No fish-fry tonight

This was not going to be a catch-and-release trip. I was thinking fish fry before I even left the house.

I’d gotten word that the bass were biting on a small pond south of town, and although it had rained the previous night, it hadn’t been a gully washer, so we headed out at mid-morning with high hopes.

The rain had done little more than settle the dust. We sped south, anxious to reach the pond, and had smooth sailing for the first 40 miles. Then conditions went south. The closer we got to the pond, the worse the road got.

By the time we turned off the gravel onto a two-track I was having doubts. Even in four-wheel-drive, it was next to impossible to keep the truck going straight. A mile from the pond, at the base of a steep hill we stopped.

This was as far as we could drive.

Now we’d have to hike.

Leaving the lawn chairs, the cooler with food and drink, and most of the fishing tackle in the truck we struck out up the road on foot for the pond. Within a couple of yards we were already weighted down with gumbo. The mud stuck fast to our boots, curling over the top.

After scraping off what gumbo we could on the sagebrush, we left the two-track. Traveling was easier in the grass, and we soon reached the pond.

I caught a nice bass on my first cast and immediately realized that I had no place to keep him. The cooler was back at the truck as was the stringer. I didn’t want to fill my daypack with fish.

So we fished, and released what we caught, something I have a much easier time with when the fish are cutthroat trout instead of bass.

Appropriately, we caught most of bass on trout flies -- weighted brown wooly buggers to be exact.

After a couple of hours, the food and drink back at the truck began to call to us and we quit the pond. We’d caught a mess of fish and released every one. The wind and the sun had dried things a bit and the hike out was a breeze.

I climbed into the mud-covered pickup and pointed it north, feeling like something had been left behind.

Like dinner.

There’d be no fish fry tonight.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]