Howdy Everbody

Tim J. wrote:

Ethan typed:

Exactly, I'm sure there are wonderful guides out there, who do a great
job educating newbies. The real reason I didn't go in Vail was I
thought it would be a waste of my money and possibly discouraging too,
certainly not that I was afraid of looking like a fool. If looking
like a fool was a problem I couldn't set foot out my front door!

On my honeymoon my wife and I went flats fishing with an excellent
guide out of Tavenir FLA, mind you, we were spin fishing with live
bait. I'm fairly good with a spinning rod and reel, but for some
reason that day I was all thumbs out on the flats of Florida Bay!
Something about sal****er fishing is just different than wading in
your home smallmouth stream. We caught one small Permit, IIRC. To
this day we laugh about our 300 dollar fish. Next time I use a guide
I want to be able to handle what he tells me to do, and on a Fly Rod,
I've got some learning to do between now and then.

-Ethan

Ken Fortenberry wrote:

Bob Weinberger wrote:

...
Guides regularly get total newbies to flyfishing as clients, and
any guide worth his/her fee will be quite adept at teaching a
beginner how to flyfish, including casting lessons.

While that may be true of some guides it is by no means true
of all guides. If you're a total newbie and don't even know
how to cast be sure to mention it before hiring a guide.

--
Ken Fortenberry


Oh, I forgot - *NEVER* toppost, especially when replying to Mr. Fortenberry.

aw hell tim...

btw, rachel gives an a+ on the dvd, esp. music. very impressive to us
rubes. but, for some reason, we couldn't get it to load in the dvd
drive of computer...worked fine on the tv dvd though. anyway, you got a
fan of your work. thanks again.

jeff

uh oh...

Ethan wrote:

Exactly, I'm sure there are wonderful guides out there, who do a great
job educating newbies. The real reason I didn't go in Vail was I
thought it would be a waste of my money and possibly discouraging too,
certainly not that I was afraid of looking like a fool. If looking like
a fool was a problem I couldn't set foot out my front door!

On my honeymoon my wife and I went flats fishing with an excellent
guide out of Tavenir FLA, mind you, we were spin fishing with live
bait. I'm fairly good with a spinning rod and reel, but for some reason
that day I was all thumbs out on the flats of Florida Bay! Something
about sal****er fishing is just different than wading in your home
smallmouth stream. We caught one small Permit, IIRC. To this day we
laugh about our 300 dollar fish. Next time I use a guide I want to be
able to handle what he tells me to do, and on a Fly Rod, I've got some
learning to do between now and then.

-Ethan

Ken Fortenberry wrote:

Bob Weinberger wrote:

...
Guides regularly get total newbies to flyfishing as clients, and any guide
worth his/her fee will be quite adept at teaching a beginner how to flyfish,
including casting lessons.

While that may be true of some guides it is by no means true
of all guides. If you're a total newbie and don't even know
how to cast be sure to mention it before hiring a guide.

--
Ken Fortenberry

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

Ethan wrote:
Snip 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.

a whole bunch of nice sized Bluegill appeared out of the
green abyss and nibbled at the cracker crumbs. Hmmmm,

You can learn a lot about catching fish with a fly rod by playing with
the bluegill. Google is your friend to find your closest FFF club or TU
chapter. If you visit one of their meetings, you probably will learn
about a local club outing somewhere where you will most likely have a
chance to play with some kind of little green fish. Most clubs have
outings on a regular basis and also club casting coaches to help you
learn better how to use that new rod. Our local Bass Pro shop has free
beginning classes each Saturday and Sunday, so keep an ear open for
places to learn.

Since it has been over 100 each day eacept for one in August in the
Dallas area, I sure wish I were in Bozeman right this minute.

Big Dale

Big Dale wrote:

Since it has been over 100 each day eacept for one in August in the
Dallas area, I sure wish I were in Bozeman right this minute.

Has this year been as big a wash for fishing for you as it has for
me, BD? Drought and high temps have pretty much kept me off the water
since late May. Even if I could stand the heat (which I can
*sometimes*), the rivers where I fish are in such rough shape that I'd
feel guilty about targeting any fish in them.

But, next week we're off to Canuckistan where I figure the fishies
have had an easier time of things.


Chuck Vance (and I know the temps will be nicer)

Chuck wrote:
Conan The Librarian wrote:

Has this year been as big a wash for fishing for you as it has for
me, BD? Drought and high temps have pretty much kept me off the water
since late May. Even if I could stand the heat (which I can
*sometimes*)

I don't remember an August being this hot for this long before. Some of
the lakes around here are 14 feet low. I am looking forward to fishing
Crooked Creek for smallmouth during the first week of October. A friend
has access to about five miles of private water. the Ozarks sound
pretty good to me right now. Enjoy your trip to a cooler place.

Big Dale

Here in Montana it's been too hot to fish.
It would just be torturing them as they are already stressed.
We have fires around!

We have put off ALL of our fishing till late Sept early Oct
That is "IF" we get some rain.

I have been doing rain dances - some but not much success
Perhaps I will change the direction of the dance and the key to a G minor

Fred

--
oups.com...
Chuck wrote:
Conan The Librarian wrote:

Has this year been as big a wash for fishing for you as it has for
me, BD? Drought and high temps have pretty much kept me off the water
since late May. Even if I could stand the heat (which I can
*sometimes*)

I don't remember an August being this hot for this long before. Some of
the lakes around here are 14 feet low. I am looking forward to fishing
Crooked Creek for smallmouth during the first week of October. A friend
has access to about five miles of private water. the Ozarks sound
pretty good to me right now. Enjoy your trip to a cooler place.

Big Dale

Big Dale wrote:

I don't remember an August being this hot for this long before. Some of
the lakes around here are 14 feet low.

The one lake I sometimes fish (Travis) is currently at 649.48 and
its pool elevation is 681. (It rarely reaches 681, but that'll give you
some idea of how bad things are.) And the temp is supposedly in the
upper 80's now.

I am looking forward to fishing
Crooked Creek for smallmouth during the first week of October. A friend
has access to about five miles of private water. the Ozarks sound
pretty good to me right now. Enjoy your trip to a cooler place.

Thanks, and the same to you.

So you gonna take one of your (many) 3-wts. to tussle with those
smallies? :-)


Chuck Vance

Conan The Libraian wrote:
So you gonna take one of your (many) 3-wts. to tussle with those
smallies?

The TFO 3 weight Finesse 7 foot 9 inch rod has been living behind the
seat of the truck since I bought the rod.

I gave a Fisher 6.5 foot 3 weight outfit to a friends 8 year old last
year and earlier this month she caught an 8 pount trout with it.

Big Dale

Ethan wrote...
I just wanted to say hello.
[snip]
So thats where I am...nowhere at all really, just right here.
-Ethan


Hello, I lurk when I can and post very rarely, but been stopping by for a
while now. I live a bit north of Asadi but probably only 40 min drive at the
most. I have been fishing the Stillwater river since I can remember and also
work on it as well. I agree with John and Smallies on the fly are great
fun, and rock bass and bluegill should not be overlooked. I have some time
on the mad river as well and it can be a tough stream do to fishing pressure
and lack of habitat. Not to mention some sections are just plain ugly as
hell and when it comes to trout water there is something just wrong about
fishing in an ugly area. I can't claim to a great trout fisherman but at
times I get lucky, but I have caught a lot of fish on the fly in warm water
and it is a lot of fun so be sure not to overlook it.

Hey John, we never did get together and fish the upper stretches of the
Stillwater, we need to do that sooner or later.

Chad