From the Miracles Never Cease Department

 Let's be honest here.  I'm not the fisherman in this family.  I can clean and remove scales like a champ, but catching them is not my forté.  That is until the White River in the Arkansas Ozarks.

This place is not only beautiful, but it has everything that we love.  I probably shouldn't wax on and on about this cause then it will get discovered, and then it will be prohibitively expensive to be here and over-run with tourists and all that jazz.  It's fall now, and the natives say that it's not as pretty as it usually is.  Really?  Not as pretty?  I think it's pretty gorgeous myself.

Late yesterday afternoon, I was trying to capture these trees (above) in a really great backlight in a watercolor.  I looked up and thought I saw a decent-sized, dark bird that mostly has been black vultures, but every once in a while it's a grey heron or even an eagle.  A river, especially a good fishing river, is a key play for eagles to hang out.  Well, it was an eagle.  I ran up to get Walt and his super-duper camera and he gets a decent shot.  We're going to make an effort later to spend some time trying to get a better shot as we found out where one of the main nests are on the river.  

He's picked up some to-go dinner from the river and headed home (on a branch across the river from our RV) to eat it.  The surprises never stop here.  

But that's not what this part of the country is known for.  It's known for its fishing, more specifically it's trout fishing.  So Walt and I trekked over here to check it out.  We hired a guide, and he's a good guy - really works hard to make sure that we are having fun.  

Here's the catch.  From the first time we went out, I caught the first fish.  I do not catch fishes - EVER!  So I'm in shock.  The first trip ended with me tieing Walt for the number of fish we catch.  

The second trip, I'm thinking this will be fun and all and maybe some fall color, but I won't catch fish all that much.  And plus our guide who we used from last time, wants me to try fly fishing.  Uh, yeah.  Fly fishing is the most artful way to not catch a fish!!!!

I mean look at this - doesn't this look idyllic?  But seriously - catching fish.  That's for the movies or someone who devotes their life to fishing and that's not me!

But guess what.  Our fearless guide is so good and Walt is so patient, that I caught a fish (a cutthroat trout no less) on my first lesson with Mike Decker, our guide.   

Now this includes all the mistakes like setting too quickly and letting it go;  setting the fish and letting the rod down;  missing the indicator going about 6 feet underwater.  I could go on, but for those of you who DO fly fishing, I'm sure you're rolling on the floor laughing your hearts out!

Needless to say, this will be framed, and then people will be bored eternally while I tell them my exploits of my first fish I caught fly fishing!  

And of course, it sounds so cavalier and urbane to say that it was a cutthroat trout!!!!