Fishing with Bob

Bob holds a big male Chinook salmon that measured 42"

It has been at least a good year and a half since I last spent some quality time in the company of my good friend Bob Burrows. And to me, that’s a year and half too long. 

The story of our friendship really started years ago when we both worked for a small newspaper out of Canandaigua New York. We spent a good part of our lunch break talking about fishing, and on our off days we would often get out and fish together. In fact, it’s those early years of our friendship that we spent the most time out on the water in search of fish. And it allowed us to really fine tune our fly fishing skills. He is one of those guys that can help elevate your fly fishing skill set by just spending time with him on the water. 

But more than that, he has given me and my family lots of support through the years, and I am very proud to call him my friend. 

My biggest of the morning

So when I did eventually leave the newspaper for a new job, and things started to get busy with lots of little feet around, I always found time to stay in touch with Bob and even tried to get out fishing at least a few times a year. Some years it would work out really well, and we would get out on the stream two or three times. But for whatever the reason, these recent few years have left us with very little opportunity.

So when I got a call from him yesterday morning saying that he was up at a local WNY tributary, and that he was spotting fish moving upstream, I jumped at the chance to get out there, even if it was for just a little while.

Bob with his second fish of the morning

By the time I met him on the stream, he had already landed two salmon and had watched a good ten or more move past him. Even as I was setting up my leader and tying up for the morning, several fish moved up from downstream and blasted through. And even though the water was on the low side, it was cold, and until the sun moved up over the trees the fish seemed content on running.

We spent our time that morning walking upstream in search of resting fish that might be willing to take a fly, and talking about all those memories from fishing trips past. We even fished around some fall downs and undercut banks in search of an early lake run trout or two. And even though we didn’t find any trout, each of us managed a few salmon to hand before our time was up – Just like we used to do it back in the day.

The release

We may not be able to spend the time out on the water like we used to, and it’s probably a good thing that we don’t – our families would suffer for it. But that doesn’t mean we can’t get out every once in a while and make some new memories.

Thanks Bob!