I understand that this is the least necessary fishing blog ever, but fishing with friends and family is about as good as it gets.
Lloyd Tackitt recently wrote a blog about how fishing is a doorway to a zen-like calm and it got me to thinking about fishing with friends and family. I love fishing by myself, but going with friends is a ton of fun.
Over the last few months I've had the luxury of taking a lot of friends and family out fishing here around the front range. The new brother-in-law, a friend from Chicago, a college buddy from Michigan, a couple of friends from work, and best of all my dad. The trips were not always super productive, but no one was ever skunked and some days were full o' fish.
My Chicago friend, originally from Florida, was not impressed by the bass fishing here on the front range. Admittedly, I didn't put him on many. I have lots of excuses, but I don' t need to bore you with those, pick a good one for me. Anyway, we were out there just to relax, have a beer or two, and a cigar on a cool summer evening.
Fishing with friends who don't fish often turns you into a guide. You don't mind getting skunked yourself, but you really work to get your buddy on to some fish. A lot of my friends I fished with this summer had never been to Colorado so catching a trout was atop the list. And living five minutes away from Lon Hagler made that goal easy. After we got some trout trolling we'd either fish the brambles for bass or hit the dam and deep spots looking for lunkers. This was always the best time, getting friends who had never handled a fish (or at least not since they were a kid) to unhook their own trout, grab a photo, then put it on the stringer so they could clean and grill it themselves later. Smiles were bountiful.
Fishing with friends who do fish regularly becomes a competition, a friendly one, but a competition none the less. First fish, biggest, most, most species, prettiest, pick one or all of 'em, it's always fun. If you got some more good ones, put them in the comments below. But this is also time to learn and share strategies or successful patterns and presentations. I've recently been paying a lot of attention to lure color based on water color and clarity. When I chose a black and copper rattle-trap to fish the milk chocolate water after the floods, I was bringing in fish after fish while my buddy using just about any other color couldn't buy a bite. When he switched over, he started catching as many as me.
The best though, was taking my dad out fishing. He got me into fishing at a young age. He never asked me to come, but I'd always hear him get up at 4 or 5 in the morning and I wondered what would make him get up that early in nearly freezing weather. Eventually, I asked to tag along and he said I could so long as I didn't complain and ask to go home early. That was it, and I've been fishing ever since. So when he and my mom came to visit Lindsay and me this summer, we went out every morning and most evenings. We went trout, bass, crappie, walleye and pike fishing. I shared a lot of what I've learned since I got to Colorado a year ago. We talked about how different (and sometimes similar) fishing in Colorado is from Michigan. It was just great fishing with dad again.
These are just some of the reasons fishing with friends is fun. Have a beer and catch up, introduce them to something they've not done since childhood, show that S.O.B. who the real angler is, maybe sharing a tip or two, or repaying the favor of introducing you to the sport in the first place.
What's your favorite part about fishing with friends?
