This is the month I normally give my spring turkey hunting and fishing review. There’s not much to report. About the time turkey season came in and the weather started getting decent, I twisted my knee and could barely hobble to the kitchen. It’s doing much better now, but it made for a very late start.
Actually, I didn’t do any turkey hunting this year. With the late start due to my unpredictable knee, it was hard to get motivated to go hunting. And I have to admit my health scare from earlier in the year was still fresh in my mind. Hopefully, things will go better next year.
Fishing didn’t go much better. As I am writing this, we have received over 5” of much-needed rain. Too bad it didn’t come earlier so the trout could scatter and make for better fishing. To be fair, I can’t be too critical because I haven’t been fishing that much. I did catch a few leftover trout, but only one experience is worth mentioning.
On my first fishing excursion, I mainly wanted to try out my new fishing vest and see how my knee would respond. At my first stop, the water was low and clear, and it was obvious that there were no trout for the taking. It had been a while since the last stocking. So I decided to try a popular deep hole of water, thinking I might catch a perch or chubb, just to remember what catching something felt like.
I waded across the main stream and threw my nightcrawler into the deep water. On the second cast, I felt a bump and set the hook. I wasn’t expecting the result. There was a heavy pull, and the drag on my ultralight spincast reel began to sing. Whatever I had hooked ran all over that deep hole of water from one end to the other. Every now and then, it would swirl near the surface. For several minutes, the drag would sing, and then I would reel in to keep the line tight. I’ve never had a trout behave like that. I couldn’t land the fish where I was standing, so I moved along the bank to find shallower water. At least there I could see what I had hooked, and it would be easier to land. Finally, it tired out, and I could get it in close enough to see what was on the end of the line. It turned out to be an 18” brown trout, and I had hooked it in the belly. No wonder it pulled so hard.
And then there was the river dance. I’m sure most everyone has slipped on a slime-covered river rock at some point. On my second fishing excursion, after fishing for a while without much success, I was carefully crossing the river for the last time as I headed back to the trailblazer. Just as I got to the other side of the stream, my foot slipped. Instinctively, I moved my other foot to keep balance and almost went down. At that point, my life flashed before my eyes (not really), but I did think I was going to get wet. Two more quick slippery cross steps and I had spun back around to where I started. I was tickled that I didn’t fall or mess up my bum knee. A high-stepping old dude, spinning 360 degrees with arms flailing, would have made an interesting YouTube video. Fortunately for me, the only observer was a Canadian Goose.
I told you I didn’t have much to write about. Check out Mike’s Fishing Article; at least he’s catching fish.
R.D. Cullers
Graduate of Bergton Elementary (Class of ’65)
