Fly Rod

[WestCentralFisher]

Somewhere around a week ago, something dangerous happened. After a morning of catching and carefully releasing what felt like more wild rainbow trout than I deserved on spinners, I picked up a fly rod. I always keep the little 3-weight in the car, but of late it has gotten little use. While I've dabbled with it occasionally, it's been years since I've been what I'd call a proficient fly fisherman. First, I drifted away from fishing entirely for a few years, and unthinkable symptom of misplaced priorities. Then, when I got back into it in a serious way a few years ago, I reasoned that my free time was too scant and too precious to waste on relearning fly fishing. Spin-fishing isn't exactly easy, but it doesn't require too much reintroduction to reach basic competence.

And it's been great. I followed the usual progression. The first few trips back, I dunked worms or Powerbait. Even that wasn't always easy at first, but eventually it became too easy. Then came the boxes of spinners, little crankbaits, and jigs. I have had some great times with those, and caught more trout and smallmouth bass and had more associated adventures than I ever expected when I got back into this.

And yet, that little 3-weight beckoned.

So I got it out. I reasoned that I'd already caught a good number of fish, including one about as large as I'm likely to catch here, so what does it matter if this is a struggle? And then there is the planned Alaska trip and the little grayling I'd love to fly fish for. A little practice now would be wise.

But of course more than anything, it just sounded like fun.

I wasn't prepared to fly-fish. I had no leaders, tippet, or strike indicators. I did have a small fly box stowed away with a few #16 Hare's Ear Nymphs, along with some other patterns more suited to bluegill and bass. I used bits of line from the medium action, light action, and ultra-light I had stowed away to build a surprisingly acceptable leader.

A guy who looked like he stepped out of the Orvis catalog was sharing the parking lot with me, and observed me building a fly leader using line from 3 different spinning set ups. He looked at me like I had just lobbed a wicked insult at his puppy. I'll recognize it's non-standard, but I worked with the materials available and found a solution.

And it did work, well enough, anyway. The lack of strike indicators proved more problematic than anything, but I made do. I quickly remembered that if you watch the fly line carefully enough, it can be an indicator of sorts. Though the number of times I lifted the line up for another cast and it came up unexpectedly tight communicated the number of strikes I was likely missing.

In the end, I set the hook on 6 or 7 wild rainbows, and landed two, both parr-marked 7 or 8 inchers. There was one clean break-off that felt like a really nice fish. The rest of the lost fish were the result of rust and trying to remember how all this worked.

But the two I caught were enough. It was clear I'd started back up with something that will now be difficult to stop. Even breaking my rod tip on the way back to the car didn't make a dent, though it did remind me how to properly carry a fly rod through the brush. It's replacement is in the mail already.

[ness]

Nicely written story!

So, rod out front or trailing behind? I just recently had that discussion with a guide. 

[WestCentralFisher]

1 hour ago, ness said:

Nicely written story!

So, rod out front or trailing behind? I just recently had that discussion with a guide. 

Thanks!

I had it pointed forward when it broke...always had been taught to carry it the other way around. Just got careless.