Its that time of year again......and the Super Bowl is practically upon us. There are two teams that were #1 seeds that are going to play for professional football's most coveted prize....the Super Bowl Trophy. There are two teams that have sacrificed, worked hard, put in long hours, faithfully put in the time in the rain, snow, cold, heat, you name it. Simply put, a price was paid for admission to this game. And if its like this year's game, and like some of the the playoff games, the team that has the ball last ends up winning. And they have to figure out a way to do that. Great teams and players do just that.....figure out a way to turn something into a win.
Such was the case with a recent trip with regular customers and friends Larry Tomar and Dan Camia. We've spent many a day on the water doing trips together, and in all types of weather, and Larry and Dan are pretty good at this fly fishing game. Whether good conditions or poor, they usually do really well. Give them the right set up, direct them to the right spot, and its a done deal. They know the game, and they get the job done.
We were fishing one of my private waters in Virginia, a stream whose limestone pools are stacked with twenty inch trout. Some are true leviathans.....some are 10lbs or more. The water was up, had some color to it, and I knew we'd kill them. A rare gift....this day was going to be one to write home about.......like, "get ready guys........we are going to whack 'em good today and you guys are leaving with sore arms." Well, that was the way a typical day usually goes.
But not today. We fished rigs that work well on this river I know well, I mean, I know where the fish are under most any conditions and can pretty much guarantee that the guys are fishing where the fish are....and in this river....its not a question of whether fish are there or not....'cause they are. At lunch we'd had several fish on, two large rainbows landed, both over 20 inches and one of them a 25 inch beast that took Larry 10 minutes to land, and one large Redhorse sucker. This is the dream stream....and I am thinking....what is the deal?
We had fished hard all over fish and they just weren't eating. We took a break for lunch and I had to think of something.....and just like either the Colts or Saints may have to do in the big game......something had to give and we had to put together a winning drive. I was thinking to myself, "this ain't cutting it." But I knew the rigs and flies we were using were right, and we were fishing the right places. I do this everyday, and fish like to do what they do and not change a whole lot if they don't have to. They are simple creatures with two goals in mind: 1) live to see tomorrow, and 2) get something to eat. Everything else is gravy.
We had a hot streamside lunch and grabbed our rods and headed back to the water. Within a few minutes we had three hookups. Landed one fish, then had two come off. Not stellar, but as much action as we'd had all morning. I had a hunch. What is a hunch? Well, according to the dictionary it is something like this. hunch : (hunch) n. an impression or intuitive feeling that something might be the case. Yep, that is what I am feeling. Okay, well what's intuition? According to the dictionary its an instinctve knowing without use of rational processes......well, that sounds right on. We'd already used all "rational processes"......whatever I was feeling, I said "Guys lets hop in the vehicle and run upsteam while we still have some light left. The sun's been on that water all day. We ought to be able to stir up something there." It paid off....
So we headed upstream, and I had every intention of fishing the same way with the same rigs as we were before. Like a good football team, stick with what got you to the big game. And don't make any fundamental mistakes.......and be focused. We got in the water, Dan hooked up on three or four drifts in a row and landed a nice 20inch rainbow. Larry hooked up below us and it was a nice fish and broke off. Larry caught one rainbow, and then we moved upriver to another deep hole and he hooked a leviathan of a rainbow, what I believe might have been double digits....10 pounds or more that is. He did a great job playing the fish but it made a really powerful burst and broke off. But we were getting action...and a good bit of it. And to think we were doing what we had been doing all morning long.
We had about an hour of daylight left, we hit another spot. Larry got six strikes on ten casts and caught a couple. Again, doing exactly what we had been doing all day long. The last spot yielded several nice fish, 6 landed altogether, and several that came off. And as you might guess, we were doing the same thing we'd been doing all day. Thankfully we didn't spend the rest of the afternoon trying all sorts of crazy stuff and waste the time we had left, we stuck with what I knew normally works this time of the year and under these conditions, we made sure we got good drifts, were very intently focused on the drifts, and most importantly we didn't stop believing and give up. And we found a way to win....to put together a winning drive.
Maybe that is what is coming for the Super Bowl. The team that sticks with what got them there, stays focused, does what they do best, and who doesn't give up.....and maybe the one who has the ball last ......we'll see.
We didn't get a Super Bowl trophy or anything but the trophies we got are still in the river....just waiting for the next time......
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