Flyfishing Below Freezing

I've often looked at photos of folks steelhead fishing in "cold" weather.  They're usually standing under overcast skies, soaked with rain, and generally looking chilled.  Having never fished for steelhead (yet!), I've often wondered if it would be worth it, and how I'd hold up to the colder temps, versus the warm summer days I'm usually fishing.

A window opened for me to finally try winter flyfishing this past weekend.  The 2.5 kids and their mom all had plans on Saturday.  The daily highs in most of Minnesota had ranged from below zero (Fahrenheit) to the mid-teens for most of Januray.  They'd finally break into the 20's F on Saturday.  "Warm enough to scratch the itch," I said to myself, thinking back to how jealous I was of fisherfolk I'd seen on the Missouri River in Montana the previous weekend.

In a true expression of my ambition, I overslept an hour Saturday morning.  Coffee was brewed, gear tossed into the all-wheel drive SUV, and I made the 3 hour drive from my home in central Minnesota to the southeastern "Driftless Region."  A quick stop in Chatfield, then a short drive to Trout Run Creek.  Another SUV was already parked, but the only thing moving was the water.  I'd been concerned about ice, given the somewhat prolonged period of temperatures near zero F.  Yet I found this spring-fed creek with only a little "shelf-ice" on each side in most places.  Definitely fishable, and not too dangerous.

Getting Back Into Rhythm

 

Just got back from a quick, non-fishing weekend trip to Montana.  Spent the night near Craig and had dinner with Joe and Lindsay Bloomquist of the Missouri River Lodge.  My wonderful wife booked me a spring trip in mid-April, hoping for a repeat of last year's April awesomeness!  Got really confused (and slightly jealous) seeing 15-20 humans compressed into very close proximity on one tiny stretch of the Missouri River just north of Craig.  Almost nobody anywhere else on the Mo'.  Huh?

Visited Blackfoot River Outfitters in Missoula, as my wife insisted I carry a wading staff now.  She's wise.  BRO is having their spring sale March 5th.  20% off a Helios 2 is damn temping, especially after I got to use one in 6 weight on the Big Horn River this past September.

Time to start writing again, and maybe consider a winter trip down to some little creeks in the Driftless down in SE MN.  I might wait until the daily high temperatures get back up into the 20's.

More soon.  We hope.

Rowing Against the Current

I'm truly thankful for those of you who stop by from time to time, perhaps hoping to catch something new on the blog.  The catching has been slow lately, and this is disappointing to both of us.  I've been hesitant to explain for a couple of reasons.  First, rule #1: This is a No Whining Zone.  I started writing as a positive outlet during my progression, and I'm gonna keep it that way.  Second... well, there's no other way to say this: stigma.  Once you're painted with a certain stereotypical brush, it's hard to escape the label.

Suffice it to say that I'd love to complete the capstone of the "Opportunity Knocks Twice" series I started earlier in the year.  And I'm making adjustments to build the motivation to get it done.  Yet motivation and desire are far from equivalent.  Research tells us that Parkinson's Disease is a result of dopamine-producing neurons shutting down.  It turns out that dopamine is a fairly important chemical for more than just muscle control.  When those levels drop, quite a few things become more difficult.

When I started writing here in early 2014, I was on my way back from the worst episode that Parkinson's has thrown at me thus far.  It was a physical and mental low.  Poor sleep, dysfunctional memory, and lots of physical pain.  It took a few months of intense work, but I climbed out.  Things aren't as challenging as that episode, but I have work to do.  And I'm doing it.  I hope you'll stick around until I'm back on track and give you something again that might be worth reading.

Maybe I just need to fishing.  I hear trout may be an indirect source of dopamine...

Everything I Need to Know in Life, I Learned from 'The Princess Bride'

Sorry, folks.  Nothing about angling or degenerative diseases in this weeks contribution to universal Entropy®.  Instead, something a little lighter that's been on my To-Do list for a while. Inspired by Robert Fulghum's book, "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten."

Everything I Need to Know in Life, I Learned from 'The Princess Bride'

1. Most things can be made better if you just skip to the end
2. "As you wish" means, "I love you."
3. "As you wish" also means, "I will be captured by the Dread Pirate Roberts and most likely killed in the morning."
4. Never get into a land war in Asia. It's a classic blunder.
5. A chocolate coating helps things go down easier
6. If you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything
7. Help people feel they are doing well
8. Never ride horseback alone
9. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles
10. People in masks cannot be trusted
11. Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line (another classic blunder)
12. There's not a lot of money in revenge
13. It's good to have a friend on the Brute Squad
14. Get used to disappointment
15. Have fun storming the castle
16. You'll stay alive longer if you always think everything could be a trap
17. If all of your professional obstacles were "inconceivable", perhaps you'd best consider a career change, no matter how prestigious your line of work
18. Mostly dead is slightly alive
19. Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
20. When there's too much to explain, sum up.
21. Keep a thorough list of your assets handy, including newly acquired wheelbarrows and holocost cloaks.
22. Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.
23. When the job goes wrong, go back to the beginning
24. If you buy a miracle pill, for Pete's sake, wait the entire 15 minutes for full potency before swimming or attempting to storm the castle.
25. There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world

Trip Report: Piney Creek

Prelude

Saturday, September 19.  This was a challenging day of fishing.  Since I’ve already pontificated extensively on how Parkinson’s Disease, inflicted insight, and a little humility shaped this day of fishing, those aspects will be omitted.  This one’s about the fishing.  Also, this was Day 2 of the trip.  I've written elsewhere about Day 1.

