After yesterday’s excitement, I woke up like a seven-year-old on Christmas morning. Similarly, as if by necessity, Sam woke up as do most parents on Christmas morning- slowly. Likely, I was too excited to notice, but within minutes of packing up breakfast, we found ourselves at the boat launch at Little Hole, and the first visitors in the parking lot. I had decided to hike upstream from where our trip yesterday had finished in hopes of beating the other fishermen to the spots along the river bank that I had made notes of a day ago. I figured on hiking a mile or so upriver before I started fishing in order to spend the most time possible at the choicest location. The river section nearest to Little Hole widened and flattened out making it difficult for the wading angler to cast into the perfect spot in the eddy line. Similar to yesterday, the fish were visible from the riverbank and it didn’t take long to cave to Sam’s pleas to “start fishing already!”
Looking back on it, I blame myself for perhaps not taking the time in the educator role that Curtis had spent with Sam yesterday, but I soon found myself at the opposite end of the eddy from her with my eyes glued to the water and Sam’s sounds of frustration washed out by the harmonies of the river. Not surprisingly, the combination of inexperience, high water, and an over-abundance of riparian brush served to neatly confound Sam into wanting to give up.
To my frustration, yesterday’s excitement had not managed to burrow deeply enough under Sam’s skin to carry over to the next day. After untangling her line from the brush behind her three or four times, I realized that my fishing plans for the day would not go as planned. It seemed that I was going to have to quit fishing and leave the majestic Green River earlier than planned if I was to protect the happiness of my rolling home and hearth. 
An hour later as I reached my first fishing hole, I began to miss my fishing companion and wondered how I was going to take pictures of myself once I had landed my first big fish of the day. Having hiked about a mile and a half upstream from the Little Hole boat ramp, I waded slowly into the eddy from the back edge, false casted a few times to extract some line from my reel, and placed my flies directly into the line of flotsam that garnished the eddy-line. In mere seconds, the indicator dipped below the surface and I lifted the rod tip to set the miniscule hook. The rush of the fight that ensued was better than any trout fishing I had ever experienced as the near 19” brown trout began to run out into the current and the deeper water. Keeping light tension on the line, I guided him back towards the eddy and slowly towards my person relishing every second. As the fish tired, I began to fiddle with my landing net hooked to the back of my collar- a system that worked in theory but floundered in practice. 
Once I managed to unhook the net from its loop, it fell into the water adding one more step to my awkward dance. The fish filled my net from end to end and began thrashing about while I attempted to figure out how I would be photographing the beast. One handed operation of most small digital cameras is complicated by wet slimy hands, and mine was no exception.The next fish, I was ready for- a rainbow of equal size to the first brown I had landed, I easily scooped up with my conveniently placed net at the water’s edge! As the morning wore on, I realized that aside from company, my former angling partner had absconded with our small bag of provisions.
Near about 2:00 with the sun high in the sky, the fishing began to slow further encouraging me to pack it in. I had mastered the art of self photography courtesy of a tri-pod sized rock at the river bank, and had no container to pack out any of the day’s catch so I slowly fished back towards the car. Sam had been occupying herself with a few books and enjoying the warm comfortable weather, and to my relief was not nearly as cross as I had expected. At her suggestion, we went to bed early with the intention of fishing a few hours the following day prior to our 8 hour cruise to Colorado. 
No comments:
Post a Comment