Almost...

Avoided the skunk by the narrowest of margins today.

Started off in the RedNeck Ride at about 9am with the Fanz, hittin' the high tide at a local. After a 20 minute ride, we pulled into the top hole in some pretty unsavory conditions. Last nights torrential downpour had produced todays Muddy River, and the steady 20kt Southeast wind didn't help matters much.

Saw a few scattered jumpers, but not enough to keep things interesting. Fanz managed to hook up during a discussion on where we should head next, which forestalled any movement on our part for a good hour.

After it was blindingly obvious that this set of holes was going to suck for at least the next few hours, we made our way back to the ramp and put the sled away for the day.

Following a quick snack of chicken wings and a grande latte, we headed out to another local to check on the action.

This one was up but flowing mostly clear, and after a fruitless hour of box-emptying at some showy fish, we decided to head to yet another to see if we could actually catch a fish and not just be given the fin all day.

Another hour and 30-some-odd miles found us at an incoming hole, with a few jumpers spicing things up. The Fanz hooked up 3 in quick succession, leaving us in a lurch as to why we couldn't so much as buy a fish today.

Ever find yourself digging through the box, weeding through patterns to find the Silver Bullet, the Magic Fly, as fish are boiling all around you? I don't know what it is about this condition, but a lot of folks seem to lose it when things aren't going right. We have been there. We know.

Today, we managed to avoid that. Stuck to the 2 patterns that produce in this area in these conditions, and concentrated on presentations.

Hooked up late in the game, only to lose the fish while messin' around with a big loopy knot in the running line that somehow got through the guides on the initial run, but wouldn't come back through.

Not that we need to land it after the initial hookup, but c'mon, throw us a bone here. We had a long fishless day.

Finally came to last-cast time, and after a long one we put the line on the reel and started cranking in, hoping against hope...

Sure enough.

The fish that decided we had been given enough fin to be worthy of a taste. Thanks, Fish. See you again soon.