| It was one of those fishing trips. You know, | | | | the bows of their boats (hmmm, are they just |
| everyone catches fish but you, you loose six or | | | | rubbing it my face, or are they tenderizing the |
| eight of your most expensive streamers, it rains | | | | meat?)Questioning my decision to become a fly |
| buckets, and you sink the boat. That's right; I got | | | | fisherman, I head over to the dock to pick up my |
| skunked at Steamboat Lake over Memorial | | | | 5 year-old son and a fresh styro of night |
| weekend. | | | | crawlers. I'll let my son fish the meat before I |
| I was determined to show those meat huckers | | | | crumble and load one up on the spinner myself. |
| (worms and power bait) that a well chosen and | | | | Surprising, no luck with the meat either, and hear |
| strategically placed fly was as effective as | | | | comes the rain. I throw my arms up and ponder |
| anything a conventional fisherman could load on a | | | | my karma activity of the past year. |
| hook and hang under a bobber. Well, no such luck, | | | | We charge for shore as the lake turns to white |
| I got stomped. | | | | caps. The rain and lightning moves in fast. Did I |
| The fish were rising like mad on a midge hatch, | | | | mention that we got the boat for free and have |
| and I threw everything in the box at them. I | | | | no clue what to do in the rain? We pull the boat |
| could swear I saw a hefty rainbow nudge my fly | | | | up close to shore near our camp, outside of the |
| to the side to eat the natural laying only | | | | no-wake zone. We leave all of our gear and head |
| centimeters from my damn near perfect replica. | | | | for the soggy camp. |
| As we watched the group of 12 year olds add | | | | Well, apparently it's best to leave your boat in |
| another 18" fish to their stringer (full loaded, I | | | | protected cove in the no wake zone. From what |
| might add) I decided it must be a lake thing. I | | | | we could tell, our boat was hammered with 300 |
| don't fish lakes often. | | | | to 400 gallons of water from the waves and |
| I usually have good luck with a streamer in faster | | | | boat wakes from boaters rushing back to the |
| moving water, so I head for one on the several | | | | dock. Yes, it sank in 18 inches of water. I didn't |
| tributaries hoping to get the boat up far enough | | | | realize a boat could sink in 18" of water! All of our |
| to make a make a few good casts. No such luck, | | | | gear is floating around the shore. The gas tank |
| here comes the wind. Determined and frustrated, | | | | and gear which included an Orvis waste pack with |
| I proceed to lose several of my best streamers | | | | hmmmm, some 500 plus flies. Every box any fly |
| in the dense shrubbery surrounding the mouth of | | | | had to be opened and dried on the dashboards of |
| the creek (can't retrieve them since the current is | | | | our trucks. |
| too strong to get the boat any further up the | | | | We bail the boat, load the truck and haul our |
| creek). | | | | soggy gear and crippled egos back home. |
| On the way back to camp we are passed by a | | | | Next memorial day, it's back to the river!!! |
| couple of boats with stringers of fish crashing off | | | | |