I mean, it was only a 40 minute drive, but still, today my son in law Niel took me on a fishing trip. He and Lydia got me a pair of waders for my birthday, and since the ladies were having a baby shower for my eldest daughter, it seemed a perfect day to wade up the river and hopefully catch some fish.
I did learn a few things. One, fancy fishing waders have “socks” built into the bottom of the legs, not actual boots. Most people then have “wading boots” which are pretty heavy duty boots which go on like regular boots, but over top of the “socks” at the end of the wader legs.
I do not have wading boots.
Thankfully, I did find a pair of water shoes. The water shoes were sized to fit my bare feet, so they were REALLY tight over the neoprene wader sock-things, but I managed to get them on, and they worked fairly well. (sorta — more on that in a bit) Anyway, once the foot situation was handled, we crashed through the woods and got to the river.
The river was narrow, fast, and a bit treacherous. Still, within the first 5 minutes, I caught a little brook trout. It wasn’t a showstopper, and my phone decided not to save the photo. Still, catching something so early in the adventure was encouraging. (NOTE: We caught nothing else all day, lol)
While we had a ton of fun, the river turned out to be really quite challenging. There were a LOT of downed trees and branches, making fishing tough. But more than that, the river bottom had inexplicable mucky spots. The weird part was that it was often impossible to tell where the bottom would “fall out” from beneath you. It wasn’t possible to tell the difference between the firm sandy bottom and the deep muck with a dusting of sand over the top.
There were sections that were so mucky, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get out! Oh, and remember the water shoes I mentioned earlier? Yeah… they wanted to stay in the muck really really bad! I did not lose the shoes, but it was a close call a few times.
Once it was time to head back, we crashed back through the woods, and walked along the road back to the truck. No, we didn’t catch any more fish after that initial little brookie, but it was a VERY fun day! The waders worked perfectly well, the company on the river was amazing, and we didn’t get skunked! Plus I got to spend a day with my son in law, which would have been worth it even if there wasn’t fishing at all. Thanks for a great day, Niel!
❤️