Philadelphia was beautiful today!!! The weather was sunny in the high 50’s, which for us in March is fantastic. My buddy Phil and I headed out to Valley Creek to try and shake off the cobwebs and catch some trout.

The creek was perfect. Nice flow, crisp, clear, and holding fish......but I think those fish must have all eaten breakfast before we got there....or something like that.

Really, the way it went was this: I had 4 layers of clothing above the waist, 3 layers below, and 1 pair of tube socks. Bad choice with the toob socks, good choice the other places.

Geared up outside the car around 7:20 am.

Hooked up the Winston Passport rod. Sweet rod, but no alignment dots. That can be annoying. Put on the reel, run the line thru, put on a leader, fly and strike indicator.

Hike down to our spot, I go to cast, realize that my reel is on backwards. Duh. Try to flip it around, but now the line isn’t feeding properly. Whatever, I decide to ride it out for a bit. See what happens.

I go to cast. The line doesn’t shoot. What? I check the line.....and I missed one of the guides when I fed it thru. Really?

Ok. I cut the fly off, start over with everything, standing in the stream with my tube sock insulation inside my new LL Bean boots.

Toes are getting numb. Why did I quit smoking last year? I need coffee.

Tie on a new fly, and move to a new spot because I figure all this standing around has just got to scare fish. Are my toes turning blue?

Move to a great spot, in fact one of my favorite spots.....I look around for low lying branches. None. Phil spots a fish and I start to cast.

Back, then forward. And the fly stops behind me as it gets stuck in the only low branch. Yes, the only one. I did see it before, but didn’t really think I could get stuck in it.

Break the fly off. Tie a new one on. (At this point I want to tie one on.)

Cast back, then forward. Dead stop again. What?

Same branch.

Really?

Yep. Another fly gone.

New fly, move down a bit. Cast....ahhhh. Nice. Air it out a bit.....get a little rust off.

Cast back, then forward....then what? Stuck in the branch above me. Ok. Lose another fly. Then 2 more times, but I got the fly back.

I have the cuts on my hand from trying to climb the tree, but I got my fly.

I spent 21 years in school. Really. It took me that long to get a doctorate. But yet, being a moron doesn’t escape me sometimes.....

Finally I hooked into a nice trout.....fought him for about 30 seconds....and he spit the hook at me from 5 feet. Nice.

Lucky I had to go to work or I might have really hurt myself today.

Can’t wait until next time!!!!!