A Year On The Fly: Painting The Sunfish

The other day I had a full day off work and had planed a grand day of trout fishing up in the mountains of North Carolina. It had been a long time since I had the time free and the weather to make the trip but sometimes things don't work out the way you plan. When I got home from a business trip the day before my scheduled trout adventure I was greeted by a little girl with a temperature and a stomach bug. Suddenly a trip to chase trout in the mountains didn't seem that important and staying home with my little girl became the priority.

The good news was that my little girl got to spend some quality time with her old man. Luckily when we awoke in the morning her high temp had broke but due to the school regs we had to keep her home anyway. So what do two kids do with a day to burn at home? First off we had a little breakfast and then settles back on the sofa to watch a little movie. Next on the agenda - Break out the paints.
It had been quite a while since I painted a fish so I cracked the watercolors and artists pad of premium paper to paint up a quality version of the bream I have been catching a whole lot of lately - the Pumpkinseed Sunfish.

My girl on the other hand would not be satisfied with crayons so I shared the colors and she got to work painting a few butterflies and then began to sketch birds and crabs on a spare pieces of paper. As the morning passed into mid afternoon the two of us worked across the table from each other to the sounds John Hiatt and John Prine.
As I finished up the final touches on my work I thought back on the trout trip I was suppose to have taken and the little girl that had needed me. It didn't take half a second to realize that I wouldn't have traded that morning with my girl for an entire week of chasing trout. Those are the memories we carry long into our lives.