Sunday, April 03, 2011

Fun Ain't Cheap

We rolled in today after lunch and I was whupped. We unloaded the car and I immediately took a two hour nap.I think my friends Dan and Keith were going to fish some more this morning before heading home, but I was fished out, so we pointed our car east and headed for home. It was a fun weekend.
Friday was a learning day for me. I've been fly fishing for some time but it's always been hit and miss. I learned a little here and there about casting, lures, and how to read a steam, but it never seemed to jell. That all seemed to change this weekend.
Dan, who owns the papers for which I write, organized the fishing trip and he hired a fishing guide.
Both Dan and Keith (who also works at the paper) are accomplished fly fishermen, and didn't need a lot of advice from our guide.
I on the other hand, felt that I needed to listen. Deb Bowen was the guide and she's been fishing the Soque River near Helen, Georgia for years. Since the other guys didn't need her advice that much, I dug in and took advantage of the instruction.
On day one, it became apparent, my casting skills were just short of awful.....no, I'll fess up - they were awful.
But Deb coached, observed, adjusted and cheered on Friday. At the end of the day, my technique improved dramatically. I didn't catch any fish, but I could cast like nobody's business.
I took a good bit of ribbing. On Friday evening, Jilda and Dan's girlfriend Allison cooked dinner for us. They served up huge portions of spaghetti. The food was great, but I couldn't eat everything on my plate. Dan, who'd scarfed down everything on his plate looked at me and said "catching fish really makes me hungry." Ouch!
Saturday was a new day. I came out with new skills, and a new attitude. Again Dan and Keith went off on their personal quests for fish, and Deb hung with me and gave me a few last tips on keeping tention on the line during the time the fly drifts downstream.
I wasn't in the water ten minutes when I caught a weird little fish. It wasn't a trout, but I was encouraged.
A few casts later, I hung into a trout as big as a Honda Civic. He bent my antique fishing rod almost to the water. This one got away, but not before the guide and Keith saw the beast. But it doesn't really count unless you get it into the net.
Later in the morning, I did land a beautiful rainbow about that was about 14 inches long.
Then I was on a roll. All in all, I landed five very nice trout, one which was over twenty inches long.
We did catch and release so all the fish we caught this weekend were on barbless hooks, and we made sure they all had recovered from the tussle before we released them back into the stream.
I'd give anything if my dad had been on this trip with us. He had the fly fishing rig that I now use, but he never really got a chance to do a lot of fishing except on the river near where we lived.
I know he would have been very happy that I spent a glorious weekend on the water.

11 comments:

  1. I havne't fly fished in years. I remember a friend taking me for 8 hours one day in Cody, WY. We only got out of the water once for about 30 minutes. It was one of the post relaxing days I've ever had. I need to do it again. Congratulations on the fine catch.

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  2. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
    Wow...all the times I've gone fishing and I have never caught a thing! And here I thought I was going to be able to say I could relate;)
    Beautiful catches:)

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  3. Well Í need proof :) more than a picture! Neah! Just kidding! Well done and happy you had fun!!

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  4. WOOO-HOOOOOO!!! You did it!! You caught fish!!! Yay!!!!!!

    Awwww and yay for releasing them back!!!!

    Your dad would be most proud indeed!! Take care
    x

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  5. Way to go! It certainly helps with a guide, especially when trying to cast a fly line. I've had fly fishing gear in years past, but always used live bait - worms - when we fished in the Adirondacks for Trout. Congratulations on a successful trip.

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  6. Ken Owens12:25 PM

    I think your Dad would have given you a "Well done, young fella".
    Envious Friend

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  7. Thanks all. It was a fun weekend. I'd love to go back before it shuts down for the summer.
    There's nothing like a new locale to spark your creativity.

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  8. Okay - so you have gone and become smarter than both the worms and the fishes!

    Yikes! what's next - calculus?

    Congrats on the great catch!
    (and thanks for the nice comments on the Extremes post today. Got a visit from Jilda, too.)

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  9. Glad you had such a fun weekend and learned a few tricks of the fishing trade! I remember when I was a little girl and I begged to go fishing with my Dad..he agreed and off we went. It was great until we got to the lake and he informed me that I couldn't talk because I would scare away the fish. I didn't get a Chatty Cathy doll for nothing...needless to say, I decided that fishing wasn't my thing. Years later I really looked at a fish and spotted no ears...hmmmm.

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  10. Perhaps your dad was with you?
    It sounded like a fun weekend. I like to fish but never tried fly fishing.
    You did good!
    Love Di ♥

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  11. It's nice you let em go, but wild trout freshly caught from the stream tastes most amazing cooked up in an iron skillet over a little camp fire.

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