Fishing in the Central Valley: Adversity isn’t always bad

It’s very easy to think of adversity and challenging situations as “bad things” that happen to us. However I’ve found that they can actually be harbingers of something good coming our way - if we don’t let them derail our attitude.

Some many years ago, a buddy and I were going bass fishing at a small foothill lake for my birthday. We took off very early and when we were about 10 miles from the lake, our left trailer tire went flat. There was no spare, so we decided to put all our tackle in the truck, chance leaving the trailer and boat and drive back to Fresno to find a tire shop.

It was 7 a.m. on a weekend and there were no tire shops open. We decided to try Sears, and found a guy in the parking lot who was going to open the store in 30 minutes. We sat there waiting for the crew to roll in and for our guy to open up the store. Turns out he was an angler and wanted to help us.

We finally had the new tire replaced by about 9 a.m. and took off for the lake, hoping my 14-foot aluminum boat and trailer were still there. We were relieved to find it still sitting there at the side of the road, we put on the tire and off we went.

It was nearing noon and we were still hoping to fish but all of that running around had taken the edge off our excitement. We decided to press on.

Nearing the lake we notice that the wind has come up, a lot. It was more of a gale by this time. We discussed the options and as I backed the boat down the dirt ramp to the water. The wind was now whipping around us at over 25 mph with higher gusts. We only have a 9.9 horsepower motor and wondered if we could even maneuver the boat in the gusts.

The fishing had been good recently, so I told my buddy: what do we have to lose, let’s launch! I was a lot younger (stupid is the word) back then, but we got in the boat and off we went.

We were getting pummeled by the western wind and it was all the motor could do to slow us down ( going backward, with the rear of the boat facing into the wind)

After several experiments we found we could take a cast or two to the bank, then get blown away by the wind, turn the boat around and go upwind and then repeat. It was very fast fishing, giving us almost no time to let our rubber worms sink down to the fish.

Hours later, we had managed to get in some casts in the howling wind. That’s when we found a little sheltered place behind the hill near a small island. Perfect.

My buddy was a real kidder, so he scoffed at me when I cast my little purple worm near the island and said, “Hey! I think I just had a hit!”

On pure instinct I set the hook and it felt like I had hooked the bottom.

He could see that my pole was bent over but nothing happened.

To say that he unleashed a barrage of fishing buddy abuse upon me, topped by a claim that I probably hooked a boot, was an understatement. Laughing, hooting and hollering, all at one time.

But he clammed up as my line started and whatever I had on pulled me along as it slowly swam out into the lake.

Whatever it was, it was big.

The boat was getting spun around, as the fish went under it several times while my buddy tried frantically to get it righted in the gale and off the impending shoreline.

After 5 minutes of chaos, we netted a big spawning bass of about 8 1/2 pounds. It was my biggest ever at that point.

It was a great birthday present. And we let her go, too. We were ecstatic.

I’ll admit that we almost gave up several times but in the end, we got the prize. Was it luck, sheer stupidity or just meant to be that day?

Since then I’ve learned that when adversity hits during a trip it’s usually a sign that something good is coming. That attitude shift, and how you react to “ bad luck” can turn your trip around big time.

Especially if you: Never give up.

This story was originally published August 13, 2024 at 12:30 PM with the headline "Fishing in the Central Valley: Adversity isn’t always bad."