Smelling a Skunk

So yesterday my fellow 40/40 club charter member and I  hit a spot neither one of us had ever fished.  It is an area that gets plenty of pressure and seems to have its share of fans.  The water looked good and we had received solid encouragement from those who know the water that it should be fishing well.

With much excitement we started fishing, chipping ice out of the guides every few casts as it was cold and windy.  Within a few minutes my buddy's reel gave up the ghost causing him to have to hike back up to the rig and grab another reel.  Not exactly a great start but these things happen.  By the time I saw him again I had touched exactly zero fish.  He was releasing a whitefish....cool, at least the skunk is off for him.  I never get skunked so I was glad that this new water wasn't going to skunk us. 

As the day wore on I had a clear failure in the right leg of my borrowed waders (my waders are being repaired at Simms at the moment...$72 for repairs on a $450 pair of waders....WTF).  So my right foot was sloshing around in delightful cold water, my hands were frozen, hadn't touched a fish yet, and really wasn't having any fun. 

Meanwhile my buddy was finding fish here and there, nothing large but at least he was moving some fish.  There is nothing like smelling the skunk while your fishing partner, whom you taught to fish, who on a good day catches 40% of the fish you catch, is doing well.  I was happy he was catching fish as it isn't a zero sum game and if you can't be happy for your fishing buddies you shouldn't have fishing buddies.  However, knowing that it wasn't the water, it wasn't the fish, it was clearly me causing me to smell the skunk was painful. 

We had one hour left before I had to head to a date with my wife and I decided I had better get a fish so at least I wouldn't get skunked.  We hiked down to some water we hadn't fished yet and I was finally able to catch a 10" Brown.  At that point I pretty much phoned in the rest of the time we were there as my foot was frozen, my enthusiasm long ago had left, and I wasn't going to get skunked after all. 

Of course the hot hand decided to fish the water I had just gotten my massive 10" fish out of.  Wouldn't you know it he hooks a 20" Rainbow.  Unfortunately it broke off. 

I'd like to say that it is days like yesterday that make this pursuit enjoyable and keep it interesting.  I'd like to say that, but yesterday sucked and I'd just as soon never have days like that.