Wild trout, rain, and tears

I don't know how to even write this post, such a devastating thing happened at the end of my day fishin'. The day began with me getting up early and meeting up with TroutFreak at MickeyD's for a day of wild trout fishin before the rain began to move in. After meeting up, we were on our way to one of my newer that treate me right the first time I was there. With the recent rains and overcast skies, the anticipation was building for a good day on the water.

After driving up a rather wide dirt road, we came to the pull off and geared up. Adicus was yapping with excitement as I laced on my boots and got my pack on. The three of us started down an overgrown grown forest road that looked more like a jungle than a trail. The stream was up and a little off color from recent rains, I had hopes the fish would be feeding in the
increased flows. Getting to the entry point, I let TF have the first pool while I rigged up with a caddis and a pheasant tail and moved up to the next pool. To my surprise, neither he nor I caught a fish out of those holes, or the next, or the next, ........ I mean the fishin' was slow. Real slow. I would occasionally see a fish flash at my nymph, or glance at the dry, but they wouldn't take. Talk about frustrating.

This led to an epic run of fly changes, trying, thinking, guessing as to what they want! Occasionally, a fish would stumble onto the fly, so we ended up catching a few. I think TF caught 2, missing a few more. And I caught 5, missing a few also. Not a real stellar day, but still a nice day in the water, doing something new. Fishing with someone else. Anyone who reads the message board knows I go by Lone_Angler. A reference to the fact I generally like to fish alone, but it was a nice change of pace to hang out with somebody. Sorry the fishin' was so slow, TF.

The three of us continued along, aimlessly beating the water, so it seamed. Sensing the encroaching rain and frustration over not hooking fish, I tied on my "go-to" combo, a size 12 thunderhead with a size 16 hareymoose. (why I didn't go to this earlier, I have no idea) I immediately began to catch fish, three bows out of three consecutive pools. Wow. This is when things go horribly wrong.

A light drizzle began to fall, while TF was fishing a large pool, I decided to put my rain jacket on, so I laid my rod down. (STUPID) Adicus was hopping around, trying to get me to throw the stick I had been tossing for him earlier. To get him out of the way, I picked up the stick and tossed it into the woods. (Even more STUPID!) Adicus tore ass around me, (he is a bit of a fetch freak) to my right and not to my left, the direction I threw the stick. As he jumped, I heard a crack like a lightening bolt, a sound I know all too well. A sickening feeling came over me, without even looking, I knew what had happened.

After a few seconds, I gathered the courage to look, and my beloved 2wt lay in two pieces, snapped one inch above the joint. That easily, that quickly, my favorite rod was gone. Broken. Never to acompany me into the backcountry, never to to feel the fight of a wild fish. Such a tragedy. She was a great rod (if you look a my fish blog photos, she's in over 90% of them), my favorite so far this season. Landing everything from minuscule redhoarses, to a 18" wild brown that I caught last year, she was always there for me, never failing.

The second tragedy in this is that I took my frustrations out on Adicus in my deranged mental state. Nothing serious, mind you, but I yelled a bit, maybe smacked him on the ass, and withheld attention from him for a day. I feel incredibly bad about that, it wasn't his fault. He was just doing what he does. I throw stick, he gets stick and brings it back. I know better that to lay a rod down on the ground , especially around him. Adicus is a great dog, possibly the greatest dog I will ever know, much less own. He is loyal, devoted, the type of dog people other than me will write about one day. So Adicus, I'm sorry for taking out my own stupidity on you. You didn't deserve it.

On a brighter note, I took a better look at the rod, now that I can stomach the whole thing, and I think I might be able to save it. Seems that the upper section fits over the lower piece, so I might turn her into a one piece with a bit of thread, epoxy, and love. Updates will be coming.