At this early stage of my fly fishing career, a trophy to me is any that winds up in my hand. It's all relative. I still catch more leaves than fins.
Caneybuff's reply reminded me of something I had written. This is kind of fits here, and everytime I share it I feel like I am honoring the two guys that got me into fishing.
Successful FishingI love to catch fish. Little fish, big fish, bait fish, course fish and sport fish. My favorite is medium sized fish, whatever that might be for the species I’m fishing for that day. Might mean a 16” rainbow trout, a 6-pound largemouth, a 15-pound striper or a pound and a quarter crappie.
Tiny fish are pretty but they just lack the physical strength to send real energy up the line and down to the cork. The kind of real energy that makes my pulse race. Big fish can be awesome but I worry about their survival after a long battle. The few big fish I have had the chance to catch were enjoyable moments, however they don’t send the full of life energy up the line to the cork handle. They are strong, and pull and are heavy but there is just something they lack. Those medium size guys suit me just fine.
They fight well for their size and make the rod come alive in my hands. My hands send an image to my brain with every throb and shake in the rod and in that image I can see the headshake and the dive and the jumps and the rolls. That’s sure enough a successful moment for me.
I love to catch fish, but I really love to go fishing. Don’t get me wrong. I hate to get skunked. I’m not just out there for the birds and the bees and the beavers. I am there to catch fish. I don’t have to take a rod or tie any knots to go out and watch the woods or the desert or the plains. I do that too, but it’s not the same. I really love to go fishing because it takes me back to my earliest memories of my favorite times spent with my grandfather and my father. That makes each trip a success.
Every time I go fishing, without fail, my mind rewinds. It takes me back to when I was 6 years old and the time my dad’s dad came by the house and picked me up to take me to the lake on a Monday. Daddy was to come up and join us Friday night after he got off of work. We camped and fished all week, just Granddaddy and me. That was in 1967, and we were mostly catch and release guys even then. We did keep a mess of crappie to take home to Mama but we didn’t eat no fish.
We ate bean burritos that he fried up in a cast iron skillet on a Coleman stove. We ate bacon and eggs in the dark before dawn out of that same skillet every morning and I got to drink coffee with him. We ate bologna sandwiches and sardines and crackers and we drank Cokes whenever we felt like it and we left the camper before sunup, loaded up into the little 14’ V hull Lone Star boat and headed out.
We got back at sundown and we were tired. I would fish for bluegills in the cove while he made us supper. Then we would fall asleep in the back of his pickup under the camper shell, listening to the coyotes sing.
Friday night came and Daddy showed up about midnight. We left our sleeping bags and the three of us went down the hill and built a fire on the bank. I told Daddy about the week. I can still see the two of them in that firelight, smiling, laughing and teasing me about my fish stories. They called me “Whopper” through the weekend, and it wasn’t because of the size of my fish, but of my fish tales.
That’s not the only time I remember, there are hundreds of little memory movies that come flooding back every trip out. Successful fishing for me is going fishing. Going fishing lifts off the last 40 or so years and it feels good. My grandfather and father are both gone now but I spend time with them every time I go fishing.
I never fathered any children of my own but I hope to share that same kind of success with my stepdaughter’s little boy. I hope he enjoys a day trip I have planned for the two of us this summer to a little creek that we can fish from the bridge. He turns 4 years old in a few weeks. I hope he catches a fish. I really hope it’s a successful trip for him and that he too, someday, can enjoy successful fishing.