Paying it forward

"I believe everything in life happens for a reason.  I learned early on never to force things.  If it was meant to be it will happen.  Life has a funny way of working things out..."

I heard a while back that one of the kids my daughters went to grade school with was an aspiring fisherman.   His mother had told me once that he was obsessed with it.  I remember telling Norland about this kid and how we should take him under our wing and show him the magical waters of the Huron Flows and ruin him forever LOL!.  Well that never happened and time went on.  The kids are all in high school now and a lot of water has passed under the bridge since those days.  Three weeks ago  I get a phone call out of the blue one evening asking about some gear I had listed for sale on the internet.  It turned out to be Cole's  mother...the crazy fishing kid.  She called on a hunch that it was me selling the gear and wanted to surprise her son Cole for his up coming birthday.  It had turned out that the gear I was selling was exactly what Cole was searching for right down to the very line on the reel.  We talked in length about Coles continued passion for fishing and how he had stuck with it all this time.  She went on to tell me he was a gear hound with eleven or so rods and spent all his spare time fishing, watching fishing videos, and tying flies.  It wasn't until she told me his secondary educational choice of Aquaculture at Sir Sandford Fleming College that I realized this kid was indeed a mini me. It turns out Cole and myself have driven the same roads in our lives only paralleled by decades. 

Fishing has always been my passion and I had initially chose the same career path as young Cole back in the day while attending SSFC.  It then became true and apparent that I had to share the wonders of the backwaters of a cherished Huron Gem with this young man...paying it forward if you will.  I dropped the idea in Cole's mothers hands along with a link to the blog and left it at her discretion.  Then came the meeting.  Cole and his father came over to look at the gear they were interested in purchasing a few days later.  While they were here we discussed the blog, photography, writing,  and the opportunity to fish together on the home waters.  I could see it in his eyes and his mannerisms...there was a fire...he wanted to go and go so bad.  It was exciting to watch his reaction as I answered the questions he threw at me and explained what to expect from such an outing.  I remember those early days  and the desire to get to these fish.  We parted ways and I told him I'd be in touch.  Well as we all know the Rains have put a damper on the Huron options for the past month with the exception of a few short windows.  As luck would have it things were shaping up nicely for an escape today so I reached out and extended the offer.  It didn't take any time for Cole to accept.  The 5 am departure time didn't even phase him in the least.  Soon the outing was a reality and we were making our way North. 
As expected the traffic on the river today was excessive.  Nothing of epic proportion but way outside the norm.  Cole and myself made the best of it.  We exercised courtesy and stretched our legs in search of isolation and fish.  Although it was tough sledding out there we managed to find both.  We worked for the fish as well as the isolation with 4 river crossings under fairly hardy flows.  I think young Cole may have underestimated the physical demands of Steelheading in the back country as well as the power of an angry flow.  Nonetheless he worked hard and kept up with the pace.  Crossing a river is a skill learned with patience and practice.  He got better at each crossing as the day played out.  He learned how to read some water and managed to hook into 5 fish.  He also learned that early November Steelhead can be quite a handful after getting tuned by 4 out of the 5.  Rome wasn't built in a day and paying ones dues are part of the game.  It was nice to see and at times I thought to myself this young man may very well be taking me fishing some day.  It was a nice thought...