This past week, we traveled to the Parkland Region of Manitoba, a region slowly being discovered for the large average size trout in the managed lakes. It is likely the most user friendly location to catch trout 5 to 15 pounds, most anglers who know the basics of hanging flies under indicators will catch 5 to 8 lb trout. We chose Manitoba as Andrew loves to fish his home turf and because I'm working on a project to help bring more anglers to a region that needs more anglers to support what is going on with these trophy managed lakes (gov $ need to have definitive results in order that the project continues). Prior to leaving, we all knew what to expect. I was traveling for the enjoyment of company, a break from the computer (we've been going hard for 2 months home from New Zealand), and to take photos of the various lakes and trout (tigers, browns, rainbows). We were going to catch trout, many nice trout, and once hooked, we'd land the majority. It would be a fun, enjoyable, predictable trip.
But something happened along the way. The trip started innocently enough. We fished one lake known for its large, hard fighting rainbows and good sized browns. We hooked several and while the fights were great, the day went as planned. We fished another lake for the great population of rainbows and had a very enjoyable day with countless fish, landing most of what was hooked. Very fun stuff. Again, predictable as it was in line with what was anticipated. Andrew wanted to have another look at a lake with giant rainbows, though the hook up rate is low, his best day was 6 hook ups prior to this trip. We arrived and within 25 minutes we all had a rainbow landed. It was fun, the fights amazing, the trout large. Staggering sizes, honestly. The trout kept coming. We hooked up about 20 trout in 2 1/2 hrs and all were 6 to 13 lbs. Impressive! But it wasn't completely intoxicating because most were landed once they turned out of the danger zones. Regardless the size, the predictability factor kicked in. The true joy for me was watching Amelia in a giggle fest with these giants; in watching Andrew have a blast on a wonderful breakthrough day. 
Then we changed things up and went to explore the lake. And then entered extreme unpredictability! Like seeking out trout in small creeks and keeping them out of danger, like skulking spooky trout that spook at errant casts, or walking hours on end in an ankle deep stream just to discover a knee deep trough with one gorgeous trout holding, what unfolded became an hilarious game of "Good Luck Chuck!" We began to work all the structure in the lake and when the trout hit, our lines went insane. Most fish screamed around the structure - you simply held on, watching the fly line scream like a freight train full speed downhill. One minute they were on the inside of a reed line or log stack, the next they were coming at you and jumping at the boat. 50% of them simply screamed away, into the structure, wrapping your line around it, jumping mercilessly to snap your 1X. Andrew hooked one fish that flew into shore, snapped him off, and within 15 seconds was out in the middle of the lake jumping repetitively in effort to shake the hook in its mouth. We hooked over 50 fish, I'm sure. Amelia out fished us all, both in sizes and numbers. But we all had a whale of a day. 
In conversation at the end of the day, I got to thinking why that day was amazing. Sure, the sizes and numbers were impressive, but a fish is a fish - if the outcome is predictable, the edge is taken off the fishing. Each of us has our own edge of predictability, the extremes that maybe you don't expect to catch a single fish or you fish all the time and expect to hook up most everything you line up on. Through the evolution as anglers, we seek many things in our why. In this trip's case, we had no idea what was going to happen when we hooked up, and that was why we returned the next 2 days. Once we found fishing that was so unpredictable, we were hooked, the fisherman in us took over. On other trips, however, it has been the seeking of a particular video, a photo, or observation. In New Zealand this year, we honed in on tiny spring creeks and each day we fed a growing addiction to tiny spring creeks that likely held no fish but we had to explore them to find out. The smaller the better. The further the hike through stunning topography the better. We hiked hundreds of kilometers and took all sorts of amazing photos and reams of video usually to line up on 1 or 3 trout that often couldn't help but smash a fly. And in those situations, the fight often far impressed vs the take, and the photo and video of the often stunning trout topped all else. It's that kind of unpredictability that keeps us spellbound... and seeking new ways to make our fly fishing as unpredictable as possible. In turn, the photos, videos, and observations of the environment, fish, bugs, birds... everything simply keeps our senses tingling. What a wonderful sport!
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