Hi ya Ethan...

So....you hail from around Columbus, OH....well, ya gotta learn to fish for
smallmouth bass. Nothing pleases me more than to hit a cold water stream
and fish for trout but, to be honest, smallmouth are king.

Rock bass, crappie, heck all species are open to the fly rodder. Between
here (Dayton ) and Columbus are some of the finest waters a man could
want...

Let's hook up....but, like the ol' bo' jangles......


john

"Ethan" wrote in message
ups.com...
I just wanted to say hello. I've been lurking here for a while, just
reading the Trip Reports, and generally enjoying the typical witty
banter. I'm pretty new to the sport.

I guess my story goes like this. This summer I spent a long weekend in
West Vail Colorado, along Gore creek which runs into the Eagle river.
Though not legendary, there were some people fishing along I-70 and
seeing them whetted my appetite. I didn't do any fishing while I was
there because I knew if I went out with a guide I would be a total clod
with a fly-rod. After I returned home from the Vail area, I heard from
an old friend who lives in Bozeman Montana, who said he would be
getting married in July of '07 and that I should be there. That sent me
over the edge, BY GEORGE, if I'm going to the heart of North American
FF mecca then I'm going to practice up and get good enough so that I
can actually enjoy some time on REAL trout water.

So back at home in good old Columbus Ohio I hooked up with Mad River
Outfitters and picked up a nice 9 ft 5 wt rig. I've hit my local trout
stream once, the Mad River. I got one refusal on a hopper pattern, what
looked like a nice Brown came out from a blue hole behind a big log and
turned away. This water gets fished pretty hard, so its no surprise.
But it was encouraging. At this point I'm looking at it like casting
practice on the water anyway.

I also just took the fly rod to Cumberland Lake in KY (I married into
some serious pleasure boaters so fishing isn't at the top of the
agenda) this past weekend, with hopes of hooking up with some Bass. The
first night I went down after dark, to see what I could scare up with
my mouse and frog patterns, but I realized quickly how much more
complicated fly casting is when you can't really see your loop. Dang
it! Skunked...The next night while playing cards by a coleman lantern
in camp there was an astounding number of mayflies of all sizes
attracted to the light. There was obviously some kind of hatch gong on
but I don't know enough about it to match anything, so I just played
cards, I thought for a moment that maybe the three Adams I did bring
might get something, but I was feeling lazy and enjoying a little Phase
10 with the in-laws. So the next morning I went out early, and got
Yellow wooly bugger highjacked in the abyss. I didn't really detect a
strike, so it was probably just hung up on the bottom, but Its much
more fun to imagine a 20 inch striper biting right through my 3x
tippet.

I did however land my first fish on a dry fly this weekend. I must say
that it was in a totally un-sporting, un-gentlemanly way, and I'm
pretty ashamed of myself. After spending a frustrating two hours in
lime green and pink tube (made for tubing not fishing mind you)
floating up in a cove casting an olive wooly bugger searching in vain
for anything that might strike, I was sitting on my in-laws boat eating
some crackers. I then dusted the crumbs on my hands into the water,
lo-and-behold a whole bunch of nice sized Bluegill appeared out of the
green abyss and nibbled at the cracker crumbs. Hmmmm, that Ritz looks
about the size and color as those Adams in my fly box. Since my father
in-law had just said "You can't catch fish during the day" I thought
well I'm going to tie on an Adams. So I took my Mother in law's 5'
spinning rod and tied that puppy to the end the line, a few beers in
the hot sun makes you do stupid things like this. I pulled out enough
line to get it down on the water and laid it right on the surface. In a
matter of seconds 6 Bluegill appeared in a circle peering up at the fly
as if to worship it. I jiggled it just a tiny bit and WHAM, one nailed
it. I had my first fish on a dry fly. After taking some razzing from my
family, about my lame and un-sporting fishing style, I then caught
another one 30 seconds later, both of which I released. Content that I
had proved my point you can actually catch fish during the day, I
stopped that non-sense. So whether or not those Bluegill thought my
Adams was a Caddis or a Ritz Cracker is yet to be determined, but
hopefully the next fish I catch on a dry fly, will be with a darn fly
rod!!!

So thats where I am...nowhere at all really, just right here.
-Ethan