I just had a vision… I hope of the future.
I’m walking very slowly on a flat in the Bahamas. The water is a little below mid-calf. I’m trying not to push the water, trying not to make too much noise or push a wave out to alert the bones that we are stalking.
Just ahead of me and off to my right ever so slightly is another angler. She is shorter than I am with a visor and shades, her long hair in a pony tail down to her mid-back. She’s 12 and kitted out for flats fishing. I spot a pod of fish and before I can even point or say “11:00, 50 feet” she has the line moving through the air. She’s a better caster than I am because she never had any bad habits to unlearn.
50 feet of fly line shoot out silently. One twitch and the lead fish charges and tips down. She strip sets, because she is going to be much better at this than I am. She’s tight to the fish and she smiles broadly as the bonefish streaks away, her reel singing the happy anthem of the flats.
This could happen. I’m going to try and get her (now 4) into some trout again next weekend. We’ll see.
That’s a future I could live with.
