Friday, February 24, 2012

Cabin Fever

Ohh My Goodness!  Is Spring here yet?  Did winter even begin?  Why am I not fishing?  Ok enough of the questions.  The reason I'm not fishing is my son is due in less than 3 weeks.  I've been working, helping out at home, trying to sell a car, and spending ample time volunteering.  I also threw my back out worse than I've ever done before on Saturday playing basketball with high schoolers.  Yeah that's not smart for an out of shape 28 year old.  I woke up in the middle of the night, got to my feet, and soon went down in pain.  I broke into a cold sweat, felt like puking and almost passed out.   It was a good day. 

Anyways, I'm not all that upset that I'm not fishing because I'm going to be a dad again, and there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with that.  I am however going through a serious case of cabin fever.  I think my daughter knows it too.  I go downstairs to play with her, and eventually I end up at my fly tying desk and she goes "Help, Help?".  So she sits on my lap, plays with my vise and bobbin, and sees what flies I turn out.  It's fun but doesn't begin to scratch the itch.  Hopefully I'll get her into her first fish this summer which will be great.

So I've only been fishing once this year in the awesome winter we have had.  Hit Hells Run and got skunked.  Saw 3 fish, 1 hookup and it lasted about 3 seconds max.  But it was a beautiful day with a few snow flakes and I hiked and fished much farther than I'd ever done before.  This was almost a month ago though.  Fly fishing can be a drug.  It's addictive, and when you don't have it, you want it.  And you want A LOT of it.  I'm however in the place in my life where it's impossible for me to get my proper fix.  That's ok though, family first.  It's still nice to dream. 

Speaking of dreams.... KAMCHATKA!  A fly fishing friend of mine sent me a DVD of Eastern Rises trip to the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka.  OMG.  (yeah it makes me talk like a 15 year old girl).  I can't get this place out of my head.  Big fish, no people, trout on mouse patterns all day long.  Yes I said MOUSE patterns.  It's a fly fisherman's dream, and I see it day and night.  It has officially hit the top of my list.  Ahead of Alaska, Patagonia, and New Zealand.  I will go to all of those one day, but it may not be for a while.

All I can do is dream right now.  This year's dream is to hopefully hit the cicada hatch in the Gettysburg area.  We'll see if it all works out, but that's my goal.  Great streams with big clumsy bugs flying all around and hungry wild trout.  Sounds like a great day to me.  I'm also planning on potentially going to Montana next year.  So that puts 2 trips under my belt to look forward to.  I just hope it all works out.

Now back to my first non purpose blog post.  I'll have a son in a few weeks, and things will be crazy for a while.  Fishing will take a back seat to the expanded family.  I'm ok with that, but cabin fever is still setting in.

It's amazing to think of all the things in my life that I don't deserve.  I don't deserve life to begin with or my great wife, wonderful family, awesome job, and ability to enjoy fishing.  So all in all, I'll fish when I have time, and enjoy it when I actually get to.