I could still be tempted

I hadn’t fished in three weeks and thought I hadn’t missed it.

After all, it was hunting season now. But it remained very much summer. Every day hot and dry. Most were smoky.

In order to avoid the heat and lessen the chance of encountering rattlesnakes, I’d leave the house before light and hunt a couple of hours in the cool of the morning. By 9 a.m. it was usually too hot to continue and I’d start looking for shade. I longed for the weather to change.

Then, right on schedule, it did.

Rain and snow started falling across the state on Sept. 15, and the temperatures dropped. It’s been cool and wet ever since.

So I went fishing.

I hadn’t planned it. My friend David called and said we should go one last time before it got cold.

I was a bit hesitant. While I love to fish, I can do so year-round. My hunting season, on the other hand, only lasts four months.

But I made the sacrifice one day last week, traded the shotgun for the fly rod, and left the dogs at home.

We loaded my kayak in the back of David’s truck and drove to one of our favorite fishing holes. It was windy and overcast when we arrived and I soon regretted not dressing more appropriately.

The water was low, and I barely managed to slip into the kayak without getting wet or falling in the mud.

The wind quickly blew me to the other side of the pond and I was beginning to regret my decision to go fishing when my line went taut.

That’s all it ever takes – the tug of a fish – to put me in the moment. The wind, the cold, the hunting I was missing, all forgotten. Just me and the unseen fish putting a bend in my rod.

It felt like a very good fish, too, but turned out to be rather small, a couple of pounds of weeds providing the illusion of a real lunker.

We fished for a couple more hours and kept a few bass to eat. By the time we got ready to leave the wind had picked up and the sky was leaden. It had finally began to look and feel like a different season.

I probably won’t go again this fall. After all, it is hunting season. But I can be tempted. It doesn’t take much.

There’s little doubt that I do like to fish.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]