First Fly Fishing Trip, etc.

For Memorial Day weekend Shelley (my wife) and I headed to Table Rock Lake the Wednesday before the holiday. Thursday was the big day, where my friend Jim taught me to fly fish for trout near the Shepherd of the Hills hatchery at Taneycomo, just below the Table Rock Dam. I had a fun time learning that day, and Jim caught two nice looking rainbow trout. I'm glad Jim was patient with me and kinda let me learn on my own. It was frustrating because I could get the line to go where I wanted it, and get it to drift downstream the way it needed to. So the first day I was shut out. So I decided to go back on Friday morning, this time without Jim. And after just 20-30 min. of being in the water I caught my first rainbow trout (sorry there's no picture). It was a great feeling because it happened on a cast that was perfect (for me). Usually, you don't have to cast just right as long as you get the drift right, but everything went swell, and sure enough I hooked one and kept him on the line until I could get him in. I fished for probably 3 more hours that day and never could catch another one. I think it was becaue early in the morning the sky was cloudy and the air was foggy so the fish couldn't see my line well. Then as the day went on the sun shone brightly on my line that was too heavy. I was using 5x tippet, and I guess on a day like that I should use something smaller. But, the whole trip was worth it, just to catch that one fish, and now I'm ready to go again in another week or so. We had fun the rest of the weekend too. We visited our new church in Columbia and met some of the students in the youth group I'll be serving. That was an exciting experience too. A neat feeling came over me that assured me this is where God is calling me to serve. I'm excited, but my first official day isn't till July 1st. So we'll keep praying and packing as we get ready to move.