Fishing in the Hills

When you live in South Dakota, you go to the Black Hills on vacation...A LOT. I think because it's one of the few things that you can do in the state. I was about 7 or 8 years old when my grandparents took my aunt Kim, uncle Mike and me on our bi-annually pilgrimage to the almighty vacation spot in the Hills. We hooked up the Starcraft Pop-Up camper to my grandpa's new Ford LTD and headed west for 350 miles (if you haven't been there, South Dakota is flat and well, it's VERY flat).

We camped at a place with Black in the name - Black Horse, Blackshoe or Black Fox - something like that anyway. We spent a couple of days fishing in the trout stream beside our camp site but didn't have any luck. I did however fall in the stream which was normal for me at the time. It wasn't a trip unless I got soaked head to toe. As I said, we we weren't having any luck. I think it's because you couldn't throw a rock without hitting another fisherman. My grandpa was not going to give up. He had his mind set to catching some rainbow trout and nothing was going to stop him.

The next day we set out to find a trout stream. We drove forever and every place we saw was fenced in and had no trespassing signs. We came upon a town that, according to the sign, had a population of 3 and a dog. Shortly after that grandpa spotted his stream. It had a fence around it but no signs. Grandma waited in the car while the rest of us climbed the fence to try our luck. It was mine and Kim's job to catch grasshoppers to use as bait while grandpa and Mike fished. And boy, did we have luck! We caught 6 of the most beautiful rainbow trout you have ever seen!

We were loading the fish and the equipment in the trunk of the car when a truck we has seen in the tiny town stopped. To the best of my memory, this is the conversion that took place.

Truck Guy: "Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

Grandpa: "Leaving! What does it look like?"

Truck Guy: "Looks like you've been fishing where you should have."

Grandpa: "Well, where are the signs?"

Truck Guy: "It's down the road."

Grandpa: "Well a fat lot of good that does here!"

Truck Guy: "You getting smart with me?!"

Grandpa: "If I was, you wouldn't know it!"

Truck Guy: "That's it! What's your name?"

Grandpa: "Jim. What's yours? Asshole?"

Truck Guy: "You stay here I'm going to get the sheriff! You're trespassing and you're going to pay for it!"

Grandpa: "Good! Get going asshole!"

At this point the truck guy tried to turn around in the road and backed into the side of the cliff. My grandpa stood there laughing as hard as he could and slapping his knees. The truck guy finished his turn and speed off. As soon as the truck guy was out of sight, grandpa turned around to us and said "Let's go!" We hopped into the car as fast as we could and sped off in the other direction.

My grandpa fried those fish up for dinner that night and they were the best tasting fish I can ever remember eating!

Any funny stories about your grandpa?