Northwest test
“Let’s go fishing”, a friend of mine said over the phone. Instinctively, I looked out the window from my store at the lake: northwest wind at 20-30mph, clear skies, and a cold front had moved in dropping the temperature almost 25 degrees. That ought to cause the fish to burry their heads in the muck. “Won’t this be fun”, I thought to myself. “Sure, yeah, great”, I said to my friend. The fishing would be tough to non-existent. I still wanted to go, as I knew we’d have fun and some laughs anyway, as he’s one of the good guys.
As usual, Drake was pumped up, pushed past both of us on the dock, and was going to try to jump on the boat when it was still 10 feet away. I could see him on the very edge of the dock, crouched and twitching. “Hold on, idiot”, I said to him, and moved the boat closer. He jumped on, and my friend climbed aboard after.
We shot out crashing waves to a couple of hot spots. The water was so rough, I couldn’t see the bottom to get a bearing on where we should set up. Our goal was to catch (and immediately release) a 10″ bluegill on a fly, so I was looking for a cluster of nests, as I knew the females had spawned and the big males were in protection mode. I’d toss out a marker on the far side of the nests and we’d cast across them to the marker. Nice plan. We found a few, tried it, and could barely get a good cast, but I felt we covered it ok. Not a taker. Northwest test.
We moved to several other places trying the same thing, only to have the same results. We decided to stop fighting the wind and waves, and moved to a secluded upwind location. We fished well in good locations, and typically we would have caught fish, but this particular body of water is ultra sensitive to changes in wind direction, temperature, cloud cover, etc., so it was tough.
Like always, it’s great just to be out fishing. On days like this you have to throttle back a little, understand the fish are not active, and enjoy yourself for the whole experience and not just numbers or size of fish. “Wow, they are really put down”, I told my friend.
“Yea, but I’m really just here for the company”, he said. He’s right. That should be the focus, everytime, and fish second. The company of a friend and a dog…who could ask for more.
We did end up catching a giant rock bass, a very nice smallmouth, and a little largemouth, so fish did enter the boat, and Drake did get his licks in. So, the “northwest test” isn’t seeing whether you can catch fish when the northwest wind blows, or any other weather puts them down. The “test” is seeing if you can remember what’s important when the temptation is to get frustrated because the fish aren’t biting.
A beautiful clear blue sky. A soothing sunset with a full moon on the opposite horizon chasing up right behind it. A friend and good conversation, a great tasting beer, and a loyal dog at your feet.
When the fishing is slow, stop fussing so much and think about the good stuff. Hmm…. what about when I’m not fishing….
