Last evening, after a tasty jalapeno burger from the grill, I decided to take a quick run over to Seven Signs with the
 |
| Seven Signs |
fly rod to see if I could land a bass or two. Once there, I glanced down river and spotted one of the cairns I had stacked the day before. Ahh, still standing.
I was soon joined by four kids, fishing poles in hand, who wandered down and settled in about 10 feet from me. Two of them recognized me from last year when I was launching the tube for a river float. It was the tube that made the lasting impression, I remembered them being really fascinated by it. So I guess they felt they knew me enough to plunk their tackle boxes down on the rocks next to me and start fishing "my water".
 |
| The red tube thing with the chair |
Kids will be kids...
And, kids being kids, I knew it wouldn't be long before they wandered off. But before they did, the conversation began by one of them telling me that he remembered me and that "red tube thing with the chair". Followed by "it must be really fun to catch a bass on one of them rods" and "Oh, you've got a floating thing on your line...that won't catch anything here...you got to get deep". I smiled as I watched them toss their spinning rod lines out into the middle of the river...kids being kids...the longest cast must catch the biggest fish. Right? And even if it doesn't...well it was still the longest cast.
I continued to patiently work the water above a drop off about 6 feet in front of us with a great big top water fly, drifting it over then stripping it back with long, big, attention getting splashes... until smash...big bass.
 |
| A big bass |
Nothing gets a kids attention better than being proven wrong, especially when you don't have to say a word.
And now that I had their attention, I explained to them that its not really cool to fish right next to someone and cast over someone else's line.
They all just kind of stood there and looked at me, with that look you get that makes you wonder if they're "getting it" or they're just thinking "shut up, you stupid old man".
It wasn't long after that, they split up and took off. Two went upstream, two went downstream, all at comfortable distances. Which left me alone wondering even more...
I fished on, and landed a couple more really small ones. Timing truly is everything.
 |
| The quick cairn |
A while later, I noticed the two kids that ventured downstream had taken up a rock throwing contest...trying to hit and knock down the cairn that I'd built and was so glad to see was still standing. I thought about yelling down to them...but realized that would definitely put me in the "stupid old man" category. I mean, it was just a pile of rocks and it wasn't even a particularly good stack, a quick cairn, if you will.
I had stacked it there to give anybody who happened upon it, a little bit of pleasure. Kids will be kids, and they were certainly getting a lot of pleasure trying to topple that thing. I watched as their rocks missed right, left, and high. With each salvo they stepped a little closer until they were finally close enough to deliver the fatal blow.
I smiled. And the stupid old man on the river thought, "Kids will be kids."
I smiled. And the stupid old man on the river thought, "Kids will be kids."
