A Good Day, A Bad Day, A Good Day

It’s been one of those days when one finally goes to sleep, he’s not sure whether to pronounce upon the day that just passed as “good” or “bad.”

First, I did get some stuff accomplished that helps pay for my fly fishing habit. Then, it really started to get “good” around 7PM, when I said to myself, “Self, you should go fly fishing.”

My other part of myself said, “Yes, where shall we go”?

“Hmmm… it might be too late to head to the Grand, but there is that part of the Credit River that you want to explore more.”

“Yes indeedy!  That is where we shall head! It’s only 15 minutes away.”

So, me and myself go through the checklist:

Reel:  Check

Rod:  Check

Fly box: Check

Camera: Check

Waders:  Check

Leaders and mono:  Check

Good!  We’re good to go.  But did you notice anything that was missed in the above checklist?  Read on..

I find my way to the bridge where I want to fish upstream of.  Don’t see anything rising while looking at the river, so I tie on a nymph.  While looking at the river, I’m also noting that it seems a bit washed out… we did have a lot of rain a couple of days ago, and the ground on the trail I’m now walking on, even though there are trees, branches and leaves covering it, is soaking.

And you know what happens when you’re walking along a trail, alongside a river, where everything is damp?

MOSQUITOES!! In my “check” above, I forgot to even think about insect repellant.  So here I am, walking along the trail, looking at the washed out stream, and trying to walk as fast as I can, if that would help, to not think about mosquitoes.

I find a few places where I might be able to drift a fly.  I stop at those places. Immediately, my bare arms, wrist, face, hair, and ears are covered with blood sucking mosquitoes.  It’s muggy out, and I’m sweating.  Now I’ve got sweat drops running down my face, while mosquitoes are trying to bite and suck my blood on other parts of my face.   And I get no hits to my nymph.

I also want to wade across a part of the stream, where just a couple of weeks ago, I could wade.  Forget about it tonight. The water level is simply too high.  The water is also muddy… and those darn mosquitoes.. I decide to try one more cast, but my fly gets snagged in a tree stump in the water.  I have to break the fly off to retrieve my line.

Screw this.  This is not turning out very well at all, and I decide to return to my  vehicle, and perhaps spend the rest of the time before dark, scouting around for some other places to try another day.

I get into my vehicle with my waders still on.  I drive away. All of a sudden, I feel something stinging the inside of my leg, near my knee.   Yes, somehow, a wasp managed to fall down in between my jeans and my waders, and stung me through me jeans.

Man, this is turning out to be a bad day!!

I put up with the sting, every so often I can feel it get worse, and begin to throb.  Then it subsides while I’m driving along.  It eases up, and I decide to head north of town, where there was less rain the other day, and while driving around, I find a road that I never have been up before.  And I can see a bridge.

I ignore the “No Parking” signs – it’s pretty obvious that others park here often, and check out the water under the bridge.  I think to myself, that if my son had made it to Orangeville this evening, he and I could be listening to some great jazz music right now, at the Blues and Jazz festival.  Hell, I could even be there myself, listening to some great jazz – but without my son, I think I’d just prefer to be fly fishing, alone.

I check out the water flowing under the bridge.  Immediately upstream, it is obvious there is a deep hole, with a nice current flowing through.. and there are fish rising.  I don’t even know what river I am fishing.  I haven’t checked the maps yet, but I suspect it was some upper portion of the Nottawasaga River.  I’ll check that out later.
I forget my glasses and can’t tie on a #16 dry fly – it’s almost dusk. I reach for something  a little bigger – a dry “Flightless Adams” that was tied up by Bob VanAmburg.  First cast, and something tiny tries to attack my fly.

15 minutes later, I hooked, landed and released a couple of small chub and a couple of small pretty brookies, all between 6 and 8 inches.

Ok, so they weren’t big bruisers – but it was still nice.. and the mosquitoes weren’t so bad… then dark fell, and it was time to get my vehicle out of that “No Parking” zone, and head home, to reflect on whether or not it was a “good day” or a “bad day.”

2 Comments

  1. […] A Good Day, A Bad Day, A Good Day […]



  2. Wendy on June 3, 2006 at 8:53 am

    It sounds like the mosquitos had a good day, in any case. Glad you managed to catch a few to make the evening worth while.



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