Fishes

david brooks, director of montana trout unlimited, invited us to participate in their yearly memorial float fundraiser and i felt that with my dad having been such a big supporter of the organization that it made sense for us to donate to a cause he loved and to get some guided fishing in too. we floated the clark fork from clinton to turah and it was a beautiful clear warm but not hot day in western montana and the fields along the river had been regreened by a week of afternoon monsoon rains. our guide matt was a great coach, helping me get over some bad casting habits that i have developed over the last 30 lazy years of piss-poor flyfishermanship and built erica into a consistent confident caster in less than an hour. the space goat pale ales and cheetos flowed steadily on our raft at the same easy pace as the august river and by the end of the float we had caught 14 fish between us. we lay a rock with my dad’s name engraved on it into the shallows at the pull-out and it was immediately surrounded by a small school of curious minnows which felt appropriate, and then we went home for an afternoon nap: what a wonderful way to spend a late summer day.