Recognizing old friends

Can you believe that we've been here 2 weeks now? Each day we see someone we haven't seen since last year. Most of them remember us and wave as we walk down to the water. It's so nice to see them again, doing well and fishing. Rick and I are somewhat unique among these flyfisherpeople because not many women fly fish and they remember us fishing together. We have to ask some of them to remind us of their names - not because we are getting old! We remember most of them, just not all their names. Sometimes it easier to remember their dogs names or where they are from and then we recall their names. That's not a sign of old age!

Some fisherpeople are easier to remember than others. Some have unique drift boats. Some are real characters. Some always wear the same colorful hat and that's a big help in recognizing them. The problem is once you put most people into baggy chest-high waders and fishing boots, put a jacket, a floppy hat and sunglasses on them, and strap a fishing vest or fishing pack to their front side, they all start to resemble one another. Tan and sage green are popular clothing colors on the river. ("They" say earth tones don't scare the fish. Huh?) With all the gear on, most fisherpeople become a generic form. It's convenient when they wear a distinctive hat so we can recognize them.

Rick and I both wet-wade which consists of water sandals, shorts, and cold legs. The high temperature has been 90, but the water temp is only about 50 degrees!

On our first day we met a friend who was wearing a wide brimmed dark colored hat, like a cowboy hat, and he had a very bright neon orange fanny pack. Although he was 'gloved' up with his waders, I thought that orange fanny pack would be easy to distinguish the next day. We sat on the riverbank with him and between fish we caught up on life. Well, the second day we saw him he was wearing a different hat, a white one, and he had a new sage green chest pack. He waved to us and I had to ask Rick if that was him. Just when I thought I had it figured out...