As the road trip progresses you find yourselves slipping into a nice little groove.
You understand what time your friends get up, whether they like mayo, ketchup or both on their burger, when to leave them alone if a big fish has been lost or if they want you to net a fish.
You don’t need to have a polite conversation about who goes down the pool first as you know your buddy followed you down yesterday so it is their turn. You sit down, take time to check your leader and fly and sit back and watch them make the first cast of the day.
A day or two in you are in a good rhythm and that first cast is just as good as the last one you made at the end of the previous day.
Much of the time you fish in silence with just the odd helpful comment. The first day you’d point out the rising fish or bug that just hatched but there is no need, you know your buddy has seen it too.
You enjoy the same crappy food, good beer and squeezing as much time out of the fishing day as you can before eating more crappy food.
When your pal hooks a good one you don’t feel the slightest bit of jealousy at all, you just want to make sure you do a good job of netting it for them.
The days seem quick and the evenings are spent just talking or tying the flies you lost during the day or one that you think might just crack the code the next day.
Sometimes in the cooler, dark evenings you make a couple of casts out to a spot you both felt should have held a good fish when you were there during the day.
The good groove stays with you during the duration of the trip and you know it will take some time to readjust back into normal life after time away.
It doesn’t matter though. There will be more road trips, plenty more.
