This post is from contributing author, Pat Burke.

No, my grasp of the English language is not that bad.  I’ll explain what the title means later…

I was lucky enough to share the water with my good friend Jason the last two days.  Jason and I spent many hours fishing together during our high school years.  The outings ranged from fly fishing on the stocked streams of western PA, to trips to New York to fish for migratory fish.  He joined the Air Force right out of high school and we grew apart.  He ended up spending many years in Japan, before finally being based back in the states.  Now he lives within striking distance of the San Juan River and has been getting back in to fly fishing.  He reached out to me last year to talk fishing.  Since then we have spoken often.

He arrived at my place mid morning on Sunday.  We quickly gathered our gear and headed to a local river.  Upon arriving, I gave Jason a quick demonstration of tightline nymphing with a long leader.   He is an accomplished indicator fisherman but has not really spent much time long leader nymphing.   We stood on the bank and I purposely chose an unproductive looking spot so I could show him the mechanics of casting, tracking the flies, and sighter positioning.  I wanted him to get first dibs on the best water.  Well wouldn’t you know it, I hooked into a hefty mid teens brown right away while demonstrating tactics in total shit water.  At that point I knew that catching a fish right away was either going to be the kiss of death, or signs of great things to come.  Luckily it was the latter.

Jason moved into a productive run and absolutely slayed fish tightlining!  He was a natural and picked up all of the small nuances very quickly.

We spent the next few hours alternating runs and hopping over one another.  The fish were eager to take a fly and often gave long winded fights, alternating between bulldogging on the bottom and jumping continually.

Not only is Jason a great guy to spend the day on the water with, he also came bearing gifts.  The first was an excellent IPA from New Mexico.  It came in pint size and it was STRONG.

The second gift was a bad ass sticker from Japan.  Next time you are looking to go out, make sure you ask your buddies if they want to “Go For A Fishing”!