The true spirit of fly fishing.

[TossinFlies15]

First and foremost I would like to thank all of you even though I've probably never seen you in my life, for being so good to me. I stumbled upon my fathers old fly rod from when he was a kid. The pole was passed down to my 52 year ol' old man from his grandpa (do that math =D). His grandfather possessed the true spirit of fly fishing, a legend of rod and reel if you will. I found it at age 12 asking when the last time he fly fished was. I grew up trout fishing w/ the classic browning light weight set up but wanted more. I wanted more of a challenge, something more freeing, so I perused it. I asked my cross country coach and close friend in life, Barry Lopatic about it knowing he loved to toss a fly. His advise was take a visit to Saturdays market.
Wow, God has blessed me with so man great guys in my life. I found a 5/6 weight knock off south bend rod and Japanese reel for >$30. that isnt the important section of this. My dad and i walked over to get a cinnamon roll and there I met my future tying friend, teacher, and all around hero to me, Wayne Lenered. He asked me about my rod I purchased and such and we figured out he was one on my grandfathers best friends. Two days later i get a call from my Grandpa saying wayne wants to teach me to tie flies, I was beyond excited. After an hour or 2 I walked away with a hole new outlook on life. Wayne showed me the true spirit of fly fishing. Our trying sessions got longer and I became more skilled. I became helplessly addicted to the art and hobby that is our wonderful relationship ending pass-time. I worked harder and harder and it started to pay off. I caught my first actual fish, (non-panfish) at my section of a Susquehanna run off. A beautiful 14 inch small mouth on a white wooley bugger I TIED! Words can explain my emotions at the time.
One of my favorite things to do is look back at what ones accomplished. I've came so far from that "fly cast master" and a plastic reel. I'll soon be 16 and am fairly proficient at The Game. I owe all of this to Wayne. I encourage all of you to share your talents with young alike. Enough about me though, What the true spirit of fly fishing mean to everyone here?
Thanks for your time,
Jay

 

[afishinado]

TossinFlies15 wrote:
First and foremost I would like to thank all of you even though I've probably never seen you in my life, for being so good to me. I stumbled upon my fathers old fly rod from when he was a kid. The pole was passed down to my 52 year ol' old man from his grandpa (do that math =D). His grandfather possessed the true spirit of fly fishing, a legend of rod and reel if you will. I found it at age 12 asking when the last time he fly fished was. I grew up trout fishing w/ the classic browning light weight set up but wanted more. I wanted more of a challenge, something more freeing, so I perused it. I asked my cross country coach and close friend in life, Barry Lopatic about it knowing he loved to toss a fly. His advise was take a visit to Saturdays market.
Wow, God has blessed me with so man great guys in my life. I found a 5/6 weight knock off south bend rod and Japanese reel for >$30. that isnt the important section of this. My dad and i walked over to get a cinnamon roll and there I met my future tying friend, teacher, and all around hero to me, Wayne Lenered. He asked me about my rod I purchased and such and we figured out he was one on my grandfathers best friends. Two days later i get a call from my Grandpa saying wayne wants to teach me to tie flies, I was beyond excited. After an hour or 2 I walked away with a hole new outlook on life. Wayne showed me the true spirit of fly fishing. Our trying sessions got longer and I became more skilled. I became helplessly addicted to the art and hobby that is our wonderful relationship ending pass-time. I worked harder and harder and it started to pay off. I caught my first actual fish, (non-panfish) at my section of a Susquehanna run off. A beautiful 14 inch small mouth on a white wooley bugger I TIED! Words can explain my emotions at the time.
One of my favorite things to do is look back at what ones accomplished. I've came so far from that "fly cast master" and a plastic reel. [color=CC0000]I'll soon be 16 and am fairly proficient at The Game.[/color] I owe all of this to Wayne. I encourage all of you to share your talents with young alike. Enough about me though, What the true spirit of fly fishing mean to everyone here?
Thanks for your time,
Jay

Hey Jay,

Nice story, I enjoyed reading it. If I read it right you are 15 years old. You may be proficient at FFing, but I have to say you have a great talent for writing at your age. Keep at the fishin' and tying and writin'...I'll bet you will go far. Good luck.



To me the true spirit of fly-fishing is exemplified when I release a fish back into the stream and it swims away strong and bold to fight another day.

