Went to my favorite hand and shoulder orthopedic specialist to discuss surgical dates to work on my bad wrist so it can become unbad (is that a word?). Have had a lot of shoulder pain this year too…..he said I needed the ball on both shoulders replaced with nice shiny artificial metal ones…..won’t that make the TSA guys happy when I go through the airport. Anyway I was driving home with all my newfound happy information, and the office called and informed me two patients had just cancelled and they would move another so I could have the day off (I’m sure to commiserate with my dismal doctor report). BTW who cancels root canal appointments at the last minute? With that kind of fun in your day I don’t know how they could stay away….a little poor dental humor there.

Took about 48 milliseconds to decide Quartz Creek needed to be graced by my presence once again. So I grabbed the gear and headed out. Got to the creek with a light rain falling and excitedly opened the back of my dependable old SUV (my baby just turned 249,000 miles on the drive down….what a trooper) and opened my bag to realize my fishing clothes were not in the there but in my backpack which still, unfortunately, resided in my garage about 116 miles away. So I threw on the breathables with a pair of light, cutoff white socks and my basketball shorts with a t-shirt on….after all the rain was only light (temp was a sweltering 51 degrees) and the water was probably near 45 degrees…..oh the things we do for our passions.

To make a short story as long as inconceivably possible, I hit the creek and had a great time for about 4 hours chasing reds and dollies up and down the water. Probably ended up with only about a dozen landed, but hey, it sure as heck beat the snot out of working. Due to the rain I didn’t want to soak the old camera and only took a few pics. Most of the dollies were the spawning variety:



Managed to snag (not literally…..they were hooked properly) 2 rainbows also. Middle of the week like this and there were only a few other people harassing the fish with me. Later in the day as one of the very few little peek outs of the sun occurred I popped this very uniquely colored spawning dolly:



I’ve never seen brown tinges and gold on the belly like this one……some type of mutant probably snatched and messed with by space aliens at some point in its youth. At this point is was time to head home and face the music…..as I hadn’t really told my wife I was going fishing. But being the sweet thang she is….those special little words escaped her lips again as I walked in……”You stink again….go shower”. It is true…..there is no place like home.

Brian