Knowing it all

An alternative to visiting popular spots and seeking out all the info you might need: Embracing the uncertain and learning from the process.

Blackjacks and puffaddders making the best of the last autumn sunshine. That is what I expect on the river tomorrow. I don’t expect to be able to avoid the former. I hope to avoid the latter. I have had thoughts of putting my landing net in some sort of canvas bag on my back to avoid having to pick blackjacks out of it for hours on end, but maybe that will just be a damned nuisance. I don’t know. I also don’t know if crossing the river will be easy or even safe.

For that I will put up with the extra clutter of a wading staff. I do find those useful for poking about on the path ahead of me, which is my snake defence. If I am to carry a wading staff (and maybe a bag for the net), I think I will go light and use the belt pack, rather than a full vest.  But then again, the autumn colours are just so damned spectacular that it would be remiss of me to go without my bigger camera.  If the water is as clear as I am told it will be, then the little underwater camera would be good to have on hand, and that doesn’t fit in the waist pack. 

Rods: despite the predicted absence of strong wind, I might go with the 3 weight rather than the significantly more delicate 2 weight in my arsenal, because I may need to throw some nymphs, and a bit of an up-kick in the wind is predicted for the evening. But then again, what could be sweeter than catching an autumn brown on a delicate dry on the 2 weight.

I don’t know.

I wonder if the Browns will have already gone off a bit as their breeding instincts may have been triggered by these cooler conditions. Certainly the rainbow I caught in a Stillwater earlier this week had a protruding ovipositer. Or maybe the headwaters we are going to will have received some of the lunkers which have migrated from downstream, like Rhett experienced on his home stream in the last fortnight, and maybe they will still be hungry enough to go for a fly.  I don’t know.

The farmer was doubtful about the road in. He said he traversed it on a horse last week, but didn’t take enough notice of it to comment on whether a  vehicle would make it. He said we should maybe try the valley route, but I pointed out that the stream crossing had been damaged in the recent deluge and that it was thick with sticky mud.  We might not get through that way. He nodded thoughtfully but didn’t offer a solution. I think we will take the hill road. I  don’t know.

The strange thing is that people call me all the time, asking questions, because they think I know the answers.

I don’t.

But I do know that embracing the prospect of possible failure has become more alluring to me the less I seek out proof of my own conquest, as measured  by fish numbers.  Maybe that is why I find myself attracted to the less popular, the less explored.

 I don’t know.

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2 Responses

  1. You may think that you do not know – but you sure know a heck more than me and you do go to the most beautiful places. I really envy you.

    1. Well thank you for saying so Philip. I guess the point is that I am encouraging people not to wait until they have all the info they think they need to enjoy a day out there. If you just throw yourself at opportunities (and even things that don’t much look like opportunities), then you pick up what you need to know along the way. You also have great experiences in the process. More than anything, you learn that you will never know it all and that you don’t need to. By the way : the road was okay, the river was clean, I used the 2 weight, and we had great Trout fishing.

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