It’s snowing outside. Right now as I’m sitting at my desk writing this. The transition from fall to winter seems to have snuck up on us quickly this year. November always brings with it some winter-y weather, and this year is no exception.
Sure, we’ll have a number of days that just feel great. Warm temps, bright skies, where it feels much more like fall. Yet there is no doubt that winter is right around the corner. One of my new coworkers is all about skiing and just can’t wait to hit the slopes. Me? Maybe not so much.
Winter is one of those seasons for me that is fun for the first month or so, then quickly dies off. It’s the season of going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. Before too long we’ll be breaking ice off the guides and bundling up just to spend a couple hours on the river. This is the time of year to break out the tying desk and start filling boxes.
Winter is definitely the season of getting stuff done, because if you’re not a skier there just isn’t a whole hell of a lot else to do. I do believe that we need a season like that, to just hunker down and work, or unwind, or prepare for the coming year. Having a break from an eternal summer and a change of the seasons makes us all appreciate the nice weather when it comes around.
This is also the season of throwing the big rods, swinging flies through the deep runs, hoping that one trout will be hungry enough to chow down. The last time I swung flies was on the Upper Madison with Shane several weeks ago. We brought the underwater camera housing from work and had all these grand plans of returning with several full memory cards to show the office. Instead we only got a few decent pictures:
Top image by Shane Rickert, bottom by myself.
Yep, it’s been a while since I fished. Looking back now, I should have really hit it hard this fall before winter set in. Hunting season has a way of cutting down on fishing days, though. We won’t be seeing many more days like in the pictures this year… Out on the river in shirtsleeves with bluebird skies above.
Next year. There is always next year.
