ahem. been a while. fishing/guiding things at the 4UR carried on as they usually do - quite well. while our water has been low compared to last year, the fishing was still great. if you put a good fly in front of a trout the way he likes it, he should eat it. when Stu took me fishing in NZ, we walked a river until we spotted a fish, he rigged me up, handed me the rod and said, "he will eat this." you give a trout a good pattern where he wants it/how he wants it, he will eat it. and he did.
so anyway, by the end of my time (more on that shortly) we were deep midging - size 20 - 24 flies, starting with minimal weight and getting real heavy. putting those flies where the fish wanted them. and guess what - they ate 'em!
(Les with a nice Lake Fork brownie. below, the Gunnison)
when i was in Portland this past winter, i had two really unsatisfying temp jobs. they had their purpose - pay for bills and fun - but i hated going to work and i got very little out of the jobs besides money. it was there that i realized that some things would need to change, should i continue to pursue this guiding thing seasonally. one day i went to the craigslists of Denver, Portland, OR and Seattle, went to "jobs" and searched for "fishing", just to see what would come up. there were a handful of hits in each city, most were unappealing except for one, a Planner position in the R&D dept at a very well known fly fishing company. i thought to myself that i'd be an idiot to not even try, so fired off a cover letter and resume then promptly forgot about it.
a couple months later while on the ranch i received a voicemail from an HR lady at the company. i had three phone interviews, followed by an on-site interview, then was offered and accepted the position.
(above, doo-rag Drew. below, AJ nets another one)
so. i'm moving. further west, and a bit north this time. my new job and new locale are on Bainbridge Island, in the Sound off of Seattle.
(above, the Lake Fork of the Gunnison. below, Big Billy Gascoigne battles.)
so i've got some fishing to do. and some ground to cover. currently covering it, actually, more on that soon. new water and new species are ahead. i'm excited. the Olympic Peninsula will be in my backyard in a week and i plan to take a big bite out of it. or at least get some big bites taken out of what i put into its waters. i'm talking about fishing there.
in the last week before i left the ranch, i felt a range of emotions. excitement, anxiousness were certainly present as the days passed. it was time to get on the road. but i knew there would be some sad eventually. and it did come. a couple tears were running down my cheeks when i took this picture on my way out:
things change. things happen. people move. but it's all ok. sometimes you gotta go.
i hope everyone's well! talk to ya soon!
