River Fairies

When our oldest son, Tim, was 11 years old, I took him to his first Boy Scout meeting and came back the scoutmaster. That wasn't my plan, but the troop was having trouble and the existing scoutmaster wanted out. I was compelled to take on this new challenge because of my Boy Scouts experiences as a youth. The scouting program introduced me to the outdoors, including hiking, camping, shooting, archery and boating, which steered me into a natural resources management career. My parents were not outdoors people. My father once told me his heart began to beat irregularly when he got too far from wall to wall carpeting. I started out in scouting as an 11-year-old and eight years later ended as the waterfront director at a large scout summer camp. When I took on the scoutmaster assignment, I had no idea that it would last for almost ten years. That was longer than I was in the Boy Scouts as a youth.

Looking back on my years as the scoutmaster, I don't know how I did it. The time commitment was huge with a weekly meeting, campout each month, adult leader training meeting once a month and a monthly committee meeting.

Then there was a week-long summer camp and extra campouts for the older scouts. Plus, I had to keep up a rigorous schedule of personal hunting and fish trips while still managing to go to work. Periodically, I had to dote on Mrs. Urich to keep the marriage alive, although she loved the campouts because I took all three of our sons, giving her a monthly weekend of quiet time. I selected the Lamine River east of Sedalia. It's a pleasant, scenic river with less current than the Niangua. I came up with some thick, contractor plastic bags to put the gear in. Keeping the sleeping bags and tents dry was critical. We lashed the equipment to the canoe thwarts.

The trip got off to a bad start because one of the vehicles broke down in the parking lot when we arrived at the Lamine River Conservation Area. This meant two adult leaders had to arrange for a tow truck and didn't go on the trip, leaving one other adult and myself.

I had a big, red cooler emitting a I was compelled to take humming sound which intrigued the scouts. When they asked about the The scout troop had its meeting on this new challenge humming cooler, I said it was full of facility next to a lake. This was handy for aquatic oriented because of my Boy Scouts river fairies whose job was to keep the canoes from flipping using their activities especially canoeing. I experiences as a youth. magical powers. Of course, no one had access to a small flotilla of canoes and we frequently practiced on the lake earning the canoeing The scouting program introduced me to the believed this, but they continued to ask and I described river fairies in detail as we made our way downriver. merit badge each year. Most of the outdoors, including hiking, We made it to the gravel bar for our boys had never been in a canoe and the hardest part was teaching camping, shooting, archery overnight stay and remarkably only one canoe flipped over during the them how to get in and out and boating, which steered float, which I indicated as proof that without flipping over. I was mostly unsuccessful in this effort finally realizing the scouts didn't care if me into a natural resources management career. the cooler was full of magical river fairies. they flipped it over or not. On the gravel bar, I laid out all the supplies for making trotlines. The My long term goal was an overnight canoe trip on a scouts had to learn several knots. I taught them how to Missouri river. The scouts needed to learn how to handle attach staging lines to the main line with swivels. We the canoe in the river current which is much different used large 6/0 hooks, which required careful monitoring than on a lake. I scheduled a practice trip on the Niangua of the scouts. Finally, I opened up the cooler, which River from Bennett Springs State Park to Lead Mine contained dozens of large goldfish and told the boys Conservation Area, a distance of almost 20 miles. This these were the river fairies that would be the bait. The is a long canoe float for scouts, and it was pretty much a humming was from a floating aerator. About half of the disaster. scouts took two steps back in shock.

There were canoes that were flipped and swamped hourly. One canoe got pinned by the current next to a root wad. I had to stop other canoes floating down the river and ask people to get out and help. After I had about ten people in the water plus ropes attached to the canoe for others on the shore to pull, we freed the canoe. I figured this was as good as it was going to get, so the next trip was the overnight float. I hadn't given much thought on how to tie trotlines in the water from a canoe, but it wasn't a problem. The scouts bobbed around in the water in their life jackets and tied the lines to root wads and other branches in the water. They were even buoyant enough with their life preservers to bait the lines while in the water. It was a good thing I brought plenty of river fairies because they lost many trying to get them on the hooks.

