It’s the little things in between

On Saturday morning I drove down to Moving Water Outfitters to meet up with some friends for an Indiana Smallmouth Alliance community event.

They’ve been on my radar somewhat for about two or three years but according to their fbook page, they started about 9 years ago and I remember hearing about them back then but then nothing. There seemed to be a hiatus on the social media scene from 2018 until 2022/2023 which tracks with them showing up and the algorithm overlords feeding their profile into my soul sucking doomscroll app.

I gotta say it was weird to show up to an event like that and realize I only knew one of the guys. Maybe I’m getting old and insular. Well, not maybe. I am. Old, that is. I’m fighting being that crusty old man who yells at clouds. Either way, I’m pushing water uphill.

I never thought these words would leave my mouth, but it’s rad to see newer guys in the fishing scene doing something positive, especially when it comes to my favorite fish. Time flies when you’re not paying attention.

The Indiana Smallmouth Alliance is starting to get some signs put up in the local area that explain why catch and release fishing creates world class fisheries. That’s a message anyone with a pulse should be able to understand.

At this time it doesn’t seem you can become a member of the ISA, but it looks like you can donate money to their cause.

It was good catching up with a few folks and grabbing a hot dog. My buddy Adam and I headed back north, grabbed some lunch, and jumped on the river. Storms were coming but the fish didn’t care. They were already wet.

It was one of those perfect summer late afternoon into the evening floats that just makes you happy to live in Indiana. We saw maybe two boats right at the beginning of the float and then a handful of kayakers making their way downstream. Then solitude.

The storms rolled on down the river and caught up with us. During the downpours I was standing there in the boat with a raincoat on watching white mayflies come off the water and just get Mike Tyson’ed by huge raindrops. In between downpours, we put on a clinic. There were some dinks but there were a bunch of slobbed out trons that were loving both diving wiggle minners as well as that pregnant pause after a long, deep pull.

My buddy Geoff had sent me some lines and I was trying out the Scientific Anglers Sonar Striper Intermediate line on a 7wgt. It was perfect for the wiggle minnow after a few second pause post cast. Can’t wait to keep beating this line up on smallies this summer and fall.