The one that got away

In the world of angling, there are really only two kinds of fish – the ones you caught and the ones you lost. If you’re like me, it’s the ones you lost which haunt you. I’m fortunate to only be haunted by a few fish, the most recent of which I lost on the Wind River in Wyoming a few years back. I can now add a U.P. fish to that list.

I was fishing a stretch of fast water in a spot I had not fished in a couple of years. There’s nothing overly inviting about the piece of water and it’s really not much fun to fish. It is fast, deep and the steep banks are choked with tag alders. I had pretty much given up hope of moving any fish when I hooked what I thought was a log. When the log started to swim, it came at me quicker than I could strip line in. My 4-weight rod could do little with whatever was on the other end so I was pleased when it decided to stop ten feet away from me, slightly bull-dogging but mostly moving a few inches from side to side. The fish then made three head shakes, the third shake expertly designed to toss the sculpin pattern from its mouth, and left me in a state of shock wondering what I could have done differently. I mentally marked the spot and hope I am offered a rematch later this summer. That’s if summer returns.

Last Thursday, the temperatures were in the 80s. Tuesday it snowed. Surprisingly, the cooler temperatures improved the fishing and I got into an awesome Hendrickson hatch mid-day last Friday. Streamer fishing and nymphing have also been solid. If you can find a set of beaver ponds, they have been fishing well and likely will continue to do so until we those waters heat up. The weather is expected to warm in the coming days so I expect to see the dry fly fishing to pick up.