Find a stream and start your day with ‘10 before work’

Gary McNeese calls his self-help well-being enhancement program '10 before work.' 

Starting the day by catching 10 smallmouth bass cleanses the sleep-induced cobwebs from your brain, stimulates your senses, sharpens your wits, induces the flow of mood-elevating adrenaline and gets your day off to a pleasant and positive start, according to McNeese, who has been practicing the regimen, whenever stream conditions permit, for much of his life.

Since Gary has never been anything but upbeat and fun to be around in the more than 10 years I've known him, it would seem his techniques should be widely popularized through TV infomercials.

Gary's invitation to join him Tuesday morning could not have come at a better time, with protracted high, muddy water on the Wapsipinicon River consistently preventing engagement in my own similar program, '20 before dark,' which yields many of the same benefits plus something to look forward to all day.

By regularly patrolling much of the flowing water in Linn County, Gary assures a steady supply of prospective catches and maintains a mental database of secret spots likely to be frequented by smallmouth bass.

The stream we visited Tuesday was often less than 20 feet wide and so shallow the morning sun penetrated to the bottom in all but the deepest shaded holes.

Such conditions call for extreme stealth and circumspection. To avoid detection by the wary bass, Gary crouched among the tall weeds lining the bank. Though I could seldom see him from my vantage 50 feet upstream, I could occasionally see his lure, a floating Rapala minnow-imitating crankbait, fly through the air and alight in the creek.

Depending upon where it landed, he would either retrieve it back upstream or let it float farther downstream. To my surprise I saw one bass strike when it was merely floating with no action at all imparted by the angler.

To ensure a better than fair chance that I would enjoy the full '10 before work' experience, Gary positioned me at the top of a long, shaded run underlain by gravel, cobble and rocks big enough to trip over. He also pointed out several features known to be preferred fish holding spots and left me to my pleasure.

Within half an hour I had exceeded the prescribed minimum daily requirement. Having relegated himself to less auspicious bass habitat, Gary took awhile longer to catch his quota.

Fully invigorated for his day's work, Gary left the stream for his job promptly at 7:30.

Since I was already at what I could arguably define as work, I lingered a while longer.

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