Can you guess where J and I spend a spring vacation this year? Yep, part of the vacation was a day at Death Valley. I can tell you it was pretty nice sitting at a picnic bench eating lunch at the visitors' center in late February in shirt sleeves and 70 degree weather. Weiser would be a month and a half away from 70. We had an unusually cold and dry spring. Not real terribly cold, just kept hanging about 10-15 degrees below normal for the longest time. I had to completely replant the garden this year and am looking at planting the green beans yet again. Darn. There is an old saying around here that one should not plant their garden until the snow is off Mt. Cornucopia. How true, but waiting until the middle of May seemed a little extreme. Mind the old sayings. Local wisdom is hard to beat. 
The fellow pix above is a character in the finest sense of the word. Marv spent eighteen years guiding trout fishermen in Alaska. He has been invited to Scotland on some occaisions by his clients to fish for salmon. He loves to fish, smoke a fine Cuban cigar, appreciates 18-year McCallum Scotch, and can tell wonderful stories. And he can catch fish, tie flies and drive an 18-wheeler all over the country during fire season. Oh, yeah. And he is a really wonderful gentleman. 
Went trout fishing with five buddies from the Indian Head Fly Fishers (IHFF) club today. The fishing was fantastic. The catching, well, one never wants to start off with too big of a bang, you know. Don't want to ruin the expectations for future trips. Jim, Perry and I caught nothing. Marv caught 22 (so he says) and Mike caught a bunch and Jim caught a few. Perry called me later in the evening about some Little Theater business and was wondering if I happened to come across a little lost luck while cleaning out the pickup. Ya, right! Marv rode up to the lake with me and seems to have soaked up all the luck for the day. But, the day was wonderful and it felt so good bobbing around in my float tube on clean water and breathing crystal clear air.
I did have a really big fish on for about two minutes. Never could get it up off the bottom. It made one really big run on me and took me down to the backing on my fly reel. Then it broke off. Dirty Rack of Bricks@%@!#$$%&^!
The lily pads and flowers? In my front yard. The pond is doing well this year. The algae is under control and the gold fish are thriving. Maybe I should try fly fishing in my own pond. Might have better luck.
2 comments:
I think you could find some backyard fishing buddies around here!
Great pics and I'm enjoying seeing PapaCoyote back in my Google reader!
We will have to get them over here. I am taking grandniece, C, fishing Sunday at Celbration Park. Her Daddy is buying a license and is going, too. He went fishing and backpacking with me from the time he was seven until seventeen and has not been fishing since. C has a new spinning reel and rod that Daddy bought her a month ago and has been practicing. She can cast well now and can even hit a target. She is chomping at the bit to go fishing. I think we are going to have a fun afternoon. Hope we can catch a few.
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