Oh 'Deer'! ...My Rivers Clear!!!!

I fished today.
Wasn't to overly productive ...other than the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I did manage to tie into some world class fish.
I guess thats the whole point.
The river I fish has dropped and cleared and I knew this going in. This means that the fishing will be difficult usually ....and today was no exception. I get a particular thrill from catching fish in conditions such as the ones I faced today. I am generally not a big 'numbers' guy anyway, and when you can sneak a few out of the water when you shouldn't be able to ...well I find that kinda satisfying in a "ha!...so there!" kind of way.
These types of conditions usually means that you'll have the river to yourself......most of the time. :o(
Todays crowd however wasn't fishermen.
I learned a valuable lesson today....one that may save my life one day.
DEER SEASON....it snuck up on me this year.
I have fished this river for the past four years now and I have fished it a ton. This is the first year that I have ever run into any hunters.
So I get to the river an hour or so before sun up with the idea of fishing way up the river a daybreak. This means I'll be hiking through the bush in the dark which is no problem.....the moon is up and I kinda dig that stuff anyway. About a half hour into my walk I come around a bend in the river and spook a great big Buck whitetail and it scares me half out of my wits. We have seen a few deer on the river lately and to see a big one like that was kind of cool. At the time I thought to myself how excited my father in law would be to have a shot at one like that as he is an avid deer hunter.
I get to the spot I plan on fishing about 15 minutes before sun up and start to prepare my gear.
Thats when the shooting starts.....
I thought there was a war breaking out for Christs sake!
Now I don't know much about hunting but I was under the impression that when you are deer hunting that a shot at one is pretty rare. Well apparently there are as many deer along the river as there are fish in it.
It sounded like I was surrounded by these 'Yin Yangs', and because I didn't think that hiking through the bush in my drab brown colours seemed like a very good idea ..I did the only thing I could do....fish.
The river was stingy but I still managed a good one and lost 3 others that were on long enough to enjoy .....not bad considering.
After the gun-play started to die down I decided to begin my walk out...AS LOUDLY AS POSSIBLE.
5 mins in I run into the guys from deliverence who are tracking the blood trail of "one we winged".....nice. An old feller with "summer-teeth" (you know summer here-summer there) offers me a scornfull look and some advice.
"If yer gonna be in here durin deer season ya best be gettin' some colours on!"
Sound advice.
Maybe some Kevlar as well....
Here is an idea...
How about not hunting for deer on a world class steelhead river that is open to the public 300 yards down from a trailer park?
Just me?
Just to be safe I think I'll fish somewhere else next week.
South of the Border?
Stay tuned.
With any luck we'll put some fish of a different colour up next time.