The Wild Ones

The phone rang on Thursday and it was Tom Husby, "How much do you like football?"  "I like to watch the commercials." I replied. "Wanna go down and fish the Clearwater Sunday?" He said.  "Yup." I replied. "Ok, we'll leave Saturday at 5:30 PM."  He said.  "Ok, see you then." (click)

With the trip all confirmed I talked to Linda and asked it it was alright to go.  Notice I asked after it was confirmed.  If she said "no" (which she wouldn't) then I would break into tears and start the groveling.  Basically all Linda did was ask a myriad of questions about the who, what, when where and why's of the trip.  I repeated Tom's and my conversation (see above) verbatim and explained that in man talk, that is all that was needed to be said.  The rest of the plans would follow a sequence that has been played over and over for a million years, when the hunter gatherers rendezvoused to lay siege upon the wild.

On Friday we drove out to John and Loretta Sutherland's house to have dinner and see their new basement remodel project.  They did a beautiful job of finishing their basement off with a gorgeous bedroom and a killer bathroom.  The shower and tub are definitely well though out.  Great space, lighting that is adjustable and practical, and tile work that accentuates the beautiful outdoor theme that runs throughout the house.

We ate pizza and talked all evening.  Getting together like this just makes me ask why we don't do it more often?

On Saturday we did our weekend shopping early. We had our jobs done, lunch ate and were home by about 12:30 PM.  I had been planning to smoke a tri-tip and chicken to see how it turned out, so I prepared it by putting Alex's Rub of Love on it to absorb for a while.  While the meat preped I  finished a project on the truck.

The truck project consisted of the replacement of the running lights on the top of the cab.  Before we bought the rig someone must have hit a low lid with the lights because they all had scratches and cracks in them.  When the light bulbs burned out I would have to replace the bulb and seal all the crack in each light housing.  I bought a new real cool set of LED lights with smoked plastic housings and did an expert job of installing them.  Yes, expert! In fact I only burned myself on the soldering iron twice!  Very little of the silicone sealant got on my cloths or my hair, so I consider it a expert job.

Once I finished the truck I put the meats into the smoker and trained Linda on how to extract the finished product when it reached the allotted smoker time.  Due to the set back of shopping on Saturday morning I could not be available to pull the smoked meat, because I would be in Uniontown preparing for the fishing trip.

Tom and I left at 5:30 PM exactly and drove to Uniontown where we met Tyler and Mark.  Arriving about 8:00 PM we watched fishing DVDs and talked about where we would fish in the morning.  We went to be about 9:30 PM and that is all I will say about that. (Ask me later about the bed and if I got any rest that evening.)

5:30 AM all the alarms sounded and we stumbled down to eat oatmeal, drink coffee and load up the truck.  We were at the river by about 7:30 AM and began fishing as soon as we got all our waders and winter coats on.  Mark his the first fish in the AM but it jumped and got off.  Our hopes were high at that point.

The day progressed and I caught the next fish but it broke off.  I examined my line and it looks like I tied a bad knot so the first miss was on me.

We fished hard.  Tyler was relentless and I don't think he took a break all day.  Tom was his usual machine and kept slashing the water with only a few stops to rest.  Mark and I took our time and enjoyed the sun.  We fished and rested, fished and talked, made trips to the truck for water and food, a fishing combination that we prefer.

At the end of the day, here is how the score card read.  Mark hooked the first one that got off, Tom worked on perfecting his casts but was skunked by the steelhead.  Tyler hooked three and landed two and was able to keep on hatchery fish.  I finished the day by catching one wild steelhead, hooking and loosening two others.  The final fish I caught made it almost into the net, but ran and broke off at the last second.  It was identified as a hatchery fish, so it made us a bit frustrated.  Hatchery fish are always kept and smoked when ever possible.  They taste amazing!

We drove home from the river to Uniontown and then headed up to Coeur d'Alene.  I tried my best to keep Tom company but lost the battle just before Plummer.  He continued alone for a while and I came back just outside home base.  I think I could have made it if I had slept a little Saturday night!