10 June 2009

Starting Over

June 10, 2009 is a day for starting over. Cleared the blog and will be going on from here. A few unhappy things are going on in my life, and I choose to override them and think about the Chicago Cubs and fishing, instead.

If I didn't have the Cubs, I would not have an anticipation to live through for every year of my life since 1964. If I did not have fishing, I would not have all of those wonderful memories like Norman Maclean did in "A River Runs Through It," although I seldom have fly fished and cannot truly say that I ever caught anything on a dry fly. Maybe a big fuzzy thingy caught a bluegill in Iowa, maybe a #16 ginger quill caught a small stocker in Colorado. Never anything of consequence.

That would take a Mepps Aglia No. 2 with a red and white sticker on it and would relate to a story of the fattest presumably wild yet rainbow I have ever seen in a small pond called Gobbler's Point above Bear Creek Reservoir on the Yampa. I had a 12" square cast iron skillet and had to cut the head off and leave the tail dangling to fit it diagonally.

I can also reminesce of the old days in Yellowstone and Jackson. The limit was 5 in Jackson and 3 in Yellowstone (Yellowstone, as I recall, did not technically require a license). We regarded those as trips for eating fish, not sporting fish particularly. That was a good 27-28 years ago.

Those are highlights. They are memories I like to have, as are the memories of fishing with my dad and, correspondingly, fishing with my kids.