Can You Keep a Secret?

A couple of days ago, I called a family friend who lives in Utah and is an avid fly fisherman. I was calling to let him know that I'm planning to be in Utah this summer and to ask if he had any recommendations for places to fish while I'm there. He's a super nice guy who has been fly fishing the streams and lakes in and around Utah for decades. A few years ago, he was kind enough to take me to the Green River and even gave me some of his favorite self-tied fly patterns to use. Our phone conversation went something like this:

Me: "Hey, how's it going? My mom said she saw you recently and you said the fishing has been great but that you're not fishing the Provo River much anymore."

Him: "Hey, Steve. Well, I fished the Provo a couple of weeks ago and I headed up to the Green a while back as well. But, yeah."

Me: "Well, I'm calling to see if you have any recommendations for places where I should fish while I'm out there this summer."

Him: " Well, when you get out here give me a call and I'll take you to a secret stream on the condition that you don't mention it to anyone."

Me: "Uh, wow, uh OK. That sounds awesome. [chuckling] I'll be happy to sign something saying I won't speak of it to anyone."

[NOTE: And I'm totally serious about that. If he takes me to this secret spot, I promise I'm not going to tell anyone else where it is even if we end up adding it to the FRAA2008 agenda. All I will provide is a very general non-descript statement like "XYZ Watershed" or "ABC County".]

Him: [silence]

Me: " [fishing for more info] Well, um, my Mom said you mentioned something about the fishing being great near [XXXXX]. I fished near there a couple of years ago on the [YYYY] river."

Him: "Where exactly did you go?"

Me: "I don't remember exactly. I had a topo map at the time. I went to [snip] and I recall there being a winding dirt road and a gorge and a place where the road crossed a stream."

Him: "[pause] Interesting. Well, call me when you get into town."

Me: "Ok."

For some reason, I found it funny that he wouldn't tell me the location over the phone. I can see it now... He tells me over the phone and then we show up on the secret stream in July only to find that Dick Cheney and a cadre of Secret Service Agents have taken it over. Homeland Security and all that, of course.

Back in real life, I'm now looking through my Topo maps and I'm wangling around with Google Earth like a crazy pirate poring over a treasure map to figure out where the buried chest could possibly be. And the sad (or is that happy?) fact is, Utah has thousands of miles of trout streams--some very popular, some widely unknown--from which to choose, so I'm just going to have to wait until July.