fishing, casting, and recruiting

wow- what a day! hit the streams with my son, (18), who is here for the
summer. stopped in appalachian anglers first, to pick up a couple of new
flies- god, i could go nuts in there- and after inquiring as to theo, whom i
found out is in alaska, i think, we headed out to the waters of the watauga
river. there were a couple of other anglers out there, who reported little
action, and after about an hour there, with the same result, we headed to
another stream up on the parkway. you know which one i'm talkin about,
opie. nice trout waters, and beautiful scenery. hung out there for a
couple of hours during which time i fell into some fairly deep, very fast
moving water- no injury to report, and i was saved from being swept away by
the rocks that locked me in! i really thought i had good footing, and i
knew there was a little pool of deeper water there, but my efforts at
caution did nothing to help me. came out with a couple of scratches on my
leg, and that was it. actually, the water felt pretty good, but i stayed
wet the rest of the day. after that adventure, my son and i decided it was
time to eat some lunch, and so we layed out our food on a rock, and sat
down to eat. a few minutes into lunch, i noticed a prolific hatch. i got
all excited and put down my food, and picked up my rod. however, another
half an hour didn't help zero catch score for the day thus far. but my son
witnessed his first hatch, and appreciated the significance after i
explained it to him.
we then decided to head to price park, so that i could practice casting, and
while doing so, a young man came up to me, and struck a fly fishin related
conversation. turns out he is a guide who lives in michigan, and is down
here for the summer to teach fly fishin to some kids at camp. i told him i
was just learning, and so he asked me to show him my cast. he then spent
about half an hour with me, workin on my cast, and by the time he re-joined
his friends to play ball, i was casting with great confidence, and pretty
well. i heard one of his friends say to him that he was a really good
teacher, becasue he had taught me that well, that fast. (so, you were right
mark-good suggestion, only it didn't happen on campus G). anyway, my
son wanted to try it, and damned if he isn't a natural. he was casting that
line out, with nice loops, and layin it down straight, and before we left
the park, he was hooked. all the way home he kept talkin about how much he
wants a fly rod, and he wants to go back out tommorrow. he just fell right
into it. good stuff! all in all an exciting, satisfying, and exhausting
day. *and* i feel good about my casting. ;-)


snakefiddler- can't wait for october........