out in the cold since Friday afternoon were frozen solid. It was akin to trying to put your foot in a cast iron mold! Had to put them on the floor mat with the heater on max for 10 minutes to get them somewhat flexible. Got into 37.3 degree water about 1010 hours. 3rd cast, bang had one on/off, 3 strong rod twitches on the same cast and I was hooked up. Now this was one of the fish which decided it didn't want to keep swimming against the current. It immediately screamed off about 80 yards of line in 8-10 seconds headed south bound! I know it was that much because 'Stella' (my pet name for my reel) holds about 240 yards of the 6# class Ande tournament which I use and a 3rd of it disappeared at a somewhat alarming rate. I was primarily concerned because the reel was still cold and I'd set the drag in warmer weather. Anyway, the fish finally turns west into slower moving water and I start working it back north. I'd gained maybe 15 yard back and 'Stella' starts making a gosh awful noise (and she's a pretty high quality gal less than a year old). What the heck!? Took me about 5 seconds to realize it was the ice on the line going over the bail roller that was creating the racket. Hmmmm .... so maybe another 10 minutes later I put a 3# roe on the bank, take a couple of pics and send her back to make babies. I learned another annoying lesson. You really need to remember to clear your guides of ice before you cast; and the top guide was icing up on every cast. About 30 minutes in I forgot to clear it and since I needed to make very long casts both Friday and today to get to where the fish were crossing from the swirly water into the fast water in these low water condition, I was having to put a lot of muscle into casting. You know what happened next. The darts headed out and the line stayed glued to tip top & I needed to re-rig. I quickly learned that re-rigging a pair of tandem darts is just a thrill a minute in 25 degree weather! About an hour later after another fish cut itself off on a rock and took my bottom dart north with it and I had to re-rig again. The wind had picked up and I was already shivering. By the time I tied a dropper & uni on the bottom threaded two tails on & superglued 'em, I was ready to cut the tag end off of the uni knot. My hands were shaking so violently, it must have taken me over a minute to get the line between the cutting edges of the tool! I also, discovered the joy of having to cinch knots in your mouth because saliva was freezing instantly, otherwise. For the 1st 40 minutes I couldn't make 5 cast without a hook-up, missed hit, on/off or a scale! Fishing was just as hot as it had been Friday, perhaps more so! Bottom line, I went 2 for 5 & 2 suckers with numerous scaled fish & missed hits. Headed for the barn at 1250 hours (2.5 hours fishing). I really wanted to fish for a couple of more hours, but the cloud cover had moved in and the wind had picked up at noon as predicted. I knew I was asking for trouble if I stayed. After all, at age 69, I'm no spring chicken. ;-) I.E., I really didn't need to fall in the water due to fatigue. Oh yeah, one other amusing item springs to mind, if you have a wading stick tethered to you and you walk on shore and stop for one reason or another and let the wading stick sit against your waders, it will freeze tight to your waders. :-) Catchin' in 37.3 degree water is a personal best for me. If they're there, they're there. If they're not, they're not! You just gotta get the darts in front of their noses. And I know where they live in that hole! Note: the pic fish, a nice 3.5 # buck is being "freeze dried". Credit to my old fishin' friend Rich Fasanello for that pun! Guess this guy cooling his heels on ice is enough and I really don't need to put up two more posts with pics of a 3# roe and a sucker. ;-)