A Fishing Story...

I would like to think of myself as the Anthony Bourdain of fly fishing...but that hasn't worked out the way it was supposed to. Guess I wound up being more the Walter Mitty of the industry (go ahead and google that Jon). So, I preface this story about an odd encounter with a gerbil while fishing in the hopes it won't brand me as the "Richard Gere of Fly Fishing". How is that for a hook!

So...on my day off I swung by the fly shop to see what the guys were up to. Russell Miller was hanging out (should have been working) and said he had a rod in the truck and an hour to kill. Long winded intro, but we wound up driving back to the lake near the shop. Russ took a small bass right off on one of my Backstabber flies, then we decided to walk the trail to the back side of the lake in search of a carp. And it was on the trail when what appeared to be an albino field mouse came scampering down the trail toward us. I remember thinking, "yup, about to get my ass bitten!" but just had to try to catch it! Snatched it up by the scruff of the neck and to my surprise it didn't try to maul me... Turned out to be a tame gerbil! I kept the little rodent in my shirt pocket for the rest of the fishing trip.


I tried unsuccessfully to gift the little guy to some kids in the park, but the attending nannies wanted nothing to do with me or the gerbil. Then I remembered three young friends of mine who would absolutely love to provide a new home for a wayward, whiskered vagabond! (Abby, Tess and Jim Leuchten)