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Most of you already know I managed to enjoy
three weeks off from my writing here. It was
a joy I won't forget. Funny thing is that I
took a few days to go to the Bighorn, but that
was about all the time I really got to spend
fishing. I was busy, but fishing wasn't part
of that busy stuff for the most part. I'll
tell you more about the fishing next week, but
this week I want to tell you about things I
planned to do but didn't get the chance.
First of all, I planned to fish. Boy, did I
ever plan to fish. I had a total of 12 days
off over 2.5 weeks to fish. I fished 6, and
two of those were just a couple of hours. Not
that I didn't have a good time fishing, but
other things just popped up to consume the rest
of my time. Heck, I didn't even get some of the
other chores around the house finished. I ran
out of time.
My first "fishing day off" was spent working on
my grandson's computer. As miracles sometimes
work, he managed to fry his hard drive, and I was
just available for the work. I spent two hours
working on the computer, and 8 hours looking for
the info for the motherboard someone managed to
lose. I got it working, but there went a fishing
day.
The next day I spent most of it with the wife's
family. We had a great time, but it wasn't fishing.
I was just hot to go fishing too, but some things
just have to wait you know. I did get to visit
the local stream for 3 hours that evening, and
caught 11 fish, but that is not the way I had
planned it. I wanted to go for a day. Oh well,
there was still a fishing trip coming up, so all
wasn't lost.
Wednesday was the first day of my planned fishing
vacation, so I spent all morning getting stuff
ready to go. By early afternoon I had everything
ready to go and checked twice. I even spent part
of the afternoon remodeling the upstairs of the
garage so I could move around up there easier.
Shelves were hung and stuff was placed on those
shelves to open up the floor. I barely finished
in time to take the wife out to eat. The taking
out to eat was my idea. Just something I think
makes the days apart a bit easier to handle.
My normal fishing partner for the Bighorn is a
dentist. That usually doesn't matter much, but
it did this time. By the time I got back from
dinner with the wife, there was a message waiting
for me on my answering machine. My fishing partner
(Erik) was going to work the evening and next
morning doing an emergency identification and
toxicology study on a foreigner who happened to
die under strange circumstances. Drugs will do
that to you folks, even if you aren't in your home
country. We left at about two in the afternoon.
By the time we arrived on the Bighorn, it was
about eight in the evening. There was plenty
of light to fish, but neither one of us wanted
to waste a day for a couple of hours getting our
flies wet. Instead, we went to visit the lake,
visited friends and got everything ready for the
next day. In case you didn't know it, our area
of the world is in the midst of a long run of
dry weather. Except for one month in 1999, we
are in the seventh year of drought. It is so
dry around the Bighorn, that the grass is still
brown. The water level in the river is down about
8 ft from the normal June full rate.
We fished the next 3 ½ days. Most of the people
on the river were crying Bambi tears about low
water and few fish. I'll fill you in on the
details next week, but Erik and I had a great
time. By noon of each day we had caught at least
100 fish apiece. They were trout, but most lacked
the normal size, running between 8 and 15 inches.
We each caught fish over 20 inches too, but most
were small. Funny thing is, we each caught more
fish over 16 inches than the others did; but we
did it differently. I'll fill you in next week.
Erik had to leave Monday afternoon, so we were
forced into a short session. I'm not complaining
though. I'm guessing I caught at least 450 to 500
trout in those days. That is more than I have ever
caught on that river in so few days, and far more
than the others there had been catching. Erik had
similar results. I had numerous times when six
casts resulted in six fish, and sometimes another
fish would replace a missed fish before I got my
line in. It was worth it.
Tuesday I fished at home for about two hours before
it started to rain. I got the garage upstairs fully
ready for future installments and watched a lot of
TV. I think I needed that too. Sometimes you get
so wound up in the other things of life, that you
forget to take a moment for yourself.
I'd love to tell you I got to fish the weekend of
the 4th of July, but that didn't happen. We had
a house full of visitors (seven). The wife went
all over the hills showing visitors the fun things
we have here for kids. I stayed home and watched
TV, mowed the yard and hid from the rain. In fact,
we have had about half of our annual rain this month.
My grass is green and growing. If it keeps up like
this, we will actually catch up for the year. Maybe
the drought is about over? I guess we'll wait and
see. In any case, it is a relief.
So, did I have fun? You bet! And, I owe a lot of
it to a friend who does some of the best writing
I have seen. Charlie Place is a great writer, and
I would assume that he could take my place any time
without a missed stroke. Thanks Charlie. You filled
my days with some peace of mind. I owe you buddy. ~ AC
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