Twenty-six on the tenth.

I caught part of the weather report- a windchill advisory for tonight and tomorrow.  They explained the symptoms of frostbite, specifically numbness in the extremities, and that those most susceptible were the homeless, the elderly, and the mentally disabled.

 

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  I’m generally a pretty hectic angler- I tend to throw things  together at the last moment.   I’m frequently tying flies until 2 am before a trip, and rarely make checklists.  I’ve been known to leave valuable patterns at my tying desk instead of setting them carefully in my boxes for an upcoming trip.  I have trouble keeping track of things- floatant in particular.  I can lose a brand-new bottle of floatant in less than fifteen minutes.  Worst is, I’ve tried to remediate it.  I tried consciously putting it back in the correct pocket each and every time, but it still disappears.  I even bought one of those caddies.  The tube kept slipping out, and eventually the bead chain holding the thing together broke.  By the end of the fishing season I generally find a half-dozen partially used bottles of floatant in my vest, car, and other gear. 

 So it should come to no surprise that I left my box of dries on the dresser at home, two and a half hours to the northeast.  I cussed and thumbed through my box of nymphs, coming across a small handful of CDC emerger patterns that would adequately work.  And they caught fish. 

 The action was steady, though I missed more fish than I’d like, I managed climbing into the double-digits.  Nothing huge, the biggest to net was maybe fourteen inches.  I did miss one big rainbow, somewhere between eighteen and twenty inches, on a San Juan worm.   The fly was in and out of the fish’s mouth before I realized what had happened.

 

I was fairly content though- some fish brought to hand, the first fish of 2010, and I basically had the place all to myself.  No really outstanding wildlife, I had a pleated woodpecker buzz by me, as well as some cardinals and typical songbirds.  There was a group of three folks with binoculars and a telephoto lens, so I imagine there was an eagle around somewhere, though I didn’t see it.  No deer, mink, beavers, muskrats, coyotes, or the other critters you’d typically see out, though.