A Simple Day

            I have a few outings and adventures that are building up, and that I’d like to write into this blog, but those will come out over the next few weeks and months; stories worth telling when the time is right.  Today I went fishing in a small creek north of here that I hadn’t been to all summer.  It’s a story I decided to tell now, so I don’t have to try to keep the details stored in my brain.  I follow a few other bloggers who also like to fish for trout, and they keep it pretty much short and sweet.  I’ll do the same today.  I’ll keep it simple.

            I’m a week and a half into the school year now, and on the brink of attending cross country meets on Saturday mornings. I love the district I teach for, the staff I work with, the team I am a part of, and already enjoy the students I have this year, but with the pressures that come with newness, mandates, and expectations, I needed a way to gain perspective and have a healthy way to work out my thoughts.

            It rained hard last night, but luckily I got the hayfield (err, lawn) mowed beforehand.  I was a little leery to get up prior to the crack of dawn, because I didn’t know if the creek I wanted to head to would be full to overflowing or not.  I had already thrown my gear into the back of the Jeep just in case.  I got up, took care of the dogs, had breakfast, and debated whether I should go or not before finally taking the steps to leave.  I needed to get to that creek whether it was full of water or not!

            When I arrived, I had to thrash through the edge of a tall prairie for a half mile, and cross over a backwater drainage ditch to get to the creek I wanted to fish.  

I took a few videos to document my progress.  The mosquitoes were absolutely thick, bloodthirsty, and relentless.  

I could pretty much guarantee that I’d be the only one out there.  It was going to be great whether I caught a trout or not.

            I got in the water around 10:30, and although it was a bit high from the rain, I didn’t have to worry about any holes in the bends of that creek that are over my head.  So I fished on.  Over the course of the next 3 hours I caught twelve brook trout, and one small brown.  The colors of the brook trout that I held in my hands were simply beautiful, and vibrant; there’s no other way to describe them.  

An Awesome Little Fish-Caught & Released

I brought three or four other brookies up to me, but couldn’t bring them up to my hand before they flipped off my spinner.  I also saw two fairly large trout follow my lure up to my feet before darting back under a nearby bank.  Of the fish I caught, I released all but three of them; each of them about ten inches.  The action I had was enough to keep me going until it was time to turn around and hike my way out.  I don’t always keep the fish I catch, and I often release those I do, but these I would fix for dinner tonight.  

Although it was overcast, sometimes misty, and even foggy as the warm, muggy air settled over the cold, spring fed creek, it was a perfect setting to fish in.  It was a simple outing for what I needed today; the first weekend after my first full week of school.

            I came home, took care of some “chores” and then set to preparing a home spun dinner.  After my cousins and I had texted back and forth a bit about our day’s outings and such, I called my cousin Brad to get the specifics on how he had smoked a trout we had had earlier this summer.  I picked some zucchini, summer squash, and tomatoes from our garden, and cut them up to cook in a dab of olive oil.

 I then got down our little Weber Grill, and opened a new bag of lump charcoal to start a small fire to smoke the trout.  I even used a small piece of apple wood from a branch off the tree next to our house that didn’t leaf out this year, so that I could add it to the charcoal for a bit of flavor.

            It was, of course, a delicious and perfect meal to share with my wife and daughter; and after talking on the phone (old school?) to my son who is at college; we took a ride in the country.  It was a simple day.  It was a good day.

            See you along The Way…

A View Of The Lake

A journal entry from Saturday, August 6, 2016

following our annual, family trip to Michigan.

            Can you smell the water in the breezes off the lake?  It’s the same smell that has been associated with this scene looking out over the rippled aqua-blue for as long as I can remember.  I know you can hear it.  The lapping of the waves on the shoreline; slapping the sides of the boats as they bounce, tug, and jostle in their moorings beside the dock.  The boats out on the lake race by, sometimes simply to see how fast they can go, often times pulling skiers or tubers in wild-eyed excitement.  After the boats pass, the cadence of the waves speed up and grow in volume, when the liquid frequencies left behind, finally reach the shoreline.  

Kayakers and those on paddleboards cruise just outside the docks; out past the brightly colored windsocks and kids wrestling, flipping, diving, and cannon-balling out into the air and water.  With the passing of the cumulus clouds, the shades of blue out on the surface of the lake shift as the sun sifts down through the gaps. 

The shades create lines of distinctions, much like the lines on a map that mimic a depth chart.  All of this from under the shaded canopy of the giant white oak; on a little deck out in front of the family’s homestead.

See you along The Way…