Wisconsin Trout Fishing 2017

The Wisconsin state trout season opens early morning May 6, the first Saturday of May. (Same day as the Kentucky Derby).

Just so you know, preparations for the opening of the next trout season begin as soon as the season closes. Fishermen and particularly those who stand in streams waving a stick (fly fishermen) are a different lot.

Fly fishermen are ritualists in season or out.  To some, it's an obsession or a religion. Remember, there really is no off season although the streams may be closed.

Catch and release is the order I follow.  A trout is too beautiful a creature to catch just once. In my view, the fish always wins. Fly fishing is a state of mind for many of us.

As Thoreau said, some men go fishing all their lives and never realize it's not the fish they are after.

Fly fishermen spend their "off" season days (and some nights) in wistful contemplation of wetting a line, weaving tiny feathered lures, drooling over the latest carbon fiber fly rod, the latest large arbor reel, sorting gear, getting ready...too much to contemplate.

For the past 50 years, more or less, a group of us from all over the Midwest and the Far West have gathered on the banks of Wedde Creek near Coloma in Richford Township in Central Wisconsin, close by the Mecan River. In fact the creek flows into the Mecan, a trout stream of note.

I haven't been in the group that long but I know the fishers well and got a couple of them started in the sport.

Some opening days are sunny and summerlike, but there are just as many overcast and windy days.  Rumors of snow are frequently discussed but I personally have never experienced snow in early May.  Wool shirts and windbreakers have always been the uniform of the day.

The point of this note is to let readers know that the life of this heart transplant patient continues apace.

We just returned to Fargo (in time for two days of snow, which melted--thankfully--no shoveling required) from a snow-free several months in Arizona.

We left Mesa just as the cacti were beginning to bloom.  No Africanized bee activity to report.  A brush fire in one of six Maricopa County Parks, Usury Park, was burning but contained.  It blackened the sky in the east valley and created a lot of smoke.

My fourth year "heart-iversary"  is coming up in June.

Tight lines.*


*when a fish strikes, raising your rod tip until the line is tight, sets the hook and commences the battle.  Hence, "tight lines" are devoutly to be wished.

Three years with a new heart and counting

Another year in the life of a heart transplant recipient is a milestone. I received a new heart three years ago today. 

A friend calls those heart birthdays--"heart-iversaries."

The wait with an LVAD was 1,164 days.  In fact the LVAD was developing issues including potentially fatal blood clots and it would likely not have lasted too much longer. 

The LVAD gave me the opportunity to wait on the transplant list until a suitable donor heart became available.

Now, I've had six additional years of life--no small gift.  I got the LVAD March 1, 2010, and had it for three years, two months, and six plus days.

I turned 69 years young the week before the transplant operation. It came as a shock because the transplant information is closely guarded until the last possible minute.

I got a call about 7:30 a.m. June 7, 2013, with the question:  Are you still interested in a heart?  That in itself was a surprise because I'd never expressed a sentiment or hinted in any way that I did not want to be transplanted.

At any rate the transplant coordinator instructed me to be at the local airport in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota in 30 minutes because an air ambulance was en route from Fargo as we spoke.  I had a "false start" before where a heart was offered and later (after the flight from Fargo to Minneapolis and after all pre-op preparation) the heart was withdrawn as "not suitable."

My wife and I were literally turned out in the cold of a Minneapolis winter night after the heart was withdrawn.  Fortunately, LVAD patients are instructed to carry all of their equipment when going away from home overnight.  

As a compliant patient, I carried my "stuff"--eight spare 14 volt lithium ion batteries for the LVAD, a specialized battery charger, a step down transformer and computer that I plugged into at night, miscellaneous electric cords and connections along with wound dressing supplies, and the like to Minneapolis.  I needed all of that when the transplant trip became a "false start." 

You don't have a clue that a transplant mission could be a dry run. But once the heart was withdrawn, we were on our own to return to Fargo as best we could.

Meanwhile, we've been to Arizona again for a few months over the winter.  A desert paradise. Reminder:  Every day is a gift.

Note:  I just found this in drafts.  Better late than....