Getting it going.

I didn't go fishing with Steve again that summer, nor did I go fishing myself. Steve did teach me some rudiments of fly tying, so I practiced that throughout the summer, as well as practicing my cast with the help of some fly casting videos from the late Mel Kreiger. It was this video which finally helped me understand the importance of "loading the rod" and I began to have a good enough cast to not embarrass myself when fishing.

We finally hooked up again in August, and Steve took me to another spot on the Weber, much closer this time. It is a large hole formed by an irrigation weir, the weir creates a five foot water fall which has created the hole. About 6o feet downstream from the waterfall is an island that splits the river into two streams, the one on the south side smaller than the one to the north. Steve put me right in front of the island and said "cast right into the foam created by the fall, and dead drift back". So I did, and eventually caught my first fish on a fly that I had tied myself, and I was more hooked than the fish, (which was released). Not me, I have been hooked on fly fishing ever since.

After the trip I asked Steve when we would go again. He said, "I don't know Tom, but you know you can go fishing by yourself if you want" and I did. I went fishing almost every day. I would charge out of the high school where I teach, drive up the the same hole on the Weber and fish for a couple of hours. I think I had gone fishing over 200 times by the time the next August rolled around, and I kept up that pace for another two years, before my wife put her foot down and (without saying the words) implied that SHE was the best catch of my life, and if I didn't want HER released, I better spend more time at home. So I did, and tried to go only a couple of times a week.

And I caught fish. Hundreds of them, mostly Whitefish, but Browns, Rainbows and Cutthroats as well. I found other holes on the river, all within 10 or 15 minutes of my house. I read books, I watched videos, I bought fly tying materials. I basically packed a life time of fishing into the next three years and now consider myself to be an advanced, knowledgeable fly fisherman. I can talk about fly patterns, fishing techniques, and the places and history of fly fishing with anyone. I would call myself an expert if my casting and fishing skills were more robust and I AM an expert in the techniques I use all of the time. I am only an average dry fly fisherman, but can catch a fish with a nymph in just about any river (and I have) and I am getting pretty good at stillwater fishing as well. I don't do a lot of streamer fishing in rivers, although I have occasionally caught fish on streamers and dry flies in streams.

Next post: Fly tying.