seafood bouillabaisse

i have been in colorado for two months. it's nice here. the fishing's been great the past couple weeks. although i did have a very tough trip this morning. worked hard to get one in the net for mr. and mrs. we were in the run, 15 minutes after i was supposed to be driving back to the lodge. i spotted two fish, both 3 feet off the bank in about 6 inches of water. put a drake right over one, nothing. put a pink cahill over it, nothing. put an adams and a dropper over, nothing. screw you, on to the other one. same story. drake, cahill, adams, dropper, bwo, nothing. screw you. change rigs, put on two nymphs and an indicator. first cast into the main flow and a fish eats the indicator. ha! switch back to a dry, nothing. cast again, nothing. lordy. put on a dropper again, two casts later, bang. fish in the net, high fives, sighs of relief, call it a morning. whew!

i'm very curious to see how the fishing changes over the next two and a half months. Boone and i were discussing the fishery and the ranch and whether we'd like to return next year. one analogy i used was when i waited tables. i did it for one summer and enjoyed it. i liked the scene, the people i worked for, the restaurant, liked talking with people, liked the fast pace. i was pretty good at it. i did it for one summer only. i thought about doing it again, but got other jobs, moved on, etc. but, if i were to do it again, i would've been even better at it. i think the same would be true here. save for one trip, i have netted fish for every client i have taken out. i'm a personable guy, i can get along with most people i think. plus, everyone on the is on vacation - they're in great spirits. i'm doing a pretty good job at guiding i think, and so i'm told. that all said, if i do guide on this creek again, i think i'll be even better. i'll have seen the fishery change across the season and have a better idea of what to expect in different conditions, what flies to use when certain other flies don't. it's hard to complain about being paid for standing in a river all day. however, that salary i used to have sounds pretty nice when i'm doing dishes for 5 hours monday nights, getting a single digit dollar amount per hour. ha.

so we shall see.
post-ranch plans are still nil. i like that feeling, but i also like entertaining ideas about what to do next. we'll see how much money finds its way into my bank account by the time this summer's over. unfortunately i think what i do will have something to do with that, but what it is. i like to believe you can do whatever you want, but shit, you gotta feed the monkey!

dish duty tonight. two hours of dishes alone, ipod in one ear. i kill that. an hour of tag teaming minimal dish work then another hour and a half to two of a game you can't win. that's when dish depression and/or dish dementia sets in. get out and it's black as a dark steer's tuckus outside. but, i do get to eat off the menu. monday's special: seafood bouillabaisse. that almost makes it worth it.

dirty plates, here i come!