Hope and Expectation

Many times when you go fishing you hope to catch certain fish. Then there are things you expect to do. The hopes and expectations can kind of ruin your day if you're not careful. I've been trying to catch a Roanoke Bass for probably close to 2yrs now. I've hit the Eno maybe 20 times and not even hooked and lost one. Yesterday I thought the stars might have aligned and it was going to be my day. My mother came over and brought some stuff from when I lived in San Diego. There were brand new poppers still in the package. I looked them over and was kind of giddy. These flies are perfect for where I was going to fish. While I looked at the back I noticed where they were made. What are the odds that I would buy some flies in San Diego then move across country to less than 30 miles from where they are distributed? I felt this had to be a sign. A Roanoke Bass would be in hand by the end of the day tomorrow.

The next morning I met up with two other TFF members I hadn't fished with before. Everyone was on time and we quickly shared greetings and past experiences then jumped on the water. I was given a lead by a fellow fisherman of a section of river that was supposed to be loaded with Roanokes. The trail and water was new to me. I started working rocks and under water ledges. I hooked up quickly and as the fish came to the surface I saw the orange that signifies a redbreast sunfish. I expected to catch these. There was a section with a nice rock that looked perfect for casting. To the right was a submerged log. On my second cast I hooked up with a nice large mouth. I don't catch too many of those on the Eno although they are prevalent. I kept working the water catching sunfish after sunfish.

Eventually I reached the point in the day where it was starting to get warm and the fish activity was dying down. My time to catch a Roanoke was closing. Every time I hooked a fish and saw the orange belly of a sunfish I kind had an "aaaaaaaaaaaaw" feeling. This was a bad sign, fishing shouldn't get so hectic and stressful that now you're upset because you are catching fish. But that's how it was getting. I started to give up hope that a Roanoke was in my future. I found a hole where I saw another fish I hadn't seen on the Eno, a longnose Gar. Maybe this would be my first gar on the fly. I saw the fish from a bank over looking the water. I decided to back track about a quarter mile and sneak up on the fish from a spill way downstream. As I worked up to the main pool it was hard to see where exactly the fish was at. I started to just blindly cast here and there where I saw bubbles. It was hard to tell if the bubbles were from a gar or a turtle. I got impatient and started looking for other targets. I had some ferocious splashes on my fly near some rip rap but nothing would stick. Time for the walk back. I ran into one of the other fisherman. I didn't want to really know but I asked anyway. "You catch any Roanokes?" The guy says yeah, one. WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!? Damnit! "On what?" I asked. On a frog pattern popper he says. I was fishing one of those practically all morning.

So now I fished again with a frog pattern working all the spots I hadn't and even some I had fished earlier. More and more sunfish. UGH! Then I just started to hike back and get mad. I tried finding a short cut up from the river to the main trail. The bank was steep and covered with dead leaves. Hmm I wonder if a lot of these are poison ivy? Then I started to slip and fell on my butt and slid halfway down the hill. I figured maybe that wasn't the best way to go and started to just look for the main trail an easier way. After walking maybe half a mile I realized when I fell I dropped my pliers. Dang it!

Then I started to get really negative. This was a waste of gas, I'm probably sunburnt to hell, I could have spent this time with my family, sunfish suck. Then my conscious kicked back. SUNFISH SUCK? What are you saying? Get a grip man. That's when I realized the whole day was built too much on hope and expectation. It's so much more fun to fish without any expectations. Sure you can hope on catching a huge fish or a certain kind of fish but don't expect too. That pressure turns the whole fishing experience into something different. More like work than a recreational activity or a therapeutic experience.

Nothing Pretty

I had to navigate a ton of goose crap and 90 degree weather but it was worth it in the end.

From Summer2011

Not a pretty fish but it was rather large. One of the biggest gills I have caught this summer. It was caught on a cone headed muddler minnow.

My Church

My family wasn't very religious when I was young. I went to Sunday school a few times, because it was more like free daycare than an education in religion. In my teens I came to the conclusion that I never feel closer to god than I do in the outdoors. I could never really explain it and then I started reading books written by John Muir. His words really spoke to me and I think he explained in his words what I never could.

From Church

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn."
— John Muir

From Church

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
"
— John Muir

From Church

"Keep close to Nature's heart...and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. "
— John Muir

From Church

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."
— John Muir
The last quote is great because it can be related to so many things. I like to relate it to fishing.

Father's Day

I went up to my father-in-laws for Father's Day weekend. Not much fishing was done but I did get some golf in. Golf isn't really my forte but I do enjoy playing it on beautiful courses. It was nice to get out and my father-in-law and I had the course to ourselves. My mother-in-law always makes crafts and various things for the family. She told my daughter she had something special for her and her daddy. After a few minutes my daughter came out wearing this.At first I couldn't figure out what exactly was on it. But when I looked closer it was pretty obvious.I couldn't help but think it was adorable.

