Writing my column this week took me four times longer than usual because I’m doing it left-handed.
Blame it on fishing.
My dominant hand is my right, and it is now encased in a cast and bandage while healing from a procedure called trapeziectomy, carp…something, arth… something, something…
I tell everyone who asks about the gnarly looking cast that it is the result of a fishing injury, TMBFF Syndrome (Too Many Big Friggin’ Fish).
Football players tear their ACLs, baseball players blow out their rotator cuffs. It seems to follow that anglers wreck their thumbs and index fingers fighting fish. I’m old, therefore some friends suggest it is simply arthritis. I disagree. The fish did it.
It started years ago but got worse in June while I was fishing in Idaho. After catching lots of trout three days in a row, including an amazing day on the Salmon River where Dottie and I caught a gazillion feisty cutthroat trout, my right thumb was so sore, even squeezing a tube of toothpaste brought me to my knees.
Later that day, writhing in agony while the trout in the Big Wood River next door blew bubbles inflated by schadenfreude, I realized the evidence was overwhelming: I have a fishing injury.
Fortunately, Sonoma has a renowned surgeon, Dr. Noah Weiss, a cutting-edge (forgive the pun) hand surgery pioneer in orthopedic procedures related to fixing this kind of condition. Thanks to Dr. Weiss, I will one day return to my favorite water sport, then write about it using both hands.
In the meantime I’m squeezing toothpaste with my elbow and learning to live left-handed. I will also depend a great deal on my fishing friends and loyal corps of co-fisher correspondents to send reports for this column.
The quality of the group was upgraded sharply this week when I had the pleasure of meeting award-winning news anchor and broadcast journalist Sydnie Kohara, now a resident of our Valley of the Moon.
While her three-decade career as a journalist is impressive, the most important thing is that Sydnie is a fly-fisher with many hours on the water, especially in pursuit of striped bass. She also works with San Francisco-based California Trout and helps that excellent conservation organization call attention to its many successful projects.
Sydnie, while managing her own media consulting business, also manages to go fishing, including time on the Napa River with Sonoma-based guide Patrick MacKenzie, and she is expanding her interest to do more fly-fishing for trout. As a loyal Sonoman, I’m hopeful she’ll add some excellent reports to this space.
* Fishing this week has been great for rock and ling cod off the Sonoma Coast, while the salmon action has slowed. Call Capt. Rick Powers at Bodega Bay Sportsfishing, 875-3344, for the latest reports and to make reservations for a fishing trip on his party boat.
You may also find some salmon out of the Golden Gate. Capt. Trent Slate of Bite Me Charters, who works out of Loch Lomond Marina in San Rafael, 415-307-8582, is the best guy to fish with in or outside the gate. Right now fishing in San Francisco Bay is slow, but the salmon could be arriving in good numbers so near California City.
There are some big salmon being caught in the Sacramento River. Call guide Kirk Portocarrero 530-221-6151.
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