Yesterday, July 28, marked the 71st anniversary of catching my first fish on a fly rod!
It was the day after my 13th birthday on July 27, 1951 and I had received a new TrueTemper tubular steel 8' fly rod for my birthday. The next day I went to the local auto parts store where they sold some fishing tackle. The flies they sold were wet flies designed to be used behind spinners on casting reels. They came in cellophane packets stapled to a cardboard stand and cost 0.25 cents apiece. I bought a Black Gnat and a Professor. We lived about 30' from the river and when I got home I tied on the Black Gnat and waded out across the top of a small waterfall. Knowing nothing about fly fishing but able to read water a little I cast downstream along a likely looking run and hooked a 16 or 17 inch rainbow! It was a real rush and I was better hooked than the fish, I held it up by the line to show my family that was watching from the bank and of course it flipped off. But the damage was done, the beauty and color of that fish left an indelible impression on me and now 71 years later I still get that same rush when I land a fish in a likely looking seam of skinny water.
Paraphrasing Sammy Sosa-fly fishing "has bean veddy, veddy gud to mi!"
Edit: I checked the run I caught that fish in years ago on Google Earth and it is still there and it looks just the same, bedrock doesn't change much.
It was the day after my 13th birthday on July 27, 1951 and I had received a new TrueTemper tubular steel 8' fly rod for my birthday. The next day I went to the local auto parts store where they sold some fishing tackle. The flies they sold were wet flies designed to be used behind spinners on casting reels. They came in cellophane packets stapled to a cardboard stand and cost 0.25 cents apiece. I bought a Black Gnat and a Professor. We lived about 30' from the river and when I got home I tied on the Black Gnat and waded out across the top of a small waterfall. Knowing nothing about fly fishing but able to read water a little I cast downstream along a likely looking run and hooked a 16 or 17 inch rainbow! It was a real rush and I was better hooked than the fish, I held it up by the line to show my family that was watching from the bank and of course it flipped off. But the damage was done, the beauty and color of that fish left an indelible impression on me and now 71 years later I still get that same rush when I land a fish in a likely looking seam of skinny water.
Paraphrasing Sammy Sosa-fly fishing "has bean veddy, veddy gud to mi!"
Edit: I checked the run I caught that fish in years ago on Google Earth and it is still there and it looks just the same, bedrock doesn't change much.
