Fishing with Scott

Scott with a nice rainbow.  Good job bro!

Scott is my younger brother by just over two years.   As kids our relationship was typical of most brothers - we were best friends ninety percent of the time, and mortal enemies the other ten!  Once I moved out of the house our relationship got even better, and we now get along great.  The only problem is that Scott and his wife, Kara, live in Washington state, and I have lived in southern California and Mississippi recently.  This is one reason I was so excited to see him for a few days.

Although we are brothers, our interests are very different.  In high school my world revolved around sports, fishing, and hunting.  Scott's revolved around motors.  We have an uncle that always has four wheelers, snow mobiles, boats, and cool trucks.  Scott is in heaven every time we visit him.  Being in our family Scott grew up fishing and he has hunted a little, but he never had my passion for it.  When Scott told me that he wanted to fish with me on Thursday, I jumped at the opportunity!

Thursday, August 30

The weather on Thursday didn't look promising.  Even on beautiful days like Monday and Tuesday, the area that we had been fishing had afternoon thunder showers.  Not wanting to get stuck in a bad situation, Scott and I decided to start fishing the Provo River and play it by ear from there.  Knowing that we weren't going to back to the creek that I had fished previously, Scott told me that his goal was just to get one fish in the net.  This turned out to be more of a challenge than I had planned on.

The Provo River welcoming committee.  These young turkeys were WAY too comfortable around people.

We got to my favorite hole and spread out.  Again, the fishing was dead for about forty five minutes, when Scott finally hooked into a decent rainbow.  Scott hasn't caught many fish on a fly rod from rivers, so he was a bit unsure what to do.  He actually did a great job, but just as I got into position to net the fish the fly worked itself free and the fish was gone.  About half an hour later I got a call from Mom.  She said that she had been watching the Doppler radar and she thought that we would be fine moving to the other creek.  Since the fishing had been so slow, Scott and I decided to give it a try.

As we neared the creek we called Mom again.  The skies were dark, and Mom said that the clouds had been building.  Scott and I decided to fish another creek that we didn't have to hike into, so that we could retreat to the car if things got bad.  We parked our car at a section of creek I had never fished before and got busy.  I missed a rise in the first run, but it was another twenty minutes before I had another opportunity.  The next fish rose in a shallow riffle and I made it count.  Finally we were on the board.


Decent brown, and our first fish of the day.

Scott was up.  Scott was a pleasure to fish with.  He has fished less than Dad, but much more than Mom.  He is very careful to avoid tangles, snags, etc. which means that we had more time with flies in the water.  However, he is also excessively methodical.  He would make ten casts in stretch of water where I would make two.  A lot of that simply comes from experience.  We soon rounded a corner and had a beautiful hole in front of us.  Scott made some nice casts to the tail of the pool and missed two rises.  As he cast towards the head of the hole, his line magically got caught in the air!  It was then that we noticed the single strand of barbed wire over the creek.  That made things difficult.  Due to the lack of rises, I had been rigging a Copper John dropper on the other rod. Scott made a few more casts below the barbed wire, and then told me to fish the head of the pool above it, as it was too technical for him.

I snuck up to where I could get my rod tip over the barbed wire and cast to the head of the hole.  About three feet down my dry fly hesitated, and I set the hook and could immediately feel the weight of a good fish on the dropper.  "Sorry, Scott'" I said.  It was a nice gesture, but I guess I really wasn't sorry!   The fish took off below the wire and I had to do some nifty rod hand-offs to keep the fish on, but I eventually got him in.  He was a very nice brown for the small creek.

Healthy brown with the barbed wire hole in the background.

Scott and I fished diligently for the next hour, and Scott missed another rise and had a couple flashes, but the fishing was less than stellar.  The weather was variable, and at one point we had to return to the car as the lightening got too close for comfort.  We continued fishing, but eventually the clouds became solid to our North, and we had so sit out a couple ten minute downpours.  Eventually the lightening got too close for comfort again and we decided to bail.  On the way home we decided to hit the Provo one more time.  Scott still hadn't caught his fish.

