Father's Day Fish

It was a wild day weather wise today.  One minute it would rain, the next it was sunny.  If you looked out the front window you wondered if you should build an ark but look out the back and you needed sun glasses.  I wanted to get out fishing and I ended up waiting until this evening to do so.  I was confident that with the rain and slightly elevated water levels the fishing would be hot.

I pulled my car over near an access point, tucked my pant legs into my socks, kicked off my sneakers, and donned my chest waders.  I grabbed my rod and gear out of the trunk and hit the water.  I put my fingers in to test the temperature.  The rains must have been warm because I was surprised at how warm the water was.  It was shortly after 7:00pm and I planned on fishing until about 15minutes before sundown, which I guessed would be a bit after 9:00pm.

I waded up to a small bedrock shelf with a gravel pool along the right bank and cast my line out.  I left the first cast short and blamed the reel.  The next cast was on target and I floated it down past my stance in the middle of the channel.  Nothing.  The next cast I put upstream a bit farther and as it entered the pool, a small brook trout tugged and I set the hook.  From that point on I had non-stop action all evening.  The majority of the fish were 7-8" variety but I was able to land 3 that measured out over 10.5" and I kept two of these for tomorrows supper.  By the end of the night I had landed 11 fish on my barbless hook and had a number of other fish on but couldn't land them.

Maybe the best thing about the night was that with all the rain today, I never got wet, nor did I get eaten alive by the flies.  As I cleaned the fish on a gravel bar the sun was starting to set down the river and the sky was a stark contrast of darkened blues and vibrant reds and purples.  It was a moment for sure and I tilted my head to the sky and thanked God for such a gift.