Showing my mom how to raise a summer run...

Some of you may have heard this one before.

After I had moved back to Boston I had planned a fall steelie trip in the PNW, staying with my brother in Portland OR part of the time. My mom caught wind and said "oh good, I'll go with you".

Since I usually sleep in the car, forgo bathing unnecessarily, live on espresso and chocolate donuts, and think only of steelhead, steelhead, steelhead on these sorties' it was hard for me to say "er... um.... OK mom."

Well, since my dad passed away every moment we spent was to be cherished, and she has a way of making every moment truly special.

She wanted to see Victoria, we went. She wanted to see a whale, luckily the WA state ferries provided a show around the San Juans for us. After a few days of sightseeing I got real antsy, I had to swing a line.

On the way down to Portland I asked if she minded stopping and I took a detour to Horseshoe pool in Palmer Kanasket State Park. I chose it because it's a pleasant place and I could show her fish visibly. She's getting along in years so I chose a smooth boulder near the river's edge where she could relax while I took a few casts.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a milky white shape, and it turned out to be the lips of a big summer run in the boulders right in front of us. I got excited and tried to point it out to mom, but she couldn't see it.

Choosing to present the fly from upriver, I walked up the shore. As the fly swung down, I would say "do you see it now?" and she'd say "no". This went on for a while so I switched to a skunk winged spey thing.

When I swung it down she said "I see the fly". Before the swing completed, the big steely sitting in over 6 feet of water climbed the column and boiled at the fly as my mother watched in total amazement saying "I see it! I see it!". I lost the fish but it didn't matter.

At that moment, my mother understood for the first time why I am so deeply obsessed with steelhead and the beautiful places where they exist. I saw it in her smile.

There was nothing more to prove, so we walked like huck finn and tom sawyer back to the rental car and back onto I-5 for the ride down to the city of roses.

It was a moment I'll never forget!