[LePewOn]
Oh, mon cheri. Why do you treet me zees way? I come all zees way to wade in your beauty and chase your bright feesheez. Eeet's spreeng, ze time of loooove. So show me ze love, mon révérer, show me feesh love.
[LePewOff]
Such lovely sounding language. La mouffette. I was la mouffette on the Smith River yesterday. Seems springy, and nice, doesn't it? Well, I'm afraid that skunk smells like skunk, in any language.
I tried everything. I swung the post-generation falling waters with streamers. I scoured the settled runs and plunge pools with nymphs - princes, pheasants, CJs, you name it - big and little. I focused on emergers as fish began breaking the surface. And finally, as I began plucking late-afternoon fluttering mayflies and stones from the air, I floated dries, only to watch the sippers ignore my best efforts at matches in favor of the real thing, floating right next to them, not six inches away. Nothing I tried worked. I was ignored. I was spurned. I was thoroughly mouffetted.
Such a fickle river. Such picky fish. Such frustration. But, in spite of it, such a wonderful spring day on the Smith. The skunk, la mouffette? It didn't really matter. I've been Pepe before. I'll be Pepe again. Se la vi.
Célébrer la journé.
I never made the connection between getting skunked and Pepe. It was right there staring at me, sometimes sever times per week. Thank you, a skunking just became amusing.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe think about a little lotion for your hands every once and a while. :)
Great post.
ReplyDeleteMephitis mephitis... in any language it's still a skunk, but French does make it sound sweeter.
Sorry the fish were being difficult.
Ha! Great post Mike. Keep the faith, brush up on the French and there will be brighter days ahead.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Made me laugh. At least you weren't on the Davidson. It was great how Starr said that one pool was called the "frustration pool". That's every pool on the Davidson to me.
ReplyDeleteClif, LOTION!?!? That's for girlie hands. And Pepe is much more than just a skunk. It's cartoonish, like my fishing.
ReplyDeleteJay and Howard, the language takes the edge off the skunk and the fishing will definitely get better. At least I stayed dry.
Kev, the Smith and the Davidson have been my most challenging streams in VA and NC respectively. They are my gauge on how my trout techniques progress. I'm failing.