The next morning we checked the trotlines and, much to my surprise, caught 2 to 3 fish on each line. Some were 10 to 15 pounds. I was helping two scouts with the last trotline when I could see the line jerking.

The scout pulled on the line and the head of a huge flathead catfish surfaced, splashed and jerked the line out of the scout's hand. Both of the scouts were stunned and wanted nothing to do with getting the fish off the hook. I had to take them back to shore and recruit new helpers. Getting a large fish off the trotline from a canoe was not going to be easy. I put on leather gloves and eased a hand into the fish's mouth. I screamed just to scare the scouts, even the ones watching from the bank, which was a mistake because it created panic but seemed funny at the time.

The scouts leaned to the right, and I pulled the fish over the left side of the canoe. It flopped and banged on the bottom of the canoe, making a terrible noise. Since the scouts were already frightened because they thought my hand was bitten off, they scrambled over the thwarts to the front of the canoe. The only reason the canoe didn't flip over was because it was a 19-foot square stern with very wide bottom, and I got a little help from the river fairies.

We had 11 fish to clean. The big fish weighed 52 pounds. Each scout held the big fish for a picture. By the time we reached the take out, we were almost 2 hours late. The waiting parents were not happy and concerned that something had gone wrong. But once I passed out baggies of catfish fillets, their mood moderated.

At the Christmas scout meeting, I gave each parent an 8 X10 inch framed enlargement of their son holding the giant catfish. For most of these boys, it was the largest fish they would ever hold.

David Urich

(Cover) Tim Urich holding a 52 pound flathead catfish caught on the Lamine River during a Boy Scout overnight canoe trip. (Photo: Courtesy of David Urich)

(Left) Boy Scouts ready to paddle downstream on the Lamine River for an overnight canoe trip. (Photo: Courtesy of David Urich)

My Love for Flyfishing

This love affair did not start in any usual way. It all began in a poker game in a college dorm in 1959. A young participant from California could not cover his bet. I told him that the fly rod in his room would be enough to make up the difference. He never realized that his pair of fours was going to bluff this Illinois farm boy. I had a fly rod!

Being from Illinois, I had never had a fly rod in my hand. If my lure did not have at least two large treble hooks on it, I didn't fish it. Some serious learning was in my future.

This love affair has now gone on for sixty years. Little did I know that I was entering a whole new world of fishing, a world with its language? Fly fishers talk about midges, nymphs, buggers, poppers, droppers, and the list goes on. I learned very early that a fishing fly does not have feathers, it has hackle. And a cork is not a cork, it is a strike indicator.

In the musical The Music Man, Harold Hill sings a song, "You Got to Know Your Territory." In fly fishing, you got to know the lingo. If you happened on two fly fishers talking about their day on the stream, you would surely believe that they were not speaking English. Like many sports one might take up, getting some useful instruction, in the beginning, is very important. Fly casting and fly fishing is not that hard. It is very realistic for a person, with some help, to be casting a fly over water within thirty minutes. He may even catch a fish.

Many people would like to fly fish but express some common fears of failure. "It is way too hard for me to learn." Another one is, "Fly fishing is only for trout." Fishing with a fly rod is very versatile. One can go for warm water fish like bluegill, bass, pike and yes, even some "hillbilly salmon" (catfish.) Cold water species like trout, salmon and even ocean fish can also be caught on the fly rod.

Fly fishing has encouraged me to visit some areas of our country that I'm sure I would have never experienced, except they had wonderful fishing water. I also have met many people that have left a lasting memory with me. I agree with Henry Winkler, "The Fons," in his book about fly fishing. He said that he had never met a fly fisher he didn't like.

Stay out of poker games. It may change your life forever.

Len Patton

(Photo: Courtesy of Barbara Gibbs Ostmann)