A Decision Made By Fish

A day of fishing takes shape mostly by what the fish offer you. Sometimes it isn't much. Sometimes it is plenty. This past Sunday was just such a day. It was a day when 4 of us went to the river, and the river offered up Sea Trout, and more. The decisions start early. Choice of fly? I tried many. The Parma Belle, the Mickey Finn, Dark Montreal, Black Zonker, Purple Drummer, Orange Bomber, Cosseboom and Blue Charm to name a few.

The beauty of that, is i caught or raised fish on all of them. I wasn't the only one. All in all this week, i caught more than 30 trout. Many of those were Sea Trout. One Sea Trout was about 15" and about 1 and 1/2 pounds. Quite a few were in the pound range. Two Salmon were hooked, one was landed. We have had better weeks in the past, but when the Sea Trout are in and taking, it is always good. Depending on this weeks weather, i may even get another shot at them before the early summer run is all done.

My Father-in law hooked and landed about a 6 pound Atlantic Salmon. Caught and released, it is a silver trophy of a once glorious fishery in Nova Scotia that has been diminished over the years. Hooking a Salmon never gets old. Seeing this one caught re-ignited my feelings for fishing them. We still have a very good fall fishery here and maybe this year is when i need to get back to it.

Tonight, i thought about the trips this past week. Good times, with good people. You can't ask for too much more than that. As for the fishing, i think it is entirely up to the fish. For as good as many of us think we are as anglers, the fish decide when to run (aided by the rain of course), they decide which fly they like the best ( Sunday was a Bloody Muddler, Thursday night, it was the Purple Drummer, Dark Montreal combo.) Sure, some of what we as anglers do makes a big difference. An experienced angler lands more fish, hooks more fish, reads the water better, has the patience to ride it out when the conditions are tough. While native Brook Trout are predictable, Sea Trout are their own creature. The holds that always seem to harbour fish, don't always work. The flies that native Trout revel in, Sea Trout can ignore. They are a great example of what makes angling the unique experience it is. For me it is the one rare chance i get to hold nature in my hand.