leaderless in gunpowder
the aptly named "staircase falls" a trib to the gunpowder
Not really a day "on the water," so I will mandate I need 102 days to qualify in Century Club this year (it's unlikely anyway), but just to record another Day of Stupidity, here's the April 29 report:
I don't own waders and I sort of disapprove of them on some level because I believe our streams are stressed enough without someone walking down them thrashing the surface with a flyrod. I fish (catch & release only) from shore and that's exciting enough just trying to keep the feet dry.
Epic fail on that part Wednesday.
I only brought one leader and that got snapped off almost immediately due to some snag on the near-shore edge of a fairly deep pool. I had just driven 35 minutes up to this particular part of Gunpowder Falls and there was no way I was gonna trudge back to the car and drive home. The leader had separated from the fly line right there at the nexus, so I knew 8 feet of mono would be downstream of the spot where the wet fly was lodged.
So off came the boots and socks and my god, was that water cold. By some miracle, I found the leader in the rifflle and even got the wet fly back by pullling it in the opposite direction of the retrieve. Yay! I could keep fishing!
Then 45 minutes later I had to do the same. damn. thing.
So call it a day "In the Water" and I'm still waiting to for my feet to defrost and not feel numb.