A Team Effort

My appreciation for Tennessee grew tremendously following my latest guiding experience.  My fondness for the state was previously based solely on a gentleman named Jack Daniels but now I have two more reasons, Trey and Jared.  Trey played ball for the Broncos, Jets, and Bills as a center, and Jared is currently a pediatric dentist in Dallas. The waiting list for single hot mothers who’s children need dental work is a mile long at his practice.

When first  introduced to Trey the night before the trip, I immediately enjoyed his company.  We talked about the options for the upcoming day as I worked through about five Jacks on the rocks while trying to keep up with Trey’s pace of cups of coffee.  Jared was not in town as of yet and when he called Trey to find out how the fishing would be, we told him the rivers were blown out and we would be primarily sightseeing.

The next morning I awoke to questionable weather conditions as it had rained all night.  Nervous,  as always before a trip, I met up with Trey and Jared at the TroutHunter and told them that although I was not really sure how the day would pan out, I would work hard to ensure we were in the right place at the right time.

Although I was feeling anxious, hanging out with a couple of guys that felt like old buddies took the edge off.  While feeding the fish at the Warm River overlook, the water appeared to be very off color from the rainfall. 
Mentioning my concern to Trey, he said, “Don’t worry, lets just fish.” 

The salmonflies had been out on this particular stretch for the past couple of days and it had been good when the weather was. In Idaho, if you don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes.  As we were putting the boat in, the sun began to shine through the breaks in the clouds which lifted our hopes for good salmonfly activity.

We started out with a stonefly nymph hanging off of a balloon indicator, and hit the banks.  Within no time there was a fish in the boat and it was “Game On!”  Although we hit spurts throughout the day that seemed a little slow, those moments were soon negated by another large brown or rainbow. Many were shaped like footballs from eating bugs that were, according to one of the anglers, the “size of small children”.  Back in the day, Trey was able to snap a football with one hand. Today he had to hold most of his trout with two.

Over the next two days, Trey and Jared made my life very enjoyable and easy, nailing each and every cast precisely within an inch from the bank.  All I had to do was row and net fish.  As a guide, they gave me a great deal of credit, but the fact is that it is a team effort.  There are three of us in the boat,  no one person can take all the credit.  There is no “I” in team.

It takes everybody, it’s 3 guys. Obviously without the fishermen’s line doing well we’re not going to do well as a boat, but we’re just one of the parts, one of the spokes, and it takes all parts from rowers to line to netters to fisherman...

We’d had two days of fabulous conditions and great fishing. While heading back up the hill on the last day, we jammed out to our allotted fifteen minutes of rap featuring DJ Quick, P Diddy, and Notorious BIG.  We were very happy that on this trip we didn’t need to be here yesterday, and the big one didn’t get away.

Thanks for a great trip you guys!