06-28-2004, 02:14 PM
[cool][blue][size 1]In the OLDEN DAYS, when I was in the third grade in Idaho Falls, Idaho, I hated it when I had to quit spending my whole day fishing and had to go back to school in the fall. But, that year, I got lucky. The school I had been going to was overfull and several classes were moved to a small building down the street, in the park where my little creek ran through.[/size][/blue]
[#0000ff][size 1]One morning at recess, I walked over to the place where the creek ran under the street. When I looked back in the culvert, I saw a big rainbow laying there. The next day I came to school with a length of old fly line and a 6" snelled hook knotted on the end. When the bell rang for recess, I first ran to a vacant lot and grabbed a grasshopper. Then I ran to the culvert and hooked the hopper onto my handline. I flopped a short length of line into the water and fed it down into the culvert.[/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]SPLASH. The trout took my hopper. After waiting a few seconds, I hauled back and hooked the big old rainbow. It was a real tug of war for a few seconds. The bell for the end of recess rang just as I dragged the fish up onto the grassy bank. I gathered up the fish and my tangled line and ran back to class...hoping to get a break from my teacher, Mrs. Moon.[/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]What luck. She was a fisherman's wife and liked fishing herself. She got all excited when she saw the fish and helped me subdue it and put it in the refrigerator in the teachers' room. At lunch, she also called her husband, who met me when school was out and marveled at the fish. I proudly rode it home in the basket on my bicycle. However, I was asked politely by my teacher to not bring fishing tackle to class anymore.[/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]How big was the trout? Of course they all get bigger as the years go by, but I am guessing it was about 18" and maybe a fat two pounds or so. Then again, it could have been 30" and ten pounds. That's how big it was to me at the time.[/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]The bad news? That little creek (Willow Creek) once ran free from the mountains to its confluence with the Snake River in Idaho Falls. It has long since been dammed. It is now absorbed by a reservoir and no longer flows through town. [/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]You can never go back...except in your memories.[/size][/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff][size 1]One morning at recess, I walked over to the place where the creek ran under the street. When I looked back in the culvert, I saw a big rainbow laying there. The next day I came to school with a length of old fly line and a 6" snelled hook knotted on the end. When the bell rang for recess, I first ran to a vacant lot and grabbed a grasshopper. Then I ran to the culvert and hooked the hopper onto my handline. I flopped a short length of line into the water and fed it down into the culvert.[/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]SPLASH. The trout took my hopper. After waiting a few seconds, I hauled back and hooked the big old rainbow. It was a real tug of war for a few seconds. The bell for the end of recess rang just as I dragged the fish up onto the grassy bank. I gathered up the fish and my tangled line and ran back to class...hoping to get a break from my teacher, Mrs. Moon.[/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]What luck. She was a fisherman's wife and liked fishing herself. She got all excited when she saw the fish and helped me subdue it and put it in the refrigerator in the teachers' room. At lunch, she also called her husband, who met me when school was out and marveled at the fish. I proudly rode it home in the basket on my bicycle. However, I was asked politely by my teacher to not bring fishing tackle to class anymore.[/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]How big was the trout? Of course they all get bigger as the years go by, but I am guessing it was about 18" and maybe a fat two pounds or so. Then again, it could have been 30" and ten pounds. That's how big it was to me at the time.[/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]The bad news? That little creek (Willow Creek) once ran free from the mountains to its confluence with the Snake River in Idaho Falls. It has long since been dammed. It is now absorbed by a reservoir and no longer flows through town. [/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]You can never go back...except in your memories.[/size][/#0000ff]
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