By Dave Bates For the Observer-Reporter Have you ever noticed that the more you expect something to be a certain way the more disappointing the outcome? If a hunt is overplanned then certain expectations just naturally accompany that hunt. Frustration sets in when that magic buck fails to materialize at twilight. Birds escape into cover without offering a clean shot and it seems as though we are hideously unprepared for the flush.
Fish don’t bite even though the fishing has been awesome in the weeks leading up to our trip. It occurred to me the other morning, as I looked over at my big brother reeling in another rather nice smallmouth shortly after sunrise, that the reason our trip had turned out so wildly successful was that we really didn’t expect anything. We drove across Pennsylvania with relatively few expectations.
Sure, we planned to go fishing, but we trekked across the state without any real plan of how things might unfold. Our guide was basically an unknown quantity, although he seemed like a nice enough young fellow. Neither Glenn nor I have much of a fishing pedigree, our background with boats is nil.
We possessed no real idea of where we were going, what we were doing, nor the skills to accomplish anything in particular. We were operating on blind faith ..
. devoutly trusting in the fact that we were headed into the outdoors to have fun and enjoy each other’s company, eat a few suppers out and take in the sights that Mother Nature had to offer. To say that w.
