A few days ago, my wife kicked me out of the house. Her exact words were, "I love you but you need to get outside. Go to the farm, go fishing, but you have to do something. Do something that makes you happy." She was right. The stress of the holiday season, my seasonal depression, and a general feeling of cabin fever was setting in. I was in the kind of mindset where I was unhappy but wasn't interested in doing anything to get me out of my funk. If you've ever been in a similar situation, you can relate to feeling of apathy and indignance. If you aren't familiar with this, it's a bad feeling and sometimes it takes a nudge to get you moving forward in a direction that brings positive results.
My wife was right about one thing and it was that I needed to go fishing. To be honest (and as I mentioned before) I didn't really want to go. I didn't want to fish for stocked trout. I didn't want to fish a lake that was going to have it's stocked trout population depleted the minute that the fish hit the water. I didn't want to drive to a lake that had catch and release policy. What I DID want to do was throw a couple of new flies that I thought had some potential. I also wanted a better frame of mind and wanted to make my wife happy at the same time. So with a little reluctance, I grabbed some equipment and plugged an address into an app on my phone.
The moment that I saw the water, I felt my spirit rise. I didn't realize how much I needed a fishing trip but it started to dawn on me as stress, frustration, and a little depression seemed to evaporate off me like sweat turning to steam. While I felt my mental health improving, I also recognized that there was only one thing that could keep me trending in a good direction. I needed to catch a fish. And if I'm being honest, I knew that a fish wasn't going to be enough. I knew that I needed to catch a few.
I didn't have a desire for gaudy numbers. I just wanted somewhere between 5-10 fish. I felt like that number would make me feel like I knew what I was doing and not just catching a couple of fish out of luck. That would have felt like some sort of pity party and I didn't want that. I wanted a boost of confidence and to hear a voice in my head say, "See! You know what you're doing. You're a good fly fisherman!"
When I pulled up to the parking lot, I saw some fellow fly anglers that were catching fish near the parking lot. This felt like a good sign but I was determined to set off on my own path. I didn't want to fish around a crowd so I started walking. I started looking for rising trout and fish in clear/shallow water. I didn't see either so then I stared looking for spots where I had experienced success before. I found a point that I really liked, which produced a nice fish, and made me feel good. What made me feel bad was the fact that I put my fly in a tree about 4 casts later. As the fates would have it, this last event was a good thing.
After putting on a new leader, a new strike indicator, and a new fly, I decided that I wanted to find a new spot. I didn't want to relive that experience again and I wanted to look for a new and potentially more productive spot. This little mishap also provided the proper motivation for me to try out one of the new flies that I was wanting to test. The fly that I selected was one that I had recently seen in a Facebook post and attempted to replicate. I felt like my version was respectable but I also recognized that the only judges of a fly are fish.
I'll be honest, the fly was not hard to tie. It is just a wooly bugger that is tied on a hook with a jig head. Olive marabou, olive chenille, and some olive hackle was all it took. The head of the jig was a fluorescent orange which added a nice contrast which is something that I appreciate. I've had a lot of success with flies that have bodies that contrast with the painted jig head. I believe that the brighter color of the jig head works as an attractor color and the body/tail of the fly seals the deal sometimes. So what I had working for me was confidence. I based this on my previous experiences, information from a Facebook post, and my schema that I have acquired over 20+ years of trout fishing. While a confidence in a fly/lure is paramount, success on the water maintains confidence in that fly/lure.
With my new fly, I set out of a new spot. I headed towards a spot that had been productive in the past but I wasn't sure that it would work out very well. Typically, there is a fountain at the lake which is located near the amphitheater. I have caught a lot of fish there in the past because I am of the opinion that the fountain helped to oxygenate the water and create a little current. For whatever reason, on this particular day, the fountain was off. However, I was of the opinion that there was enough structure in the water (pipes and whatnot) as well as enough change in water depth that the fish might still be there.
My first few casts were directed straight toward the inoperable fountain but my next casts where directed towards the shallows to my left. My hope was that my fly would find some fish in the shallows and some fish that were in a drop-off that I hoped was there. I got my first take in my third cast. It was so subtle that I missed it but I did notice it. It made me feel like I was on to something but the pessimism that always seems to loom in my mind said that it was a one-off occurrence and that the event would not be replicated. One cast later produced a hook-up on my new-to-me fly. I landed this fish and it felt good. The fish I caught two casts later felt even better. When I lost my fly on my next hook-set, I simply took the circumstance as a suggestion to change flies.
