“I got one dad,” says Luffy in a calm voice with an underlying tone of excitement. I set my rod down to go over and hover over her and annoy her with directions. The fish just sits at the bottom of the river, which is a technique I have noticed of big browns. This goes on long enough that she almost gets bored. “Try pulling him up a bit,” I comment. Game on, this monster just starts running on her. The kid is hanging tough, reeling in when the fish hesitates, and letting it run when it wants to run—without me saying a thing. After what feels like a life time I keep thinking she will pull the little kid thing and say “I’m tired,” but she doesn’t. I tell her to work the fish over into a part of the river where it goes shallow, that way it won’t go down into branches and break off, and I can net it. This fish will have nothing of being netted, and makes its biggest run yet. Madeline cries out, “Dad!” which means don’t screw this up. I finally manage to get it into the net, and she gets to look at it. “It the size of a baby.” I assume she means a human baby.
Halfway between Strawberry Reservoir and Starvation the terrain changes from a high mountain wooded pine area to a more desert, sage, Pinion Pine look. The Pinnacles has some geologically interesting formations. However I do kind of hear the banjo playing in the background, and I find myself looking for some of those scary backwoods good ‘ol boys to creep out with his shot gun. I have heard stories of some pretty strange, isolated dudes hunkered in around the area. If you can get that image out of your mind, the river is great. It can be a bit muddy in spring though. Today, March 17, 2011 is cold and the fishing is tough. But it’s nice to be out fishing with my cousin Phil.
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