Gar I see you hiding
But I can’t get my fly there
You’re sunning facing to the bank
And I just can’t make the cast

Just a few more days
And the water warms some more
I’ll stalk you from the open side
And you’ll take the fly and soar
Oh you’ll take the fly and soar

Roy and Molly were a fun couple.  We fished together exactly four years ago today.  The two were avid anglers who had just decided to try fly fishing.  Usually, they spent their time night fishing for bass, taking advantage of the cooler night time temperatures and lack of crowds on the water.  Neither of them had ever caught a fish with a fly rod.

Anyway, Roy bought a raffle ticket at Fly Fish Texas in March at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center.  He wanted to win an Orvis 5 weight that was up for grabs.  I had offered a guided carp trip for the raffle.  Roy told Molly: “If I win anything, it’ll probably be that guided carp trip (snort).” 

When the phone rang at their house that evening, Molly answered, and called Roy over her laughter:  “You’ll never guess who it is!”

The two were extremely good sports and they took me up on the trip.  We chatted in advance and I gave them some advice to go catch some panfish to get used to the fly rods and then we’d give it a shot when the weather warmed up and the sun stayed high in the sky.

Although neither of them landed a carp that day, they both got the experience of stalking and spotting, and they both got to see a fish eat their fly.  Molly got an eat from a carp, and in Roy’s case, a drum picked up his fly– and dropped it again– four times while he was trying to untangle the fly line from his feet.

I ran into Roy and Molly at Fly Fish Texas again in 2008, and Roy handed me a business card.  It turns out, he had become the Mayor of the town he lived in.  I instantly knew he’d make a great Mayor, because he was a genuinely friendly and upstanding man.  I had to point out, though, that I’d never heard of the town on his business card.

“That’s OK,” he said, “that’s not even the town I’m mayor of, that’s just the town with the nearest post office!”

The Mexican Restaurant Fishing Club held an impromptu meeting after a scouting trip.  It was one of those “it’s all about the experience / it’s just good to be out on the water” days.

It’s always good to learn a thing or two on a scouting trip.  This day’s lesson:  you can haul hay in a Nissan.