A Hunch Before Lunch

A Hunch Before Lunch

(May 2009)

The morning long but successful

my stomach aches for food

Through the forest I walk back

in a tired and somber mood

Driving up the back road

I know where I’ll take lunch

Parking aside the empty cabin

for some reason I have a hunch

I walk through wooded saplings

across an old RR grade

Peering over the steep dirt bank

there a rainbow lay

Basking in the bright noon day sun

as if he hadn’t a care

“Could this trout be caught?” I ponder

Though fatigued, I take the dare.

To the van and my 4wt. I decide

I tie on a delicate 6x

I feel I only have one cast

The situation so perplexed

Downstream I cross a riffled run

not wanting to make wave

I climb the bank, crawl the grass

there’s no cause to be brave

I wait for just a breeze

that would riffle the surface water

‘Till then I tie on a latex caddis

as the sun beats upon me hotter

The breeze finally comes at last

I slowly slip into the wetness

I pull out line almost motionless

as my shirt fills with sweatiness

I wait patiently, now exposed

another breeze spoils the water surface

I roll cast upstream from my quarry

accurately and with purpose

The white caddis drifts realistically

a short strip puts it within sight

His slight movement with open mouth

I draw the line quickly tight

He bolts away taking line

turns and swirls with anger

I let him fight on the light tippet

I know the constant danger

He rips upstream and takes a leap

my rod straightens with the rise

Splashing and slashing in the water

I have to compromise

He bolts upstream further on

I hold the bent rod high

Line slides through my guiding fingers

with the least pressure I apply

He crosses the stream and now turns down

I strip in line with haste

Now once in front of my line of sight

he turns and we’re face to face

We leer at each other eye to eye

neither foe nor friends

He swims downstream with bully force

the line re-tensions, the rod re-bends

He runs his gauntlet, fights his fight

but learns his match he met

My stomach growls with hunger

as dinner comes to the net

~doubletaper