SAO Pages

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Family Fun

Fly fishing is often portrayed as a solitary pursuit. And while there is no question it's the polar opposite of a team sport, there is little argument that sharing the water with a good friend makes a day of fishing better.Yesterday, I had the pleasure of spending the day with a group of anglers who make it a point of taking time out of their busy schedules at least twice a year to spend time on the water together. Not only friends, they are a fly fishing family. And darn good anglers to boot.

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Dad Dave in the foreground, with sons Eric and Tom in the background.

River conditions were low and clear. The small amount of precipitation received earlier in the week had long been sucked up by the dry ground. Typical of low water conditions, the fish were concentrated into good size pods wherever there was moderate current and depth. So, finding fish was not a problem as long as we were willing to cover the amount of ground necessary to locate the pods.

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Tom finds a nice one.

Fishing was pretty slow in the morning, but once the storm front started moving in around noon the bite started to pick up. Nature had "flipped the switch" and an fun afternoon of fishing and catching began.

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Brothers Tom and Eric with a double.

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Eric with a nice bright fish caught stripping a small streamer.

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Dad Dave with a fat fresh steelhead.

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Eric sharing the limelight with the whole family.

Well, perhaps the that old adage is true "A family that fishes together, catches together"... or something like that. Whatever the case, it was evident that the most important part of fishing for these three gentlemen was the time they spent together on the water. The catching was a bonus. And what a sweet bonus it turned out to be that day.

Here are some additional photos of the family from the day prior with guide Patrick Robinson.

Tom with an early morning buck to kick off the day

Eric and Dad (Dave) make simultaneous hookups and land them well.

Dave fights a fish on a beautiful day.

Eric puts one last fish in the net.

Will Turek

SAO Guide / Spey Casting and Fishing Specialist



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