Connecting with Keith: Chapter I

I met Keith at shortly after 9:00. We yacked a bit and headed for the river. We talked about exploring some new water and finally decided to just go to a spot that both of us have been many times. The spot has almost always been good to us. That seemed like a great idea. The weather forecast was for clear skies, almost no wind, and temperatures in the mid to high nineties. Oh yeah baby, we were both expecting a banner day. Hmmm... The real weather didn't look like the forecast. The sky was gray. It was totally overcast. We figured it would burn off quickly.

With the gray sky they were much more difficult to spot but after we entered the water we still saw fish early on. Within 15 or 20 minutes I was connected. It was everything that makes chasing Carp on the fly so exciting. A tailing fish, a good cast, (well at least tolerably good anyway) the turn to the fly, the hook set, the explosion, the runs for deep water, posing for a quick picture, and the release. Dang I love fly fishing for Carp!



Now about the weatherman. In western Washington much of the year it is pretty safe to say, "partially cloudy with a chance of clearing." Much of the year it is also safe to say, "a chance of rain." If the weatherman says that he is almost always right about 9 months of the year in western Washington. In central Washington and eastern Washington there is less rain and lots more sun. In July and August it is safe to say, "Sunny and warm." Well that's what he said but that wasn't what we got. Heck, it stayed completely cloudy the whole day. We got sprinkled on at one point and then we got poured on. We were soaked. How did that happen?

I tried to take a picture of the unseasonable rain drops in the river but they didn't photograph so well.



We were walking down river and taking turns walking in front. We help each other spot and who ever is in front makes the cast. Also, Keith gets to laugh at my bad casting and I get to marvel at his good casting. Keith often fishes with both of his dogs. Abbie is he black one and Maggie Sue is the smaller one. He carries Maggie Sue much of the time. He can still cast with Maggie Sue under his arm. It all makes for a good day.




I have lost track of the time exactly but after some time Keith got a nice Common.






The rain stopped and even though it wasn't 95 degrees out we stilled dried out pretty quickly. The sky was very gray the entire day. We each got shots at tailing fish but there just really weren't that many. Adding to that they seemed unusually spooky even for Carp.

It was 6 hours from the time we left the truck until the time we got back. We eached hooked and released one more fish. Not exactly the 10 each I was hoping for but still a very enjoyable day.