Thank You Smoothie Girl

This last week was spent with a lot of internalizing. The weather made fishing tough. The beach was sandblasting me with 20mph sustained winds. The shells underneath my feet made wading the surf like walking on glass. I put in the work but was only rewarded with a sunburn. The rest of the time was spent with family. Napping and eating great meals while listening to random comments about the amount of white in my hair and the size of my belly. Gone are the days when I receive second glances from cute 20 somethings or people mistaking me for a high school or college student. My one last attempt at the beach was met with a girl selling smoothies from a cooler. I asked how much they were knowing full well I wasn't going to buy one. After some small talk, I was offered a free smoothie. I'd like to say it was my good looks or charm that had this encounter end with me getting a smoothie. In reality, I'm sure it was just a nice gesture or maybe she felt sorry for me as I limped with cut feet and a sunburn. In a week of knowing I know longer have "it", on this day I got a free smoothie and it tasted amazing.

Not Your Day

When you fish with friends sometimes it's just not your day. It's still fun to see others having success and enjoy the moment with them. Yesterday Troy and I hit a local lake in search of monster bass looking up. We really only had one good opportunity and Troy made the most of it. There was a large swirl near the reeds and we knew it had to be a good sized fish. A few casts later Troy hooked up and it was hard to tell what he had at first. The fish swam right at him putting a ton of slack in his line. Troy was able to take in the slack quickly and put some pressure on the fish. The bass shot out of the water and we both looked at each other and at the same time said "that's a nice fish!" It's weird seeing a 6 plus pound bass sky out of the water. It shows how powerful a fish's tail is. After several jumps and a good fight, the fish came to hand.

The stealth bomber was inhaled.

The fish was a great break to the otherwise slow morning. Troy has always been kind enough to invite me along and share his boat and fishing knowledge with me. He's one of the few people that I believe likes fly fishing even more than I do. In the end, I can't emphasize this enough. Fly fishing is fun but not as fun as fishing with friends.

Fishing With My Son

I took my son out in the kayak for a short trip on the lake. He still thinks fishing is all about snacks, right after I caught a fish he asked if it's time to go home now. It was still nice to get out and enjoy the outdoors even for only a couple hours.