When the boys returned home from fishing they were so excited to show me the pictures. I was so excited when Ward said - "Hey, I'll blog about our trip". So here ya have it!
Gage is a fisherman. Last Friday November 6, Gage turned seven. For his birthday, he asked for an overnight fishing trip. With his newly purchased pair of waders and boots, he and I carefully studied the many opportunities to catch trout in western North Carolina and ultimately settled on the area around the famous Tuckaseegee river, just outside Dillsboro.
On Friday morning the two of us set out in search of the elusive mountain trout. Any fisherman knows that a real fishing trip always begins at the local fly fishing shop to find out about the local rivers and what the fish have been biting. So naturally our first stop was the Waynesville Fly Shop. Now everyone knows that flies for fly fishermen are much like shoes for women, you can never have too many. This rule held true on Friday, as we were able to add several new flies to our box as well as gain valuable information for the weekend ahead.
Unfortunately, due to the TVA generating on several local rivers we were not able to wade fish the Tuckaseegee. We spent Friday fishing the Pigeon River instead and Saturday fishing the Ravens Fork and Soco rivers in Cherokee. The weather was absolutely perfect, the scenery was spectacular, as always, in western North Carolina this time of year. We had a sack lunch on the river Friday, a tradition for all our fishing trips. Gage picks the rock. We saw squirrels, a few hawks, and heard gun fire from a nearby firing range.
After a long day of fishing on Friday we had dinner in Franklin at Cody's, a local favorite. Gage wanted steak. We took some great pictures of our meal. Danielle, our waitress, took our picture and brought Gage a large dessert. We took turns playing the Nintendo DS, talking about school, friends, and fishing.
The evening ended in the hotel with Cartoon network. Saturday was spent fishing most of day with a side trip into Cherokee to buy a bow and arrow with some of his birthday money and eat at Subway. We meet several fly fishermen on the river and shared stories of fish that got away or were seen but never had. The day ended with the drive home just in time to have a home cooked meal and tell stories about the trip.
Ultimately, no fish were brought to hand. In fact, only a few fish were seen.
Needless to say, Gage was disappointed and at one time said to me the trip was ruined because we did not catch any fish. During the ride home I began to think about my own fishing experience as a child and young adult. I have my grandfather George Adcock Sr, to thank for my love of fishing. Which I have managed to pass on to Gage and hopefully Davis and Truman one day. While I cannot give credit to my grandfather for ever having the traditional grandparent relationship with me, as a teenager and young adult he did the one thing he knew how to do best, take me fishing and hunting. In fact, most all of my memories of him are of our many trips to his farm to fish or hunt and the meals back at home afterwards. Many of those trips ended without any fish being caught. In fact there were many trips together that we hardly spoke at all. But I would not trade those memories for anything now. Out of those times together I learned that he was a self made man of few words, he borrowed money to start his own business repairing cars in the 1940's, Adcock's Garage. My great grandfather told him he would never make it, because no one would ever pay someone else to fix their car when they could do it themselves. For over 50 years he was an honest businessman, he gained the respect of many in his community and provided for his family, he was good at what he did and a hard worker, like most of his generation. The time I spent fishing with him made me realize all these things about him. Things that I may not have otherwise. He taught me to simply enjoy fishing. He certainly did. He taught me that at any age you can fish and that you can have fun doing it.
So I hope that one day Gage will look back on this trip and realize that there is more to a fishing trip than simply catching fish.
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