When we go back to the Provo there was someone in my hole (oh the nerve, what do they think this is, a public waterway!?)  Scott and I tried a couple different spots before we found some likely looking water.  After about five minutes Scott had a fish on.  Once again, the hook popped out just as we got in position to net it.  Now Scott was determined.  Five casts later Scott hooked into another fish, and this one decided to cooperate a bit better.  We were able to net it and complete a quick photo shoot. 

Scott's only fish of the day.  He made a lot of good casts and exercised a lot of patience to finally make it happen.

We fished for another forty five minutes before finally calling it a day.  Eventually I came through and caught a couple smallish browns.  As we walked back to the truck Scott thanked me for a great day.  He said that he really needed to do this kind of stuff more often.  I had a great day too, and was really impressed with my little bro.  Ten years ago he would have been bored and complaining an hour into the day,  yet today he was optimistic and patient despite the difficult conditions and our lack of success.  I hope that Scott and I can spend many more days together fishing.

Friday, August 31

The next day we decided to do something completely different.  We brought the whole family.  Mom, Dad, Connor, Scott, Scott's wife Kara, and even my parent's dog, Skeeter.  We went to the Provo River to teach Kara how to fish.  Our first adventure was getting to the water.  Connor is not very sure footed, and he certainly wasn't going to walk in the water, so it was my job to carry him - yeah, he needs to lose some weight!  First we had to cross a couple backwaters, and then I had to carry him fifty feet up the river in knee deep water.  I'll admit, it was fun!

With the whole family along, just getting to the river can be an adventure.  Hop on my back Connor - I'll get you across!

An aside about Connor:  Connor is twenty two years old and has Down's Syndrome.  He is a great guy, and he is obsessed with fishing - but he has one love - walleye.  He has subscriptions to Walleye and In-Fisherman magazines, and he reads them from cover to cover.  He is always organizing and re-organizing his tackle box.  He LIVES for the summer trips he takes to Canada with Dad each year.  He'll talk about trout, but he'll be quick to inform you that he is more of an expert on walleye fishing!

I gave Kara some quick instructions to get her started, and then I started rigging line.  It became apparent immediately that the fishing would be slow today.  Once Kara had things figured out, everyone told me to grab a rod so that we could catch some fish.  I'm sad to say I let them down.  After about an hour Scott had a fish on for a couple seconds.  Half an hour later I had one on, but I lost it while working it downstream to the rest of the crew.  Another half hour and we were all ready to move.

Finally on the board. Nothing special, but it was about time!

We went back down to the spot Scott and I had fished the previous day.  It wasn't too long before I was able to land the first fish of the day - a typical Provo River brown.  Soon thereafter I heard Kara scream in excitement.  Dad had been playing guide for the past couple hours, and they finally had a fish on!  Soon after Kara's scream her big rainbow jumped two feet in the air, and her line went limp.  Shoot!  That ended up being her only fish of the day, but at least she got to feel one.  Over the next half hour I lost two more fish, one of which I never saw, but am confident was big.  Eventualy Scott and Kara both had big tangles, and we decided that it was time to head for the barn.  Since my rod was still good, I told my parents to start back to the truck, and I would give my rod to Scott so he could take a dozen more casts.

"Two more casts," I told Scott.  He lobbed the nympth rig upstream and mended. Right in front of us his indicator paused and he set the hook.  The indicator slowly started coming up, "What do you have there?"  I asked.  "I don't know," Scott replied anxiously.  Just then a nice rainbow jumped way out of the water right in front of us.  "You've got a big ol' 'bow on - that's what you've got!" I yelled.  Scott was nervous.  This was difinitely the big fish of the day.  Scott did a great job fighting the strong fish in the quick current, and soon we had the fish in the net.  High fives were difinitely in order.  When we caught up to the rest of the family, I played it cool, "Sorry we took so long, I was busy netting Scott's big rainbow - no, I'm not kidding!"  We definitely put in our time today, but at least the last cast was sweet!

Another shot of Scott's rainbow, which he is holding in the first picture of the post.  It's crazy how one fish can make a day.