July 9th, 08

Tuesday Night Q&A

Date: July 09, 2008 at 15:03:22
From: ken, [pool-64-222-41-44.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: July 9th, 08

July 09th, 08

When you have fished a long, long time you notice that your old haunts come back to haunt you. Places and times and memories of fish and ways of fishing that you have not done in decades return and simmer in your unconscious wait to re-emerge again.

Giant tuna you have caught and the fights and the excitement of the first one. Marlin lighting up and crashing a bait so close to the stern that you could touch it if you thought of it at the time but you never do. First trout on a nymph when you were six or seven. First striper on a fly rod when you were with your dad in the boat at five.

Casting a big swimming plug with an eel skin on it and seeing an explosion the size of a Volkswagen beetle engulf it and the feel of that fist run when you were nine or ten.

Endless memories of fishing all night in the bay with your dad for days on end eating crackers and peanut butter and drinking Nehi non-carbonated orange soda and a sandwich now and then. Fishing in the canoe all night for largemouth bass with jitterbugs and crazy crawlers. Abbot Run and the blizzard hatches of light Cahill’s all through May and bluefish at Barrington beach every day all summer long.
Fishing the Hex hatch on the Wood River for years and years all alone and never seeing a soul there after the middle of May. Trolling Flatfish lures for trout on opening day in Wallum Lake and drinking hot chocolate out of a thermos and sandwiches that my mom made. Living at the beach all summer every summer and having my own outboard boat when I was old enough. Eleven years old was old enough then.

Riding my bike with a tackle box and waders and two rods and...
I do not know how I managed to do that all the time but I did.
Stalking Grasshoppers and catching them every time.
Watching a family of mice move along a mouse track with the mother carrying the little ones on her back.
Friends.

So much to remember and remember I do.
Life is sweet.

Posted with TalkShop version 2.71-8

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Follow Ups:

Re: July 9th, 08 Rick 09-Jul-2008 16:48:42 (2)

Re: July 9th, 08 Glenn 11-Jul-2008 09:48:14 (1)

Re: July 9th, 08 Rick 11-Jul-2008 19:31:48 (0)

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