Taking Advice From My Own Book

My book on trout fishing is for most intents and purposes done. Has been for months. And I haven't opened the file for as many months, busy at figuring out how to build a Wordpress website. (Actually, I'm more caught up writing for magazines.) 

Here's a few points of advice from the book I needed to follow today:

When water is off color, use brightly colored eggs: I have some here at home. Didn't bring any. Only pale eggs.

When current demands the use of split shot, use round ones without clasps: The river was high as well as off color. Moving fast. It took me 20 minutes before I reached for those shot. I did have the variety without clasps that roll over bottom easily. Put one of those on and it stayed on. The several snap swivels I had bunched together for extra weight proved to have not been quite enough. 

The microlight game is mostly about getting hooks set, which is why it can seem a ridiculous game: I must have missed more than 20 hits in less than 45 minutes of fishing. I began telling myself to take the game less seriously. But if it were ridiculous, I wouldn't write about it.

I've been using one-pound test. I don't find the trout wear themselves out: Having a few on before I finally landed one satisfied me at gut level. The problem wasn't the one-pound test. It was getting that hook set.

It was one of those outings. If they all worked out smoothly, I'd lose motivation. I forgot my camera and my net, too. As you can see, I took the photo of my only trout in the dusk on my phone. With my DSLR, I could have compensated for exposure and gotten one of those beautiful shots you're used to. 

I quit after I released the trout. I wasn't even sure if it was quite nine inches long. It swallowed the hook. I tried to retrieve another from my leader wallet but got two leaders tangled together. In the dark, I decided one trout was enough, rather than trying to sort the mess out. 

Salmon Eggs