fly honeys

My friend Lana's dad is a fishing guide, and he bravely agreed to take us on a fly-fishing trip earlier this month. (We decided he should start a whole new business out of it - taking girls on trips and call the venture "Fly Honeys.") Between the 3 of us, we managed to fill up an entire SUV full of stuff. (granted, this included several coolers full of food for the weekend, it wasn't ALL suitcases.)

We got to our sleepy little town in Oklahoma and needed some lunch, so we stopped at a place. (can't remember the name - but there are only about 3 places to choose from and it wasn't the diner or the pizza place.) When we walked in (still wearing our "city" clothes), it was like we were in an episode of the Twilight Zone. Every single person in the small dining area turned to look at us and watched us walk to a table. They were all wearing some version of camouflage or neon orange. We stopped at a table and sat down. At that point we saw that there was a manila folder with something written on at at my seat. It said "Joe's seat." As in, nobody else can sit there if Joe comes in. When the waitress came over, we asked if we needed to move, and she said "No, Joe came in for breakfast, so you're fine."

Then we went to set up our cabin. It was a nice, 2-story, 3 bed/2 bath cabin fully equipped with all furniture, kitchen tools, towels, etc. Lindsey brought along some delicious tortilla soup and brownies to add to the cookies, fruit, pasta, chicken, shrimp dip, and other miscellaneous snacks. (we didn't go hungry, that's for sure!) I don't have any pictures of the cabin, but you can see it here: Southern Spirit cabin

After that, we promptly went to get our fishing license, waders and boots. Here I am with my license.
The guy who runs the shop, is a smart fella. I think he has it saved in the computer that all females weigh 120 pounds. What's that you say? You want to see it up close?

(note to readers - I do *not* weigh 120 pounds)

Lana's dad had a cold and wasn't feeling that well, so we wanted him to get some rest. He and Lana's mom went back to the cabin while Lindsey, Lana and I went for a hike. I forced Lindsey to stop for a photo with me on a bridge:
Lindsey was our fearless leader and navigated the forest. (until the trail seemed to stop - - - we turned around and went back at that point so that we didn't get lost!)

We also stopped to take some pictures in front of the pretty views. We gathered together and I held the camera out as far as I could and......
the camera was on zoom. You can tell Lindsey uses the Clarisonic, can't you? She has pretty skin. We fixed the camera and tried again:

Much better.

When we were done with our "hike," we went to a little shop called "Girls Gone Wine" that sells wine and other cute girly things. Considering it is the only shop besides the tackle shop, it is really quite a treasure. We had a glass of wine and sat under the heat lamps on the patio before heading back to the cabin for tortilla soup. We wanted an early start, so we all went to bed early. As in - about 9pm. I was the wild one and stayed up until about 10pm reading a book.

The next morning, Lana's mom made us a warm breakfast and we practiced our casting:

We added a few more layers of clothing because the wind was pretty cold, then we were off!

We got our waders and boots on and headed into the water.



As you can see, we had some luck finding things to take pictures of, but no luck with the fish. We took a lunch break and went to the pizza place before switching locations, learning new casting techniques and using new "flies." That was all it took..... I was standing knee deep in the water, listening to the nothingness and enjoying how peaceful it all was, when suddenly I felt a tug on my pole....
I screamed and promptly interrupted the quiet, peaceful surroundings. Steve was trying to tell me what to do, and I had no idea. I was supposed to be doing something with the line and I was pulling the fishing pole.

And finally - there it was! The first (and only!) fish of the weekend! It was actually really exciting - who knew?!?!
The good thing about going fishing with a fishing guide is that you never actually have to touch the fish. He flopped out of the net (we would have had to let him go anyway) and kept fishing a while longer - until it started raining really hard. I was *thisclose* to saying I had seen lightning, but it wasn't necessary. We packed up and headed out.

We got so lucky with the weather - it really should have been freezing, and it wasn't. With enough layers, it was really nice. Besides that, it was just a perfectly relaxing weekend. You know how sometimes you go on vacation and you're exhausted when you get home? This was not one of those trips. We got plenty of sleep, plenty of visiting, and just the right amount of outdoorsy adventure. We'll see if Steve is brave enough to take us again one day!!!