Over the last twenty years fishermen and baseball players have had some interesting superstitions.
I don’t know many of the baseball ones first hand but the fishing phobias I have down pat.
The old Banana in the boat is one nearly all fishermen know of, and clients eventually learn first hand. I can not remember how many times I have thrown a Banana overboard and wasted a few ours of fishing to get the stink off before the bite returned, this is exeptionally important on a steelhead trip as the bite has to be taken advantage of when it happens.
Now the past few years I have been coming accross a few Rattlesnakes, I have never killed one but usually go and check them out shoot a pic or just shoo em off the road. I was thinking that I was being nice as I kinda like reptiles in a naturalist sort of way.

Last month Seth Mklean and myself went overe the High Road to Melrose for a guides day off float fishing, we seen a Rattlesnake and stopped to shoot this picture and kindly escorted him off the road to safety. As we entered Seth’s monter truck to continue our journey he says I don’t think we should have done that. Upon questioning he said he killed one last year and the next day fishing was terrible on the Beaverhead, well if you knew Seth and the Beav that just don’t happen! I shrugged it off due to my kindness to the snake,,,,we had less than good fishing that day which is unusual as the day before with clients we crushed them on the same float, it did not register.
Four days ago Mark a friend from Cascade MT came down with four dead rattlers in a cooler, Eric the chef was wanting some to make a real cowboy dinner for us to try. That day we went down to the lower Jefferson with two boats Rooster, Mark, Ben and myself. We had gotten some reports of Drakes down by the Caverns and last year we had some good days in there about now. We floated 12 miles for 12 fish in two boats. I thought nothing of it as this section has fewer fish and we know how reports go, I like making them not following them.
The very next day (after eating rattlesnake) on the upper Big Hole the dry fly fishing was great in Joe’s boat (Joe did not eat the snake) but mine floating all around him with the same shit we could not hook them, they were biting but not getting hooked as if we had no hooks on our flies, it was on the verge of comical and or supernatural, I could see the fish open there mouth a chomp the bug and nothing. We tried streamers, the same thing BAM a hit and no fish, we had thirty or more bites and 5 to the boat with one rod in four hours, strange,,,,.
Last night it all came to me clear as day it is the “curse of the rattler” I instantly remembered last fall when Joe Macomber came from Colorado to film some steelhead fishing. We put in on a float I did the day before with Jason Boitano, we crushed the steelhead and some huge trout and a few bulls to make the day with Jason. The next day Joey, Newel and myself launch and head for the first run, big trout, next run a double steelhead on the same line, instant break off. The next four hours we had 0 action no trout, no steelhead, not even a whitey. Then comes the break off session, brand new leader breaking up in the fat stuff, we loose ten steelhead in a row and I am out of leaders and it is getting dark, finally on a home made leader we land one steelhead at the get out.

The clincher to the newly discoverd phobia, and now assumed responsable for the action of that day, this little guy caught by accident the night before one hole up from the get out 24 hrs and one minute before we finally laded a fish the day with Joe and Newel from Colorado.
Scanning what memories I have left this has happened at least three other times twice on the Yakima and once more last summer with Can-o-nasty.

Don’t mess with Rattle snakes or you will get the curse!