I sort of unpacked from the permit trip to Belize two weeks ago. I say sort of because I moved most of the salty rods and reels to my bag for Mexico. I was planning to leave for Baja on Friday. But sadly, my friend Sammy whom I always go to Baja with, his mother in law passed away Saturday. We aren’t cancelling, only postponing the trip until March. It will happen we simply need to wait.
Granny and I crossed Wyoming on Thursday to go visit Sammy and his family. Unfortunately, we had some Jeep problems exactly like we had driving to the Pleasanton Fly Fishing Show back in 2019. Granny’s front driveline seized up and fell apart. By miracle, we were rolling into Casper when it got bad and we limped to Thomas Crawford’s Auto Repair. The guys ripped off the 4 x 4 unit and put us back together with 2 wheel drive just so we could get home. They said returning to Idaho would be risky but we went anyhow.
Well, the drive was indeed risky. There’s not a lot going on traveling the backroads of WY in January. A breakdown could lead to all kinds of trouble such as freezing to death! But even with wind, snow and cold, we pulled it off and rolled into the driveway late Saturday afternoon.
Before Sammy’s mother in law passed, he and I managed to sneak out on a private ranch on the North Platte River. Sammy has delivered babies for the family over the last 20 years. He has tons of great private access! Anyhow, the fishing was slow but I managed one nice rainbow. If you look at this poor rainbows mouth it’s absolutely mutilated. Please everyone, stop using barbs on trout! Almost every trout I catch on busy rivers are scarred by this issue and it’s terribly sad. Just stay tight and a barbless fly will still get you the fish. And if you lose one – what’s the big deal? Fishing shouldn’t all be about the catching anyhow.
Wow… you have had some seriously bad luck lately!! If it isn’t weather it’s car breakdowns! You might want to watch yourself until this black cloud fades away from you. Sorry to hear about Sammy’s mother in law… not good. I am trying to get to Baja also but seems there is a problem getting a Covid test down there so we can return to the USA.. Have you heard of a source for getting one down there?
Lance, Grant Hartman says its easy. In Belize they already had a 15 minute test set up at the airport ready to start on January 26. I’m sure Mex will be easy. I’m going for it and I’ll figure it out. I’ll let you know. I get back on march 15. By the way, there’s only two spots left on Providence April 19-29, 2022. You and Kevin need to go. Its going to be tough to get a spot once this Covid crap clears up!