{"id":8415,"date":"2011-06-28T12:29:12","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T16:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adirondack.net\/dacks\/2011\/06\/im-hooked.html"},"modified":"2018-06-26T10:37:54","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T14:37:54","slug":"im-hooked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adirondack.net\/dacks\/2011\/06\/im-hooked\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Hooked… In More Ways Than One"},"content":{"rendered":"

I learned at a pretty young age that it is dangerous to assume that you will catch fish<\/b> 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<\/b> and fly presentation<\/b> as this was my first time on the water with my new fly rod<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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<\/b> in the deep, cold, dark water.<\/p>\n

“What the heck, I’m just here to practice my casting<\/b> anyway,” – Myself, and any other angler with no confidence<\/i><\/p>\n

At first I just watched my friends that had come with me, who are familiar with fly fishing<\/b> and know how to cast a line<\/b>. 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>) I started flipping my line back and forth, often times watching my leader collapse into my fly line<\/b>, 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/b> in both directions, with as little deceleration as possible. This was very sound advice<\/b>, and after another 15 minutes getting the timing down, I was putting the fly somewhere<\/i> near where I wanted it.<\/p>\n

I learned how to cast relatively well (compared to what I was doing 30 minutes prior)<\/i> 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<\/b> of my own.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>). I tried the olive green wooly bugger first<\/b>, as I remember reading that these are easy to fish, and hard to mess up. I tried ants near the riverbanks<\/b> 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<\/b>.. all with no luck.<\/p>\n

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<\/b>, 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<\/b>. 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<\/i>. 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<\/b>.<\/p>\n

I had a fish on. My first time fishing flies, and I had a fish on the end of my line<\/b>. 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<\/b>!<\/p>\n

Excited as I was, I hurried up to my fishing buddies and showed them my catch, my first<\/i> 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!<\/p>\n

I am officially hooked on fly fishing<\/b> 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! <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13,20],"class_list":["post-8415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fishing","tag-fly-fishing","tag-trout"],"yoast_head":"\r\nI Am Officially Hooked On Fly Fishing<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I went fly fishing for the first time, and caught a nice trout! 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