I haven't been fishing in quite a while. We are under some construction at our home which has had us living with my in laws for going on two months so as you could imagine...things have been in quite an uproar.
So what do you do when you have a fly fishing blog but aren't fishing?
You rehash the past!!!!!!
1989...
I am on the banks of Lake Norris. Summer. Late at night. We were catfishing (yea, I know it isn't fly fishing but like I said I haven't been in a while so work with me here!).
The routine was the same on each trip we took that summer. Get there about dark, start a good fire, chum up the water, and load multiple rods with chicken liver. Now...here was the trick. After casting out the line, we would take a bottle with just enough water in it to keep it upright, and wrap the line around the lip. After rigging all the lines like this, we would go sit by the fire and shoot the bull. Shortly you would hear one of the bottles fall over. Get up, walk over and pick up the rod, line moves again, set the hook. You got yourself a catfish. This "bottle fall method" worked like a charm all summer and we caught a bunch of catfish.
Many mornings I have watched the sun rise over the mountains of my hometown while sitting on a lake bank with my buddies. We would come dragging in the next morning, smelling to high heaven; woodsmoke, fish, chicken livers. Not exactly a sweet smell.
Times are much different now. Lives go different directions. People move. Hobbies are redefined, or in some cases dropped altogether. Yet time and time again I go back and relive these moments...and though I know I can never go back, I often wish that the pace of life as I live it now were a little closer to the days when I was younger, thinner, and for some reason more at ease.
Now I sit in a sterile office amidst stacks of paper, a few drawings my kids have made, and a photo of My Jill which is always in view. And on the wall above my desk is a photo of myself and my oldest friend. Fly rods in hand, river flowing wild behind us. I can hear it, I can smell it...I just can't get to it...and that is probably the most difficult memory of all....
