I think I got it…

It’s still at least a couple of weeks away from the big push of steelheads into the Michigan rivers...I really don't know but that's what the guides are saying. Since I’m a newbie in MI waters, I need to go there as much as I can to get familiar with the landscape … at least that's what I tell my wife (which still doesn't make any sense to her). I also really needed some time to practice my spey casting, and I figure it’s better to practice when I’m not freaked out knowing there are a bunch of steelheads in the water in front of me. I took a drive up to the Muskegon River again, to do a little bit of both. I wanted to catch a fish, but wasn’t expecting it because I still make a pretty big splash when I cast. I spent the better part of the day in a quiet spot, hidden away from people, diligently practicing my casts. It was an opportunity to see how the freshly tied tube flies swim in the water (I'm in the phase where I just want to tie tube flies forever). It was still pretty cold and after a while, I wished that I had put on an extra pair of socks. I stared at my lunch, which consisted of things I grabbed half asleep before I headed out the door. It demonstrates my idea of survival lunch …sweet potatoes, chocolate, granola bar, Choco Pie, and caffeine laced water. As I ate my lunch, I promised myself that I’ll pack a better lunch next time, in fact a fancy lunch. By mid afternoon, my casts started to feel a little better. Although somewhat inconsistent, some of the casts started to get a little closer to the bank of the river on the other side. I’m still not sure how far a “regular” spey cast is supposed to go… I just know it’s a lot further than my casts (at least that’s what the videos on internet tells me). My casts (fly or spey rod) are sort of based on reaching just far enough to get to the fish, and usually I do okay. But I can’t help but wonder about the fish that might be sitting 10 feet further, the mother of the pack. At some point I was starting to feel the groove with the cast and I thought “I think I got it…” But it’s more likely that I was standing on the narrowest section of the river and imagining that my casts were going further. I guess that can happen if I spend 5 hours straight, concentrating & repeating the same motion. I threw a few more casts and by pure luck hooked a small brown. It felt silly brining in this cute fish on the spey rod, but I was grateful that it saved me from getting completely skunked. As I started the 4 hour drive home, I asked myself, “8 hours of driving for one fish … was that worth it?” John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Hurts so good” was playing on the radio and I said – “hell yeah”.

초코파이...아무대서 먹어도 맛있는 환상적인 과자다.