Fishies and Freshies

So I've naturally wanted to get my lady hooked on flyfishing. She'd had very little exposure to it but I was convinced that she'd get a kick out summertime hopper fishing. We approached the first run. This was the picture perfect spot to catch her first trout on the fly. A shallow undercut bank underneath some long grass hanging into the water. I get jonesin' just thinking about it. We had practiced casting in the yard a few times but she made a few warm up casts into the shallows upstream. Once she felt confident with it she plopped the hopper right up in the money zone. BAM! We had a riser and she set the hook so perfectly I couldn't believe it. "I got one!" she screamed out repeatedly. She was so giddy as I coached her bringing it in. I got it in the net and we celebrated her catch. She was so stoked. Another standard yet great fish for a stream of this size.
















This process repeated itself over the next couple hours. More great casts with perfect hooksets on EVERY fish. Simply put: the woman has hookset skills. I didn't have to tell her to set once, and this was only the third time fishing on the fly. I was impressed and stoked to say the least. The funniest part of it all is that each hookset was paired with the exact same, "I've got one! I got one! I got one!" as the first fish. I cracked up cause each time she screamed it as if I wasn't standing right next to her seeing it all happen. She was soo stoked with each fish.

The next highlight came as we approached a hole I knew all too well. There is certain 16" brownie that I'd been snubbed by twice already. The first day I came across him he swung out to inspect my bug at the end of a drift. It had already begun to drag so he denied it. I was stoked cause he was the biggest fish I'd seen in this stream thus far. I recast and he swung out and slowly chomped in a way reminiscent of videos I'd seen of huge NZ brownies. I set and he ran into the pool below and came unbuttoned. The second time the lady was will me as I showed her brother the stream for the first time. My attempt at redemption ended up in a missed hookset. Man, I suck. So this third time I wanted her to stick the local piggy. I told her where he'd be hanging out. She was nervous. We got ready and she made the cast. He appeared and as he was rising she pulled the fly out too early in anticipation. NO! Her first folly of the day. He didn't seem to spook so we waited a moment for the fish to settle and gave it a few more casts. On the last one it drifted in some shallow water around a rock and the beast emerged from the darker water. He hesitated for a moment before chomping the hopper down. True to form she set the hook and landed the beast like a champ. We discovered that that the trouble hooking up was due to the fact that half of the fishes bottom jaw was missing. In addition, the top half of the tail was also missing. I found it so odd to find two such major injuries on one fish. Other than that it was a gorgeous specimen. She couldn't believe it.























For me it doesn't get any better than this day. Spending time on a beautiful stream with my lady catching some gorgeous fish on hoppers. Sounds about right to me.