Can You Dig It?

Can you dig it? Early February and the temps are like April. Unfortunately, warmer air has a cost. High gusty winds, driving rain squalls and intermittent sunshiny sucker holes, leading you to think it’s actually going to get better. That’s usually how we get our warmest winter weather. What does this do to the fish? Well, they are still wet and they still need to eat. "If" you can get a good dead drift or set up a nice swing through the tempest, they will eat your fly quite readily.

At this time of the year, the weather is often more challenging then the fish are. How will I be able to make a fishable cast in this crazy airstream? Often, I laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of it. This is heavyweight kite string weather. Some casts literally fail to launch. Others reach the mark, but are unmanageable on the drift. Sanity might come into question. The couch may beckon. Hollywood can entertain surely me. But then I remember the hours spent in the fly shop talking, taleing, selling, and not fishing. Moments will come. Fleeting lulls when the line is mendable and the indicator does its thing. Sporadic spey casts that roll out just right, exchanging light tension for an electrifying throb as a swinging fly gets crushed. For me, those moments are worth the effort.