Even though horses stopped being the major form of transportation about the time Henry Ford made his first million, there’s a saying that has endured.

    Everyone has heard that if you get bucked off, you should get right back on the horse and cowboy up. The unique aspect about this saying is that it rarely relates to horses anymore, but is applied to every other time we encounter defeat.

    A few months ago I kidded my retired buddy Steve that he hadn’t been willing to go fishing with me all year. I was a bit concerned that getting him stranded in late November last year on Blackfoot Reservoir might have made him decide to keep his cowboy boots on solid ground. We managed to make it off the lake that day by paddling for a large portion of the afternoon against the wind. It was an experience that I would not care to repeat.

    Since my employer was closed Monday to celebrate Veterans Day, I decided to give Steve another chance to go fishing with me. I called him late Sunday night and invited him to go out on the boat with me. The location was his choice. He was excited to go and inquired where I would like to go. I’ve heard some grand fishing tales about Blackfoot Reservoir again, but didn’t want to scare Steve off. To my surprise, he was completely willing to give it another try. I agreed to pick him up at 8 a.m. the following morning.

    As we pulled into Soda Springs at about 10 a.m., my concerns were high. There was about three inches of fresh snow and the credit union sign showed a balmy 27 degrees. A short time later, we could see the water below the reservoir was frozen over. We were both relieved, thought, when we reached the dike and saw open water on the lake. We were even more relieved to see two other boats getting launched.

    At least we wouldn’t be alone this time.

    By 11 a.m. our spirits were soaring as we had three big old rainbows splashing around in the live well. I had heard stories of coolers being filled with five to ten pounders and realized I am willing to believe any tall tale I’m told. The fish we caught were healthy though, and would be in the three to four pound range.

    Pretty soon the clouds moved in and we were grateful that we were dressed to survive the arctic-like temperatures. The fishing slowed down considerably and we spent the next four hours eating, telling stories and occasionally battling a big old mean fighting fish.  

    The trophy of the day was a big beautiful cutthroat with a hooked lower jaw and spotted bronze body. He fought Steve harder than any other fish of the day and would have measured about 21 inches and probably weighed 4.5 lbs We kept him in the lake and contained in the net until both cameras were ready. Then, after two quick snapshots, he was free to quickly swim back into the frigid, murky depths of the reservoir. For those unfamiliar with fishing on Blackfoot, the regulations require that all cutthroat trout be immediately released.

    By 3 p.m. we had each landed four trout and the trolling motor battery was running low. One of the other boats was calling it a day and we decided to join it at the dock. There were five guys from Logan with a fancy Ranger boat and they had done pretty good just bait fishing against the cliffs. They had released several cutthroats and ended up keeping twelve rainbows.

    The road trip with Steve was filled with some great stories from his life. Most of them were about the times he spent riding range, wrangling cows or team roping any chance he got. He had one story of falling at a rodeo and busting his shoulder. Just prior to it completely healing, he had a chance to compete in a big rodeo. Unfortunately, no one wanted to team up with a handicapped cowboy. He was finally able to get a partner when another cowboy arrived after everyone else had paired up. Against the odds, the two of them placed third even though Steve could barely lift one arm.

    That’s when I realized while returning to fish on Blackfoot in November would have kept most of my buddies at home after our first experience, Steve was glad for the chance.

    He knew what it meant to “Cowboy up!”