Drinking some Dancing Man

Date: July 23nd

Weather: 93 degrees

Stream: Clear, 96 cfs

Hatch: Tiny tricos

Beer: The Dancing Man

            There are three things I love most: fishing, drinking beer and, well, I can’t include the last one lest some younger people read this. When the fishing isn’t going well I can always polish off a night drinking a smooth Dancing Man. Tonight was one of those nights, I was so eager to return to the river after catching a load off trout the other night. I dead drifted and high sticked every spot I knew but it wasn’t like last night. The weather slowed me down; showers caught me in my prime spot and the pressure system moving in slowed down the bite. Good thing I brought beer.  

Pastoral evening in Wisconsin

            
After restocking my tried and true nymph patterns I was so certain I catch my limit. It’s funny how that works, when you want to keep fish you only catch a few but when you don’t want to keep any you can’t keep them off your line. The two I caught were smaller; around nine inches, good smoking size. It wasn’t the ones I caught that haunt me; it’s the ones I missed. I hooked three more but each threw the hook though I was certain I had set it. As the light faded, I stopped at my last spot and drifted a nymph. After a few drifts I hooked a huge trout but after a run, it threw the hook to my disbelief. That was disheartening.