Fishies Plus Virgin River Equals Fun on the Job

To make up for the dead body fiasco, a few days ago I had the opportunity to go gallivanting off into the wilderness and play along the river beds of the Virgin River. I even got in the river. It was awesome. The best part was I got to do this for work. I was working on a story about the Division of Wildlife Resources.

In case you don't know or remember the "dead body fiasco" a quick recap would be a dead body was found last week. My photographer and I tried to get out to the scene but were given wrong directions. We missed the whole thing.

Now, as much as I love the adrenaline rush of a good wild fire or homicide, going off on adventures seems to be grabbing my fascination more and more. Why you might ask? Maybe it's because I don't have to deal with all the red tape that comes with the breaking news or the devastated families.

Anyway, back on the subject. This summer DWR had five high school interns helping them sample fish in the Virgin River. The purpose? I found it to be most fascinating. One was to find out how healthy the native wildlife was and two was to find out how healthy the river was. For some reason I never realized how important it was to sample the fishies. But there I was, taking notes in the river then shooting photos of the kids catching these fish.

But, the highlight of the day was when the biologist from DWR told me the rule among the interns was the biggest fish they found for the day they had to kiss it. We were out there for an hour and still all we were getting was 2-inch fish. But then popped up an 8-inch flannelmouth sucker fish. One of the girls took that fish, looked it dead in the eyes and laid a big one on it.

After two hours of playing in the river I reluctantly decided it was time to leave. When I got back to the office I had dirty river pants, farmer's tan and an awesome story to show for my work that morning.

Yes, I could get used to doing fun stories. It not only keeps the job entertaining but they make for good stories for not only print but for memories.