Die Fische

You have a full time job (you like), a wife (that is beautiful and kind) and a child (that is amazing). One day you wake to realize that for some reason, the way that all these responsibilities converge on this given day, you suddenly have three hour of total freedom emerge from absolute nothingness. Do you;

A) Gather tax papers and get a earlier than normal jump on your taxes.

B) Grab the ladder, a trowel, and a hose to clean the gutters just in case this crazy thing called “rain” keeps happening.

C) Grab some beef jerky, coffee, waders and various tools of the trade and head to the nearest trout water that you recently figured out how to fish confidently after five years of plying their waters.

C? Yeah, me too.

Strangely enough, it takes exactly one hour to get from my drive way to the Lazy L&L which lies on the Guadalupe River down near New Braumfels, a fact that i tested and confirmed again just a few days ago when those mysterious three hours appeared.

Within minutes of coming to a stop, i was shuffling like a madman along the bank, still adjusting my waders and heading straight for a spot that not many people seem to know about, yet holds a crazy amount of trout (a fact discovered on my recent raft trip with Jacob). Within 45 minutes i managed to lose five or six trout in the heat of battle, had three break off my rigs (fast water and 5X tippet!) and landed and netted two fine specimens. Having come accustomed to one or maybe two trout after a full day of fishing these waters, i walked away after 60 minutes feeling the confidence of someone who finally figured out how to play a game after five years of trial and error.

Heading back to Austin, i could feel the excitement and happiness practically drip out of my fingers, soaking the steering wheel and my floor boards in good vibes.

Three hours. One of anticipation, one of bliss, and one of reminiscing…all well spent.

The text had come from Jacob, manager of Greuene Outfitters a few days back.

It was shocking not only because i hardly knew him, but because he had access to a raft, wanted to hit the water and explore, and for some reason had chosen me out of all the people that he talks to on a daily basis at the fly shop, to ride shotgun for the day.

I think i almost broke my thumb trying to text back in record response time “Sounds great, i’ll bring the food and drink!”

Days later i was doing double takes, glancing in the rear view mirror and trying my best not to be super geeked out by the fact that i was towing a REAL GUIDE’S RAFT (courtesy of river guide Kevin Stubbs) behind my Element, cruising River Road high on life and heading to adventure.

After running the gauntlet with the car and trailer at Rio (have you tried backing in there recently?), Jacob and i were floating down from Rio Raft, with rods, waders and grins that looked so maniacal that anyone stuck on the shore probably thought we had just escaped from a mental institution.

Within the hour we had both landed decent size fish, a good way to start the day for sure. My first just happened to be on a special spot that locals refer to as Barking Dog Hole, a place that has provided me with many beautiful trout this season. It wasn’t the biggest fight of the day, but it did give me the temporary confidence i needed to  relax and enjoy the day instead of stressing out about the first catch. After letting the trout (below) return to the water i decided to wash away the anxiety and took a break to enjoy a breakfast taco courtesy of Ruby’s and Jacob.

Taco in hand, feet propped on the raft, i absent mindedly tossed my line back into the water. Seconds later Jacob mentioned how funny it would be if i managed to get a bite while eating and wondered out loud if i’d choose the trout over the taco. I know this sounds like B.S., but i swear, before i could answer i stared in disbelief as my strike indicator went under like the Titanic and i suddenly found that my knee-jerk reaction was to choose fish over food. Handing my unfinished breakfast taco to Jacob i suddenly found myself fighting an EXPERIENCED 20″ trout that had my reel humming for a few minutes before i managed to net the fish, unhook my fly, go for the glamour shot and promptly have it jump out of my hands and dive back into the sanctity of the Guadalupe.

Dang.

Sometime later, further down the river, while working a current, we looked up to see a plethora of flies high above us in the trees, looking like hung bandits, suspended from above as if to warn of the futility of casting to this enticing fishing hole. Grabbing a long, forked stick, i thrust it into the branches, twirled, and pulled down endless amounts of tippet and flies, sometimes with 10-15 flies wound around my pike, doubtlessly thankful for being rescued from public display. Sure it wasn’t fishing in the conventional sense, but my rogue fishing technique did manage to bring me a healthy catch of flies of all shapes and sizes, a satisfactory haul by anyones standards.

There were many spots that were covered that day, and many more that we had to skirt simply because there was to much ground to cover.  There was so much that happened in one day that it seems strange to try to fit it in a few paragraphs for quick digestion. Instead, maybe i’ll try this;

- Slipping on a rock and having water come within half an inch of the top of my waders, in the cold…scaryish.

- Me worrying all day that the construction crew wouldn’t let us under the bridge at Ponderosa, while Jacob was cool as ice.

- The fiberglass infestation taking it’s toll on Jacob, causing him to cut off the sleeves of his long sleeve shirt with the tiny blades on my hemostats.

- The many large trout that threw my hooks without worrying that it might lower my self esteem.

- Paddling the rapids below Devil’s Playground after dark and almost getting cold clocked and knocked unconcious  by a bald cypress in the process.

- Trying to lug a heavy, giant raft over multiple retaining walls, and onto a trailer with two people, after a few drinks…in the dark.

Would i do it all again? Hell yes!

The word is A-D-V-E-N-T-U-R-E folks. You don’t get it from sitting in front of a PS3, or by watching online videos of other peoples experiences. You get it from throwing yourself out there into the jaws of life. Sometimes it’s benign and boring, other times it’s wily and unpredictable, and it always has the ability to be unnerving and anxiety laden, but come on, that’s half the fun.

And listen, when you’re drifting with a stellar dude like the one below, you just have to put your anxiety, concern and worry in check and know that it’s all good.

P.S. Thank you for the adventure Jacob. Thank you for the raft Kevin, enjoy the wine.

Driving along River Road, approaching Action Angler’s parking lot this Sunday to wet my line i was suddenly struck by two things that confounded me.

1) Little more than an hour before that, i hadn’t the faintest clue that i would be fishing at all that day, much less on the Guadalupe searching for Trout.

2) Ummmm…really? Is that actually snow / sleet falling on my windshield?

The first conundrum made some sort of sense. I had actually woken earlier that day with a desire to pour my all into making my wife a bed in breakfast, replete with soft scrambled eggs, provolone, bacon, sautéed mushrooms, garlic and fennel with a side of berries and freshly brewed coffee. She is an amazing cook so it’s hard to impress her, but the tray of food and drink i delivered to her won me her immediate affection as well as her blessing to have me head to the water, something i had not expected, but was happy to go enjoy.

But the snow? That was much harder to fathom. After the strange warm winter we’ve had here, it felt strange to see snowflakes (even temporarily) landing on my windshield. The even stranger thing was finding myself knee deep in water fishing for trout in Texas and having that unnerving feeling that pieces of my body were suddenly shutting down from the intense cold, first a finger and then an arm.

Even with the frozen ligaments, i somehow managed to land this smallish trout after an hour or so beating the crap out of a 50 yard stretch of water with the line from my 3WT.

The catch of the day though would come later, when i managed to land this impressive net consisting of; a beach ball, styrofoam cups, two different flip flops, a plastic bottle of lighter fluid (partly full), 8 beer cans, and one strange mesh bag worn to brittles by the sun and water, as well as various other sundries.

With this strange hot/cold weather, you take what you can get. If that’s a 16″ Rainbow that’s great, if it also happens to be a net full of other people’s waste, well screw it, i’ll take what i can get in these tough times. I’m pretty sure the look on my face below proves it.

Enjoy what you can, when you can.