FADE. The annual fishing trip that takes a bunch of old friends to Henderson Springs in northern California to chase the hatch of the largest mayfly in the world. This is year 36 of the annual trip. 36 years of meeting every year to fish and hang out. No mater where they are in life at that moment- these guys show up. If you want some background on the trip you can check out my post about FADE 34 here. (I'm honestly not sure what happened to the lost FADE 35. There is no explanation for these things, you just kinda tango on.)
Henderson Springs is an amazing ranch, with four trophy trout lakes, in the High Sierra of California.
Fish were caught. Lots of fish. Lots of nice fish with wide shoulders. Fish like this one from my man Tom.
Or these fish.
Here is a bass that we are supposed to kill, but we never do.
Here is a pretty sweet release sequence that I captured.
The fishing was fantastic. We got into plenty of fish, but at some level it becomes less about the fishing and more about the time. For this trip I tried to focus more on the people who make it happen. The people who show up relatively fresh from knee replacement surgery, or bail out of their insanely busy lives, or drive 12 hours (if there is no traffic!) to go fish for trout and see their oldest friends again. Without the dedication to each other, to the trip, to the time together it wouldn't happen. It would literally fade away. Nobody really needs to go fly fishing. What I believe people do need is time with the people that knew them when they were young, or at least younger. What these guys have is pretty amazing and it is cool to see life long friends come together every year. That is really all I'm gonna say about it. They tend to not speak about it so much, so I will leave it at that. Here are the chief FADE'ers.
And now the new guys. We will be the new guys for as long as there is a FADE.
This was just my 3rd FADE, more than some over the years, but still definitely a noob.
Gotta get Buck the dog in there once, and Tyler with one of my favorite patterns for the area a Burk's Aggravator, Prince Nymph.
Here are a couple of photos from my Bro-In-Law Andy of SC Films.
A few of us inexperienced guys got up early for a dawn patrol. It was cold and the fishing was super slow. We should have slept in, but Andy got some cool shots.
Fish fumble of the trip goes to this smooth operator right here.
Another awesome FADE fellas. I am glad to be a part of it. I'm looking forward to FADE 37 (or 38...whatever) next year!