A Walk--Off Double

It's 4:00; instead of being direct, the sunlight is starting to bounce off the water.  My boots are much heavier than when they were first laced up; my legs are tired.  It doesn't matter what time it is; my hip hurts.  The wind is blowing so hard the day is over before it starts.  My bad casting is stinking up the river for miles in every direction.  It is time to stop fishing because I said I would be home at a certain hour.  I'm not catching many fish and I have just had enough.  I have caught so many fish I don't feel like fishing any longer.

A day of Carp fishing can end so many ways.  Sometimes, not most of the time to be sure, but sometimes as the end of a session nears, I can say to myself, "I'll catch one more fish and then I will quit."  Choosing to call it a day at that moment when I release a fish brings very satisfying closure to the trip.   With 20 minutes left to fish I wish I could always say, "I'll just catch one more", and know I could do it before the 20 minutes passed.  Heck, some days there could be two hours of fishing time remaining and I am not sure if I can catch, "just one more."

I always want to catch, "just one more", even when it is past the time I said I would leave.  Is it that I have no restraint or self-discipline?  Is it that I am just a 12 year old at heart?  (At least when I'm fishing) Is it that catching Carp is just so dang fun I just don't want to stop?  Am I persistent or stubborn?  Probably all of the above.

On this day I had caught quite a good number of fish.  I had one large Mirror on that had broken off in the weeds.  Dang weeds, dang Carp, dang weeds.  I was planning to move towards the truck by 4:00.  At 3:20 exactly I finally got this Mirror to the net.

If all I ever caught were Mirrors I would think Common Carp were cool because they would be different than what I was used to.  Here in the Pacific Northwet (Yes, that's Northwet; it wains a lot here.)  we primarily catch Commons so a Mirror is a novelty.   Some of them look prehistoric to me.  Some of the scales look like they are sort of hinged.  This Mirror that I caught at 3:20 was a partially scaled one; it just made me smile.   He was not the biggest fish of the day but I still trout fish in the "off season" so I'm not losing perspective; it was a great fish.  For me the "off season" has become any time of year when I'm not Carp fishing.

I really wanted to end the day with a fish.  To end the day with the only Mirror of the trip that made it to the net would have been perfect.  Release the fish, reel in the line, savor the day, give thanks, and head in.  Perfect.

Oh what a greedy boy you can be Mr. P.!  What a greedy boy!  I saw another fish tailing.  My driver's license says I was born in October of 1950.  That means I have been 12 years old for 49 years.  It appears I will never have to pretend I'm always 29 or 49 or whatever because I'm still stuck at 12.  With the the turn of each December's calendar page I have less and less hope of maturing past 12.  I guess all I can do is to try and make the best of it.

I really wanted to end the day with a fish and make the choice to finish at that moment.  "I'll just catch one more and end the day with THAT fish," is how I so easily talked myself into casting again.  What a greedy boy!  That tailing fish spurned my fly on the first cast.  I told myself, "That's what you get for being greedy."  Well I just had to keep fishing if I wanted to release a fish and leave the water.

It was after 4:00, the wind had picked up again and it was getting harder to spot fish.  As an aside, when I prioritize Carp fishing problems dirty water is the worst, wind is even more worse, and no direct sunlight is the most worst.

Its hard to know some times when to persist and when to be done for today.  I kept fishing a little longer.  Go figure, the Carp gods let me know when it was time to quit.  I came on another tailing fish at about 4:15. I cast the Chocolate Cherry past him and stripped it on his dinner plate.  Bam!  Just like that he picked it up and took off.  What a thoughtful Carp.  A very nice surprise was that he was a fully scaled Mirror!   That made two Mirrors for the trip and they were the last two fish of the day.

That fish slid back in the water and I reeled in.  Did my persistence pay off?  Was I lucky?  Probably both.  (Mostly lucky)  Two Mirrors in a row at the end of the day.  It was like a walk-off double.