Today is September 15, 2017. You know what that means?

This is the longest I have gone in any month this year without catching a fish. 15 whole days. And, I haven’t even tried. I have not gone fishing once in the month of September.

January? I caught fish. February? Fish. Even those two cold months started off with fish in hand. The springtime and summer were easy enough. Bass, trout, you name it.  Salt, fresh, warm, cold.

But here I am, halfway through the ninth month of the year, with no fin to show for it.

“But you just moved, certainly that is a perfectly reasonable excuse!” you might say. Unloading boxes and remodeling are precisely why I should be fishing.

Someone much more levelheaded might make the argument: “You’re complaining about not fishing for two weeks after you’ve been able to go fishing every month this year – probably multiple times? I haven’t gotten to go fishing nearly that much! Most people would be happy to just get out once every few months!”

That is a good argument. But it defeats the point of this post, so I’ll ignore it.

Some  people fish 300 days a year, some people fish 3 days a year. Both have their merits. Both can be too much or not enough depending on life circumstances. Personally, I use “did I catch a fish this month” as my subjective rubric to determine if I’ve been fishing too much or not enough.

So 15 days isn’t terrifying.

It does mean that I have 15 days left. And the brookies are getting colorful, the bass are still in the river, and blues are in the estuary mouths.

So the opportunities are still prevalent.  And optimism reigns. And a lot can happen in 15 days.