Birthday Fishing (1 of 3)

I had myself another birthday last week. Well...not ANOTHER one for THAT week...but one for this year...and it happened to occur LAST week. Because birthdays give a person a little more leeway than typical, I guilted my brother into going fishing with me again. True, I did not have to twist his arm, but either way, I like to think he had fun (I know he did) and that there are few things better than fishing with family. We even managed to convince my niece Erin to come along. Though she didn't really fish much, I think she had a great time. Not once did she falter or complain during the six miles of hiking involved in fishing this spot.

The location is another one of those "secret" places and about as far as I will say is that it is in the wilderness and happens to be prime fishing and ideal bear habitat. Its not a place I would normally go alone...

A quick rest after finally making it down to water. The hike is easy and not particularly long. A quick breather, a few pebbles shaken out of the shoes and we were ready to go.

But first. Something Different...

This little patch of arrowleaf (I think) was covered in honey bees. At one time, there were five or six bees per flower. It was bee pandemonium. Thankfully, they were more interested in pollen than that big shiny object being shoved in their faces by non other than myself. Cool shots though.

Why did the chicken cross the road? Probably for the same reason that this chicken crossed the river. It wasn't to get to the other side though. That was a nice little hole that produced three fish for me, one for my brother and provided a great opportunity to loose fishing gear via snags. On the plus side, I found some flat foot's fly box wedged in the rocks that consisted of a number of bright, fancy flies that could probably knock a Goose out of the air. It was a good find...if I fished for chickens....crossing roads.

A rather nice cutthroat. Not a trophy by any means, but a good sample of what this river produces. In total, we caught about 30 fish. Some were of similar size, most were a little smaller and none were smaller than eight to ten inches. Good fishing.

A good start to a good day of fishing. A little rain and a lot of good company. Oh...and the fishing was great! More on the next two posts.