Deciding When to Go

The windshield wipers whipped back and forth to clear off the water spray generated by the silver pickup truck in front of us as we headed north on Interstate 71. The drizzle had turned into a steady rain and by the time we got to head east on Interstate 90 Jerry and I were debating our decision to fish Elk Creek.

The USGS charts (the Internet's greatest contribution to the river angler) showed the rivers were high, but starting to drop and the web cam -- yes there are web cams on rivers -- showed a few hearty souls were on Elk Creek. But as we drove east the rain got heavier and the second guessing started. A phone call to one of the bait shops told us that the rain hadn't arrived in Erie yet and we decided to keep going. All fishermen are optimists and irrational. In this case we were optimistic that the rain showing up on the radar would magically not head east.

We told ourselves that we'd get a chance to get out of the house, go for a walk and scout out the river. Of course we could have done the same thing much closer to home.

By the time we arrived the river was full, brown and telling us we should have turned around. The sky started spitting rain before we even got rigged up and kept falling most of the day. Being the hard-core anglers we are, we fished despite the conditions. Jerry got a dunking after I dramatically misjudged the depth of one hole, but he kept on fishing. (He's harder core than most, including me.)

Jerry picked up two fish and I lost one. Not the best of days, but better than staying home.