Bella was more stir-crazy than I was, which is impressive, because I’d been getting twitchy too. She’d been coiled up all day like a spring-loaded toy, and the second I started doing the gear shuffle she went full lock-on mode. No hesitation. No doubts. Just: outside, now, immediately.
The weather was doing that indecisive Pacific Northwest thing. Mixed rain and snow. Wet cold. Not cinematic, not charming, just damp in a way that creeps into everything.
The lake was well over its banks, which is why I wore chest waders. The shoreline had basically been erased. Waders weren’t a fashion choice, they were access. If I wanted to fish without soaking myself and regretting it for the next three hours, I had to suit up like a waterproof marsh creature.
Hiking in chest waders turns a normal outing into a clompy march. You don’t stride. You shuffle. Your legs feel like they’re dragging a decision you made earlier and now can’t undo. It’s not the same hike as usual, which is why I decided to count the mileage this time even though I don’t normally. Waders change the effort equation. If I’m going to trudge around flooded banks like this, I’m logging it. It counts.
We fished anyway, because Bella needed out and I needed out, and because being outside in miserable weather still beats being inside losing your mind.
Then came the one moment of hope: the “bite” that wasn’t just a bite. It was a fish on for a few seconds. Not long enough to land, not long enough to get cocky, but long enough to wake up my whole nervous system like I’d been plugged into a wall outlet. That brief, electric second where everything gets quiet except the line and your attention.
And then it was gone.
No fish. No photo. No proof except that feeling in your hands and the way your brain refuses to accept it’s over. The worst part is how those few seconds reset your expectations. Suddenly you’re sure there’s another one, like the lake owes you a follow-up. It doesn’t.
Bella stayed close, working the edges, alert and busy like she had a job to do. She was cold, but she still had that determined dog energy: I’m outside, therefore I am thriving. She was the whole reason we were there, honestly. She needed to burn off the stir-crazy way more than I did. I just happened to be the one with the car keys.
And then, because nature is always ready to humble you, I had to pee. In chest waders. This is the part nobody puts in their outdoorsy stories because it ruins the aesthetic, but it’s real life. There’s no graceful way to handle that situation. It’s just unglamorous logistics performed in wet cold while trying to pretend you planned your day like a competent adult.
We went home with exactly what we came for: movement, outside air, and the pressure valve loosening a little. No fish came with us. But for a few seconds, there was a fish on, and honestly? That counts for something. It’s enough to keep you from calling the whole thing pointless.
Sometimes the win isn’t a fish.
Sometimes it’s a few seconds of maybe and a dog who finally stops bouncing off the walls.
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