Rainbows For Dave

I ran into Dave a number of times on the Salmon River last week. Each time was towards the end of a really good day for me. He wasn't having the best of luck. We chatted some. He just started fly fishing this year, during the spring he had good luck but all summer and fall he blanked. The second time we saw each other he expressed interest in being guided. I was eager to help.

This evening I met Dave on the Salmon and was greeted with good conditions for fish catching: rises everywhere! I have had minimal guiding experience and was a bit nervous but hopeful that all would go well. Fortunately for me it didn't take long. I tied one of my Griffith's Gnats on Dave's tippet and a hungry trout came up to grab it. It tool a little while to get the next one, but in the tail of the flat pool up came a buck rainbow for a Tenkara style caddis. It was a gorgeous fish, and it fought powerfully, making an impressive leap out of the water. That little Caddis got eaten a bunch more time, and though a good number of them threw the hook and one particularly good one lodged it on the bottom, one more made it to hand. Dave was very happy. I was thrilled. It couldn't have gone better. Good fishing, beautiful weather and scenery, and good conversation. It doesn't get much better than that.

Tomorrow promises to be wonderful too: David Gallipoli, Nunzio Incremona and I are going to fish for some big trout in the Farmington River.