 

[TossinFlies15]

Thank you very much for the kind words! My family is always telling me to write.. I guess school starting tomorrow will force that haha. Yes I am indeed 15 with my birthday falling on September 8th. Also, I could agree more about releasing a fish after a good hook set. Holding them loosely and letting them swim when they're ready truly is just awesome.

 

[Pontus]

I was standing waste-deep in cold, crystal clear water that was slowly trickling into my leaky, secondhand waders. The air trapped in my pants by my wading belt created just enough buoyant force to affect my balance. I had not yet learned to adjust the belt after getting into the water to let the air out. At this point I would love to say that as my perfect cast “on a four-count rhythm between ten and two” unfolded a tight loop of weighted fly line carrying a weightless hook covered in bits of fur and feathers delicately to the water, a relatively small, yet respectable trout confidently rose to the surface to sip the fly from the film. But no. I spent most of the day roaming the stream, throwing a few ugly casts into the water when I managed to unhook myself from the surrounding trees, grass, and other vegetation. In fact, it took five more outings before I finally wrestled a rainbow trout out from under a fallen tree in the Patuxent River State Park.
Now, after dozens of days on the water, I can consistently pull out a few trout, but the seeds that started this love of fly fishing have been growing for my entire life. After the 5th Grade, my family moved from Baltimore to a semi-rural town between Baltimore and Washington D.C. Three summers later, I had my first experience with fly fishing. On a family vacation to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, we did a guided fishing trip on the Snake River. While my brother and father decided to stick with the familiar spin casting, the guide taught me how to fly fish. I believe that I was too young to really appreciate the beauty of the trip, and the western cutthroat trout were too easy to catch for me to understand the typical challenges of fly fishing, but it did convince me of fly fishing’s value.
Around my sophomore year of high school, I was struck with an insatiable desire to connect with the wild. Chris McCandless became my hero. I wanted to go out into the wilderness to learn about myself and connect with nature on a personal basis. After struggling for a while on how to express this driving hunger inside me, I remembered drifting down a Wyoming river one summer. What followed was a frenzy of reading everything I could get my hands on concerning fly fishing. The internet taught me the system, jargon, strategies, and techniques while A River Runs through It taught me the lifestyle. I learned that the house I had once considered too far from everything was only 2 miles from a protected catch and release trout fishery on the Patuxent River. When I emerged from this trance-like state of reading everything I could find, I had learned what would be needed to get started in this sport and that it was a very realistic pursuit. I saved up the money to get the basics, and now I would not trade my time on the water for anything in the world.


That's a rough draft of a piece I wrote on getting started in fly fishing. There are certain things left out because I needed to keep it short, such as learning to tie flies, the fact that my parents are the least outdoorsy people you'll ever meet, and the mentor-ship of a friend's dad. To all of you older folks out there, if a young person shows interest in nature, introduce them to fly fishing. My only regret is that I didn't start sooner.

 

[TossinFlies15]

Thats really great bud! Fly fishing is about so much more than catching a fish to me. When I started, getting shut out was almost a given, nevertheless I still managed to love it more and each time. I have been very fortunate in being introduced to this great hobby at a young age. That was the whole theme I was trying to portray in my original post. I never want to hear of a guy who is now in love with it but only started post adolescent days. This Wayne character I've been talking about has been so crazily generous in his giving it makes me wanna be more and more like him. If you haven't seen the photo of the bass i caught and posted in the photos he just sold me a 4 weight Penn rod with its case ($450) to me for $50. He invites me to come tie with his materials and what not any time solely because he know I love it and can't exactly afford some of it. I really want to be like him and I encourage anyone reading this weather your my age or far ahead of me, weather you dont have the money or materials to be so overly generous, just offer the gift you posses to show someone fly fishing. I know it is CERTAINLY the best gift I've ever had the please and love of receiving.

 

[gfen]

afishinado wrote:
To me the true spirit of fly-fishing is exemplified when I release a fish back into the stream and it swims away strong and bold to fight another day.

My children will be three in just over 3 weeks. Their current game is to put two chairs together, call it a waterfall, and then sit in it and wave their arm. Shortly there after, they'll say, "turn, turn, turn" and hold up a hand and say, "look at my fish." After I admire it, they throw it sideways and say, "back to the water."

Their mother said, "let me take a bite" once to them, and they got mad and said, "no, back in the water mommy."

I thought that was pretty alright.

