Fly & Drive

Wow! How life can get away from you if you let it. Sorry I haven’t written anything in a while.  That’s assuming there’s anyone reading this to care. Well since my last post about Gigi and me taking our first trip together in the new boat we have gone fishing again over Father’s Day. The river is still running rampant but the tributaries are clearing up and leaving more of the river fishable. We both caught several fish and had a great time. How could you not have a great time fishing? That is barring the serious tragedies. I can’t think of a single time when I was fishing that I didn’t have a good time. Even the times when I was fishing by some other means than fly fishing, which is dam seldom. Not that I am a purist or anything I just enjoy fly fishing way more than any other type of fishing. Although it is a bit of a stretch to call the fishing I’ve been doing lately fly fishing. I mean really! I fish with a bobber (called a strike indicator by fly fishers) and put split shot on my line, then I use a fly tied to resemble a worm. If I wasn’t using a fly rod, fly line, and worm created in a fly tying vise it wouldn’t be fly fishing. Personally I think all fishing is good, but will fly fish over all others if given a choice. I am so looking forward to the next 5 days. It is my 19^th wedding anniversary we are going to spend the next two days fishing ending with a fly fishing film festival/tour thing in the trout town of Craig, MT. The films will be shown on an outdoor deck with plenty of adult beverages. It amounts to a great small town street party in a trout town (my favorite kind). Then we will head to Ennis, MT (another trout town but with unfishable water due to the horrendous amount of run off) and will spend two days running fly shops and playing golf. Gigi has taken a pretty strong liking to golf and fly fishing is my true second love. So every year on our anniversary we do our annual “Fly & Drive” trip. Fly fishing and driving golf balls. Usually we do the fishing farther from home but our home water is the only fishable water in the state right now. I have a pretty deadly cast out to 40 feet and not to bad beyond that, but I can’t hit a golf ball for shit. For me golf is a great way to send time outdoors with my wife and, what else, smoke cigars and drink bourbon. The weather is going to cooperate that is if the weather man is not full of horse pucky. Well Gigi just came home and read what I have just written. She (in a way only my wife could do) informed me she can think of several times that I didn’t enjoy going fishing when I was “cussing and swearing”. Well those were portions of trips when she was rowing or not fishing correctly, but that is another story for another time. I did enjoy those trips though even though there might have been some shall we say tense moments. I have since mellowed and all is well going into year twenty. I need to go now. There are leaders to tie and mend as well as other chores to prepare for the Fly & Drive like making sure the cigars and bourbon got put in the camper. Here’s hoping to see you on the river.