All Is Go For Launch...

I've been counting down for weeks, and we're almost there. Trout season opens on Saturday. Trout Lake, Brookie Lake, Cutthroat Lake--they'll all be there for the taking.

So I headed down the road this afternoon to do some things I needed to do. I went to the town of Omak, home of the world famous Omak Stampede and Suicide Race. That's where my daughter Lidia and her boyfriend Junior live, so of course I got to spend some time with my grandson Rodrigo Sebastian. RS3 (he's the third to carry the name Rodrigo, so Lidia and Junior call him RS3) just turned three months old. What a great kid. I think he likes me. He's still too young to fish, but if he's like his mother he'll be going along with me before you know it.

Later I stopped by to watch an away game for Jeremiah and the baseball team. The Omak field is in Stampede Park in sight of the Suicide Race hill. We lost pretty bad, but Jeremiah walked twice and got a clean hit, and pitched for an inning and a half. He held his own on the mound, and gets better with each outing. The shades were a nice touch today.

And there was one other thing I needed to do. I stopped at the fly shop inside the Big R store and picked up a few necessities for this Saturday. (I wish we had a locally owned fly shop, but we don't.) I needed floatant, and I always pick up new tippet material in 4X and 5X before the opener. I also needed some hooks for the muddlers I hope to tie before Saturday and throughout the season. And I've been putting off the purchase of a new fly line, but I couldn't put it off any longer. No more kinks!

Just the essentials, and nothing too fancy, so I got away with paying just under $80. Yes, it still seems like a lot of money to me, but compared to all that I'm actually getting for that small investment--pretty much a whole trout season--it's a bargain.

So things are looking good, the final countdown is underway, and all is go for launch...