Being attached at the hip to a fly shop for almost a decade I have seen some outrages things. From time to time I will be posting these stories for your enjoyment or pity..hehe. I promise these stories are 100% true, however the names have been changed to protect the not so innocent. So this installment is entitled “Desperate times and Desperate photos”
Several years back a group of enthusiastic fisherman came through the shop doors grinning ear to ear. The trio was comprised of three men; John, Jack, and Justin. The three were planning their first trip to the catch and release section of the Taylor. For those of you not familiar with that water it is considered the most challenging and potentially rewarding water in the state. Many an experienced fisherman has crawled home from that water with tears and a fishless camera. While some capture the fish of a life time and try to figure out how they can convince their wives to move to Gunnison. Needless to say when planning a trip there many “preparations” must be made and that’s what the trio was up to. That night they were on a mission for information. After an hour of talking, looking through books, and searching the internet the trio was pumped and planning to come back to the shop later for their purchases. Over the next two weeks I saw John, Jack, and Justin either as a group or separately almost every day. Then they disappeared off into the land of the big fish.
One week later John appeared. We engaged in the normal small talk and finally I inquired as to the Taylor trip. Without hesitation he pulled a photo of him holding one of the largest trout I have ever seen. The odd part was that I couldn’t tell what kind of trout it was. It was too dark. So I asked for the details. He went on to tell me about landing it and what it took, but never identified it. The very next day Jack came in and tossed a photo of him with a giant fish on my counter. I did the normal wows and asked him what it took and he sprang into an hour long explanation. While he was talking I noticed that the fish was unnaturally black but it was clearly a rainbow and had a white sore side. Not wanting to down play his joy I said nothing. A week later Justin came in and I asked if he caught fish. He hesitated but pulled a photo from his wallet. There it was; a massive black rainbow with a white sore. Holding the photo I knew one of two things, either all of the fish in the Taylor were ill or I had just seen the same fish being held by three different fishermen. Betting that the last was most likely I told him the gig was up and asked him what really happened during the trios trip. Slowly he explained that they fished for five days straight and none of them had even gotten a hit. He said that every day of their trip they walked by the corpse of the largest fish any of them had ever seen. So finally on the last day they all decided not to return home empty handed. So one at a time they picked up the rotting dead fish and took a picture with it. He also explained that they were very careful to come up with three different stories as to how it was caught and they promised to only show certain friends and family the photos so no one would expect anything. What they didn’t expect was that all three would bring the photo into the shop to impress the fishing girl J
Lesson: If you feel the need to take a picture with a dead fish….. take only one....and show no one.
The Drift Fly Shop from my Prospective............
Land of Lies, Flies,Fish, and Love
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