"Chris, you sound like a woman..."
"Oh Rudy, that's because I AM a woman!"
Ladies and Gentleman, meet Chris McCully: bearer of big sunglasses, owner of the original Yellow Submarine (don't tell the Beatles!), stillwater-expert, English and most of all, a Woman!
We went out to the lake Baggelhuizen not to far from home to fish for rainbows there.
Normally I never go there in the weekends because it can get quite busy there on Saturday and Sunday. But, since I didn't have a lot of spare-time this weekend I had to squeeze in the fishing between other appointments. And, besides that, I could do with a bit of sleep after the first part of Operation Ide-Interception-2010.
As expected there were quite a lot of people already fishing. Since I prefer to fish from the floattube there's more than enough room left to fish. I like the floattube very much anyway. Somehow just floating there on a nice ripple is very soothing (insert smart remarks about mothers womb etc. here). And... you also have a front-row seat for watching what happens around you and what the other fisherman are doing.
Well today I asked myself what the f@#$ I was doing, and felt a bit lost. Now, when you're confronted with this there's a couple of things you can do. You can off course blame your gear and buy some more, so at least you look like a pro. You can also keep on fishing the fly that worked yesterday or tell anybody you'd take Barbel over stockie rainbows any day. Instead I decided to be bold, confess and quote Manual from Fawlty Towers about knowing nothing.
About stillwater fishing that is.
What I do know is that being able to hear, see and understand what's happening is an essential part of my fishing. I love to catch fish just as much as the other guy, but the satisfaction is much bigger when it is part of a plan.
But… I didn't really have plan.
Or did I?
I brought just one rod and stepped into the-fly-that-worked-last-week-trap for everyone to see.
However, all of this of acted as a cover-up for my real intentions, which consisted of having a good look into Chris flybox, watch him fish and pick his brain….
Upon arrival Chris showed my his flybox without me even having to ask for it. I made a quick mental note of the flies inside, a nice selection of well-tied flies which I figured I could make for myself as well. Chris offered me a few of his flies but I declined, 'cuz I was on a mission....
During the day I had a hard time keeping up appearances because Chris kept on insisting on me using his gear.
After the lunch break I had seen enough of the stillwater-experts cunning moves and decided to give it a go for myself. I put on an intermediate polyleader, after kindly refusing Chris offer to use his regular tapered one. After Chris telling me that I hurt his feelings and confessing that hen ever has sex on the first date, we spent the rest of the afternoon fishing the edges between the ripples and the flat water. Then all of a sudden I heard Chris saying that it was all about to happen.
And happen it did. Chris caught two nice fish within five minutes after which he selfishly asked me again if I was really sure that I didn't want his flies.
Off course there was no way I could pass this offer and I put on one of the meastros wonderful creations. I got a few light pulls which may or may not have been fish, but I didn't catch any.
Well, that’s not completely true. I did catch fish….
when I was trying out Chris rod…..
Oh yeah, if you’re interested in Chris’ side of this story check out his fishing dairy on http://www.chrismccully.co.uk/cgi-bin/diarist
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