Holy heck it’s early…4:14 a.m….I haven’t been up this early since the turkey hunt back in ought 13…why am I up?  FISHIN!!!!!  Right on!  Weasel and I are heading for Hyrum Dam…maybe catch a bass, maybe catch a trout, maybe catch nuthin, but we are goin fishin instead of just a wishin!

When my alarm went off this morning at 3:30, I thought, What in the heck did I set if for 3:30 for, when I know I’m not picking him up until 5:30?  And now I know…because I’m old and slow!  I just barely got my face washed, the gear pulled up from the basement, two spam sandwiches made and the cooler packed with sodas and water…now suddenly it’s a quarter past 4…only about an hour left to get done all that has to be done to go…I’m glad I got up at 3:30 now.  Even little MaPa’s is curled up on the couch behind me sleeping, but I’m almost ready.

I had a flash back about the “olden days” when Utah had an opening season for fishing.  It opened (If I recall correctly) about 5 a.m. on a certain day in May, probably Memorial weekend, but I’m not sure.  It was a really big deal to be fishing on that day.  The roads were packed with people getting up the canyons to their favorite places.  The DWR would have all the lakes and streams loaded down with freshly stocked fish.  People would be lined up and down every possible standing spot to fish…literally shoulder to shoulder fishing.  Lines crossed over lines and if someone actually hooked onto a fish the line crossing mess got much worse.  Did I care?  Not one bit…it was part of the tradition at the time.  And part of that was getting up at 3 a.m. to get ready to head out.

One time in particular, I recall one opening morning and my oldest brother had just gotten in from a night on the town…he loaded right into the car to head up to the lake…he wasn’t in the best of shape as I recall, but he loaded in anyway and off we went…dad behind the wheel.  Suddenly older brother started to yell for dad to pull over…that in an of itself deserves a story, but dad finally did get a chance to pull over and the door swung open really quickly and out older brother went with his head down…it wasn’t really pretty.  Those were the good old days…opening day of fishing.  I still remember the early morning foggy mist coming up off the lake water…the crisp morning air…the birds chirping and us crunching our way into our favorite corner of the fishing area, be it lake or stream.  Now, even though those days have some very fond memories to me, I like what we have today.  Go fishing any time of day, any day of the year.

This is Fathers Day weekend and I want to wish every father out there a happy weekend!  Happy Fathers Day fellas!  I hope you get to go fishing or whatever it is that is fun to do.

I have a pocket full of quarters, not that I’ll need them, for todays fishing and I hope the Weasel does to, because his quarters will become my quarters pretty quick.  Also, Hyrum Dam has a stock of tagged fish in it that just might be biting for us…I’d love to catch one and find out what prize I won when I turn it in.  To catch a tagged fish would be a super bonus…first off a fish that is good to eat, secondly a quarter from the Weasel and third a special prize with bragging rights…my kind of fishing.

So, wish us luck and hopefully you too will be on the lake today!

Happy Fathers Day everyone!

Bears Butt

June 15, 2013