I Must be Crazy.......

High Winds, mid 20's, wind chill of 0F or less, and lots of snow....in fact near whiteout conditions. I love fly fishing and will fish in nearly any weather condition except a thunderstorm (even did that in my younger days.....boy was that foolish!!!!) but when it is like it was on Friday November 21, 2008 it is just about at the edge of bearable. At least it was at the edge when the wind was blowing. Hardly bearable winter conditions is what my friend and our Men's Ministry pastor Rick Trautman and I found when we arrived at the river on this particular day. I mean it was so incredible that it snowed probably a 1/4" or more in the back of his SUV before we could get completely geared up and in the water. But I love winter fishing and even sometimes on the coldest of days I doubt my decision to step into the water....and find my mind thinking....."am I crazy?" I mean lets be honest, sometimes discomfort and being cold can become pain if you are not properly dressed or prepared. But then again I remembered a slogan that dons my son's wrestling warm up jacket........."Pain is just the feeling of weakness leaving the body...". Now wrestling and fly fishing are obviously very different but the inside "push" to trudge on when things are tough (enter "near blizzard like weather" ) is much the same......its reaching into the gut for that last little bit of whatever that pushes you to go on.

Funny how catching a fish, or maybe a large fish, can change everything. If I could recount and write down all the moments like that in my life whether it was fishing at the coast, or fishing a pond, or maybe a river....whatever it is....that something like a bluefish blitz, a mayfly hatch, a trophy fish - - - all in the "midnight" hour came at the time I least expected it then it would be one of the most interesting things I have ever written.

Like the time that my friend Dave Powers and I, back when the flyfishing community was just learning about albacore, that he and I fished the sand spit at Cape Lookout and for probably 4 solid hours hooked up on those fish and ended up landing about a half dozen of them from 8 to 14 pounds- - -a considerable thing if you have ever tried doing it from the surf. Not to mention that morning the wind was howling (20-25 knots from the East - a bad direction), the water was pretty churned up, and that we actually passed Lefty Kreh (yes, 'the' Lefty Kreh- - -he actually fishes NC/Cape Lookout regularly) on the dock there that morning at Harker's Island Fishing Center- - - and he even remarked to us " you guys are going to have you work cut out for you today....the wind is terrible and coming from the wrong direction...probably won't amount to much..." But to his surprise and ours it turned out to be bad conditions but the result was the opposite. Or the time that my fishing friend Malcolm Robertson, cousin Tim Cooke, and I were on the South Holston in November, on a quiet day, where we watched Malcolm stalk, stay low, and make literally hundreds of casts with a size 18 pheasant tail with a 9 foot 3 weight Winston Rod and a 6X tippet to finally coax a huge brown, like 28 inches long and probably at least 8-9 pounds to take his fly. The investment....? All Day. The result....? Malcolm not only managed to hook the fish but landed that fish too. And it was funny to watch the bait fishermen on the bank then start to "stay low" where they were sitting, sitting there as though they were now convinced that doing so would mean a trophy fish for them too. Or maybe the time that Malcolm and I were fishing a dusk sulphur hatch that was so incredible that we couldn't stop.....never remembering we had not planned to fish here until dark so we didn't bring a flashlight. We forgot that we had a mile walk through heavy forest back to the car.......I mean it was pitch black and there were numerous times I was down on my hands and knees "feeling" for the path. We got back to the car at almost 11pm and I pulled in my driveway at 2am....Yikes. The result....? An incredible hatch I'll always remember even if it meant getting lost in the dark and feeling the uncertainty we felt for probably 2 hours.

Where am I going with all of this.....? A simple point. If you have a good day on the water, catch lots of fish......, a huge fish.... sometimes it will cost you something. Sometimes it will cost you alot. Sometimes there might be some discomfort and pain involved. But sometimes its like life too- - - that stuff is not all bad and it has something good in the end for you. And sometimes the very thing that you find difficult and even frustrating is the very thing that is pushing you to go on and do better. "Suffering" has its benefits.

So from just coming off the heels of fishing in bitter cold, below freezing temps, blowing snow, wind chills at zero or below, ice in the guides, the rod tip frozen so much the line won't move.....that sounds like a pleasant day doesn't it? would I do it again? Absolutely. When are we going?

Ok, that confirms it. I must be crazy..........