Every once in a while I need a little inspiration for my column, so I asked my good friend Jay Dickenson what he would like to see. Jay sent me a long list of topics that I hadn’t considered. His most important advice was to consider my target audience.
This is where the issues start. I know that readers of the paper can vary from beginner to advanced fisher people. So, I have to sometimes temper my enthusiasm for fly fishing with consideration for all readers. With that theme in mind, I am rewinding my life almost 70 years to describe a bit of my fishing history.
At that time, I was approximately eight years old and living on a small creek (at least it was small when it wasn’t flooding) that I waded barefoot in the summer months with my older brother. At that time I didn’t know a fly from a zipper and my concentration was focused solely on catching a fish, by whatever means, with my second-hand rod and reel.
If I recall, it was an old steel sectional rod that was pushed in to make it shorter and pulled out to make it longer. It was equipped with a level wind reel spooled with six lb. test monofilament on top of a 20 lb. braided nylon. I think this outfit was given to me by my Uncle Bob when he upgraded to a fibreglass rod.
Looking back, I did learn a lot about the insects found in a creek, as I used to look under rocks and impale whatever I found there on my hook. These were all snelled hooks (hooks that came with a short leader attached with a loop at one end and the hook at the other, with a leader diameter so large that could it provide shade for a grasshopper). Speaking of which, these were also used when available as well as worms and salmon eggs. Getting back to the aquatic insects, I suppose learning about them inevitably led me to think about ways to imitate them artificially years later.
I purchased my first fly rod four years later; it was a two piece square fiberglass rod seven feet in length with a floating line that wouldn’t float and a reel that ground noisily when reeled in. But it was what I could afford at the time, and I remember saving up for it for a few months. It suited my needs at that point and I did catch a few fish on it, struggling to learn how to cast a line far enough to reach them.
A lot has happened over the intervening years; I now own a number of fly rods and reels spooled with various floating, sinking, and sink tip lines to accommodate whatever any given situation presents.
Everyone whose interest lies in angling, whatever the method, must have a beginning, whether it is fishing with family, or friends, or striking out on their own. In addition, there are a lot of resources available that I didn’t have growing up. There are clubs and organizations one can join to learn from members, videos and tutorials online, and a myriad number of books in the library dedicated to the sport of fishing.
In my opinion, it matters not how one chooses to fish, but that they enjoy the sport, follow the rules and regulations, and respect the environment and the fishery. I firmly believe it is worth following the creed “don’t kill your limit, but limit your kill”.
