fishing - a look back and forward

over the past hundred years or so

I've met and fished w/ an awful lotta people

in an awful lotta places

fallen into a few rivers (yes I have)

frozen my ass off sweated my ass off

I always claimed that the very nature of friendship is transitory

dependent on any number of factors

the fact is, very very few of us have life-long friends

w/ which we continue that relationship

I guess you can judge the strength of a friendship

by whether or not it can weather these differing phases of our lives

this morning I found out that my favorite fishing partner

is going on disability retirement

which is good (and potentially bad - I guess)

and for that I offer congrats

I met steve in the summer of 2003

in the middle of nowhere

the valle vidal wilderness area of new mexico

little did I know I was meeting I guy I'd fish with for the rest of the decade

and hopefully it continues through the next one

though we are both getting old

anyways, anita and I were camped  along the stream

steve's truck was a reasonable distance downstream

brooks showed up from albuquerque

there was some guy from georgia of all places fishing w/ his son

and, yes, it was a smallstreams streamside meet

steve shows up at his campsite

he is quiet nearly uncommunicative

very wary leery and canny

kinda like he's sizing us up

so brooks and I head off upstream to stick some tricksy little cutthroats

a half a mile I sit on the bank and say,

"I don't know about you brooks, but I'm gonna sit down and enjoy a cool smoke"

which I did

steve stumbled up and shared

steve and brooks were struggling setting hooks on these insanely quick hitting trout

(my struggles will come later)

at one point we decide to 4 wheel it up to latir lakes

state record trout  (species not remembered)  taken from up there

it was the longest steepest straight climb I've experienced

butt rough for sure

brooks had to hold onto the radio knobs to keep from being bounced from the truck

anyways, we've been fishing and camping together every year since

well nearly - we missed last year sadly on three different occasions

I'm gonna go through my iphoto library

and share some of my favorite pics  of steve

good luck and all the best amigo

let's go fishing!