04-24 REELLIFE digital - Flipbook - Page 29
fishing
GARY LEWIS
LEMONS
I fed a rusty orange
streamer into the current,
threw an upstream mend,
and let it swing.
We call it First Water. It's
what you get early in the
morning when you get to
the river before the next
guy. First Water makes
you smile after a hard
week at work. Like making
lemonade out of lemons.
A trout hammered the fly
and the tippet snapped.
Heart pounding, I cut the
leader back to 8-pound,
tied on another fly and cast
quartering-down. This time
when the fish hit, it turned
and charged, coming
straight out of the water.
Five minutes later we slid
the net under a four-pound
gnarly, hook-jawed brood
stock rainbow. We have
learned from experience
it's hard to revive the big
hatchery rainbows, so it
was an easy decision to
keep it for the table.
FARMED, HATCHERY,
WILD OR NATIVE?
Here's a thing that doesn't
make sense. We go to the
grocery store and complain
about the price of groceries
and then we drive to the
lake and catch and release
a limit of rainbow trout at
$10 a pound. I've done it.
Hey, those fish were put
there to catch and keep.
It's healthy food, high in
omega-3 fatty acids and
B vitamins. Easy to catch
(sometimes). Easy to clean.
APRIL 2024 | 29
