Fishing Buddies

Yesterday I went fishing with my two favorite fishing buddies, my brother, Dan and my wife, Lori. It was a spectacular day. The temperature was 72 degrees without a cloud in the sky. As we arrived in the pasture at McClellan's the river was on the bottom after a long summer of high water. The two cars there departed leaving the finest stretch of trout water in the state of Arkansas to the three of us. I looked downstream and for the first time in months I saw that my favorite hole was available. Due to the fine weather and perfect water conditions I decided to wet wade. I hastily threw on my boots, grabbed my rod and vest, and made a beeline for the hole.

When I had traveled about halfway down, I heard Dan on my walkie-talkie. He was heavily involved with a monster fish. He had severely injured his right hand earlier in the year and while he is healing was not only casting left handed but also fighting a trophy fish left handed. The fish fought like a maniac, jumping like a wild bronco. It was an epic struggle, but after a lengthy battle, Dan landed an incredibly fat, brightly colored, and fully finned twenty-two inch rainbow trout. This fish would have been a challenge for the rest of us to land with the full use of both hands.

Dan was my first fishing buddy. He introduced me to fly-fishing and is my partner in business. We have fished together from Montana to the Smokies. I stood there for a while and watched him cast. Left-handed he was banging out sixty feet with perfect loops. It was easy to understand that he was the first FFF certified casting instructor in Tennessee and his injury has not slowed him down. He can still out cast and out fish the majority of us. In an odd way, I think his injury has made him a better instructor. It has forced him to hone his skills with the left-handed cast.

I continued downstream and Lori joined me. We began casting Norfork bead heads in the run and started catching fish immediately. We were in doubles almost constantly for three hours. The smallest fish we caught was a fifteen-inch brown and the largest was an eighteen-inch rainbow. The fish were fat from constantly feeding in the high water this summer. All of them fought ferociously.

I took a break from the action to try a hopper. As I was standing there rigging up, I watched Lori. She is a fish-catching machine. I have never seen anyone that fished with that much intensity. Nothing existed but the trout and the indicator. She caught them one after the other and never tired of the process.

Lori is the love of my life and also my business partner. We are soul mates. My only regret is to have met her late in life. Together we have also fished from Montana to the Smokies. When we have a rare day off from guiding we spend it together on stream.

We only fished a few hours but enjoyed a magical afternoon. On the way home, I thought about how important our fishing buddies are to us. They can teach us concentration or how to cast. They can make a tough day better and turn a good day into a memorable occasion. They are there to take the picture of the biggest fish you ever caught, show you their favorite hole, or give you their last cookie. They share the triumph of landing a trophy fish, the pride in tying your own flies, or the beauty of a heron in flight.

They are what make fishing special!