Me fishin' the Yellowstone River

  While living in Michigan, my father really got me into fishing. We would on any given afternoon, go out to a near by lake or pond and fish for perch and bass. It was great fun, I was about four years old, I could cast, but it wouldn't go very far out. It ended up being my dad casting and when the rod got a hit I would reel the fish in. In-between all of this, I would spend my time deeply concentrated on playing with the little plastic worms in my tackle box. All of this continued until 2005 when my family moved from Michigan to Tennessee. During my time in Tennessee I never got much of a chance to be outdoors, so we are going to skip this portion if my outdoors life.
  In 2007, we moved again. This time to New Jersey. I must explain that this state is highly stereotyped, to many people think that it is exactly like Jersey Shore. Well listen up, NJ is actually very beautiful state, with rolling hills covered with millions of acres of woodland and miles of deep, cold and rocky streams (Trout!). Within weeks of moving in, we unpacked the rods and started fishing. Every Saturday morning, we would wake up early, dress, grab a cup of coffee and a bagel and head to the Ken Lockwood Gorge. This river was full of Brown, Rainbow, and Brook trout. It had a very rocky bottom and boulders that dotted the river like islands. I had not received my waiters yet, that comes later, so I was trudging into a freezing cold river, half-asleep, bare legged with crocs two sizes too small. That woke me up quicker than the coffee.
  Together, me and my dad would walk for miles up and down the river catching that days lunch along the way. I don't remember much about  any specific fish caught except for one, this following incident was one that I will not soon forget.
 It was early in the morning and me and my father woke to go fishing. We followed our regular routine and packed into the GMC tired but happy to be going fishing. We got tot the river and waded in , we fished for about an hour and by this time the sun was shining perfectly I to the water. I had experienced fly fishing before. I am not saying that I am the best but I had an good enough knowledge to cast well. So, I saw this big rock next to a very hole in the river, seeing this as a good spot for a fish, I hopped on to the slippery boulder. The sun then reveled a large blob many yards ahead in the hole, I decided to try it out. I fished the hole until, BOOM, I got a very big hit. It fought heavily, I watched it flash and realized that it was the biggest rainbow I have ever hooked. My dad jumped in help and we both pulled a fought this monster, then... SNAP! The fish got away with my fly and part of my line.
 Now I have learned two lessons from this experience. One, before you fish, it is probably a good thing to check your line for knots and abrasions. And second, it's fishing. The big fish is going get away sometimes and you need to be ok with that. A day of fishing is better than a day of doing something else. Anything
 The picture below is of me at eight months with my grandfather Doug and my father Scott, true outdoorsmen. I was happiest in camo, so they tell me.