Gonna brag for a minute

[tangledup]

My son and I snuck out to the stream for a couple hours last night and he caught his first wild trout....on a fly that he tied no less. Needless to say he was very excited. The water was pretty high but we managed to land a few fish anyway.

[Johnsfolly]

11 minutes ago, tangledup said:

My son and I snuck out to the stream for a couple hours last night and he caught his first wild trout....on a fly that he tied no less. Needless to say he was very excited. The water was pretty high but we managed to land a few fish anyway.

That's awesome! Tell him congrats on a nice wild trout!

[ness]

Nice going, son and dad too!

[BilletHead]

           Most excellent!

 You are raising him right, well done!

[fishinwrench]

There's no other feeling like seeing your kid succeed in something that only YOU had a hand in.   👍 

You're in for years of proud happy feelings, have fun with it. 😊

[ness]

I'd love to hear the details of the catch...

[tangledup]

Ness-

This was only his second time fishing this creek but he got skunked on the first trip. We went for a hike along the creek as a family Wednesday night and he spent most of the time flipping rocks and looking for spiderwebs, checking for insects. After the hike he asked if we could come back and fish the next night and of course I said yes. On our way to the creek he told me I was fired as a guide since he didn't catch anything on his last trip and decided he would pick the fishing spots on this trip. When we got to the creek I just put my rod together but didn't rig it since I figured I would have plenty of time while he was picking his fishing spot. He has been tying brassies after I told him I had success with them, and "created" his own recipe of a red brassie with peacock ice dubbing and a nickel tungsten bead, so that's what he tied on. We took off down the trail and he spent almost 30 minutes walking the creek and carefully examining each pool until he found one he liked. 

He has recently decided he wants to be "YouTube famous" so I let him create his own YouTube channel, which I carefully monitor. He wanted to bring the GoPro along on this trip and I was told I would be the camera guy. A job for which I have discovered I have no talent. Once he decided on a pool I figured I had a few minutes to rig while he got his line in the water and made a few casts so I stuck the camera in my pouch. On his second cast I heard him start whooping and hollering and, sure enough, he had a beautiful little rainbow on. I got the camera out as quickly as I could and managed to catch most of it on film. I'm pretty sure his beaming face lit up the entire stream as he pulled that fish up to the bank. A trophy size brown trout could not have made that kid smile any bigger than that 10" McCloud trout did. All fish handling etiquette went straight out the window but eventually the little trout was returned to the safety of the stream and my son's chest was puffed out bigger than Arnold Schwarzenegger's. With my son jabbering a mile a minute I attempted once again to rig up, setting the GoPro on the ground as I did so. A couple minutes later there was another explosion of celebration behind me as another fish fell victim to the "super fly" as my son called it. I grabbed the camera again and managed to catch a few seconds of the battle. As he removed the fish and slipped it back in the water my son chastised me for neglecting my duties as his camera guy so I abandoned my rod and concentrated on filming. We fished a few more pools with no success until my son finally allowed me to wet a line. He wandered up to the next pool above us and caught yet another small trout off camera. 

By this time it was getting dark but glow from my son's face lit our path as we made our way back to the truck. 

Fishinwrench-

You are absolutely correct! My son and I fish together and hunt deer, turkey, and ducks. Watching him learn to love and respect the outdoors and develop a love of hunting and fishing is one of the proudest parts of my life. Fly fishing is just one more hobby that brings us together and keeps our bond strong.

Here is the video that he put together from our outing last night. 

 

[ness]

Great write up and video! He was sure having a blast. Cool to see. 

[Johnsfolly]

@tangledup see if he is interested in going for the MO blue ribbon stream slam. I think that would be a great video series for his channel. Will take dad driving quite a ways, but would be a great bonding experience.

[tangledup]

16 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

@tangledup see if he is interested in going for the MO blue ribbon stream slam. I think that would be a great video series for his channel. Will take dad driving quite a ways, but would be a great bonding experience.

Funny that you should mention that....when he saw the sign listing Crane Creek as a blue ribbon area he asked me what that meant. Being the helpful father I am, I made him look it up to find out. In the process of doing that he stumbled across the the MDC page talking about the blue ribbon stream slam and now he wants to do that. I'm all for it. It means more time spent together on the road and more time fishing. Both of which are VERY good things.