I’ve spent the last few weeks in unusual rhythms. My daily habit of morning fishing is broken, and time on the water has been relegated to dog walks after dark. Since the day before Christmas, I’ve fished only three times . . . and that feels a little strange.

All three of those trips were a battle against the flu, as I tried desperately to help my body regulate heat efficiently while swinging wildly between hot and cold.

I had grand plans for fishing trips with friends across these first two weeks of the year, with overnight stays on destination trips and more. But that all fizzled out when the flu took over. No Christmas. No New Year’s Eve fun. I just hunkered down in survival mode for the worst of it.

The doctor said that pneumonia set in after the flu, and he prescribed an antibiotic. That was two weeks ago now, and I’m back to about ninety percent. Not sure I can remember being so sick for so long.

So I haven’t fished much. But I hate inaction and idle time. So I’ve replaced fishing hours with writing hours. In truth, I could be back out there wading, casting and catching again, but I’ve fallen into a daily cycle of coffee at the keyboard all morning, then orange juice and editing until bedtime. Sure, family stuff and other commitments have broken the spell on occasion, but I’m working fast on the book project that I’ve been looking toward for so many years. That’s the silver lining of this sickness. And once I start a big project, I don’t like to stop.

Rise and write. Eat and edit. My kids are a little tired of me tapping on the laptop and reminding them I’m working when they come through the room. My wife understands it. She’s seen this from me before.

I think I might finish the first draft of this manuscript before the calendar flips to February.

Troutbitten Website Winter Header, Circa 2014

There is nothing I enjoy more than writing and editing. I was a child in the eighties, and I distinctly remember my first experience with word processing software, probably close to 1990. It was AppleWorks on an Apple IIgs machine. The smooth cuts and free movement of words, sentences and paragraphs seemed like new magic that I should never again be without. The organization of thoughts and ideas opened a new world of possibilities. This was a seminal moment, and I was thereafter drawn to the process of putting words on a screen and thoughts into chapters.

So here I am. Forty-thousand words into a project that I’ve planned to tackle for a long time. Last year in January, I wasn’t sure how exactly to write a book covering the Mono Rig. With a topic I’ve written about for a decade, I needed a path, a plan, a way to condense the system into book form. I sensed that it was too big for one book, and I needed a vision.

I understand now. And this is a lot of fun.

This first book details the Mono Rig at its baseline, with a deep focus on why and how we use the tight line advantage and the transcendent versatility of the method. Later books will cover streamer presentations and maybe another text on critical nymphing concepts. Further down the line, I plan to write a few books that break away from the tight line style, perhaps one on small stream fishing and another on fishing dry flies. Someday I may also put together a collection of favorite stories.

I’ve always written within the article format, so the space to branch out into a book is liberating. Initially, I planned for a fresh rewrite of every concept on the Mono Rig. Then I spent two days laying out the chapters for the book, and I clearly saw a better plan. I’m building this book around many of the key articles from the last ten years of Troutbitten. I’m building a framework with concepts and designs around the podcasts and videos, around multiple series that have become cornerstones of Troutbitten. Around this skeleton I have the space to add sections and paragraphs, to flesh out ideas and merge elements. Bringing all this together into one cohesive text that spans a couple hundred pages is an endeavor that I’ve anticipated for a long time.

This is rewarding work.

Season fourteen of the Troutbitten Podcast begins soon as well. Austin and I have been recording a ten part skills series on Streamer Presentations, and I’m eager to publish and share those conversations. Videos are germinating in the background, and the Troutbitten Project is building with a steady hum.

It’s a good start to a new year. It’s all a little different than I imagined, but sometimes, things fall in line as they should.

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Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com