Eno Morning

From EnoJune2011

I got an earlier than normal start this morning. The idea was to beat the heat and maybe take advantage of a thunderstorm that came through last night. I had the trail to myself and I think I was the first person to hike it. The reason I think this is because I went through about 100 spider webs that crossed the trail. It was annoying and at first, I would stop to brush myself off and look for hitchhikers. I tried to use my rod as a web breaker while walking the trail. I still found a few. This was a section I had never fished before and I was really hoping to catch a Roanoke Bass. They've eluded me for along time. The advice I was told is look for rocks.

From EnoJune2011

That's what I did. I tried to work pools where the end of a riffle would slow down. The water was so clear I could watch the action of my fly and see how the fish were reacting. In no time I had the most abundant fish on the Eno.

From EnoJune2011

This river is the perfect habitat for sunfish and they thrive. Almost every eddy and pool has panfish in it. The great thing about the Eno is the variety. I saw a few large mouth bass while going from pool to pool. The bass were the biggest I had seen on the Eno. Some looked to be near 4-5lbs. I had a few bass rise to my fly like a submarine surfacing from the depths. They would get close enough to touch the fly to their lip then they'd veer off. The sunfish were so active it was hard to target big bass with them hitting the fly as soon as it hits the water. While working under the trees close to the bank I caught the biggest green sunfish I have ever caught.

From EnoJune2011

The coloring on the fish was unbelievable. My favorite thing about these fish is blue lightning on their gill flaps.

From EnoJune2011

The fish was fat obviously eating well. As the day went on I caught more of the same. The greens were really tight to shore.

From EnoJune2011

I continued to catch sunfish and bream and started to work my way back. I started to just hike and take in the views.

From EnoJune2011

From EnoJune2011

There was a small waterfall that I passed earlier but on my way back I had to throw a cast in. I was rewarded with probably the prettiest sunfish of the day.

From EnoJune2011

The walk back to the car was filled with nature watching. There were families swimming in the river and playing. People walking their dogs and running. It seems everyone was taking advantage of the beautiful day. The skinks were out in force too.

From EnoJune2011

So Much For Spring

From Recently Updated

Filler

The cicadas are still pretty thick in the trees. I saw a few dead ones in the parking lot and as I surveyed closer I noticed 10 more. Hmmm guess what pattern I'm trying? I was fishing with two buddies new to the river and the water was the lowest I had seen in a long time.

From Filler

Walking to the edge I could see the wakes of movement that signal a fish fleeing. They weren't big, most likely sunfish but it's nice to see something moving. The weather has been so hot I went to this spot on a hunch that it would be good. The flows are hardly ever consistent and fishing was great the last time the water was this low. We spread out and worked all the spots where over hanging trees made shade.

From Filler

I went with a sneaky pete first and as usual the sunfish demolished it. Sunfish are fun but sometimes they can be annoying and I think they stop bigger bass from going after your fly. Why would they compete with 50 smaller fish? The only luck you'd have is the bass might want to eat one of the sunfish on the way to your fly. After catching a few sunfish I switched to a monster size fly that kept the little guys off. Then I was concerned at the lack of interest in my fly. At least when sunfish hit it, I felt it looked like something good to eat. The fly just sitting there with no small swirls or fins slapping against it made for kind of a boring experience. That's when I started doing what I call filler. It's what you do in between the times the fishing is great and the times nothing is going on. The first is usually an attempt to talk to other fisherman. The comical part is we know it's hard to hear anything someone says over a certain distance, especially when there's running water nearby.

From Filler

But we still try, "Catching anything?!" Usually the yelled at fisherman doesn't even look or just gives back a blank stare, they might say What?!! Or go back to fishing. If they hear you, they usually say something back but now you can't understand what they're saying so you give back the same stare. The conversation usually ends the same way just with one person saying Yeah! or just nodding having no idea what was really said and we both go back to fishing. Another thing we might do if we are close enough to hear one another is the wouldn't it be nice conversation. My buddy and I were observing the water in front of us watching the rises just outside casting distance. There's a point in fishing at times where you're just really hoping something happens, you don't know what else to try. You've switched flies, tried different retrieves, went subsurface, topwater, in between but nothing has worked. Eventually you just kind of make conversation just for filler.

From Filler

My recent one was "this spot would be great if you had a kayak. You could spend the day in this pool." Yeah that would be great but this is reality and neither of us had a kayak so why I even said that was kind of pointless. It's just something you do on the water to pass the time I guess. The next thing I did which is usually what happens when the fishing is slow is start back tracking and fish where I started. I'm not really sure why I do this, maybe it's because I know I'll be closer to my car and can leave shortly. Sometimes I get lucky and there are fish where I think they are. But usually it's uneventful. That's pretty much how the day went. My friends had some decent luck. One guy caught two catfish on a popper. That's rare. The other found some hungry bass in a small pool. This river is very strange. The water looks like it should hold tons of fish but there really doesn't seem to be many bass here. The river might not be the problem could be the fisherman.