Photography and Fishing!!!!

Astro just about jumped out of her coat, as rifle fire echoed through the valley. I guess the trackers were on the job, we had been told they would be hunting down the coyote, that had tried the night before to pull the child from the sleeping bag. There had been four or five shots, then silence. The sun was beginning to light the day, I thought a good time to get at those fish again. Through the night I had thought about fishing those holes, the holes that weren’t to productive for me the day before. I figured it better to tie Astro up, it would keep the noise down, I wanted to get my fish quick, giving me time with my camera, I never had it out the day before. I tied the fly on the line, and went at that first hole. I was hit right away, but no fish. I moved through 3 or 4 more holes, before finley I got my fish. Maybe the hardest part of all this, was moving through the brush in a way, as to not spook the fish. You move along pretty fast, you drop your line, and they hit right away. They don’t give you a second chance, your just wasting time, if you drop your line back in the same hole. The first fish I pulled out of these holes, was about 11″, no need for a second, more than enough for my neighbor and me. He was right, there was a difference between the stockers, and these bug fed wild trout, living in this small mountain stream. Learning about this kind of fishing, opened up options on where to get my food, finding fish in places I’d never think to look. The San Joaquin cuts into this Valley, dropping down over rocks, into large pools of crystal clear water, Astro and I took off in the opposite direction, of our hike the day before, we wanted to avoid the bear. She was leashed, and not to happy about it. We were in a fairly dense pine forest, no people around, it was early. I had my camera, a 35mm, at the time mostly using kodakrome. I have all that work in boxes, I don’t look at it, probably should, even back then I used to get lucky. What I like in a photograph, when I feel they are most successful, is when they present themselves, as if they were paintings. We had hiked, Astro and me about an hour out, turned around, and headed back twords camp. I am sure the angle of the light, in part, is the reason everything looks so different on the trail going back. There was a lot in these woods I had missed hiking in. Somewhere around 3/4 of the way back to camp, Astro still on a leash, stopped on the trail, her ears were up, she sniffed at the air. Not a sound came out of her, I just froze, trying to see what had all her attention. About 30 yards off in the woods, behind a large fallen pine, by the stump, was that same young bear we’d seen the day before, the one we were trying to avoid. This meeting went a whole lot better, the bear seemed pretty comfortable with the distance between us, he was just hanging out. Astro, by this time had sat down, ears up, obviously excited. she didn’t make a sound, every now and then, looking up to me, and sniffing at the air. We stayed there 10 or 15 minutes, just watching this bear,him watching us, until finely, walking on back to camp