Three and Free

I think it was Mark Twain who wrote, “Rather than go fishing on opening day, the man who stays in bed is a loser.”

Maybe those weren’t his exact words, but I think it’s close.

Sorry to say you missed out on a fine morning of fly fishing.

Started the day at 4am at the local Tim Horton’s. What I don’t understand, if it’s a 24 hour store, why don’t they have the donuts this early??? Also, I learned that all you need is one large coffee to fill a thermos. One Tall and two Mediums is a bit much.

But three seems like it was my lucky number this past Saturday.

First, I got up around 3:30am.

Then after buying three coffees, it was off to Stockerfest.

I arrived at the Huron River in Wixom to find only a few other cars in the parking lot. They must not have stopped for coffee. In the early morning darkness I did my best imitation of a deer walking through an underbrush, deep in a bog. Either the Big Muddy wasn’t that bad this year, or I am just getting good at finding my way around.

When I finally reached my spot, I came to the conclusion that I got there a bit too early by the fact I couldn't see the fly at the end of my line. So I stood around for about 20 minutes and watch what looked like a river otter swim past me.

However, as soon as it got brighter out the river filled very quickly with fishermen, so I was lucky to get a good spot when I did. Its just down from where you and I were Justin.

I met John, who was to the left of me, last year on opening day. He was back again in the smae spot. He’s been fishing the same day for 14 years. This one is my 4th. He has a couple of friends who come as far away as Traverse City to fish with him.

While the river was a bit dark, the water was lower than I expected. I pulled out one of the three royal coachman flies I tied the night before.

Over the next four hours, I caught three nice trout (One large Rainbow and two Browns). Lost about twice as many. Well, the copious amounts of java started kicking in and the wind picked up so I headed for home, leaving numerous flies on the tall branchless scrag of a tree that was behind me.

As I got back to my truck, I decided to Roll up the Rims on my Tim Horton’s Coffee cups, and to my surprise, one of the three was a winner. Finally, a free cup of coffee.

On the way home I redeemed my free coffee coupon and looked back on a fine morning of fishing. Halfway home I noticed my cup was leaking.



The Other Cheek


Dr. Gary Says……

If you awake at two minutes and three seconds after 1 a.m. Wednesday, note that the clock and the calendar together will make it 01:02:03 04/05/06. Count on it.



Good News for Dave, our small bladder’d buddy….

Researchers said yesterday that they have grown complete urinary bladders in a laboratory and transplanted them into patients, improving their health and achieving a Holy Grail of medicine: the first cultivation of working replacements for failing solid organs in people.

The "neo-bladders," each one grown in a small laboratory container from a pinch of a patient's own cells, have been working in seven young patients for an average of almost four years, according to a report released yesterday by the British journal the Lancet. The organs have remained free of the many complications that bedevil the conventional practice of surgically constructing bladders from other tissues.

If ongoing studies continue apace, the researchers said, they hope someday to offer patients more than a dozen other homegrown organs, including blood-vessel complexes, partial kidneys and perhaps hearts.