Since moving to Montana both of my parents have fallen in love with the sport of Fly Fishing. I can’t blame them. It’s easy to do.
In the last year, my mom has really been hit by the fishing bug and has fallen in love with it. From learning knots, casting in the front yard, attending classes and even putting a Simms sticker on her car! She’s put in the time, lost way too many fish to count, gotten skunked, rained on, etc. It seemed like there was always a little black cloud following her around. I’ll give her credit though. She never gave up and it just made her that much more hungry to succeed.
Last weekend mom, dad and I were able to make it on the river for the first time since I moved back home. I now own a vehicle with a hitch so with a borrowed boat we made our way to the Lower Madison.
Fishing was actually pretty darn good. Pa started to hook up on fish right off the bat while mom continued to have that damn little black cloud following her around. And then I watched her indicator shoot under the water and her 6 weight bend double. I knew she had a good one on and said a quick prayer to let her land whatever she was hooked up on.
Well… After a quick (but nerve racking) fight, a Brown Trout that will make seasoned trout bums knees buckle got in the net. All of us in the boat were on cloud nine and I couldn’t pull the boat over fast enough for us to look at the beautiful buck that was in the net.
After snapping some photos and high fives, we had to measure the fish. The tape doesn’t lie and when it said 21″ I knew that mom was now in a special group of Fly Fisherman/women. I watched that damn little black cloud vanish into thin air and knew that this was just the start of a addiction we all love so much.
