How to fish with a bad hip

I’ve got news.

First the bad news:

I am having my right hip replaced in about a month. Even more annoying, I have to be nicotine-free for this, so I am quitting cigars, which is making me very grouchy. More so than usual.

It’s certainly for the best and will make my mother, my dentist, and the general public happy. Plus the money I save can be spent on useful things, like more fishing stuff.

The procedure also counts as good news. By scheduling the surgery in early December, I should be off the injured reserve list by the time fishing gets going in the spring.

The half-decent news:

There’s been some significant rain at long last and while the Housatonic and Farmington rivers are fishable, the little blue lines are decidedly not. They were very low before last week’s rain and they dropped fast. The brook trout are stressed enough after the dry summer, so it’s best to leave them alone.

This is a shame because I really enjoy prowling the small streams when the leaves are off, which I can’t do anyway because of my hip. Grrrr.

Also in the okay-for-now file: the steroid shot I got in my hip Sept. 9 has kicked in and I have been moving around almost normally for a few weeks.

Almost normal is not the same as normal. It flares up every so often, and I have taken to going about with a cane, just in case.

Still, it was possible last week, before the rain, to go over to the Blackberry, which was fishable in spots and was stocked recently

I took a whack at the big pool at the dam at Beckley Furnace, a venture that requires a short, mostly level walk and the bare minimum of wading.

I caught half a dozen cookie cutter hatchery rainbows, all on small weighted nymphs like Zug Bugs, Bread and Butters and Surveyors, size 16-20.After an hour or so I declared victory and packed it in.

It was actually kinda boring but at this point I have to take what I can get.

Surgery is Dec. 2, and the doc says full recovery is six months. Other informed opinion says it’s more like three months, and blatantly anecdotal opinion has me leaping around like a pescatorial Nureyev in a matter of weeks.

So my autumn plans are all but canceled.I did not get to test out the isonychia soft hackle flies I got from some guy in Massachusetts, and only tried the switch rod rig Gary Dodson set up for me once in September when every step was an unpleasant adventure.

And if I meet you streamside I can’t even say “Have a cigar.”