Aug 2,3

Sunrises and sunsets joined together. I had an evening cruise and early fishing tour. Golden red lined the sky on both sides of the valley for me. Memories created for other people and myself. It is the best of days; I wish there wasn’t a viral shadow hanging over us.

Luxury Lake Tours had one of its busiest weeks ever this past week. I was on duty and on the boat. We did more fishing tours than ever and I have rejoiced in the connections made in these strange times.

I have the speech down pat. Before people join me on Serendipity, my twenty-five-foot fibretoon Biltmore, I give everyone the spiel

“Have you been out of the country in the last fourteen days?”

“No,” they usually say in unison.

“Have you been sick in the last fourteen days? Have you been with anyone that has been sick or out of the country in the last fourteen days?”

“No”

“Have you seen the Ogopogo in the last fourteen days?”

Laughter, usually followed by the occasional “Yes!” or “No…”

I remind everyone of the physical distance measures and then shift to the regular safety speech. I find it easy with most people to maintain a respectful distance on the boat. Kids, on the other hand, are a bit tougher. Yet I understand, in their innocence, how hard it is to comprehend personal space; let alone two metres space. In moments of excitement, I know how hard it is to stay apart. But I am training well, it feels more normal every day to keep apart, to stand back. I wonder if this training will stay with our generation. Will it be like the great depression stayed with my fathers generation? Will we stay apart, like my father couldn’t part with anything? Time, that most valuable commodity, will be the true measure.

We set out from the dock this morning, hoping for fishing glory, expecting nothing but a boat ride. I had a good feeling as we set out from the Eldorado marina. The lake had a chop on it, the wind swept down the valley from the south. A crisp breeze cooled the air and stirred the lake, white caps chopped across the water and shimmered in the morning sunshine. It was a good day for a bucktail.

I finished my safety speech with my most important direction: “Have fun!”

I turned to my enthusiastic group consisting of three young children, two ladies and a gentleman. I explained we were going fishing, not catching, but we sure hoped to catch something more than a few rays. It has been kind of slow this week fishing, with only one out of three groups pulling in a prize. I hoped that the full moon and the fish gods were on my side.

We trolled into the oncoming breeze. I was intent on trying a fly on the surface. A large fly called a bucktail seemed like a good choice to lure a fish that had come to the shallows because of the rough water. I set another line on the downrigger and we put out some Kokanee gear for good measure.

Patience.

Fishing teaches patience, it was nice to see people that appreciated that. The kids fussed and wondered, it was their first time ever fishing. I was honoured and amused to meet these folks that chose Luxury Lake Tours for their first time fishing.

Patience can sometimes be rewarded. As the lake calmed down to ripples in the water before the first hour was done the wiggle and the jiggle of a fishing rod began. The kokanee gear was dancing and a cry flew out of my mouth;“Fish on!”

The young fellow, Sebastion, who was so excited to try fishing, leapt to his feet and started to reel. His uncle reached over to help. The vibration and excitement on the boat elevated as the family worked together to bring in the line. A silver flash swept into view, they all saw it less than ten feet behind the boat. It was a Kokanee, bright and shining in the water. It was there, then it was gone. They kept reeling and discovered the line was tangled with another line from the boat.

I mumbled to myself, “ should of brought in the other line.”

“There’s our fish” woke me up from my thoughts.

Sure enough, there was a silver flash and the lure from the next line on the boat. It had tangled and now the fish was there again for the taking. I grabbed the line and slowly started to pull. My new friend, the uncle, grabbed the rod and started reeling. Maybe we could get this fish after all.

We all saw it, the kids squealed in excitement. Then sighed in disappointment when the silver flash turned and laughed at us as it spit the hook and swam away. I’m not sure it laughed, but in the end, everyone on the boat laughed.

We reset the lines and started to fish again. Everyone on the boat was buoyed by the excitement of the one that got away; twice. We knew there were fish in the lake and they were biting. It was only a matter of time.

It was time to change the hook on the downrigger. The uncle mentioned he thought he saw it move. But the clip was still on the cable and there was no other sign of a fish; until I released it from the down-rigger cable. Fishing on a down-rigger involves clipping the fishing line with the lure on it to a cable attached to a lead ball. The ball takes the line to the depths of the lake in search of a lake lunker, aka a large rainbow trout. When the line released I found out we had a fish that was too small to pull the clip from the line. I don’t know how long we dragged that poor aquatic creature down the lake, but by the time it joined us in the boat it had no fight left. Like a revelation, these kids got to see a real live(almost) fish from the lake. You would have thought they had won a lottery.

Smiles abounded, we knew we weren’t skunked. I laughed and did an air high-five all around. The morning carried on that way. The kids reeling lines in and everyone had a chance to try to bring in a fish or steer the boat. I connected with this lively bunch who went home with two more kokanee and a memory to last a lifetime.

It is moments like these that make me confident in our world. Secure in the simple things in life, in living in the moment. Being aware, and being cautious does not mean we have lost any of our freedom or our spirit. It has made us more aware. It has made me value every memory I help create.