I had a little free time last night and I decided to head to Watkins Mill State Park to wet a fly line. I was excited to go because it had been closed since the quarantine started. I was excited to catch some of the nice bass, bluegill, and redear that live in the lake and maybe even hook into a wiper or two. The wipers that MDC stocked in there a few years ago should be getting pretty big by now and I caught a few babies out of there a couple of years ago. However, like the old adage goes, sometimes the best part of a fishing trip is the excitement leading up to the trip.
When I arrived, I was happy to see that the park was open. The state parks website said that parks were being closed from time to time in order to minimize crowds. This is was the best part of the trip.
I pulled up to the boat ramp to watch a young man and young lady back their boat down the ramp. They didn't have much equipment so it didn't look like it would take long. I was wrong. It took about 20 minutes. I started to get a little frustrated but then I reminded myself that I was a newbie once too and probably did the same thing to other folks. I eventually put my boat in the water and noticed it was a little windier than I expected it to be. I figured out that the wind was out of the north. This was a little surprising and concerning because my Grandpa used to always say "Wind out of the west, fishing is the best. Wind out of the south, it blows the hook in their mouth. Wind out of the east, fishing is the least. Wind out of the north, don't go forth." After mulling over my options, I decided to head north and let the wind drift me along the east bank. I have caught quite a few fish along that bank before so I tried to muster up some optimism.
That optimism took a hit when I saw how much algae and aquatic vegetation there was and it was everywhere. It was in coves, along the entire bank, and even floating in the main body of the lake. I thought that fish were going to be shallow and this meant that getting to them was going to be nearly impossible. I tried fishing the edges of the weed/algae lines with only the bass pictured above to show for my efforts. I decided to hit the southern end of lake along the dam with the hopes that the fish would be feeding there and the rocks would keep the cover to a minimum. I also saw a drain pipe and heard water flowing through it and hoped that maybe some wipers would be in the area. To make a long story longer, I didn't catch anything.
When I decided to write this post today, a few things came to mind. The first was that in the world of social media that we live in, all we see are highlight reels of people's lives. Everybody is holding big fish with beautiful scenery as a backdrop and huge smiles on their faces. Sometimes I need to remind myself that's not reality. The second thing I wanted to note was that I was pretty disappointed with myself. I didn't adjust to the conditions the way that I should have and just tried the same methods that continued to not work. I was stubborn and paid the price.
The final thing that I am taking away from this is that sometimes the fish win. I can make excuses all day long but in the end, I think every fisher gets skunked from time to time. I've even been out with guides when they are having a bad day (and still had to pay full price but that's a post for another day). All we can do on days like these are identify potential mistakes, learn from them, and try to be smarter next time. I recently finished watching "The Last Dance" documentary about the 97-98 Chicago Bulls and if I learned anything from that story, I have learned to let failure motivate you. In the long run, maybe I needed this because I have a couple of fishing trips planned for this weekend and let's just say last night added a little fuel to my fire! I'll keep you posted on how the next trips go so let's end this with...to be continued.
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