Fly Fishing

Yellowstone Cutthroat


All of my

life I wanted to fly fish. I remember my father was given an old fiberglass Fenwick fly rod after working 25 years at his job, but it never got used because he didn't know how to fly fish. I remember looking at the thick line, much thicker than the mono line used in my spinning rod, and wondering what it would be like to cast it. On trips to Yellowstone I saw fly fishers in the river, and envied their grace full casts.

We did a lot of fishing as boys, since there was a pond with bluegill, and another that was stocked with trout. At the bluegill pond, all we needed was a stick and about 10 feet of line wrapped around the end. We would stash our sticks after fishing, and when we wanted to fish it was a simple as catching a grasshopper, climbing out on a log overhanging the pond, dap down and catch bluegill. The fish always were eager to be caught.

The planted pond was another story, while you could catch a carp anytime, catching a rainbow depended on when it was stocked last. We spent many summer days at both, catching fish.

On the fourth of July they planted special fish, larger Rainbows and Browns and had a fishing contest. My brother caught a big Brown one year, and won a hatchet as a prize. An even bigger one got away, as I tried to help get it in, but it broke off. I had never seen a Brown Trout before and was mesmerized by its beautiful red spots, and its different appearance from a Rainbow.

One day I took my family up to the Uinta's for a little fishing. We were using powerbait and having no success. Next to us a young boy was fly fishing, using a spinning rod and a bobber, and catching fish.

I had an old tackle box of my fathers that had some flies in it, so I sheepishly asked him if anything I had might work (the box contained a bunch of large wet flies) The boy looked destainfully at them, then opened up a fly box brimming with what looked like incredibly small flies (although they were probably size 16) that he had tied himself. They had a basic Adams look, without wings. The boy showed me how to put floatant on the fly, I cast it out and caught my first fish on a fly. We had many other takes on that little fly, and I was thrilled.

A few years later I wanted to catch a Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout at Yellowstone Lake. When I was a boy my dad would take us to the lake and we would troll (with him rowing the boat) with a mepths spinner and a nightcrawler. We all caught big, beautiful fish, it seemed like magic to me, because my usual catch was either a blue gill or a puny planted Rainbow Trout.

Well, I wanted my kids to have a similar experience, so we talked to the store employees who suggested we got to Gull Point and use Jakes lures. On a lark I bought four flies and a clear bobber.

Well the wind was blowing and no fish were being caught. Suddenly I saw a rise and decided to put on my fly and bobber. I made a good cast, and couldn't believe it when the fish rose up and took my fly! It was the only fish I saw caught that day, and my desire to fly fish was on fire.

Well, sometime in the 90's I walked into the newly built Sam's club in Layton, and noticed they had neoprene waders on sale. They were Ninja turtle green, complete with a knee pad to create the Ninja effect. I took the leap and bought them (to be continued)