I have to believe that every fly angler is, to some degree,
superstitious and I am among those who believe that leaving your lucky shirt,
hat, rod or fly at home can spell disaster. Consider this story.
By last Wednesday, the rivers had finally dropped to
fishable levels following three inches of rain over the weekend. I was eager to
throw some streamers because post-flooding fishing can be (as one shop rat in
Montana once told me) “stupid good.” I
was about to hit the river in time to fish the last couple hours when I
realized my lucky shirt was back in camp. I was undeterred and jumped into the
water expecting to catch a fish on every cast.
When I walked back to the truck in the waning daylight, however, I found
myself on the receiving end of an ass-kicking by the fish as in I had been
skunked for the first time all year.
The next day I was on the same schedule, having spent the
day scouting waters that are now closed. I wandered down to the same river at
the same time with the same streamer except now I had my lucky shirt on my
back. The result? Stupid good fishing.
There are still some good days to be had on the water this
week and the fall colors remain brilliant in some parts of the U.P. But with snow
showers forecast for the weekend, it won’t be long before I will be hanging up my
lucky shirt in the cabin for the season (make that putting it in the back of my
truck) and that will be a sad day as it has been a tremendous year.
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