buzz kill

from my bio page, you will not learn very many things about me as an author of this page. but that probably will not matter much because if you are reading this, we are likely best friends. one such thing you will not learn is that i like to fly fish for fish. i also have not used a capital letter in this blog.  apparently i don't want offend those less fortunate lower case letters. (capital letters to come-so stay tuned)

this is the first post of the blog and after thinking of some monumental way to begin the discussion of fly fishing or things related , this is what i came up with. a story. 

a recent family excursion to rapid city south dakota had us near a cleverly named river named rapid creek. i have had the pleasure of fishing the clear running stream quite often before so on one of the first evenings spent with family i had to steal away to a fairly heavily fished stretch of creek directly above a municipal lake. with rod in hand i walked up a gravel trail snaking along the waters edge and slipped into one of my favorite holes that had produced many a brown trout in summers passed. as if i hadnt switched flies in a year, trout began to take a liking to the same tan san juan with a black zebra midge that had caught fish last summer. 

a few half hours passed and i began working my way up creek while casting when suddenly in a fast stretch of water where the creek took a bend a trout sunk my indicator like none before. he shot up river with me chasing behind him tiring out my 4 weight rod. a few hectic minutes passed and i had the rainbow netted. it was a 19 inch male rainbow that likely came up river from the lake and the biggest fish i had caught in rapid creek. 

once my hands stopped shaking i quickly realized i had no charge on my phone and the camera was a half mile downriver...and likely also out of battery. of course. after a few stressful minutes gad gone by, a passerby commented on the temperature outside while she walked by. not acknowledging her comment, i asked if she had a camera phone. looking back on it, that was probably not the best greeting question coming from a guy hunched over standing in the water shaking. she said no quickly and turned away to run back to her car and i was left in an awkward position. 

i released the fish with only my memory to show for it and vowed not to return without a camera. it turns out that was the biggest fish i was to catch that whole week, and by a long shot. which got me thinking of all the fish that may have been fooled had they not smelled a camera in the air. the picture above is of that fishes home, a cold clear running tail race nestled in the black hills of south dakota....cozy. 

-alexander