Pure Unadulterated Joy

After two straight weeks of describing my internal debate about forward-facing sonar, I’m glad that my cousin Douglas sent me the picture you see above, because it reminded me that fishing, most of all, is supposed to be fun.

I have hundreds of pictures of me with fish, most of them of the grip and grin variety, and while I usually appear reasonably happy (or at least not pissed off), my facial expressions are posed. They’re contrived. They’re expressly developed for purposes of the picture.

Not so with this shot from our recent Alaskan vacation. That’s our guide Cooper Neblett on the left. After a long day in a remote location, we had a 2 mile hike ahead of us, out from the creek, across some soggy tundra, to get back to the float plane meeting place. The float plane operators tend not to be particularly happy if you’re not there waiting for them. Time is money. Cooper told me that I had time for exactly two more casts. If we didn’t catch any more fish, that would’ve been ok. We’d already had a great day chasing rainbows, dodging bears and enjoying the atypical 70 degree weather. Still, I wanted to catch more.

First cast. Nothing.

I picked up my line, cast back upstream, let it start heading down, mended once, then twice, and just when I’d pretty much conceded that the end was nigh, I saw that quick rainbow flash and he took off in a burst of color.

On the one hand, I couldn’t rush the fish. On the other hand, we needed to get going.

Cooper is a fantastic guide and I could tell he wanted that fish in the net as much as I did. When he had secured it, he let out a war cry. I might’ve done the same. Then the fist bump. It really didn’t matter if the fish was 12 inches or 30 inches. It wasn’t about winning a tournament, or having the fastest boat, or dialing in my electronics. All of those things are fine, in moderation, and in their proper place. This was all about why I loved and obsessed over fishing in the first place. I had forgotten what it’s like to be that happy. I can’t wait to be there again.