In the 90’s I got into to flying two line stunt kites. It’s a lot of fun. I taught all three of my kids to fly them too. Of the three kids, Michael seemed to enjoy it the most.
About twelve years ago he and I went over to fish Lone Lake one day. We took a couple float tubes and had high hopes. Heck, I’m realistic, fishing isn’t always good but I always have high hopes when I go fishing. We got to the lake and the wind was blowing. It was really blowing. We parked the truck and just looked at the white caps. We hoped that “it would stop any minute.” That stopping minute never seemed to come. It was blowing so darn hard I swear it moved the truck from where I parked it. Michael still wanted to fish. I couldn’t tell him that there was no way he could kick into the wind and even get out from shore 50 feet. He tried anyway and I sure admired his persistence. After a short while he came in. We sat in the truck and tried wishing the wind away. It just didn’t work. Michael commented that we brought the wrong stuff. I asked him what stuff we should have brought and he said that we should have brought the lines for the kites, hooked them up to the float tubes and flown the float tubes over the parking lot. The wind was blowing hard enough that I actually believe the tubes would have taken off.
I have been over to Lone Lake now a few times this season. The first time out I got several fish using a Chironomid under a strike indicator. The next time out the weather was pleasant and the fish were cooperative. They are somewhat trimmer this year than they have been in the past and that is a disappointment but still it was an enjoyable day. A simple day of good fishing helps me to remember that life is good.
I enjoy indicator fishing some of the time. I prefer the indicators that indicate. The ones that just sit on the top of the water the whole darn day and don’t indicate are useless. Maybe they are defective, I don’t know, and maybe I should return them. Either way, I don’t like indicator fishing when the indicator doesn’t indicate.
I went out again to Lone Lake on a recent Thursday. The weather forecast was that it was going to be the best day of the week. The wind was blowing hard when I got there. I tried my usual thing of waiting a bit and then trying to wish it away. Nothing worked. Had I been in a float tube I would have turned around and gone home. I had my Zodiac and an electric motor so I knew I could at least get out far enough to throw down a bow anchor and a stern anchor and hold position. I could strip off some line, hold the rod in the air, and the wind would cast for me.
It was quite a day; my indicator must have disappeared well over 100 times. No, probably a good deal more than that. It was amazing, so amazing. There was just one little problem with that, the indicator was not going down because the fly was being tugged on by hungry trout. It was just disappearing between the whitecaps. I had to wear raingear, not because it was raining but because the waves were splashing over the bow of the boat. The water was splashing in the boat whether I was moving or just anchored. Heck, I don’t know, maybe I had some takedowns when the indicator disappeared between the waves but how would I know, the darn thing was out of sight as much as it was in sight. I persisted for about 3 ½ hours and called it day. Not a single fish and not a single takedown.
Life is still good; it’s just better when the fishing is good.
