I mowed some lawn, did some other chores, and continually noticed the urge
to get away churning in my gut.

So I headed down to the local river.

Putting on old waders ( there's a reason ) I headed down stream with the
idea of fishing back up to the truck. Finally I found a spot where
getting through the berry vines was possible, if far from fun or pretty. I
plunged in reminding myself of a moose going through willows, but without
the power to pull it off well. It says a lot for my waders that they
weren't just torn to shreds.

Through the vines and on the bank of the water I spent the next 10 minutes
pulling thorns out of gear, rigging the nymphing rod, and thinking that I
really, really, didn't want to go back through those thorns.

I have always been a weaker than average wader, and am pathetic at this age.
I have arthritis in my ankle, knee and hip on my left side and simply can't
get around all that well. As I started to work upstream I realized I had
gotten myself into a bad situation. The flows and rounded rocks were all
I could deal with and the banks lined with thick stands of thorny berries.
I wasn't at all sure that I had the strength to make it up the stream, and I
stumbled nearly falling many times in the next two hours. In places it
was all I could do to inch one leg forward a few inches, then the other,
against the current. And always while slipping on the slimy rocks and in
danger of my knee screaming "enough" and literally letting me down. I
'probably" wouldn't have drowned, but neither did I feel like I had safe
levels of reserve energy and strength .. old sucks ... old and badly out of
shape is at least half my fault, shame on me !!

In the couple hours I inched back to my rig I lobbed the mess of
yarn/shot/beadhead soft hackle ahead of me and off towards the far bank
trying to fish the slots and seams. I hooked some small trout, probably
nearly 20 but none over 12 inches .... certainly enough to qualify as 'good'
fishing, especially 7 miles from home.

I've decided to go back several times if the flows remain the same or lower.
But not really to catch fish ( no I wouldn't go if they weren't there )
rather as exercise to prepare me for my summer of trout bumming which starts
early next month. I'm positive I'm going to be sore in places from
fighting up that current today, equally positive that all you young stud-ly
types out in ROFFland would have had no problems where I was today. I'm
also fairly positive that arthritis or not I can do better if I work at it
and get back in form. I won't pick spots quite so challenging the next few
trips, but the exercise will help with my fishing all summer.