Fishing, a Great Way to Return to the Blogosphere

I am wondering if I will finally get inspired to start blogging again now that it has been nearly a year since my last post. Maybe the problem is that all my thoughts are coming in short tweets now instead of full on blogs. Or maybe life is so busy that I have not taken the time to sit down and write about it. Whatever the reason, I felt like getting back to it today in church, so here I am.

A couple of weeks ago I took the scouts on a spectacular on my favorite fishing creek. It was the first time that Ryan could legitimately go on the hike, and although I had been looking forward to this moment for years, I must admit to approaching it with some trepidation. What I feared was that he would, like the vast majority of the boys I have taken up there in the past, sit by the river and complain that he was bored and couldn't we do something interesting. As is a constant theme in my life, I needn't have worried. Before some had put up their tents, Ryan was out on the river casting into just a few inches of water to practice.

Then next day we finally got our chance to fish and at times, our luck was not all that good. But still he was out there, long after I would have given up, fan casting into the water trying to get the fish he knew was out there. Soon he was rewarded for his patience with a very nice cutthroat. We moved to another hole and he began again in earnest. This time, he found a 22+ in steelhead at the base of a riffle and reeled it in, all on his own. I can't tell you how happy I was to be a dad. Then he turned to me and said, "Dad, this is the greatest day of my life". Yup, I could have died happy right there. Though the fishing was not nearly as good as it usually is, and even the small ones were harder to come by this trip, I never heard a word of complaint from him, and I would always have to be the one getting him to put his lure away and move on. He even caught his first fish on a fly rod; something that took me till I was in my mid 20s.

He slept with me in my tent. This proved to be a bit of a challenge since I guess he is not really use to the dark. The first night, he woke up and started yelling about something getting him, even standing up at one point. The second night, one of the other boys gave him a glow stick that we hung in the tent, and we all got a lot more sleep.

I can't wait to get out again.