If you read yesterday’s post you read that for my birthday Chris booked a fly fishing trip for us. We have talked about finding something that we both like to do outside together that would be a good thing to develop. Chris loves to fish and has some great memories of fishing with his grandparents and his dad and until recently his fishing trips have been sporadic. We hope to start a habit–a good one.
Chris hooked up with Kent at Bear Creek Anglers and he was a very patient and skilled man! I am grateful for his expertise and knowledge and I know a lot more about nymphs, emergers, wet flies, dry flies, backcasting, roll cast, and nail knots. Not that I know it all ! Whew! There is a lot to remember. I would do okay for a bit and then completely forget everything he had showed me but Kent being the patient man that he is proved to be very tolerant of my newness and was encouraging even when I hooked him.
Yes, I did. I drew blood. I apologized profusely and he said it happens all the time but I suspect not……
So pictures of me and my fish are few and far between because after all, I was fishing!!! Not photo taking!!! Chris took one of me upstream.
Obviously in the instructional phase. But listening and learning!!!
I can hear you all asking—“Well–did you catch anything?” Yes, yes I did!
Yep—I caught that little bub!!! My one and only picture of what I caught and it was a blurry picture of a baby. But rest assured—I did catch more and more and more. I hooked 10 and landed 8 so that was fabulous for a first try. Of course Kent led us to the prime spots and it was at the best time of the hatch of those wonderful mayflies so with the right fly I was hooking them left and right. By the end of the 4 hours I had almost gotten into the rhythm and gotten the hang of it. Most of my fish were brown trout that were probably 8-11 inches —although I did catch one larger rainbow trout.
My fish tales are tame and I would not insult the fish to pretend to have done better than I did but I had fun. I didn’t fall into the water although I did get sucked into some mud along the way. Since we were doing catch and release we tried not to stress the fish out too much and get them unhooked and back on their way.
Chris did well, too, and hooked 6 total—5 browns and 1 rainbow. He was happy and it was really nice to get out together to do this.
I must admit I was a little stressed going into it. I had memories of failed piano lessons, failed golf lessons and my feelings of inadequacy were looming. I also limited my coffee intake because you know it is harder for girls to get out of waders and heed the call of Mother Nature than boys. Whew.
Chris is my biggest cheerleader and if I had hated it he would have understood but I didn’t and I don’t. We will go again. He is a good sport and a good teacher himself so next time we will probably go it alone. HE will have to get me out of the rocks and get me untangled. HE will have to net my fish because I certainly did not progress that far in skill level today!!!
Here are some pictures of my husband in action.
All in all a wonderful day with fish tales to tell—all fun and as my husband pointed out “trout don’t live in ugly places” . A beautiful day in Iowa, finally. Hit 73 degrees and beautiful sun today. I am storing it up because reports are that on Thursday it is going to drop to 36 degrees……
