fishing for words

Do we need pedestrian and wildlife lanes on our bridges? A bear jumped off the Old Donner Pass Highway to avoid two oncoming cars but amazingly and acrobatically saved his hide and ‘bout now might be regaling his bear buddies with the tale.

Two cars converging on the Old Donner Pass Highway scared a bear who had wandered into the middle of a bridge causing it to jump over the side. The massive animal managed to arrest its fall and sat on a support for the 280-foot-high for a day until animal control darted it, pushed it into an army-surplus nylon net with a pole, and then lowered it to the ground.

This comes from Backcountry.com, with more pictures at Snopes.com.

One day, I may become one of those gray-haired (almost there) and stylishly-dressed fly fisherman you see casting wonderful loops on the banks of your local river. Until then, I’ll settle for fostering those new to the sport.

One late September evening my assistance was requested at the club’s novice fly fishing class. Not quite the old hand at this fly fishing stuff and definitely not a master caster, I was to run the “hooking and landing” station during casting lessons. In exchange I would be rewarded with a sandwich lunch.

So, last Saturday I headed to Walnut Creek and in short order was deemed “The Hooking and Landing Instructor.” My task was simple. Using a remote-controlled truck, to which fly line was attached, I was to give our prospective fly fishers a taste of landing a fish. To understand that landing a fish on a fly rod is different, one has to appreciate that a fly reel is mainly there to (1) hold your line and (2) provide a bit of drag when a fish runs. To play and land a fish one has to strip line — that is pull it with your hand and let it pile up in front of you (and hopefully not trip on it).

Sure, I landed an obnoxious number of fish so far this season — 150+ brook, rainbow and brown trout — but my experience is limited to a handful of rives and streams and a single lake. So it was odd to have these class attendees look upon me a modicum respect even though my fly fishing days began barely six months ago.

But helping out with this class taught me how much I’ve learnt this far, and how much I have to learn. There is such a thing as an almost-free lunch.

Two (unshaven) “mountain men.”  One spinning rod.  One fly rod.  One stream.  Fifty trout hooked and twenty-seven landed in five hours.  What a morning!

Sean and I made a quick weekend getaway to the cabin Friday afternoon and hit Moccasin Creek early Saturday morning. Before the sun was up we had parked the car and ambled down to the creek. The cloud cover kept the sunrise at bay a bit longer than usual, but we didn’t have any rain until later in the morning.

With a spinning rig, Sean began working a favorite pool with a gold-on-gold Panther Martin. I set up my fly pole with an indicator fly (Parachute Adams), with a Copper John nymph (small, a size 18) about 12 inches below. It couldn’t have been more than 20 minutes and we had both landed a decent stocker rainbow, in the 13- to 14-inch range. It was good to see Sean enjoying fishing as he sort of abandoned the sport a few years ago. See, I figure there are those who are lucky at fishing and those who aren’t, or maybe some are born with an intuitive skill. Sean, like me, has to work at catching fish. But that work can pay off, as it obviously did that Saturday.

Rain began to fall in earnest about mid morning, but thanks to the trees lining the stream banks, we were spared from getting too damp.  During the morning we switched up our lures. Sean went to my favorite gold-on-red Panther Martin while I opted for a Zebra Beadhead Nymph. I don’t think we went more than 30 minutes without one of us hooking a fish. In the end, Sean’s tally was sixteen trout hooked with nine landed; my record was thirty-four hooked and 16 landed. (Keep in mind that we only counted fish we touched or netted, meaning that we played some to shore, only to have them self release.)

After quick showers about noon, we headed to Columbia for some sarsaparilla and a gander at the town and a visit to the candy shop. We grabbed an early dinner of great hamburgers at the Diamondback Grill in Sonora. (I’m loving those buffalo burgers!) Driving back to the cabin we were entertained by a bit of lightning and thunder, and after watching a movie, it was early to bed.

It was a nice little break from everyday life, and maybe I can get Sean to go fishing again…