The Guy Named Harrison: Book Two

19

"Are we almost there?"

"Yes!" Harrison and Luke answered at the same time.

"Okay, okay."

Carrie agreed to go fishing with the guys this morning, but had no idea where they were taking her. They had been in the truck for a long time.

She stared out the window as Harrison drove, listening to the two of them talk about fly fishing, what she was going to be trying later.

"It was the biggest trout I've ever seen!" Luke admitted from the backseat. "Shannon and I got it all the way in, then it broke the damn line."

Harrison just laughed. "You Ohioans. Haven't seen nothing yet."

"Carrie, you should see the size of these fish they pull out of here. They're monsters."

She couldn't wait to try fishing for the first time. Carrie got to do something her husband and his best friend loved to do, and she would get to see those 'monsters.'

➄➈

15 minutes later, Carrie was carrying some fishing gear and following Luke and Harrison down to the creek. "You only brought two poles?"

Harrison nodded. "One for Luke and the other for you."

"You're not fishing?"

"I can't really because of my arm. And besides, today I want to teach you how to do it. So when my shoulder gets better, the two of us can go fishing."

"Three!" Luke yelled from a few feet away.

"The three of us."

He handed her the pole and set the tackle box down on a nearby rock. "For today, target species, steelhead or brown trout."

"What do steelhead look like?"

"Hopefully we catch one so you can see for yourself, but they're a shade of light grey, like steel. But along their sides they have a little bit of light pink and green. They're very pretty fish."

Carrie stood aside as he rigged up the pole. "What's that?" She asked, pointing to the small pink artificial fly he was tying to the line.

"That's our bait."

"That tiny little thing?"

"That tiny little thing is going to do wonders. You'll see."

She waited a few minutes for him to finish rigging up the pole. "You ready?"

"Yeah."

Carrie followed him down to the edge of the creek. Meanwhile, from a little further up, they heard Luke yelp as he reeled in a fish. "Look at this!"

"That's what a steelhead looks like sweetheart."

Harrison handed her the pole. "Let out some line like this." He showed her how to let line unwind from the reel. "Now you're not going to use the reel until you get a fish on. And that's because we're not very far from the fish. With fly fishing, since you're casting all the time, you let out enough line to cast and pull it back in. Want me to show you?"

"Sure."

He took the pole back and casted it out into the stream, near the deep water where there was always fish. Then he jiggled the tip of the pole before grabbing the line just above the reel and pulling it in. The line sat in a pile on the ground before he casted the pole again.

"You're up."

Carrie took the pole from her husband again and casted it just like he showed her. "There you go."

She pulled all the line in and casted it again. Still nothing. "How will I know if there's a fish on."

"You will know."

Carrie had to cast it a few times before she finally got to experience what it felt like to get a fish on. It hit so hard, she almost dropped the pole.

"You asked for a fish. There you go."

The fish immediately started pulling drag. "The golden rule of fishing, never reel when the fish is pulling."

The grey fish jumped out of the water, alerting Harrison it was a steelhead. "This is going to be awesome!"

Luke came running down as Carrie started to make some progress on the fish. "Nice and easy."

"A lot easier said then done."

Both of them laughed. "You're almost there. Now start backing up."

Carrie did as told while Luke waded out into the water and netted the fish. "This is huge!"

He brought it ashore and Harrison gave her a high five. "Already putting me to shame."

She smiled. "You can have the next one. I'm tired."