A Serendipitous Fish Story

The past few days have involved a good deal of traveling. We’ve gone from Glacier National Park, Montana to Burlington, Washington. Lucky for us, our route took us through the oh-so-scenic North Cascade National Forest and Park. We camped in the crook of some mountains on the shores of a mirror-like mountain lake. We had to laugh as we were wakened the next morning by the most cacophonous bunch of birds. All sorts, with all kinds of raucous calls started their chorus before the sun came up. I suppose I’d rather have rowdy birds than rowdy mammals.

We packed up camp after a breakfast of bacon and eggs and made our way to the visitor center for North Cascades National Park. It was quite a lovely center, a well-designed museum of the flora, fauna and geology of the range. Unfortunately, we just weren’t feeling it. We didn’t know what we felt like doing. We were both kind of feeling “blah”. We decided to find a creek for Gideon to try some fly fishing. We stopped at a Chevron in the little town of Marblemount where Gideon purchased a fishing license and a few lures. The plan was to find a spot along the Skagit River, but as Gideon was heading back to the car, he struck up a conversation with a woman standing nearby. I guess she overheard him chatting with the cashier about fishing. “You need the pink whirlies to get the humpies. You can get ‘em down at the station in Rockport just a few miles down,” she explained.
“Oh, great. Okay, thanks a lot,” Gideon replied.
“Where’re you fishing?” she asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. I guess we were just going to find a spot along the Skagit,” Gideon answered.
“Hmm. Well, just because I’m in a good mood today, I’m gonna tell you about my secret fishing spot.” She preceded to explain to Gideon how to reach the spot, just past Eagle Towing, make a left down the dirt path marked “No Trespassing”. She went on to call her friend who owned the spot, to give us special permission to fish there.
Was it her odd good mood, or the good looks of a stranger in a small town? Who knows? Long story short, we got us some pink whirlies and found us the secret spot and spent the next eight hours fishing for pink salmon. I should clarify. Gideon fished, I relaxed and read my book.


It was a stunning spot and the fish were literally jumping like crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it. Gideon casted all afternoon with his fly rod, catching a yummy female salmon which he promptly filleted and fried up for our lunch.




He soon became frustrated with his lack of fish harvest. A local visited us at the spot and gave Gideon some pointers. As a result, we had to book it back to the gas station at Rockport to get a casting rod and some more lures.
Upon our return to the secret spot, there were three locals fishing, two grumpy old mountain men and a young, friendly fellow named Chris. At first they didn’t seem all that pleased to see us city-slickers, but before you could say humpie, we were all fast fishing buddies. Chris gave Gideon all sorts of pointers and before you knew it, the humpies were flying in. Gideon hooked quite a few.



Then Chris got an extra rod for me. I hooked three fighters, but couldn’t bring a single one to shore. I got the thrill of reeling them in for a good while before they unsnagged themselves and moved on. That was okay with me. I would rather not deal with unhooking a big salmon. I just wish I could have brought one in for a picture.


When our Marblemount friends went home for the evening, they gifted me one of their fishing rods. I couldn’t believe my luck! We stayed another hour or so before calling it a day.

I have some fond memories of fishing in Pennsylvania with my step-dad and sisters when I was younger. It was so long ago though, that I forgot how great it was to hang out along the shores of a peaceful lake or river and watch the day ramble along to the steady casting of a line. I have a feeling that Gideon and I have a new hobby and you will probably be hearing some more fish stories from us.