They all got away

Hunting and fishing is often referred to as such and not Killing and Catching for the simple reason, you are not guaranteed anything. Sunday was such a nice day to wander around in my boat and try my luck on the river, and from the constant rising of fish, splashes in all directions I figured today would be successful. It was a good day, catching rainbow trout all morning, sixteen to twenty two inch range, until my wrists were tired and fingers numb. I broke my rule up here as well and for that I felt slightly bad, until I ate him. No killing on Sunday's is my rule, just made it up to keep that day apart and rest... but fishing is gambling with that rule and the tables turned when one of the most strong fighting little rainbows tired himself out to death and left me with no choice but to take him back for dinner. I will say that it took less time to cook and eat, than it did to try and revive him.... just wasn't his day.
I wasn't very pleased with his choice to die on me, flopping around a bit, as a last ditch effort to kick it in gear, but false hope on my part led to frustration, so I slapped him around a bit and I said,

 "Are you talkin' to me?" I don't think he was.... just nerves making him twitch....

None the less, on Sunday I ate this trout and liked it... enough to continue the gamble that another may die and I may feast... but I'll try to let them go first.

So today, Monday....The day that they all got away.... I get up half dazed from a restless night of semi awake, semi asleep, back aching and so forth kind of night to a lone Grouse outside beneath the trees a few hundred feet away. I smile and think that I'll soon have my hands covered in blood before breakfast again... and I must say that although the picture of what I just described doesn't sound that appealing, it actually is a very satisfying feeling to make an early morning kill, to know that dinner will be there if you want it.

So I sneak off out the front door and around back, up the hill, watching for any last minute sleeping bears that didn't hear the alarm to leave by the time I get out there, and continue in the direction of this bird. The frozen dirt only produces loud crunches and cracks, hindering my stealth like objective and warning every bird for 1/2 mile that something is coming. I find the bird, now I have to move in, using trees between us to hide behind. I creep slowly and swiftly to a tree just ten yards from this bird that is seemingly anticipating my every move and evades a clean line of sight or shot for that matter until a head pops out, then a body and the bird is had..... I open my eyes as wide as they can go, squint and then back to normal.... the down side of low visibility and just waking up... I line up the sights.... BANG! I'm a terrible shot with this .22 pistol that seems to be more of a circus gun than anything accurate to say the least. All I do is scare the bird and it flies off to live another day... Now the thing is, where there's one bird, there has generally, almost always been another near by that is hoping I will not see them. I am slowly glancing from branch to branch, tree to tree, and then out of the corner of my eye.... a movement that isn't a bird. Its red and dog like.... I knew it! This fox follows me on my hunts, and hearing gun shots, he comes running hoping that I was lazy to leave a bird down, but not today. I couldn't even hit one, but he didn't know that. Great, no camera... I frantically grope my body, checking all pockets and remembering exactly that my camera sits nicely on a shelf by my computer.... I don't know what it is with me and making odd noises at animals but I start at it again, calling in a hundred different smooches and squeaks trying to keep the attention away from another bird we are both after.... Needless to say that bird took off too and the fox meandered up the hill past my cabin just waiting for something else to come along.

I slowly moved toward him, smooching and squeaking, and stop right in the middle of the path, as he gets up and moves closer and closer to investigate a lousy hunter. He was within petting distance, almost like those squirrels you see eat out of peoples hands... except I had nothing to offer. Smelling all around me, making sure I wasn't a threat or maybe figuring I could be a meal in a bad pinch, he just looked at me and slowly I walked away towards my cabin with him in pursuit. Open flies the door, I drop my gun, grab my camera and try to snap some pictures as he trots off to find what he set out for in the beginning.

Well he didn't get too far before laying down near where I keep my fishing gear, so I get the bright idea that I'll catch him a fish for breakfast and hope he continues to come around. I'm not lonely or trying to buy friends, I just want to see him and pet him at least once... a new goal.
I cast out to the  middle of the river.... using a spinning rod this morning, I reel in slowly to let the lure get deep enough... bump..... bump....tug....??? nothing.... I cast again with more eager intent, trying to feed this fox and SNAP! my lure flies nearly across.... So I run to tie on another.... finally get it and cast out... immediately a tug.... a hard tug and the drag starts singing! I start to smile and say to the fox look what I got for you.... but great where did he go? Just like Zorro to disappear, and now I've got a real lunker fighting with all he's got. I watch my line make a dash down river and hold, my rod is nearly in half... I hooked into a real treat, one of the bigger ones that I had been hoping for a day earlier...not those naive little ones that want to be a trophy... anyhow, tug, tug... tug.... singing a beautiful song the drag is... tug and ...nothing. I went from smile to frown pretty quick and now with no trophy rainbow, no fox to show it off to, ( I would have let the big one go) no bird in hand.... one lure down, clearly it was not the glorious morning that I had anticipated. They all got away.

I'll try again tomorrow, with less expectation and more perseverance on the hunting.... and when in doubt trying to call a fox, I'll just fire a round off and wait.

I also researched eating fox. It is generally not recommended.