The atomic clock on a dresser near my rack projects the time and temperature on the bedroom wall in the darkness of night. All I have to do is open one eye and reliable information can be instantly observed

Half of this info is available if my body comes out of REM sleep and I’m facing the other way: it is night time. Facing the other way just confirms what my bladder is telling me: it is 3 a.m. This is a natural part of aging into an old guy. If I lay in bed more than 5 minutes after eye opening my mind gets into a left brain/right brain argument which always ends with me headed for the can. But if both sides are fully engaged it is almost time to go fishin’.

This really gets the synapses popping, trying to figure out where the fish will be and their general attitude once out on the water. This inner dialog is almost always academic, because you ALWAYS have to get out on the water and work your initial hunch with a cast or two…or maybe not. If the River level, wind direction, water clarity, barometric pressure or several other unknown variables have changed when the Lund goes in the water the boat may vector upstream instead of down before making a cast or two–which may trigger a location or presentation change. Or both.

A River guide’s mind works that way. The river is forever changing. Pulling finned bounty from her belly means getting in sync with her mood–not trying to bend an awesome force of nature to my way of thinking.

There is no hypocrisy on the River. It is driven by natural truth. The unseen hand of the Creator. Failure to accept this knowledge will bring consequences this warm velvet glove of sleepy water can turn into an unforgiving fist.

The digital read out on the atomic clock tells me I won’t commune with nature today. The temperature out in the natural world is 83 degrees @ 3:15 a.m. Besides that, today is Saturday. I don’t like to guide on Saturdays because there is too much humanity out there on the River already.

People are the problem with finding harmony with nature on the River. Especially those few people who decide they are capable of running our lives better than we can. Talking about spouses and the government here. Taking a spouse is a personal choice. Mine has been directing a considerable component of behavior for 48 years now. Not ashamed to say I love her with all my heart.

Out on the River it is humanity and the unseen but ever present hand of the government which perpetually harshes my mellow.
The government–not any concept of global warming–which forces me to deal with perpetual flooding out on the Mississippi. Government hubris convinced those who would lead us that maintaining a navigation channel and pushing farming practices that remove filtering green space have added so much non-organic silt to the River in my lifetime that the Immortal River may be facing mortality. At least when if comes to trying to make a living from her piscatory bounty.

The single minded USACE mission of turning the Miss into a navigation canal has finally succeeded after 141 years. The FWS believes they are entitled to tell me how to run a guide business on “their” water and charge me for doing so–even though these people have never run a business or guided fishermen. Kinda like Bernie Sanders who is campaigning on a $15 minimum wage but doesn’t pay his own staff that much.
The FWS places signs on unforgiving metal fence posts proclaiming this is “their” kingdom. During perpetual high water these fenceposts are hazards to navigation on the Miss, as they are just barely submerged. If it could be proved I placed an obstruction which damaged somebody else’s rig would I be held liable? You betcha!

News is quietly breaking the government weaponized ticks by injecting them with microbes back in the 1950’s. Could this be the genesis of lyme disease? Not about to go down the conspiracy rabbit hole here. Humans conspire. Always have. It’s in our nature.

Not that I’m planning to conspire against our government. It’s our government. The USA is far from perfect, but our government has done a better job of shepherding our republic than any other government in world history. At least until it started believing it could do a better job of running American lives than the people could back in the 1930’s.

This is when the lock & dam systems tried to harness the Miss. The government actually started believing it was smarter than the Creator!

The fallacy of this belief is evident out there on the River of Truth. In spite of all the regulations, restrictions, licenses, fees, permits with all the traps & snares and man caused habitat degradation it is still possible to find catharsis out there on the River of Truth.

I will make no apologies for failure to include any nuggets of fishing wisdom in the blog this time other than the FACT that you need to get your mind right to find consistent success.

Weeds are a major driver of fish location and presentation on the River now–even with those wily walleyes. Come Monday, it will be all right. Come Monday I’ll be out there, Lord Willin’–not ranting from inside the house where the atomic clock says it is now 4:45 a.m, time to go fishin’…but the clock says it is also 83 degrees. And it’s Saturday. Guess it’s nap time. gut doesn’t say it’s time to feed, so g’night.