I couldn’t escape the thought of having to haul that damn float tube back to the car, and when my fly got stuck on a lily pad after a cast I got even more mad. I didn’t want to deal with a snagged fly right now, so I pointed the fly rod at the snag, and snapped my fly off.
“Stupid ass float tube.” I said, blaming the flat float tube on my lost fly.
Really… the worst thing about the day was that I was going to make a small video for my dad. I had my Go-Pro ready and had already filmed the first part of our hike to get lots a fun footage for a great video, but no, my float tube had to go out. I sighed and made another cast out, and a fish took.
“Alright!” I said, as a bit of happiness sprang out of my voice as I brought in my trout.
I was looking out at Justin, and I had yet to see him hook a fish.
“How are you doing out there?” I yelled.
“I keep missing them.” He answered back.
“Set your hook a little slower; they don’t take your fly as fast as a rainbow.” I suggested.
Where I was fishing, I had caught a few more fish, and suggested to Justin that he continued fishing it while I hiked around the lake.
In the distance I could see that Justin was hooking into some fish, and I was also doing well around the edge of the lake. By the time I had walked the entire lake I had plenty of footage for a video and plenty of fish caught.
“Justin. We better get going if we want to fish that other lake.” I yelled out to him.
“I almost don’t want to leave this lake. The fishing has been good.” “We can stay if you want, but you will miss the opportunity to catch a grayling.” I said, like it was no big deal.
“Seriously! You would give up your grayling spot to me?” He asked with surprise.
“It’s the real reason we brought our float tubes.” I said, and Justin kicked his way over to me, we packed on our backs, and headed to the other lake.
“I can see why we need float tubes.” Justin said, as he looked out into the lake. Surrounding the bank was a fifty-foot border thick with lily pads that would snag any fly that came close.
“That sucks about your tube.” Justin said, after gearing up to get into this.
“You know what…” I said with determination, “I’m getting in it anyway!”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah! There is plenty of air in the tube, and the seat is a big flotation device.” I said, as I put my waders on, and kicked out.
I felt like if I leaned too far forward the tube may dump me out, so I stayed way back on it and everything seems to be okay. Justin had already hooked into his first grayling, so the pressure to get him into one was no longer on my mind. Right near some lily pads, a grayling came up and ate something off the surface. I flicked my fly over to where it had rose, and waited for it to come back. A small twitch was all I needed and WHAM, the grayling took.
The grayling were kind of small, so they put up very little fight. The blue fin glistened under the water as I held the fish to let it go. As soon as it was ready, it bolted from my hand and out of sight.
“Woah! I got a nice one over here!” Justin’s voice echoed across the glass water as he spoke. I saw that he netted his fish and was kicking over for a picture.
The best part about all of this was that I had my Go-Pro with me. The grayling would be an added bonus for my dad when watching the video. I was sure to get as much footage as I could before I had caught and released my last grayling.
We had stayed a little longer than expected, and it was time to head back. Justin did his best to stall on his way off the lake, but eventually made it out. When we arrived back at the trailhead, my car was the only one left in the parking lot.
“I still can’t believe my float tube went out on me after I had packed it in all that way.” I said, stuffing it back into the car.
“It ended up working for you in the end.” He reminded me.
“Yeah, and I still got some footage for a video.” I said.
“You will have to let me know when it’s available to watch.” Justin said.
“Yeah, I’ll let you know.” I said, and we got into the car and drove home.
Not having a working float tube altered what I had originally planned for the video, but what I came up with was still fun. You can’t even tell I am upset about not having my float tube!
Enjoy the video!
Too bad about your float tube , but you made due ! the video is really cool to watch , kinda like being there with you , except not having to fin-kick the water on the difficult unidirectional hard to steer float-tube that's collecting spider webs in the " Quartito " for the time being . Video's worh a thousand pics ! NICE..(Dad)