"riverman" wrote in message
...
Anyone remember the first self-tied fly that they ever caught a fish
on?

Mine was a #16 Adams in a stocked pond in South Africa. Sloppy wings,
although they were the best I could do, and the body was grey/green
with coch-y-bonddu hackle. Textbook stalk and cast, and a fat 14"
trout saw it land near the school, and took it smoothly. It all felt
so...natural.. I still have the fly, and if it weren't for the fact
that it was my first catch, I'd be embarassed at how poorly it was
tied.

Anyone else?

--riverman

My Dad and Uncle would drop my cousin and I off way up Marble Creek (flows
into the St. Joe River) when we were kids. It would take all day to
fish/hike out to the main road, amazing times as a kid... The first fly I
ever tied was a #12 Renegade. On a Marble Cr. trip, I hadn't caught anything
in the first 1/2 hour or better, so I threw on the Renegade I tied. Within a
few casts I caught a small cutthroat. From that point forward my fly fishing
addiction just grew.

I had an old Perrine fly box that was given to me when I was about 10 years
old by an inherited Grandpa, he also gave me my first flyrod. I had the
flybox up until a couple years ago. It was full of flies that I had tied as
a youngster (11 - 12 yrs. old). Don't ask me why I carried the fly box,
cause I never used the flies in it anymore (hadn't in probably 25 + years)
but it had a sentimental value that I liked. I would often pull it out and
look at the old scrubby flies stream side and reminisce about days long
gone. Anyway, I lost it on Kelly Creek a couple years ago. Pretty sure it
was when I took a bad fall one day, I didn't notice I had lost it till I got
home. I'm still sick about it.

JT