A Dose of Humility

I got "tuned" yesterday.
The season is winding down and I was desperate to get out a few more times before the 31st. Looks like yesterday and Friday will be it...and that is heartbreaking.
I will still fish....I mean lets get serious....but I will miss the favoured river trips not so much for their convenience but for the intimacy. The hikes through the bush are as much a part of what I get from the river as its silver gifts.
It is very enjoyable watching the bush make its annual changes in Autumn/Winter. I have no favourite stage. Everybody digs the colours of early fall and I am no exception. I remember a moment fishing a particularly fine section of river with Brian early this season. It was unseasonably warm and the rain that had been threatening all day finally fullfilled its promise. The sky opened up and we got pounded with those big cold drops you can get in the fall. Great fishing weather! Behind us on this stretch of the river were these enormous cedar trees and when the rain drops started hitting them ,for some reason the scent that these trees are famous for became that much stronger.What a great smell and sound that created!
On the other hand, as much as I bitched and complained about the snow in a previous post ,I have to say that if I couldn't appreciate the stark beauty of the valley covered in it I would be missing something important. There is a sound right on the edge of hearing that comes with a soft snowfall along the river. I've read this described as a "hiss" as the snow touches the water and although I like the sound of that description I don't know if I can run with it comfortably. To me it is almost like an absence of sound that all that snow creates that allows you to hear something that you normally couldn't. Regardless,..chestpain and leg cramps be damned.... I wouldn't miss that for the world.
Yesterday I didn't know what to expect.
The water was on the low side and more clear than I would've liked but I am becoming spoiled. The Christmas Holidays were great for the Norlands and the festivities had left me feeling a little fuzzy. I was hoping to saunter around the river at an easy pace and use the opportunity to say goodbye until next year. Maybe I didn't bring the right mindset for fishing?.....or maybe it was exactly the right one.
I didn't have any trouble hooking fish but had a terrible time landing them.
I am as vain as the next guy....(at least! :o))....and the extra eyes the holidays had brought to the river made blowing big fish particularly annoying. I didn't feel like I was fishing wrong but who knows, maybe I was a little distracted. As I am sure all fisherman have done, I kept summoning all the 'crap cliches' that we dredge up to assuage the unique pain that accompanies a sudden slack line but I experienced too many heartbreakers in a row and suddenly I found myself in a sulk....and desperate for a 'good' fish.(Shame on me for implying that there are 'bad' fish)
It was a long time coming....and although I am not sure why, it seems fitting that it turned out to be big old wintering buck that had possibly been in the river since the first push. I have probably walked by him 20 times this year.
It was nothing compared to Brians 10+ double striper from his last blog post but it was perfect for me. I hope he lives to see the next winter....the fish I mean, and I like to think that I have educated him just to enough to maybe save his skin.
If this is my last fish of the year I would have no problem with that but this Friday has offered me one last kick at the cat and the laws of probability dictate that I should have a good to great day.
...But since when can we say that this particularly unreliable 'Law' applies to this nutty sport that consumes us Steelheaders?
:o)
Bring it.