Flippin Flies Together.

"It’s obvious there are no salmon running" I explained to the woman that somehow puts up with me. "There are no people here." It was the first summer we were together and I was going to introduce her to flipping flies for sockeyes on the Kenai River. Crowds means fish and we were pretty much alone on the river.
She persevered through the rain and mosquitoes, flipping flies till her arms ached, but to no avail. She won’t hesitate to tell that the one red she hooked was lost when I tried to net it. You got to be tough in the North Country and she has proven to be all that and more.
Allot of salmon have returned to the rivers since that first summer, and together we have traveled many miles, most of it up stream it seems. In that time we have even been blessed with a little fry of our own.
In hindsight any of the reasons we had for leaving Alaska were perfectly valid, but after beating the waters through two disastrous moves and several terrible jobs, the reality was we were desperately flipping flies when the chance of landing a big one were painfully slim. Thankfully we have been fishing for that big one together.