A couple weekends ago I went camping with my daughter up around Mount Shasta (my old stomping grounds). I was glad to see the whole place wasn’t totally dry and on fire. So, victory right off the bat.
The girl, breaking in her new rod.
We headed up to a little creek near the campground we were staying at and managed to catch some trout. There was a time I tended to catch my first trout of the year in January, but not this year. This year my first fish came at the end of July.
Not a trout, but cool anyway.
July… like, the end of July.
Part of me was just happy I still knew how (not really, I kind of pillage up there).
It has just been that kind of year. I’ve spent more days fishing in the salt than on my home waters. Two kids, a busy job, a busy wife… the fishing suffers a bit, but that doesn’t mean I’m suffering. I like my life… I love my life, and I have to think there might be some heavier fishing years down the road. Maybe I won’t hit 200 like that one season I guided, but, ya know, more.
I love camping with my kid. My first marriage did not involve camping and when that ended one of the first things I did was grab the girl and go camping. Now we make a point of doing it a couple of times every year and we both look forward to it all year.
My girl got a fly rod for her Birthday back in January and this was her first chance to use it. She got a starter kit from Redington, an 8′ 4 wt and it was just about perfect. She also got a pair of Redington kid sticky rubber wading boots. I think they’ll only get wet a couple more times before she grows out of them, but they worked really well.
Because bacon.
This year I did screw up a bit and, in a fit of laziness (can you have a fit of laziness? That feels too active for laziness.) I left our little cooler out. I was awaken at midnight by the loud sniffing and snuffling sounds of an above average sized black bear. Said black bear made short work of the cooler and hung out a little longer than I would have ideally preferred.
Since the black bear at our breakfast, we went to the (original) Black Bear Diner and ate their breakfast.
It worked out.
This weekend I head camping for our second weekend. Looking forward to it, and I plan on hanging the bacon from a tree.