Hay meadow adjacent to Piney Creek

But First, A Little Philosophy…

If you don’t care to read about or ponder the moral or ethical aspects of stream access, feel free to skip ahead to the next section.  Where I grew up in Wyoming, land ownership and access are sacred to most (except for oil, gas, and minerals companies.)  You just don’t walk onto someone else’s land, period.   There is no stream or river access without landowner permission.  If a waterway is big enough to float, the spirit of the law goes something like this:  The State owns the water, but the land on both sides and under the waterway are private property.  Ergo: you can float on the water because it is public property, but you cannot anchor, and you cannot wade without permission, perhaps unless your name is Thomas or Jesus.  Sorry, John, you may be the favorite among the “fishers of men,” but you’ll have to stay in the boat unless you want a citation from the Sheriff.  So I grew up fishing public waters.

When I moved to Montana in 1998, I discovered something both wonderful and disturbing:  Montana’s Stream Access Law.  From the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks website:

“Under the Montana Stream Access Law, the public may use rivers and streams for recreational purposes up to the ordinary high-water mark.”

So, in spirit, if you can legally access part of a waterway, you can wade it, float it, and anchor in it for its entire length.  Very cool for anglers.  Not so cool for folks whose private property is now not-so-private.  While living in Montana, I enjoyed the former and pretty much ignored the latter.  But let it be said that I believe those who fail to treat other people’s land with the utmost respect, even though they have legal access rights, should face painful consequences.  “May he catch three doses of clap.”  They ruin it for the rest of us.

Trip Report: It Wasn't That Cold Outside

As usual, I didn't respond well to the alarm on Saturday morning.  Ambition was still fast asleep at 5 AM, and didn't stir until 6 AM.  I puttered about the RV gathering my angling things, piling them near the door.  After brewing a tumbler of coffee for the road, I dumped my gear from the RV and hit the road at 7:20 AM.  Arrival at Trout Run Creek was sharply at 8 AM, a full hour behind schedule.  Looks like some of the 13 Habits of Unaccomplished Anglers are shining through.

Outside temperature when I limped into the kitchen area was 31 F.  Add a little sunshine at Trout Run Creek: 37 F.  I pulled on waders and a tech vest over my long sleeve PFG (gasp!) shirt, and decided that was sufficient in the absence of wind.  I never felt chilly the rest of the morning.

I've only fished Trout Run once before, and that was with the assistance of a guide. I had a basic prospecting strategy, hoping for some kind of hatch to develop.  No hatch.  The strategy was mildly successful.  I missed several solid strikes while fishing wet flies under an indicator, but had no takers under caddis, blue wing olive, or stimulator dry flies.  So, for me, the secret to feeling really good about fishing is simple: low expectations.  Missed strikes are still strikes, meaning that I had offered something attractive to the fish.  If I'd had more time, I have little doubt things would have improved.

I "caught" one fish, but it didn't count.  The little nine-inch brown trout fought hard.  In fact, I thought it was a much bigger fish from the feel of things, something in the 12"-14" range.  As I pulled it in, it appeared that I had foul-hooked the fish just behind the dorsal fin.  Fish in hand, I grabbed my hemostat to carefully pull the hook out of its meaty little back, but found the hook had not even punctured the skin.  The hook had looped over the line, and I'd managed to lasso the fish when I "set the hook."  Feels too much like dumb luck.  Noon arrived and I high-tailed it back to my family.  Beer, brats, and s'mores around the campfire concluded the day.

This was a bittersweet trip.  I got some angling time with some mild success, but it was also the final camping weekend for the year.  I'm hopeful that I still have more angling time before New Year's Eve, but not confident.  So, I have a feeling I'll write something soon, in a reflective perspective on my adventures and accomplishments for 2015.  But it's not over yet.  And I have a writer's To-Do list:

• Finish part 2 of my trip report for the mid-September 2014 trip to Montana and Wyoming. (DONE!)
• Conclude the "Opportunity Knocks Twice" series. 
• Sage 5-Weight Rod "Shootout" - My family now owns 4 different Sage 5-weight rods (plus a second Sage Grace for my daughter and my wife.)  I've yet to take the time to try them all side by side.  When I do, I hope somebody finds some use in it.  If not, that's okay.  It's something I need to do anyway.

It's Gonna Be Cold

I had hoped to be spending this weekend watching a Pink Floyd cover band, Wish We Were Floyd, just outside Denver.  Alas, twas not to be.  Instead, I'm staged for a morning of small water fishing in southeastern Minnesota.  We parked the fifth-wheel RV just after sunset, started a fire, and finally retreated into the heated space when the outside temp hit 42 degrees.  Fortunately, the propane tanks are fully charged.

The plan is to get up at 5 AM, leave the RV at 6 AM, and be on Trout Run Creek from 7 AM until Noon.  Forecast says it's likely to be under 40 degrees F for most of the morning.  If I can handle a morning of wind, rain, and snow on the Missouri River in April, this is a cake walk, right?  There were a couple of large caddis fluttering around the RV this evening.  Very dark specimens.

Tonight was officially "Eclectic Beer Night."  Coors, New Belgium 1554, and now finishing a Summit Oktoberfest.