TossinFlies, age is a number. Don't let someone tell you what you can or can't do based on it, ever. Enjoy your hobby, enjoy your new gear, and when the time is right, embrace that old fishing rod from your family and don't forget to take it out once in awhile.

Oh, and the one you just bought? Keep it. Someday, a child will be excited to find it among your possessions and ask when the last time you took it out... The cycle continues.

 

[JackM]

Flyshing's essence, to me, is that it satisfies the hunt instinct with a rather low-impact physical activity, but the hunt is transformed into a puzzle of the mind, that gets more complicated the more you learn how to figure it out. It is a great meditation when in the zone. I hate when someone sneaks up on you and asks how the fishin' is at a time like that.

Welcome to the board.

 

[mcwillja]

Jay,

Great story!! It was very well written, and thanks for sharing. You will be very successful in flyfishing and more importantly in the game of life. You seem wise beyond your years. It's refreshing to hear younger people taking up the great sport of flyfishing. Keep up the good work.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

If you choose to you could explore turning your fishing passion and writing talent into a lifelong career.Continued success in school and on the stream.GG

 

[Acristickid]

One of the things I enjoy on this site, is people's enthusiasm for fly-fishing.

 

[gfen]

I come for the chicks.

 

[whheff]

Very nice story and well written too. Your story brought back many memories of fishing with my father and it made me smile.

I have done many thing in my 62 years but before I retired, I started to fly fish because of those old memories.

To me the spirit of fly fishing is the spirit of life. Seeing the world around me and how things in nature interact with each other. Watching hatches and fish feeding on them and trying to catch them. And if I do, letting them go and watching them recover by my boots before the swim away.

Sometimes I just sit on the bank and enjoy the world around me.

You have many years ahead of you and I would say try to experience many things but always remember that this will be one of your best experiences.

 

[whheff]

gfen wrote:
I come for the chicks.

Gary, if you would keep you eye on the fly instead of the chicks joggin at the LL you wouldn't miss as many.

 

[gfen]

Explain the problem at Monocacy, then, which lacks the staggering awesomeness of a full fledged jogger hatch?

 

[TossinFlies15]

I second the idea of a jogger hatch. Also thanks again to all of you for the advise, it means alot guys.

 

[rrt]

TF15 -- Another "young lion"! You already have a wonderful start in this most addicting of sports. Being young, you have a lot of wonderful things to look forward to during your great adventure of fly-fishing. I hope you experience many enjoyable outings.

 

[TossinFlies15]

Yes sir, will do! However is anyone here familiar with clarks creek or and streams of this (South Central) area because I just took just got shut out and denied 7 different ways from the weekend last saturday along with the other indigenous peoples of the stream. The old man landed a nice brookie on an 18 black ant but out of the 8-10 veterans I talked to they all were having no such luck. I threw everything but my fly box itself except an emerger or san jaun worm.. Any suggestions?

 

[NoMoreCornChuckin]

Tossin, in my opinion, the "expert" on Clark Creek is a guy on this board named "Squaretail". This time of year, he is fishing terrestrials almost exclusively, hoppers, beetles, crickets, etc. Shoot him a PM and he will be more than happy to point you in the right direction on Clark, as well as several other South Central waters. He loves mentoring newcomers and is an incredibly talented and knowledgable fly-fisherman. Welcome to the board! I'm just 45 minutes south of you and I can point you to a few good places as well, but unfortunately, being somewhat new to the game, I'm not as knowledgable as the other guys here on what to use. I tend to just go with what Squaretail ties on and watch how he presents it...and ask LOTS of questions!!!!

 

[evw659]

i was introduced to fly-fishing last winter at age 15 with a cheap steelhead rod, and an egg pattern that my dad tied on. having never fly-fished before i felt very out of place in the lower fly zone of the salmon river in ny with all these spey fishers doing their fancy casts and such. all i was doing was snagging in trees but when i hooked my first fish on the fly(steelhead) i thought that fighting the fish was the thrill of fly-fishing, but my perspective is much different now. ive come so far since then. i guess for me the spirit of fly-fishing is wading into the stream (preferably the little j)in the morning at first light, while the fogs lifting off the water and casting an ant under bushes and trees knowing that ill still be happy if i dont catch anything.

 

[TossinFlies15]

NoMoreCornChuckin,
Certainly will do that, its nice to finally meet someone from around our streams. Thanks for the info!