Ants Don't Drown- 13 days

Nevada here we come- fishing the East Walker- home of the trophy brown trout and all-season goodness !! So this trip was all the way to Nevada- just across the border. This is the place we were in the fall when the mountain lion was 4' from me- stalking us apparently- so I did this camping with some trepidation but of course it was for naught ! I am armed with my glock and tetanus shot for all the rusty barb wire on the makeshift fences. This is private water again, so I saved money by camping but spent some money to be alone on the water. Considering it was Father's day weekend, it was a good call. I arrived at Ken Sporting Goods to check in for the private water (after weeks of Denny waffling about going or not- should have told him not to go) to find our reservation was for Friday and Saturday, although I had confirmed for Saturday and Sunday. Luckily they let us fish anyway and of course on Sunday the fish were down and not eating but I don't want to jump ahead. This is the fence that separated me from a mountain lion (below) Friday evening about 6pm I arrive to the ranch- which is a real working cattle ranch with cows, sheep, chickens, horses, rabbits, snakes, just about every animal you can imagine. It's a pretty nice property, not far from the Marine's training center for mountains (i.e. Afghanistan mountain terrain) so you hear helicopters throughout the day when they are on manuvers. This is an excerpt from a course description "Students are taught Tactical Rope Suspension Techniques (TRST), Assault Climber skills, animal packing, survivability, bivouac, mountain patrol techniques, tactical considerations, weapons employment, fire support considerations, the necessary skills to plan, organize, and lead mountain/cold weather operations; to plan/lead cliff assaults; to plan/lead long range patrols on complex ridgelines for overwatch, reconnaissance, or to control fires; to train their units for mountain/cold weather operations; " Needless to say, I don't qualify but it is cool to see them and know they are there (doesn't make sense, I know- its not like this is a hotbed for terrorist mountain activity but I suspect the tolerance for local deryl's is very low !!).
Anyway, I am alone on the ranch- the owners are out of town, so its me and the animals. I am really pretty busy though setting up camp to get ready for the next day so I can get up and get on the water. This involves unpacking the back of my truck, getting the coffee ready for the next day, stringing up my rods, picking out my flies, going through my fly boxes, changing my mind about the flies, reorganizing my fly boxes, then of course changing out my flies one more time. I notice while making my bed in the back however that my truck smells, so I decide to burn some Sweet Grass (not it isn't that kind of grass !!) incense inside my truck and in the meantime I also have a bonfire outside in the fire pit when I realize that in 100mph winds this is not a good idea, so I disperse of the fire and hit the hay. I had a pretty good time, the fire at night- just sitting out there (me and my glock 19 of course) relaxing and watching the sunset and then the stars, just amazingly peaceful. I have a hard time falling asleep, usual in a new place, but I wake up the next morning to a loud thud- I know its an animal and the sun is actually rising but was shocked to see a big ole Horse face literally one foot from my face with his face pressed against the glass. I then notice the other two horses who are running around my truck and alternating between nudging and licking my truck. I assume they think I am going to feed them and go on about my day- coffee, oatmeal and head to the water.
Its a nice day, not windy, nice mayfly hatch coming off, I immediately throw some streamers with no success and then on my nymph I catch a nice brown trout (my favorite trout) which stupidly I don't take a picture of because I assume I am going to catch many browns.

Of course I caught several rainbows and a squaw fish (left) that I thought was a carp and no more browns. Denny comes with Charlie a bit later and he caught some footballs per usual and I caught some medium fish (16-18") all on nymphs, there were no fish rising and little bug activity most of the day. About 4pm we head into Bridgeport to eat a late lunch/early dinner, I am telling the story to Dennis about the horses and of course it dawns on me that the horses were after the Sweet Grass incense I had burned- who knew !! I also had an incident with an ant- I had been sitting on the ground to tie my flies only to get up and start fishing and feel a sharp pain on my leg. Of course I am fishing and don't want to be disturbed, I am already in the water up to my knees, so I brilliantly decide to just duck my butt down into the water- we've been wet wading all day (its about 80 and the water is pretty warm) which means we don't have on waders just regular camping quick-dry pants and of course as soon as I come up out of the water I remember I had left my truck keys in my pocket so the key remote is soaking wet and in the meantime I feel a really sharp bite AGAIN !! So I dig my hand down onto the back of my legs and smush the very large red ant that is attacking me. As I am telling the story to Dennis he of course says "Ants don't drown" which of course I find out the Hard Way !! but that's why Dad always called me "HWH" for hard way holly (see left) !!
The next day I hike past the border and find some really nice water- I miss exactly 3-4 fish on 4 different dry flies (could have been one fish that many times but usually not and it wasn't in the exact same spot) because either I wasn't fast enough, or too fast, or they just came up to the fly and decided not to eat it- you fish long enough you realize that one person will say one thing, the other will absolutely swear on their dog's life that what the other person said wasn't true and is in fact the exact opposite, so you just really never know what to believe- its mostly about having patience, faith and low expectations- some days one is enough (quote taken from a guide named Mike). My rainbow on a copper john (left)

Speaking of which, the second day I come back and eventually find Dennis about 3pm, he's already drinking a beer (which means the fishing must be really bad) and I was having a pretty hard day, I mean landing a Squaw is sort of supposed to be embarrassing (secretly I was thrilled having never caught one) but anyway I see that Charlie is completely soaking wet because he's had about 3 baths. Like his friend Claude, he decided roll from head to toe in fresh Horse and Cow shit and then run with the horses in the fields. On the 4th Charlie bath Dennis loses my brand new camp soap, so needless to say we call it and head into town to eat dinner. In honor of Dad I actually even ate a few of Denny's chili cheese fries- which after all day fishing, were de-lish.
The drive wasn't bad coming back and on my 2nd trip, I was able to park, get unloaded, put everything away, shower, get my coffee ready and be in bed in one hour, which last trip it took me about 3 hours, so I have a pretty good system. Joe goes to the electrician this week to get the extra battery, lights and speakers, so he'll really be ready for my next trip and of course we will post some pics once its done.
Hope you all had a great Father's day weekend !! I am heading to Austin next Wednesday and then San Antonio for the International Conference. I actually cried on the drive back in just thinking about the last 15 years, all the people who mean so much to me from completely different parts of my sobriety- Chris and John, Lisa Mac, Lynette, Peggy D, Mike and Larry, Rowdy in Colorado, Diaamah in Chicago, Stacy Heath in NYC, my Houston buds, my Austin buds, my SF folks- how amazing my life is, that I get to live so close to the most beautiful mountains and wily gorgeous trout, living in SF- just very grateful, wouldn't have thought it when I moved to Houston in 1995 but hey, it's never too late to learn something new like Ants Don't Drown !!