How Eddie got his groove back

Eddie is a highly successful, thirty something resident of the Twin cities who is persuaded by his trout fishing idol Ger to take a well deserved outing into Wisconsin's Pierce County.  While he takes in the scenery of the Rush River he catches trout and rekindles his love of fishing and exploring after taking a nearly a month off after having surgery on both of his feet.  The experience once again forces Eddie to take a personal inventory of his life and try to find a balance between his desire to fly fish, his need for companionship, and the responsibilities of being a small business owner.

I had been planning on waiting another week before venturing out but last night after Ger sent me photos of some of the trophy brown trout he'd been catching my feet miraculously felt better all of the sudden.  Well I have no problem finding my own places to fish I couldn't resist the urge to follow in Ger's footsteps.

Here are the photos that Ger sent me.  I call them magic healing photos.

You would think that someone would be happy after a day like that but when you are the best all you can think about is the one that got away.

Before leaving home I gave Trouticus a kiss goodbye.  Trouticus is the 20 inch Brown Trout I caught on the Willow River last August.  I just picked up the mount last week from Scott Miller Taxidermy in Prescott WI and I couldn't be more pleased with it.

Upon arrival at the river it didn't take me long at all to pick up Ger's trail.  I am a self trained tracker as well as an intuitive.  I notice things that are out of place and out of the ordinary.  I could tell by the shape of these prints that they were indeed human.  After measuring the size of each track and the distance between them I was 20% certain that these tracks were made by my friend.

I noticed sheets of ice in the branches of this tree well above the waters surface.  At first I was befuddled by this but I have always been amazed at how well I can figure things out when I use my brain to think about them.  I theorize that at one point the branches were weighted down enough by heavy snow so that they dipped into the river and collected ice.  After the snow fell off the branches they rose above the stream taking the sheets of ice with them.

This is called, "Shelf Ice".  I will talk about it more later in the program.

First Blood.  This Brown Trout was fooled by the yellow Zonker.  He chased it for a few casts before I finally got him to commit.  The main reason I took a photo of him is because I wanted to have at least one fish photo and was worried that I wouldn't catch anymore after him.

Worry. Why do I let myself worry.  It wasn't long before I caught this 15 inch beauty by casting my Conehead Wooly Bugger onto and ice shelf and dragging it off letting in sink into the depths.  It never had a chance to hit the bottom before she scooped it up into her jaws.

 I usually like to smile when taking a selfy.  That way people will know for sure that I was so happy the very moment the shutter snapped.

Besides catching fish I also partook in some amateur paleontology and archaeology.  I was very impressed when I spotted this jaw bone from a Stegosaurus.  If you notice the teeth protruding out of the bone that is how you can tell that it is a jaw bone.  How I determined it was from a Stegosaurus I am still not sure but lets just say I had a feeling.

 I noticed this rock was just a little too perfect isosceles triangle like to be produced by mother nature alone.  When I picked it up I descended into a trance like state where I had visions of  an ancient stone mason working this rock to fit his needs.  After dropping it back into the river I awoke from trance and things were back to normal.

Speaking of being back to normal I was able to make it through the day without having my feet hurt too much.  I am really looking forward to a successful 2014 campaign.

See you on the river!

The End

Eddie Rivard Fly Fishing is now on Facebook

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