Olive and Oprah, Part III

Well, Oprah’s show featuring her camping trip to Yosemite aired last week, and it did include a brief segment about their fly fishing experience. From Oprah’s website:

Oprah and Gayle begin their day, and the first thing on the agenda is a lesson in fly fishing—something Oprah has always dreamed of doing. “I like the idea of putting on the boots and going out in the water and catching and releasing some fish,” Oprah says.

After watching the show, it was painfully clear that Oprah’s friend Gayle was WAY out of her element and she won’t be fishing again anytime soon.

“I’m all done with fly fishing,” Gayle says. “It’s just not for me. I like a pretty pool; I like a pretty colored drink with an umbrella sitting in it.”

To each their own. Afterall, if everyone fly fished, there wouldn’t be a lot of room along the banks of the river. Oprah, on the other hand, had a great attitude and seemed to catch on to the casting fairly well. She indicated that she enjoyed it and will be trying it again.  Conditions didn’t look favorable for catching fish, and they didn’t. But it seems that Oprah quickly grasped the meaning of “there’s more to fishing than catching fish.” In fact, she said that she wants to put together a group and take a trip.  I can imagine that there are any number of fly fishing guides and outfitters across the West that will be vying for a chance to book that trip, but my hunch is that Brian and Jenny Grossenbacher (Grossenbacher Guides) may have a lock on that since they were with Oprah on her trip to Yosemite.

Here are a couple of photos posted on Oprah’s website from their fly fishing lesson.

Strike while the iron is hot

With Oprah’s show featuring her fly fishing experience still smoldering like a nights-old campfire, the time is now to let Oprah know about my books. With that in mind I continue to send an email to her on a weekly basis, although I readily acknowledge that my odds of hearing from Oprah are miniscule. I wonder if maybe I should start my quest with something a little more reasonable?  Perhaps I should send a set of books to the Grossenbachers. Maybe they would forward them to Oprah since they’re all fishin’ buddies. I’m sure they have each others’ cell numbers.

One way or another there has to be a way for my Olive books to get into Oprah’s hands.  What she does with them after that is up to her, but I would sure love to have Olive added to Oprah’s Kid’s Reading List.  More kids need to learn about fly fishing and the great outdoors.  It’s good for kids, as I wrote about HERE. I think Oprah can see the value in that after just one camping trip and one brief fly fishing lesson.

Oprah, are you listening?  I just sent you an email. Looking forward to hearing back from you soon.