Winding down

My friend JP drove by the house today and I suggested that he meet me out at the lake for some evening fishing...which he did.  EB was originally slotted for some alternate activities but he had a change of plans and ended up making it out as well.

A well worn old man looked at me quizically or drunkly (or both) when I asked for his blessing in allowing us to wade slowly and quietly through the edge of the water he was spin-fishing in order to get to our preferred shoreline for the evening fish.  I'm not sure what he said in reply, but he didn't seem to mind and it occured to me that if he disagreed with our intentions he was in no shape to protect his real estate from any one of us...never mind the three of us together.  Don't get me wrong, we didn't bully him...I just assumed that what he was slurring was some form of "Yes".

The fishing was great.  Soft breeze, midges in flight, 70ish degrees and a bright waxing crescent moon bouncing light off the rippled surface of the lake.

The catching was not so great.  EB wrangled a walleye early on and few white bass were hooked, landed and released.  My fly was also intercepted by a freshwater drum that croaked when I was working to free the hook from his mouth.  I snapped a quick pic and noticed only after downloading the image from my camera that in exchange for yanking him out of the water...he crapped on my hand.

At 10:30 with very little in the way of fish sign for the previous 30 minutes I decided to call it a night.  EB and JP must have had the same vibe because they followed me out and after shining the shallows from the bank to see if we had missed any fishing opportunities in close, the three of us headed back to our rigs and stowed our gear.

After the shared experience of a relatively uneventful fishing outing, we stood around kicking gravel and burned through another hour (in the dark) in the kind of unplanned BS session that occasionally takes root and flowers when a "Plan A" is less than what you had hoped.   We covered some ground in the conversation but eventually the moment happens when you've made enough casts and shared enough stories and laughed at enough jokes and bitched at enough of the worlds stupidity... and you head home to bed.  It's called winding down,

and it's the best way to end a day.

EB prepping a walleye for release

Drum