It's been a long winter

[RK]

So I'm sitting at home this afternoon waiting for a guy to show up and fix our dryer. Guy calls and says he's running late - be there in an hour.

Too nice to sit inside and watch TV, and I'm too lazy today to do any actual work, so I decided it was time to start getting tuned up for fishing season.

Went down the basement, grabbed a pitching rod, slapped a reel on it, tied on a jig and headed out to the back yard. Set some buckets out around the yard, climbed on the deck box, and...

Total. Disaster.

First pitch went about 15 feet and I backlashed. Picking that out, and I noticed I'd completely forgotten to thread the line through the level wind. Apparently I'm a little rusty. While I was fixing that...Hmm... This isn't a pitching rod. It's a crankbait rod. (In my defense, they look the same and were side by on the rod rack.)

Back to the basement. Right rod, threaded level wind. Up on the deck box... Take 2. Pitched at the base of a tree in my back yard. Jig hit 2 feet up the trunk. Next one - through the chain link fence.

Oh, hello neighbor. Yes, I'm fishing for buckets. No, not biting very well...

Snagged up in a Japanese lilac, yanked the jig out...and nailed myself in the kneecap with the jig...

After a half hour or so of dismal failures interspersed with occasional on target pitches, I finally started to knock off some of the rust.

Say you're going to practice your golf swing (they have whole ranges for just that - you can't even play golf there) or work on your tennis serve and nobody thinks twice about it, but say you're going to practice fishing and people look at you like you grew another head... A couple more yard sessions and I'll be able to put a jig in a coffee cup again, but man is it amazing how much your skills atrophy over the winter. The mechanical skills just fall apart on you.

Worst thing is, my upper arm is actually kind of sore. It's a long ways till opener, but at this rate, I'm worried I don't have long enough.

Cheers,

RK

[JP Z]

I was out this weekend on my lake pitching into puddles..........EPIC FAIL. Nothing but rat's nests. But still nice to be "fishing" with a rod longer than 28".

[CAMAN]

Been there, done that! I had one opener where I didn't get a chance to shake the rust off beforehand. Well it took me THREE casts to completely backlash TWO reels! One with PowerPro and one with Sunline. There was no chance I could pick those out.

[slopmaster]

Thats some good stuff RK gave me a good chuckle, only because I can relate. My soon to be father in-law and I spent all last sunday outside pitching. We both got new pitching rods and reels this off season so it was fun to get out and mess around with them. After the first 5-10 minutes to get the rust off it went pretty well, but it is amazing how much technique deteriorates over winter. O and I totally agree with the WTH looks you get from people. He lives in town and people out walking their dogs just look at you like you've lost your mind. Regardless it sure does beat sitting inside thinking about fishing. Is it opener yet?

[delmuts]

"He lives in town and people out walking their dogs just look at you like you've lost your mind."

Probably the same kind of looks i got last year when people saw me out back casting a 3 oz. sinker on one of my musky rods to build up my shoulders!

[mww24]

I live in a small townhouse development. Last spring I was out on a milk crate pitching to the 6"x6" mailbox post. Low and behold my neighbor pulls up to the box. Casually hops out and asks "catching anything"? I said nope. She said to bad and got in her car and drove to her driveway. Needless to say I went inside after that.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Haha I love these stories. Im sure most the die hards here have a few.

Mine goes... Few years back I got a new musky setup and for whatever reason I just had to try it out. Tied on one of those big storm paddle tails, weighs at least a few ounces, Head out to the backyard, wind up to do a cast and right at the beginning the brand new braided line gave me a little "rug" burn and I stopped thumbing the reel. Well long story short I sent that lure at mach 5 into my neighbors wood fence, who looked out his patio within seconds of the crash only to see me standing there reeling up my bait, gave an awkward wave and a sorry before going inside.