what a great morning!

It was just too good a morning not to go out and fish, but I didn't have much time so I went down to a housing development pond close by to make a few casts. We've had about 8" of rain in the last three days after a looong dry spell and I was expecting murky muddy water and not much action, but like I said, it was too nice a morning not to try, so off I went.

Turns out I was wrong. The lake was up, the water was stained, but not muddy, and as I approached the water, I could see pod after pod of bluegills working the edges of the newly flooded grass banks. Oh boy :D . I tied a black foam beetle on my 6' 3wt Avid and went to work.

I'd caught maybe a half dozen chunky little gills when I heard giggling. I looked to my right and about a dozen feet away I saw a kid sitting on a stump watching me. He must of been about six, maybe five, and had a bag of microwave popcorn in his hand. As he watched me fish, he was tossing pieces of popcorn on to the water. The way the gills came up to the popcorn it was obvious this was an ongoing ritual for both him and the fish. In order not to disturb his fish feeding, I moved off and started casting under an overhanging willow with as good of results as before.

The kid followed me, each time I'd catch a fish and release it, he'd inch a little closer. Never said a word the whole, just smiled and laughed as each fish came in. We did this for about a half hour when his dad came down to the water and started watching, too. Apparently, the little boy had been feeding the fish to get them to come close enough to see, but me catching them was the first time he'd seen them up close and out of the water. It was really cool. Normally I'm not much for fishing with an audience but this was different. I really enjoyed the experience, and who knows, maybe I planted a seed as well for the next generation of fly fishers.

What a wonderful way to start a day!