The Ides Of March

The ‘Ides’ or middle of March has always been an ominous date in history; most of us trace this particular middle day (Idus Martias in Latin) in March all the way back to 44 BC when Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of conspirators that was ultimately led by his good friend Brutus…Et, tu Brute? These were the famous Shakespearean lines from the mouth of Caesar himself and while no legitimate documentation shows that this famous line was actually spoken by the Emperor it does sound like a probably thing to say to one of your best friends just moments after he stabs you in the back!

March 15^th of this year found me and Vickie up early and on our way to Lebanon, Missouri where we have now spent the past 8 years during spring break. I’ve written several times about Bennet Spring State Park, its beauty and serenity are truly a gem that I look forward to…I would go as far as to use the work ‘crave’ in describing my need for this week and this majestic spot in the Ozarks.

Technology sure has come a long way, as we cruised down Route 66…oh, make that I-44 west of St. Louis we were able to pull up WCLS (97.7) and listen to Tony Kale and my good buddy and teaching colleague, John Chance as they called the morning game of this year’s regional boys basketball action from Greencastle. Listening to the game made the 3 hours from just west of St. Louis to Lebanon a quick trip and we dropped down highway 64A to the campground as the boys finished off Crawfordsville to get into the Elite 8; congratulations to all the boys on a great tournament run.

After one of the longest, coldest, snowiest and frankly crappiest winters I can ever remember the weather here at Bennet on March 15^th was heavenly…in all reality the temperature was only in the mid 50’s but as most of you will attest to, 50 is the new 70 and it felt darn good. We set up the camper and then hustled down to the camp store where I spent $47.50 on my 2014 non-resident fishing license and trout stamp…an incredible bargain knowing how many times I get to fish the Show-Me-State. $3 more dollars got me a daily trout tag and in a couple minutes I had slipped into my waders and eased my way amongst the other fisherman in pursuit of a few trout from a cool spring that offers up over 100 million gallons of 56 degree water around the clock.

I would love to say that the fishing was grand, however that wouldn’t be accurate as on this afternoon I fished for about 2 ½ hours and caught a total of 4 fish. The trout were in a mood; flies like my trout candy that usually work non-fail…just didn’t and you could tell that the fish knew something was up…something was coming our way?

After cleaning a couple nice 15 inch rainbows I made my way back to the camper and pulled up The Weather Channel on my computer and there it was…Et tu Brute! Well it didn’t say that exactly but just like Caesar I felt as though I had been stabbed in the back and by my best friend, Mother Nature. As I sat there the current temperature was 59 degrees and by 9am the next morning it was supposed to be 29 degrees with winds of 20-30 mph….oh and not just wind, but snow, sleet and who knows what else?  Ah….Come on Man…could it be?

Sure enough less than 12 hours later at 7am I felt the knife in my back as the temperature stood at a ‘balmy’ 33 degrees with rain coming in sideways. So…what is a guy supposed to do when he has driven 6 hours to fish; you guessed it…I put on my two warmest jackets, my 5mm neoprene waders, warmest hat, gloves and grabbed my St. Croix Bank Robber 6 weight rod attached to a black wooly bugger and headed out. Truth is once I committed to fishing there wasn’t really anything going to stand in my way, not even sideways rain and a wind that was blowing straight up stream, against the current, at a good 25 mph.

Now here’s the good news; I had the stream to myself! Wide open water between me and the dam, no one to cast around. I stripped off about 40 feet of Rio sink tip line and made my first, careful, accurate cast across stream, I threw in an upstream mend to let the wooly sink a bit, pointed my rod tip just under the surface of the water and started making soft 5 inch strips that would allow the fly to move and “breath” in the water. A crane came swooping down from the woods across from me and soared carelessly just a foot or so above the surface of the water; I was taking it all in when I felt a bang on my line, without thinking my left hand strip set the line and I felt weight and a head shake as I raised the rod. Good things come to those of us who just get up and get moving; there on the other end of my rod was the first of many trout I would catch from 8am to 9:30am. This particular trout was a lineman…a 17 inch beauty that had shoulders and was determined not to be landed. Yes, Mr. Weatherman was accurate, by the time I walked out of the stream and headed back to my Suburban it was indeed very cold and my face was raw from the stinging of sleet being driven at me by the surly winds.

I believe in hard work and on this day all I needed was a ‘first-step’…the rest as they say was all down-hill or in my case all down-stream. Don’t let this upcoming spring sneak by you…grab your gear and get moving as we all Enjoy the Great Outdoors.