Sunday Afternoon

The Wife, my Sister and some other family members have lately taken to getting together and painting. It's not really my thing, but I figured while they painted I could get some wraps done on one of the neglected rods sitting in my kitchen. Too bad everything I tried looked like crap and I didn't actually get anything done. Oh well, at least they had fun on a Saturday night.

In the morning Del cooked everyone a big breakfast of sausage, eggs and hash browns. It took a little while for the effects of too much good food to wear off but once they did my sister and niece headed home, the wife headed for a nap and I headed for a small stream with Atley in-tow. 

It's always great when Atley decides to come fishing, we always have a great time and he always seems to catch the biggest fish. Makes me wonder why it can be so hard to get him out the door sometimes. Atley's outgrown his waders so we just fished from the bank, luckily it's not that big of a deal on this stream. Sure enough, Atley landed a nice one at the first hole we decided to fish. 

I love it when he gets excited about a fish!

The most impressive thing about his fish (besides the unlikeliness of the stream it came from) was the fact that I wasn't hardly paying attention when he made the cast, set the hook and began fighting the fish. He played it hard and I was glad that my little fiberglass rod had some give to protect the tippet from snapping. Atley sure can fish when he wants to! This was the last picture that my camera wanted to take for the day and, as we found out on Atley's next fish, my phone was too full to take any pictures. So out came Atley's little flip phone for some terrible looking pictures, but they were still proof!

From there we kept catching fish on either a BH Prince Nymph or a BH Hare's Ear whenever we could find water deep enough for a fish to hold. Sunday afternoon was quickly slipping away when I made my last cast at the head of a deep pool that had so far skunked me. The dry fly that we were using as an indicator went under just after my cast hit the water but when I raised the rod it was a lively fish on the end of the line. After a good fight one of the best fish I've seen on this stream came to hand and Atley was ready to take my picture.

A great fish and a terrible picture. Yes, my feet are in the water.....I slipped, and it was cold

Definitely a stream that we'll be spending some time at this year! Hope you can get out....

- Kidder