Fishing lures in the wind

On Veterans Day, during a drive through Maryland’s Washington County, I took a side trip to see Dam No. 5, also known as the Honeywood Dam, on the Potomac River. It was a sunny but cold and blustery day, with some big winds bending trees and the dried sorghum I passed on the way through farm country. Access to Honeywood has been limited for more than a year as the National Park Service conducts a big construction project to stabilize the Maryland side of the 19th Century dam.

As I approached to get a closer look, I saw what appeared to be fishing lines looping into the air below the dam. At the end of the lines were fishing lures of some kind, but the wind was so strong, blowing directly downstream, that the lures curled back toward the two anglers who cast them. I assumed they were inexperienced in fishing in strong winds, or perhaps I had witnessed their first casts, before adjustments for weather. If there ever was a day for low, side-arm casting into a plunge pool, it was this one.

I also scratched my head a bit about how those two guys got to their fishing positions below the dam — and why they wanted to fish in such harsh wind. But it was a national holiday, right? And, on a day away from your job, you never let a little thing like a 30 mph wind stop you, even if your lure lands only 10 feet away.