Getting Back in the Flow of Things

[WestCentralFisher]

I had a fishing and hiking trip planned for Friday to Sunday in the Ozarks, but you know what they say about the best laid plans. Instead, I am attending to an ill family member. It is not a tragedy, or unexpected; she's 95 years old and is in the end stages of a long and exceedingly well-lived life. But it's still rough, and while she's asleep and there's nothing much to do, you'll excuse me if I'd rather talk about fishing.

This April, I had a random day off on a Tuesday, and it occurred to me I hadn't been fishing in awhile. So I packed up what was shamefully the only fishing rod I had, bought some little rooster tail spinners, and drove down to the Niangua River. 

It was a lovely, very warm spring day. There were trout surfacing everywhere. I was also very rusty to the point of bordering on incompetence. I had a wonderful day. I also caught one trout in about 5 hours on a heavily stocked trout stream in perfect conditions. 

But it lit a fire under me. After all, fishing used to be the one thing I was really, notably good at, and sucking at it wasn't acceptable. I got a better fishing rod, then two. Filled up a respectable tackle box. I started looking at maps, finding flowing water near me that might hold fish. Some of that yielded results. Sometimes it was a bust. Usually somewhere in between. But I was relearning the whole time. This led me to about 20 different bodies of water on and at least 19 species of fish, as diverse as common carp and flathead catfish to brown trout. I've fished about 50 times in those 6 months, though many of those are no more than a short hour after work.

More importantly, I found "my" places. The ones that feel like home. In the summer, it's a small river that I'm not going to name. It's not a secret, and I'd heard of it before my first trip, but it's not the sort of place anyone would call "world class". You can float a canoe on it in reasonable water conditions (and unreasonable, as I've seen very frustrated people attempting it in August drought) but it's a wading stream by and large. It's not all that clear, but it has a nice greenish tint. And it's loaded with smallmouth bass. There are days where fishing is positively easy, and days where it's finicky as hell, but it's always good enough to keep me coming back. 

But I've always had a serious weakness for trout, which takes us back to the Niangua River. I'd always treated the Niangua with casual disregard as a trout stream in the years where I fished more often. I knew they were in there, but to make a trip down there to catch them? Unthinkable. I had many good memories of the Niangua River from my college years, and I can firmly attest zero of them were related to trout fishing.

And yet, twice in the last two weeks, I've found myself on that river. And in the fall, it's quiet, still, and the kind of place that can make you sigh deeply and say "the world is beautiful." It's also the place that I realized, that after about 6 months of fishing again regularly, I don't suck at this anymore. The same trout I so struggled with in April provided little challenge. And for the first time, I wasn't just trying not to get skunked. I was targeting big fish, and sometimes catching them. A 17" rainbow last week. A 21" brown this past Monday. Not threatening the state record, but good enough.

But the biggest difference I noticed the last few outings was the lack of any desperation to catch fish. I had caught a hell of a lot fish this year. There wasn't anything left to prove, though still much to improve upon. So it's OK to slow down a little and enjoy the reflection of the fall colors in the water. 

I've no doubt I'll be humbled again, because fishing always does that to you. In fact, this past Monday, I learned through what was probably near-hypothermia that mid-October is definitely too late for wet wading on a trout stream.  A lesson, perhaps, that I shouldn't have needed to relearn. But it was hard to feel too bad about about it.

 

[Terrierman]

Great read.  Many thanks.  The old folks road is a tough one.  Way to keep an attitude, seriously.  I think most here would agree the Niangua is a gem.