My oldest son and his wife are up here in Montana visiting my wife and I this week. They are currently living in Utah, but I figure if I spoil them enough when they visit, they may consider moving back to God's country. Anyway, they wanted to do a little fishing and I made arrangements to put them in a place where the opportunity to catch a decent sized fish was pretty good. No guarantee we would catch fish, but if we did, the odds were good that they would be bigger than average. The fish in this particular top secret spot are very difficult to fool, so the catching part is very challenging. When my youngest daughter found out where we were going she wanted to come along as well. Well, what kind of dad would I be if didn't let here go? Of course, she was welcome to join us. Since the catching can be difficult I decided that I wouldn't fish, but rather, just watch my kids enjoying themselves, coach them a little, net their fish, and take photos. I was thrilled that each of them caught at least one better than average fish before the evening was over.
The first to get on the board was my daughter in law. I love big browns and while this one isn't gigantic it is fairly big for these parts. I think you can tell by the smile on her face that she was plenty happy with this fish.
Next up, my son hit a home run with this beast. It's definitely the biggest rainbow he's ever caught. He spends quite a bit of time fishing, so he's paid his dues. I was glad to see him catch the monster of the evening.
My youngest daughter was feeling a little frustrated as she had only caught one fish, and it was around 15 to 16" long. Not a bad fish, but not anywhere near the category of her older brother's or his wife's fish. However, she loves to fish and she knows that persistence and patience do pay off. Despite 30+ mph winds she diligently kept after it and was rewarded with this stocky light colored rainbow.
As the evening came to a close, and the wind died down, we tried a different mountain pond from where the biggest fish were caught. Normally it's pretty good, but on this night it was really slow. In fact I think they only caught two fish between the three of them. However everyone had fun. As I was sitting on the bank just enjoying watching my kids have a good time, I looked around and realized life is pretty darn good. God has been good to me and my family. I took my phone out of my pocket and took this photo to capture the moment. I'd say it was a fitting photo for the end of a very good day. I love living in Montana!
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