Elia has a real affinity for language. She loves to talk, and loves to look at books and have them read to her. She has most of her books memorized after one or two sessions, and recites them to herself all the time. Kelly has been checking books out of the library that we read to her each night, one or two chapters a night. I'm amazed that a regular book can hold her interest without pictures, but she is fascinated by the words. She's always recognized words quickly but tonight she actually read me several Dick and Jane stories, sounding out the difficult words (something, funny, etc) a letter at a time. It was an amazing moment watching all of that come together for her, and then she read my shirt, by sounding out the letters and putting them togeher (my "superdad" tshirt).

She amazes me every day.

The dry spell is over! JJ and I lucked into spotting a few fish today. I only had the chance to put the fly in front of one, but it was a big fish. The first two casts seemed to wake the fish up and he started moving around more, looking for something. On the third cast it came together and the fly sank about 1 ft in front and 1 ft to the left of the big carp. JJ was standing holding onto my leg patiently when the carp eased over and down out of sight in the murky water. I counted to three in my head, figured he either had it, spit it, or wasn't going to eat it and I set the hook! Fish on! I dropped to my knees and held the rod in front of JJ. He grabbed it with both hands and tugged back as hard as he could. It was pretty funny...when the fish took off and the reel started screaming I had to keep JJ's hands out of the way, but in between runs JJ would grab the knob and reel as fast as his little 18 month old hands would allow. In due time we brought the fish in together. The biggest problem was that I didn't have a net, or scale with me. In fact, on leaving the car I left everything inside except rod, reel and one fly that I stuck in my hat. I really hadn't epxected to see any fish. I hauled the big fish into the shallows, reached down and the barbless fly slid out with no effort. I'm guessing the carp was between 18-21 lbs. Hard to tell without actually hefting the fish, but I've caught enough that size to make a pretty good guess.

JJ was a trooper...I had to pry the flyrod from his hands to finally land the fish. More to come...it is almost time out here in OR! The fly that worked was the recently tied rubber legged walking hare's ear pictured below.

I finished tying the flies for the CAG fly swap last week, but still haven't dropped them in the mail! Just haven't had time to get to the post office. Whipping up those patterns got me back to the vice, and I had missed it. I tied about a half dozen today...a variation of Nick's Walking Hares Ear. Basically I dropped his turkey quill legs and added rubber legs. Two years ago, this fly was money out here for carp, last year, they wouldn't look at it. I tied these in size 12, with basically one purpose in mind. Watch out Buffalo! If J and I hit the Buffalo days correctly during the spring MN trip, these babies should do the trick. All the blind nymphing we've done in MN over the last couple of years have proved how effective Rubber Legged Hares Ears can be.

Looking forward to that trip.

I was just sitting upstairs in Elia's room talking to her while she played some CDs and we had this conversation.

"Would you like to hear a different CD dad?"

"Sure honey."

"What would you like to hear?"

"Oh, you pick, anything is fine." I said.

"No..I'm asking you. Do you like Puff the Magic Dragon?"

"I love Puff, that would be perfect."

"Um...we are going to skip Puff the Magic Dragon tonight. I'll put on something else."

She put on a different CD and I ran downstairs to write it down because I thought it was funny. She cracks me up sometimes. I'm blown away by how adult she can be at only 3 years old.

The last time I touched a fish was Nov. 7th. That is the longest drought since I picked up my fly rod after college.

Elia and I hit the fly shop today and I looked up from perusing some beads and Elia was standing by Don, the owner. "Excuse me." she says.

"I broke my Dora the Explorer fishing rod and need a new one. Where do you keep the girl fishing rods?"

Don laughed and showed her a 6 ft 2 wt. Pretty funny moment, complete with the shop owner trying to upsell my 3 year old!

I sometimes wonder if I'll remember these moments in another 10 years. They come from nowhere, and hit a father harder than anyone can imagine (except another dad) and the most amazing thing about it is that there are so many of these moments. You would think that the sheer volume of words and looks combined with the massive emotional charge they deliver would wear you down over time. But that hasn't happened. Each time Elia or JJ does something like that I fall to the floor again, and get back up thinking "I'm never going to forget that." The reality is that in some cases, I probably will forget the actual words, or the exact moment; but I think that big jolt of electricity that stuns you stays with you. It keeps building up and as near as I can tell, I've got plenty of room for more.

You really do love your kids more each day. Think about how amazing that is.

The winter here has seemingly lasted forever. My last carp outing on the Columbia seems like years ago, and it has been a long time since I felt that adreline rush, heart pumping moment seconds before a carp inhales your fly. Elia and I headed out today, mainly just to walk around the pond but I was secretly hoping to at least see some fish active. We walked about 50 feet and I spotted a fish, which had me sprinting for the car to rig up my 6 weight. Of course, as quick as I was (and anyone who fishes with me can attest to how quickly I go from pulling up to the spot, to putting a fly in the water!) that fish was long gone. Still, we walked around the pond, and somehow spotted 4-5 more fish in the murk and mud.



Tough conditions, and I never could make out much more than shadows or a tail here and there. Still, I should have nailed at least one of the fish. I put the fly in the right spot, but the fish were extremely lethargic, and I only thought "he took it!" once...and that was a whiff. What a 90 minutes of excitement though! Just stalking around, fly rod in hand and enough fish around to keep the eagle eyes active. I'll be watching for sun breaks every weekend, and I might just get a February carp.

Elia had a blast despite one slip in the mud. She carried the net and told me I'm still a good fisherman, even though I didn't catch anything today. I asked if she was ready to go home at one point, and she responded "I'm reluctant to leave all of these fish!" Yep...that's my girl!

Yep...I'm dying for some carp fishing.