Nov 25, 2010

Give thanks for chrome!

  Sometimes in order to be a good fisherman you have to show some grit and dedication.

    For Thanksgiving 2010 My wife and kids went to Ohio to visit Grandma and Grandpa Rehfeldt and clan. They spent over a week there which left me sitting at home twiddling my thumbs with absolutely nothing to do. I considered sitting around all week moping about being alone like any self respecting husband and father would do.  But somehow I managed to drag myself out of bed and reluctantly I went steelhead fishing. I didn't want to, but I just felt like it was the right thing to do.
    After going into the office Monday through Wednesday, I was anxious to get out fishing Thursday morning (which also happened to be Thanksgiving if you're keeping track). I arranged to meet Robert at his house and then go hit the river. I brought along my lucky ice fishing hat since it had been unseasonably cold for a few days and the forecast was for more of the same.
     I got to his house bright and early and was ready to go, but after talking to him for a few seconds I could tell our trip was soon to be in jeopardy. He proceeded to make some lame excuse about having an abscessed tooth and needing an immediate root canal, or something like that, I didn't catch all the details. It just sounded to me like he didn't want to go fishing. So I headed to the river by myself, and he made for the dentist's chair (which showed real commitment on his part in sticking to his made up story).
     I got to the river and rigged up a bobber and tied on a promising looking red and black jig, dipped it in some anise scent and began casting. I think I made all of two or three casts when my bobber went down. I figured I just didn't have my depth set right yet and I was dragging on the bottom, but I set the hook just in case. As it turned out, it was a fish after all, probably a sucker or whitefish by how it was fighting but when I reeled it in close I saw that it was my first wild steelhead ever! She wasn't too big and she didn't fight hard, but I was tickled pink. I guess maybe she was feeling sluggish because of the cold, and I can't say that I would have blamed her - it was dang cold.
My first ever wild steelhead, also probably the laziest steelhead I've ever caught
     I took the above photo on my phone and sent it to Robert who was now apparently going through with the whole "root canal" thing by this point, but he also said that he was going to be done in about an hour, so there was hope for our trip after all.
     I kept casting and managed another fish in pretty short order. Pretty soon wouldn't you know it, Robert comes strolling down the river bank, rod in one hand and tackle box in the other. Apparently he may have actually had a root canal that morning - at least he sounded pretty convincing (and numb), but anyway pretty soon we were fishing away just as planned.  And root canals must bring good fishing juju because he caught a fish on his very first cast!
Does this look like the face of somebody who just had a root canal? I'll let you be the judge...
       Robert landed a second fish soon after his first, and I rounded out the day with this beauty (who apparently wasn't too bothered by the cold because he fought like crazy and jumped several times).
Beautiful 12 lb wild buck - note the lucky fishing hat exuding luckiness
      We called it a day at around noon after proving our worth as fisherman. We had other manly things to take care of like eating dead turkeys and snoring...
     All in all thanksgiving 2010 was pretty awesome even though I was forced to spend it half a country away from my wife and kids. And I'll give two points to my brother who definitely showed some grit and dedication that day.

1 comment:

  1. This is still the best post on your blog. Always brings a chuckle :)

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