Thanks for Nothing

"I've noticed that many of the people I've really enjoyed fishing with over the years have turned out to be sturdy peasant stock from Michigan.  I don't know what it is about the anglers from that state, but you can spot it: some kind of casual facility with difficulty, or belief that suffering is the only promise life keeps, so that when things go even a little bit right, it's like a gift."
(Standing in a River Waving a Stick by John Gierach, Simon & Schuster - New York 1999)
  
     Last Thursday, July 2nd, my Dad and I headed North; North to the Westfield, Wisconsin area where I had gone solo a month ago.  We drove as the sun rose and soon found ourselves in the cool waters of an awesome creek.  I say that it's awesome because of its ingredients.  It has a light, golden colored, sand bottom.  It's that sand that sifts with the currents to create drop-offs that descend in to dark bends.  As you fish them, you wonder what's down there; down beyond what you can see.  The banks are lined with what can only be described as a horticulturist's bucket list.  Trees, bushes, plants and grasses; all are native foliage in breathtaking environs.  It's what brings me back when I have the extended opportunity.  

      The sun was still at enough of an angle to provide some areas of shade as we started.  Otherwise, the sky was bright blue and the air cool enough to allow us to wear a long-sleeved shirt.  It's the shade and dark skies that are best for the brown trout that primarily reside in this creek.  My Dad caught a beautifully marked thirteen inch trout within the first hour.  I managed a little eight and nine inch brown, and then that was it for both of us.  It was slim pickings for six to seven hours of fishing after that.

      We fished with passion.  We fished with effort.  By the end we didn't have much strength left, and what we did have we needed to hike out and drive back.  It's not often you go and get totally skunked, and it's not often you go and get nearly skunked.  But, sometimes when everything looks marvelous and appears perfect, it's not what you need to catch trout.  I suppose it's an oxymoron; lots of energy expended in a setting to die for; cast after cast made for nothing more than practice in very cool temperatures for July; only a few trout caught and seen with time spent in the water.  Sure the winds were out of the East by Northeast, and sure we know the proverb that says:

"Wind from the North, do not go forth.

Wind from the South, blows bait in their mouth.

Wind from the East, fish bite the least.

Wind from the West, fish bite best."

Sure we know that it's more about the pressure than the wind, and sure we know that wind is created when two air masses, of different pressures, collide.  I'm also sure I've heard someone say, "A bad day fishing is better than a good day working."  But I'm also sure those people have never fished with us before, because although it's more than enjoyable, it's always a lot of work; with or without the mosquitoes.  I'm sure that the unknown person, who took my camera during the Fourth of July fireworks, two days later, feels a little remorse.  It's the camera I was using from school, that captured our fishing adventure, and had ten or more awesome nature shots on it, along with several images of my Dad in action; not to mention a couple of videos including the one of my Dad catching his brown trout.
     Luckily we had a couple of pictures taken with a phone.  The others, though lost, are at least etched into my brain: the rising sun, the white pine needles, little bank-side flowers, new growth on the tamarack, water trickling over a sand and gravel bar, several of Dad casting for the hope of a strike, in addition to a few pictures of an awesome sunset.  

      It's in that memory of spending some time together; together on water that's downright spooky it has so much unforeseen potential; that I give thanks.  Although we hardly caught a thing and in the end my camera was snatched from me and came up missing, I can at least say, "Thanks for nothing!"  A friend of mine commented on our experience by saying, "Luckily you can rely on your optimism to get you through."  Perhaps, but even more it's probably that gift of having come from sturdy Michigan stock; stock that can make light of a situation no matter what state I'm in.
See you along The Way...