6.28.2011

Then I Notice I am Holding my Breath




As I watched this great little video the narrator utters the line, "Then I noticed I am holding my breath." What a great line that describes the intensity of the focus in that moment as you watch your perfectly placed fly drift slowly into the feeding zone of a big fish. It's just you, the river, the fly and the fish. All else is forgotten for that little instant in time. Perfection.

6.21.2011

Finally

Here is a quick report to let all those that read the blog and know exactly where I spend most of my fishing time to let you know that the river is shaping up nicely.  Today the flows dropped to the 600 cfs range and this afternoon we took the drift boat down from just above the tunnel to the bend just above the bridge.  It was about a 4 1/2 mile float and it took about 4 1/2 hours so you do the math and tell me how fast we were going.  Good news is there are still a lot of fish in the river.  There was a pretty good showing of caddis all afternoon, and I noticed quite a few Yellow Sallies crawling around the brush both at the put in and take out points we chose.  We stuck to streamer fishing though as it was providing non stop action all afternoon.  Cast after cast the fly was either chased, batted, nudged, and sometimes even eaten.  There are still a lot of fish in the river and every one we caught was as healthy looking as I have ever seen the Browns here.       

It was a great float, and the weather was perfect.  Let the games begin because the river is about to round in to shape real soon.


***6/22/11 edit***
As of this morning flows dropped again to the normal summertime levels of 238 cfs.  Vacation is over for the fish in the river.  I can hear the low rumble of a felt sole stampede brewing over the horizon. 

A year in the business from Ben Paull on Vimeo.

6.14.2011

Two Wheeling!

A little deviation here from my usual posts. This weekend brings us fathers day, and I have to share a simple little moment we had this week that stirred up a few emotions.

Nothing makes a dad prouder than to see your kid struggle to grasp a concept, then to see the light bulb go on and witness the transformation from frustration, to supreme confidence. Last night as I watched my oldest boy learn to ride his bike without training wheels it became one of those moments that you want to hold onto forever. Learning to ride your bike is a simple childhood rite of passage, and one I didn't expect to mean so much to me, but for some reason this little milestone really brought home the fact that he's growing up so fast.

I admit to having my own doubts as my wife insisted we try to take off his training wheels before our evening walk around the neighborhood. As he struggled to make it once around the block even with me holding on to the seat most of the way, my doubts grew. There were plenty of "I can't do this" moments, and a few tears shed, but then all of a sudden the switch flipped and the whole family shared in the excitement as he took off racing down the street in front of our house. I don't know what made me happier, the fact that he succeeded or just simply seeing how proud and excited he was the rest of the evening. Good times.

Good job Keaton. Dad's proud of you.