Humbled, Beat, Tired and the X

So I have been on a lot of fishing trips in my day, but I would have to say that this one ranks up on my list as one of the toughest trips ever. The fishing was hard to say the least. We arrived on the lake Friday afternoon with the hopes of catching a few very large trout. Everything seemed perfect, there was a slight breeze, ok cloud cover and we were marking fish all over with the finder. The only problem is that what ever we threw at them must have not been the right color, size, texture or who knows what??? I first tried Chroniods nymphed deep. Then we threw streamers with all different retrieves. Then tried Dansel dries, nymphs. Then to top off the night we tried to match the midge hatch and catch some of the smaller fish that were rising, but they to didn't want what we had. As the full moon arose over the mtn side. I decided I couldn't be skunked and went and stocked the shorelines with my mouse and streamers, but sure enough the fish were king on this day and Wayne's and myself were left with tired arms and broken spirits. I couldn't believed that it actually happened. Through out the night I just kept thinking what I was doing wrong and couldn't think of really anything else I could have done better. I finally came up with the conclusion that I knew the fish were rising for the occasional midge, so they must be keying on them and the emergence, but they were so random that the best way to target them was with chroniods fished at about 14 ft to imitate the emergence of the larva. So the next morning I did just that and after 2 light bites. I watched as my indicator bobbed twice, I set the hook and the 100s of pounds of sand on my back was lifted off. It wasn't the fish that I was after on this trip, but it was a fish and more than that it showed that when fishing is tuff and the fish are hanging deep because they feed all night I could still figure out a technique to out smart one. After that fish I missed a few more and the morning was over. It's funny, its times like these that I really find out why I love the sport of fly fishing and where I'm at in the sport. Its hard, demanding, technical, detailed, takes knowledge, and skill. Right when you think that you have done your homework and learned all about stillwater fishing, damsel flies and chorniods. The fish don't act like they should and you are right back to square one. It's not just about learning bugs and water types, its about understanding trout and the way they act to certain situations in their lives at the current condition. (ex: I didn't think to factor in the water temp until after we were done. The water was 70 degrees and that is another reason why we needed to fish deeper to get to them in the cooler deeper water) I can look at this trip in two ways, one I can say it sucked and I hate fishing lakes or I can look back on the experiences and learn from what I did right and wrong and put that in my knowledge, so I will be a wiser and smarter fisherman the next time I go out.