Fly Fish Chick

I have been looking everywhere for this old picture.

This picture was taken sometime in early August on the Missouri in 2000. I floated Craig-to-Craig early one morning with my dad and dear friend Mitch. This is the fish that made me fall in love with tricos, a reach cast, and my navy blue UNC hat.

It was my super-mojo, holy-hoodoo fishing hat for many summers. But I got worried that I was putting all my eggs in one basket, so sometime around 2003 I weaned myself from it and worked some other hats into the rotation. But enough time has passed and we have a basketball tournament to think about, so I have been bullish to find my Carolina hat.

No luck all week.

Then in one fell ally oop swoop I found that picture yesterday and my hat late last night. The trico spinner that caught that fish is still hanging on the edge.

I know the feeling.

So perhaps the hat, the trico and I are all looking a tad more weary than we did in the picture up above. But we’ve weathered these eight years nonetheless, and to be reunited feels good.

With this fortuitous timing, the only thing else I have to say today is GO HEELS.

Catch you on the flipside…