Bronchitis And Recession Is Screwing Fly Fishing

Although sad, but quite true, it has been ten days since I have sailed the prairie ocean enroute to Lady Blue. A two week bout with bronchitis has had me listless, tired, sick and tired of being sick and tired and longing to swing a bugger or drift a nymph.

This morning I felt some better but the temperature was twenty-two degrees and as the weather forecaster predicted the night before the wind would be howling. It wasn't only howling it was screaming and had a ferocious bite. So...it looks like another day in the fly tying room creating more flies than I will ever use.

It's not only the bronchitis that is keeping me from fly fishing it's the damn recession. Oh sure, there are still some out there that tell us we are not quite to the point of being in a recession and to that I say bullshit. Crap...I'm not a pup and I have been through several recessions and I know quite well this is simply one more. I hate recessions! I hate it when people lose their jobs, homes, vehicles, and meager life savings they've worked so hard for. I hate recessions because it makes our government announce a quick fix by giving all of us a five-hundred dollar rebate with money the government doesn't even have which simply just adds to the deficit. Five hundred dollars isn't going to help the husband or wife who are about to lose their home.

Then, I hate recessions for another reason. It affects my fly fishing life. I'm a working stiff just like so many others. Not so long ago I could get to Blue River to fly fish and back home for a ten spot or less. These days...it takes at least a Jackson. Jackson here, Jackson there, Jackson three times a week...it adds up in a hurry these days.

I work in the grocery business and I'll be the first to admit that this vital staple of life is at an all time high and the worse is yet to come. At Scotty's Blue River One Stop you can enjoy one of the best hamburgers with all the fixtures, including tomatoes, you could ever expect. Tomatoes are currently $2.99 a pound which increases Scotty's food cost but he is taking it on the chin and staying firm on his antiquated asking price for the burger. The less profit for Scotty results in the less supply menu, in the form of merchandise, for us who angle. It's that simple.

In closing this rant I will suggest that the government in issuing rebates to every individual tax-payer should single out those of us who fly-fish and give us an additional five-hundred dollars. My rationale is that we are a pitiful lot with little self control, addicts if you will, and certainly we all will spend that extra five-hundred dollars in short order spurring the economy. So forget about what I said earlier, you know about adding to the deficit, because I need some fishing money now.