Went to a May Day celebration yesterday with Denise and had a great time.

Saw what happened in ancient England with an Oriental twist. Dancing around the May pole, lots of food and great food and farm animals and a peacock prancing around to boot. What I liked most about it was seeing children having fun without having to wear crash helmets and knee pads and no soccer moms or dads trying to prevent their kids from imaginary dangers like a skinned knee or other types of normal Boo Boo’s.
It was refreshing to say the least to see children allowed to have fun without being regimented and protected and harnessed and without fussbudget monitors futtzing and clucking and bellowing about the dangers of being alive and having fun on the planet.

The most fun I had was watching kids pin down a wonderful lady and hear the explosion of giggles as dogs and kids and rain and mud and the chaos of love and good will and joy erupt out of the core of human beings souls both old and young - spontaneously and freely once the should’s and ought’s were abandoned.

I saw a little boy chase a chicken through the woods and bushes and paths and tables and peoples legs for an hour and then when a big male peacock crossed his path change from chicken hunter par excel lance to a wild eyed peacock stalker. No one stopped him and he had his first taste of unbridled human animal freedom and survived. The chicken finally roosted on top of a step ladder and and the peacock survived too.
Something to be said for Pagan rituals. 
This is the year of the rat on top of the May pole . 
The year of the Pig is over.

Then Denise and I went striper fishing. 
She wanted to chase a big one and she had fire in her eyes. 
Well she did. 
She chased one and almost got him. 
Thin wire hook after a long hard fought battle and the hook wore a hole and the thin wire finally cut through and released the fish so close and yet so far. 
About ten feet away. Small thin hooks are not very forgiving in a long hard fight. 
She did land several very respectable fish 6 to 8 lbs and a teeny tiny one and missed several in a row until she stopped striking at the tap and felt them before she set and used a tight line pull (which you have to do with larger fish) and hooked and landed them quite nicely and quickly.

3/0’s are just about the right thickness for a hard fight with a decent fish. You can lean into them and not worry about cutting through the mouth and that is old fashioned thinking and it is good thinking. It works. Also you can put your finger into the bend of the hook and push down and get the hook out without doing damage to the fish.

Good strong hard mono tippet and good soft but tight to the fly presentation and you get to release the fish. That is satisfying.

She has a new favorite striper rod. A thirty year old 10 ½ foot 4 wt. She can handle anything on it and well. It gives the fish a level playing field and you have to be good and smart to land them quickly and she does it with grace.

It is wonderful to see someone fish without depending on an overpowering club to beat the fish into submission with. Wonderful stuff to witness.

She wants to go again tonight and use a bigger hook.
She is going to get her wish.
So am I.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 10:09 pm and is filed under fishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.