I learned at a pretty young age that it is dangerous to assume that you will catch fish every time you try. However, this is pretty easy for me to forget, I haven’t been skunked in a while on the spinning rod. Yesterday when I headed to the Mettawee River in Granville with a few friends I wasn’t even planning on getting a bite, just looking to work on my casting and fly presentation as this was my first time on the water with my new fly rod.
We headed over to the river, arriving at about 4:00pm. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and it was at least 80 degrees. I was skeptical, being so sunny and warm the trout were probably hiding in the deep, cold, dark water.
“What the heck, I’m just here to practice my casting anyway,” – Myself, and any other angler with no confidence
At first I just watched my friends that had come with me, who are familiar with fly fishing and know how to cast a line. I figured I would watch what they do, and try to emulate their technique. After about 15 minutes of that I was itching to get in the water. I stepped in slowly, wearing a bathing suit and some old sneakers. (Is there a point to buying waders when the water is warm enough to stand in?) I started flipping my line back and forth, often times watching my leader collapse into my fly line, causing my line to get tangled and myself to get slightly frustrated. At one point in the tangles I jammed a tiny hook (probably a size 12) right into the tip of my left index finger, past the barb. It took me a second to pull it out, and it still feels a little raw as I type this.
This is when one of my buddies stopped fishing and came over to give me a quick lesson. His advice to me was to avoid the 10-2 position, and work with more of a 11-1:30 stroke. He also said that he had once been told to accelerate to a stop in both directions, with as little deceleration as possible. This was very sound advice, and after another 15 minutes getting the timing down, I was putting the fly somewhere near where I wanted it.
I learned how to cast relatively well (compared to what I was doing 30 minutes prior) and headed up the stream, leaving my friends to fish by themselves. One thing I like about fishing is that you can go with friends, but don’t need to be standing next to them talking the whole time. I left them to fish their pools, and waded away to find an undisturbed stretch of my own.
I fished for the next two and half or three hours, trying various different flies and techniques (most of which I remember from your facebook posts). I tried the olive green wooly bugger first, as I remember reading that these are easy to fish, and hard to mess up. I tried ants near the riverbanks occasionally resulting in a snag, which to my surprise (and pleasure) I found were much easier to free than a heavy worm or lure. I also tried dead drifting bead head nymphs.. all with no luck.
Determined to at least get a bite, I walked back downstream where I thought I saw some deep, faster moving water earlier. I tied on one of these muddler minnows, as suggested by one of my buddies (he had gotten a few bites, and had broken one fish off already). I cast my line upstream of the hole that I was standing adjacent to, and let the fly sink as it flowed downstream. I let the fly sink right into the hole until I couldn’t see the point of my fly line any more and started my retrieve. Then I felt a tug. At this point I almost lost my cool, I had actually gotten a fish to think my fly was food! I gave my line one more little pull to make sure there was something at the end of it. There was, so I set the hook.
I had a fish on. My first time fishing flies, and I had a fish on the end of my line. I was so excited that I forgot how much slack was on my line as I had been retrieving. The fish took off and took care of the slack on its own, and I’ll never forget the sound of my reel, as a fish stripped line off of it. I played the fish briefly and landed it, an 11 inch rainbow trout!
Excited as I was, I hurried up to my fishing buddies and showed them my catch, my first catch on a fly rod. They were happy for me, and offered congratulations, then we got back to fishing. Josh and Zack each caught two fish (three rainbows and a brown) and I caught one, raising our total to five – enough for dinner!
I am officially hooked on fly fishing and probably wont touch my spinning rod for a while. What a thrill I got catching a fish on this artificial little ball of hair and feathers! I thank you, my readers, for supplying me with quality information and offering to help with my new hobby. I will be sure to keep you updated as I head out on more fishing outings in the future!
Pretty sweet, trout is my favorite fish to eat.