It’s the easier things we get bored with. True rewards are the fruits of hard work, dedication and perserverance. So lately I have been unable to fish for anything else but wild rainbows in crystal clear water. I drive far after work, get home late, wake up tired and often times never catch a thing. Much like my Steelhead addiction. But yesterday, I tasted success and boy was it sweet. Joe-M and I showed up to the river and there was not a sole in sight. Fish were rising but the water was high. We waded out into the water and took our positions. I tied on 15 feet of leader and tappered it down to 5x for the remaining 2 feet for a total of 17 feet of leader/tippet. I love fishing with long leaders. So anyway, I throw out a cast. As soon as the fly hits the water, I put a huge mend in my line. The fly does not even move (because of the long leader). So, my size 18 elk hair caddis with rusty underbelly begins the long drift down stream. Perfect. Not one false motion. Then, outta nowhere. WHAM! A wonderful Rainbow engulfs the fly. Points his nose downstream, realizes he has a hook in his mouth and jumps clear out of the water. I was in heaven. I finally had one of these elusive and relatively intelligent trout on my line and I was gonna enjoy every minute of the battle and boy did he battle. He was not a huge fish for this water, but a good enough fish for me. He ran towards me, then away from me. He took line, I took line and the battle continued until joe-m netted the fish for me. We were both happy because that was our goal. We had said before we left that if one of us got one fish it would be great. That’s what happened and it was worth the work. That’s what I like about fly fishing with my fly fishing buddies. I get the same amount of gratification regardless of who catches the fish. Sometimes, I even get more gratification when my buddy gets a fish on because I love fly fishing and not necessarily just catching the fish. That’s why I enjoy taking the photos and videos, because it puts me right in the moment and with enough photo/video graphic practice you even start to feel like your part of the fight. But, this time I caught this fish and it felt great. So, then a huge storm blows through and while we are waiting it out in the truck, greg-b pulls up next to us. The rain stops. The three of us are in the water in no time. The sun comes out of the clouds and starts its decent behind the mountains and life is good. We are all fishing to countless rising fish. Greg-B hooks into and lands a rainbows, joe-m misses a few fish here and there and I missed one more fish and it was a monster. Joe-M can verify that it was a formidable fish because he was directly across from me. It was getting late so I tied on a huge caddis (size 12) and decided to give my eyes a rest. It gets exhausting staring at the little flies. So, the fly is drifting down stream and WHAM. A huge Rainbow attacks the fly and he’s gone. I pull up my leader and the fly is gone. I look at where the line broke and it failed at one of my knots where I had spliced my leader. I was lazy, it was getting late and I knew it was a bad knot. I should have retied it but did not. I paid the price and lost a nice fish that could have been caught. So, lesson learned. If you think your knot is bad, it probably is. Rety it immediately.