Muskie (part 1 of 7)

The wind was north and the river was calm here, the boat slowly stretching the tethers one at a time and bouncing back, a gentle and random disturbance.  Out behind the island the water was patchy where the air touched down in breaths.  One imagined the pattern to be a shadow of the tall pines on the island, but it was not so.  Far out on the open river far away from trees, the surface was blown in vast but delineated sections giving the impression that the air was far less isobaric than anyone ever knew.  I knew this would be a bad day to catch a fish and that was what it was; it was a bad day to catch a fish.  But let me clarify.  It was not a bad day to catch a fish, necessarily; rather it was a badly conditioned day to catch a fish.  

What where the conditions that made it particularly bad to catch a fish?

The conditions, namely the condition, was the north wind.  Ask anyone except for the cormorant if they have ever catched a fish when the wind was north.  No one ever has.  When the wind is north, the fish cannot be catched.  Maybe they want to be catched but they fail at that and we fail to catch them too.  

See, this is a two part system.  There is you (the catcher) and then there is the fish (the catch).  Both of you need to participate and meet together in order for a catching to happen.  And if there is no meeting there is no catching. 

Even without the problem of the north wind, getting a meeting of the catcher and the catch is difficult enough.  The river is big and the participants are small.