Recently my friend Rod Kirk texted me and said, “Do you want to go fishing on Monday September 8? Loren Hamman will be going along too.” I eagerly replied, “Sure. I’d love to!” and it was set. So yesterday morning at 5:00 AM, Rod and Loren picked me up in Rod’s truck with the boat on the trailer and we headed south. It’s about an hour’s drive from Bend and it was still dark as we arrived at the lake and prepared to launch the boat. By the time the boat was in the water and the truck was parked, it was light enough to see the far shore of the lake.
The boat was in the water by 6:30 AM and we had lines in the water by 6:40 AM. The first fish bit on my line and was in the boat by 7:00 AM! It was a chilly morning on the lake, but the sun came over the mountains about 7:30 AM and it started to warm up a bit. By a little after 8:00 AM we had three fish in the boat. Then things slowed down but by about 10:30 AM we had three more fish. That’s six so far if you’re keeping track.
It was a pleasant morning and early afternoon and the time passed fairly quickly. We had periods of warm sunshine and chilly clouds, of breeze that made the lake choppy with little whitecaps, and calm that made the lake a mirror of the mountains that surrounded us.
As the hours passed, between calls of “Fish on!” and “Come on fish! Where are you?”, I talked with Loren about gardening and his machine shop and fabrication work and about a performance car he’s building, and with Rod about past fishing trips to the Washington Coast and about motorcycle rides together when we were a few years younger.
We had four lines in the water and as the day wore on it slowly began to dawn on me that every time a fish hit one of our lines, Rod or Loren called me over and let me bring the fish in. We’d caught at least one on each of our four lines and doubled on some of them. But I’d brought them all into the boat!
Anyhow, just about 2:00 PM (by this time we had nine fish total – seven Kokanee salmon and two trout), after quite a lull since the last “Fish on!”, Rod said, “I’m gonna call it!” So we started breaking the poles down and putting away the tackle and we headed across the lake to the boat launch ramp.
It was a nice drive back to Bend with lots more conversation. What a nice day of fishing with friends! We pulled up in front of my house at about 3:30 PM and Loren climbed up on the boat and said, “Bring me your cooler.” I went into the garage and brought out a small cooler and handed it up to him. He started putting my fish in the cooler. When he got my three fish in the cooler, he kept on putting fish in until all nine fish were in my cooler! That’s when it finally hit me!
I thought Rod and Loren had planned to go fishing today and had graciously invited me along! Suddenly I realized that the whole fishing trip had been for me! They had chosen to devote the whole day to taking me to the lake and letting me fish! That realization was a quite moment for me!
Then handshakes and hugs and a couple of slightly choked, “Thank you so much for today!” expressions of gratitude from me to two good guys, and they drove off. And I carried the cooler with nine fish into the house and proceeded to show off “my” catch of the day!
On Sunday, Melissa had said that if I got a lot of fish they’d love to have enough for a meal – four Blacketts, four fish. I messaged them and said I had four fish for them and if they’d send over a designated fish cleaner I’d give instructions on cleaning the fish. Grandson Jude was here in half an hour! It was a delight almost equal to the catching of the fish to teach Jude how to clean them. I did one while he watched. He did one while I watched. He did the other two completely on his own! Very cool!
Then I cleaned the other five fish and Jean prepared two nice Kokanee for our dinner.
What a great day! What great friends! For me, there’s a great distinction between, “Hey, we’re going fishing. Wanna go along?” and two guys who spent a whole day to take me out on the lake to fish. I’m very thankful!
I’ll be back next week with another story from our Jamaica years! See you then!
As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment simply reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, comment below.
Grace to you today, Jim Stephens