Extended family and fly fishing.
For many hard-core fly fisher folk, simply reading or hearing those words – fishing with extended family – sends chills down their spines, blurs their collective vision, wobbles their knees, pops beads of sweat from their foreheads like tiny riverside springs, and induces ominous rumblings in their guts.
Holidays, like today, tend to foster gatherings of extended family large and small across the fruited plain. For the fly fisher aching to be on the water, some holidays can present a special challenge.
For the fly fisherman, late fall and winter holidays present less of a issue; rivers may still be very fly fishable at Thanksgiving, though most often chilly weather and the lure of the mind-numbing, siren’s call of televised football turn most visiting relatives’ minds to mush televised sports. With most of the household in their post-Turkey stupor, it’s easy to slip out for a few hours relatively unnoticed and rarely missed. Here’s a tip – help the chef of the day get an early start to cookin’ and eat earlier in the day to preserve more of your precious daylight hours on the river.
Christmas and New Year’s holidays, at least for those of us in northern climes, occur during the time of year when winter’s mantle of snow and ice has begun to dominate the river scene. Though I’ve entertained many an extended family member here in Montana during the winter holidays, I’ve yet to have one ever accompany me to the river. Just as well, as we all need an escape from the family crowd during those times.
There are a whole herd of holidays that present a genuine dilemma for the fly fisherman when extended family is in the house – Easter, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, the 4th, and Labor to name a few; there are other “minor holidays” that you could easily lump into the list.
Here in Montana we’ll have great fishing somewhere on each and every one of the holidays above – and odds are much better than not that some long lost relative will “just want to stop by for a few hours as we’re passing through” as they undertake their “see Montana in three days” trip.
The record “just stay for a few hours visit” for my family is a cousin, his wife, and two smart assed city-kid teenagers who dropped in and stayed almost a week, which ended up being about 70 years in real time, one 4th of July week several years back.
I found myself leaving for the river quietly at about 430 in the morning on a few of those days; starting the day that early works here in western Montana in July; I could be back at the house before most of our visitors were out of bed and clamoring for my wife to cook something for breakfast.
For those of you with an extended family member who actually can fish – count yourself lucky. For those with an extended family member who can fish, laugh at himself, and buys the beer and a tank of gas now and then – count yourself blessed.
